Marussia F1 link-up

[Gunny Fishcake]

Can only be a good thing as the brand RFC builds. The doom and gloom brigade would whinge when ever change happens. Long way from Div 4

[RoyalBlue]

Murussia are one of the newest teams, and are trying to develop it's brand. Very rarely does a new team get anywhere near the top of the grid in the first 5 years.

Didn't Brawn win it in their first season recently?

Given that Ross Brawn went to Reading School maybe we should have sponsored his team instead!

Net worth £100M?! Maybe Anton could have got him to join TSI in return!

[Geekins]

I'm happy. Both drivers beat Vettel

[Barry the bird boggler]

Reading through these comments it doesnt seem that many people have grasped how big this deal is for the global brand 'Reading Football Club'.
First of all each race is viewed by over 500 million people, with every country getting the same pictures so just today that 2 or 3 seconds picture one way or another has made somebody aware of us on a global basis.
The teams do untold worldwide promotional work with the cars and this will then be seen by a new audience to our normal demographic.
If the club is looking for further investment it would be a good stage to meet this type of person as the sport attracts very rich people.
The club logo and name will appear on their website, and in turn be seen by more people than would look at just the club website.

Hopefully todays logo is short term and a more long term one is sourced for the car as the spot given a present is one of the most expensive. But best of all, our team is above QPR's team in the constructors table.

Hope this sheds a bit more light on why we have done it?

Exactly. The important factor is branding recognition here, getting a name out there that people have seen and can connect to the club. Next step is the hardest, getting the club back to the PL where things become easier for joe public to make the connection.

Next up, Royston Drenthe driving in the next GP and Marussia drivers turning out in league games.....

[reading_fan]

The also thing to remember, is that in F1 terms we have just been relegated out of F1 and into Formula 3000 or Formula Ford, so to have an association with a "Premier League" F1 team (albeit one of the new boys) is a good thing for us.

The equivalent would be a Formula Ford team sponsoring Cardiff in the Prem this season, to which no one would probably bat an eyelid

[reading_fan]

the back of our new shirt

That's barely going to be noticeable, given that you can see the orange tag through the shirt, which itself isn't more than a couple inches long.

[PieEater]

This looks like a good move for the club but I have to wonder after watching the GP yesterday, before I knew we'd teamed up with Marussia, that I didn't associate the Royals name on the side of the car with RFC. I did wonder who it might be though.

Also the car looks pretty devoid of other sponsors so they must be having trouble getting anyone interested.

[UpThePrem]

Beat 5 people today

yep. Not fast enough to make the tyres explode.

[Barry the bird boggler]

We've got a deal with the saftey car team

[sandman]

Why isn't the logo on the driver's overalls? It won't be seen when they get on the podi... erm.

[Tennents Super]

It's just a flagrant evasion of the ban on tobacco sponsorship, and the club have been well and truly suckered-in.

[Geekins]

Type Royals into Google and the first return is... Hobnob! Graham should pay a ROYALty!

[Reading4eva]

Type Royals into Google and the first return is... Hobnob! Graham should pay a ROYALty!

That's just what every potential fan wants. To be directed to this forum of miserable negative fukkers

[10539.4 Miles Away]

Type Royals into Google and the first return is... Hobnob! Graham should pay a ROYALty!

Not so for my google searches, you have to go to page 8 before any mention of Reading Football Club, and yep, thats a link to Hobnob. Rajastan Royals, Reading Royals, Kansas City Royals, even East Perth Royals get a better ranking.

I think the link up is a great idea but I'm very surprised at their choice of logo.

Incidentally have you ever gone to http://www.royals.co.uk - warning some people may find this NSFW.

[Norfolk Royal]

I'm all for this as long as Royston isn't told about it.

[Esteban]

By joining forces with little old Marussia.

I understand your skepticism, but it's worth taking into consideration that Chelsea, who already have a pretty big brand globally and have won two European trophies in the past two seasons, 'only' managed a sponsorship deal with Sauber and they aren't a top team. Football sponsoring F1 isn't a big deal yet, so it's nice to get in at the start of something. And with a Russian grand prix on the calendar next year, it could grow into an exciting opportunity for us.

Sponsoring F1 teams is expensive, so hopefully this deal is reciprocal.

[sandman]

Meh don't care anymore.

It won't make them faster, make us more or less likely to win promotion or bring anymore attention than playing in the PL would.

[RoyalBlue]

We've got a deal with the saftey car team

Would have been very apt in Madejski's day - the slow, safe, no risk approach.

Now under Anton we are trying to get there a lot faster and will just have to see whether the engine blows and/or wheels fall off. I have to say I prefer skilful speed rather than unduly slow and safe.

[sandman]

[RoyallyFcuked]

I follow F1 almost as closely as I follow football, and this deal struck me as a little pointless but I am happy about it all the same. Basically just because its quite cool to have our logo on an F1 car, but whether it is actually seen by many people is a different matter.

In 2010, 3 new teams joined F1, (Caterham, HRT and Marussia). Since then, none of those 3 teams has ever scored a point (finished 10th or higher), and HRT went bust in 2012. As the Marussia's are always running at the tail end of the field, they get very little TV time. The only way TV audiences will see our logo is when a Marussia is involved in a incident with another car, crashes, or breaks down. I'm not sure what either party is looking to gain out of this, but last season (2012 F1 season) I noticed that the Chelsea badge had been put on the Sauber cars, and is there again this season. So it looks as though Roman has given AZ some bad advice or something