A new linux marketing project has started and it needs donations. The TUX 500 projects seeks to be a major sponsor of a car that will be running in the INDY 500 on May 27th. They need $350,000 USD to become a major sponsor and have the linux name attached to the team (ie "team linux") but only needs $25,000 to get the tux logo on the car. Additionally, there will be prizes. See the website here Stephan Gregoire of Chastain Motorsports will drive the #77 car. There is a design contest open now for the logo, the picture below is only an example.
Here is the latest news: tux500.com - Tux Takes His Place on Chastain Motorsports Indy Car There is now a small "tux" on the nose of the car.
Unless it is picked up by major press, I don't see it being worth anything in terms of real advertising coverage. But hey, you never know.
Well if they managed to make the $350,000 to be the major sponsor of the car, then it would be HUGE press coverage but sadly, they are at only about $11,200 for now. That's a bit short of the goal. Just think if the car won the race and had linux as the major sponsor. It would be on every newspaper in the USA, TV news and other media. The race is also covered in many, many other countries as well. Of course that is very unlikely, but the potential is there. Sports sponsorship is excellent marketing coverage but is quite expensive. I wish Canonical, Xandros, Novell and other commercial linux companies would get in on this. Leaving it to the linux community exclusively is setting up for failure. A man can dream, right?
The only thing I see is that racing tends to be seen as more of a redneck and/or hillbilly sporting event. The groups described are not considered to be the cream of the crop in intellect, so that *could* be why or one of the reasons Novell and such aren't marketing it yet.
I'm with B on this one; hours of left turns masquerading as a sport -- that type of thing tends to appeal to a "special" crowd. The same type who are least likely to appreciate Linux.
Probably the same reason you don't see them pimping WWE stuff at, say, IDF. Granted, this advertising is at the Indy 500, which still has some the traditional air to it, but racing in general isn't the market I'd pick to pimp an OS.
There is no need to call me "special". Resorting to stereotyping isn't productive and it's very narrow minded. It really doesn't matter if the croud is 'simple' or not. Sports advertising is such a huge industry because it works. On another note, technology has become ubiquitous in auto racing, so technology advertising is not such a stretch as you may think.
He's not saying everyone that watches racing is your typical Jed Clampet, but the perception of many people that do watch it aren't the audience that would be as receptive to that marketing.
Yeah, precisely. [ot]I am willing to debate the sporting nature of driving in circles off the record, but...[/ot]The point I was making was that advertising Linux at an F1 race is like advertising gangster rap at a golf tourney; there may be a few people that are interested, but you can be sure they missed their demographic by no small margin.
Indy 500 is probably closer to F1, which hasn't been as closely linked to the redneck types. Most of the racing that's big in the US is typically NASCAR, and I think that's filtered down to other racing that's not traditionally seen as redneck fair. As this racing is in a oval or circular track, like AT, I see it as a "drive fast, turn left" competition. Formula 1 has a different air to it. I just don't connect Larry the Cable Guy to Forumal 1 as much as I do NASCAR.
