Rally for Robby - Speed Energy edition.

TMS is giving Robby crap about promoting Speed Energy at thier track. They towed the show car, and forced RGM to remove all of the Speed Energy from the track - no free samples can be given away. They're citing the tracks Red Bull sponsorship as the reason. More exclusivity bullshyte.

We need to let TMS know that they are alienating fans. They have a twitter account that someone follows, so let's blast them. If you have a twitter account, use it, if you don't, go sign up for one.

Send tweets to @TXMotorSpeedway expressing your displeasure. Mention @RobbyGordon and @SpeedEnergy and include the hashtag #RallyForRobby.

Let's do this!

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Martinez on April 12, 2011 at 5:31pm

I find I've gotten short of breath and run down when I bang my head against the corporate wall. I've pulled many stunts in my day and i've flipped off at the "establishment" plenty of times. I think RGM is doing a great job and has burst onto the scene and done better than a lot of the new cats in the house have done......remember JOLT cola . However in the end there is a great big chunk of "I don't care" when it comes to some of these things and to be honest you can't make someone care, you can make a monkey smoke a cigar but you can't make folks care, partly because they don't, partly due to the fact that they have no reason to. I feel like TEXass motor speedway just don't care and we all should fold our tent and be the better part of valor and let it go.

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Permalink Reply by GTX - HEMI on April 12, 2011 at 7:51pm

10-4................twice

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Permalink Reply by BAD on April 13, 2011 at 2:20pm

Feedback from Eddie G at TMS was quick:

Thank you for taking time to contact Texas Motor Speedway. Please understand that the speedway and SMI work with a multitude of partners and do not have these types of issues. Robby Gordon and his team are trying to do ambush marketing at the speedway without paying for it. Other corporate partners, such as Chevy, Dodge, Red Bull, AAA, Aflac, Nationwide, Sprint and many, many more, spend millions of dollars each year to abide by rules not only at SMI tracks but also ISC tracks. Robby Gordon’s marketing crew are trying to do it without paying a dime which underscores the integrity of other brands. If this continues, other partners will not come to the speedways and where will that leave the sport? Please don’t think that the speedway is trying to bully Robby Gordon and single him out. He is actually the only one trying to do this and go around the system.
Sincerely,
Texas Motor Speedway

I'm certain that RGM is aware of what this letter above entails and what needs to take place prior to having all the promotional items at each of the tracks. If you are going through all the trouble to truck everything to the races, I'm sure all this has been looked into. Why they aren't abiding by the rules that SMI and ISC Tracks have in place is beyond me.

TOG - please fill us in.

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Permalink Reply by BAD on April 13, 2011 at 2:25pm

If what EG and SMI are saying above are true, then I would think that Dodge Motorsports may be scratching their heads and also wondering what is going on -

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Permalink Reply by Austin on April 13, 2011 at 2:28pm

Canned response...I received the exact same one.

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Permalink Reply by BAD on April 13, 2011 at 5:07pm

I'd really like to hear an official rebuttal to the EG / Texas Motor Speedway statement from RGM - of course we know the TOG person won't say anything at this point.

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Permalink Reply by BAD on April 14, 2011 at 12:00am

Do you have any input Mr TOG?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Martinez on April 13, 2011 at 6:21pm

After reading in the article that was linked here I must say that based on these facts
> Robby will have his product banned at all SMI tracks
> They threatened to have his hauler towed

There is cause for anti trust to considered (sadly a law that is of great intent but hardly enforced)
Ticket Master being the proof. If these facts come to light in the future as we plow through the season and other tracks are attacking our boy i'll throw some mud in a direction nobody has thought of yet.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kuver on April 13, 2011 at 8:16pm

I did some research on this ambush marketing and based on the definitions of it, several major team sponsors and the Cup series sponsor is guilty of it along with DW and Larry Mac every time they "shill" for Sunoco, Goodyear, NASCAR, Toyota, and the usual endless list of stuff they spout. Even when they use the roof cam on a car and you see some logo on the roof of the car, it falls under ambush marketing.

Any time a Sprint girl gives you a decal to wear and says that if you're seen on TV with the decal on and you get a special prize, that's ambush marketing. Any time Toyota says over the PA they'll be giving away a t-shirt and that a Toyota driver will be tossing it out to the crowd, that's ambush marketing.

So it's being done in the truest sense by a number of sponsors. It's just a matter of whether or not folks want to really push the issue and how far they're willing to go.