MANILA – Globe Telecom has teamed up with formula one racing team Lotus F1 to promote its recently upgraded network. Fil-Swiss racer and Globe endorser Marlon Stockinger joined Lotus F1 as a junior driver in February 2013.
Through the partnership, Globe acts as Lotus F1’s exclusive business partner, as well as Stockinger’s telecommunication partner.
Stockinger has been a Globe brand ambassador since 2011, having been part of campaigns for the telco’s broadband brand, Tattoo.
Stockinger is the first Formula One racer to have placed the Philippines on the F1 radar, after finishing first at the Monaco leg of Grand Prix 3 Series in 2012 and thereby earning a spot on the Lotus F1 team. He is currently competing in the Renault World Series.
“One of the reasons why we have been supporting Marlon all these years is that we hope that one day, a Filipino driver will make it to F1. Marlon, I think has the best chance,” Globe CEO Ernest Cu said.
“We saw the potential in Marlon, he depicts the right kind of individual and ambassador that our brand needs and the brand wants to have. He’s a very clean cut individual, very hardworking, trains like crazy…I think it would create immense Filipino pride to put one of our own into the driver’s seat of an F1 car,” Cu continued.
Meanwhile, Globe chief operating adviser Peter Bithos called the partnership “multi-faceted,” explaining that apart from co-producing events such as the Manila Speed Weekend with Lotus F1, Globe will be “involving our customers, inviting our customers to experience the Singapore Formula One and events into next year.”
“Beyond that, we’ll be using Lotus, and Formula One, and the partnership with Marlon throughout the year to associate our network experience with Formula One and use it as an analogy because there is no better example than Formula One for a speed experience,” Bithos said.
However, he clarified that the Lotus F1 team will not carry Globe branding.
“For the moment [Globe branding] doesn’t extend to the Formula One team, and that’s quite purposeful because we are supporting not just Lotus but Marlon specifically, so it’s both Marlon and Formula One” Bithos explained.
“For us, it wouldn’t mean a thing without Marlon there. Marlon is the Philippine connection to the Formula One,” he said.
“We have been supporting Marlon for many, many years in his journey, and we will support him as far as his journey takes him,” Bithos added.
To celebrate the partnership and promote Globe’s newly-launched fully-3G network, Stockinger will be flying to Manila on August 30 to drive his Lotus-Gravity Charouz Formula Renault 3.5 racecar at the Globe Speed Day at BGC in Taguig.
Globe recently upgraded its entire network to 100 percent 3G coverage, which “will become ubiquitous within the quarter,” Bithos said. The telco company is also expecting full 4G coverage by the end of the third quarter of 2014.
