During the past week Vodafone announced that it will be the Title Sponsor of McLaren Mercedes starting on January 2006. This will make some significant changes to the F1 Team and Voda itself.

To begin with, the name of the team will change to "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes" which doesn't sound too good, does it? They will have their logo (or other stuff) in "new 2007 cars, drivers' and pit crews' overalls and helmets and other ancillary elements", so get used to see the red logo there.

To comply with all the cellphone services, the Vodafone Live! 3G customers will have access to "behind the scenes with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes racing". And to finish off, more content for the 3G people will include: news updates, test results, full team biographies, McLaren story, videos, ring tones, screen savers and wallpapers

Peter Bamford, Vodafone's Chief Marketing Officer says: "We are excited about this new phase of involvement in motor racing. As Title Sponsor of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team it raises our association with Formula One to the ultimate level. The new agreement delivers a fantastic marketing platform; the associative rights we acquire as a result of this new sponsorship provide us with additional opportunities to continue to raise brand awareness, build brand preference and drive revenue. It will also provide our customers with unique and exciting content through Vodafone live! with 3G."

I also commented about Voda sponsoring the UEFA Champions League back in November.

Read the Press Release in PDF Version