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The Fortinet Championship dates to 2007, with the event moving from CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin to Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa in 2014. With its present location, the event has been the TOUR’s season- opening event each season since 2014, with the exception of the 2019-20 season.

“We are thrilled to welcome Fortinet to the PGA TOUR family with the Fortinet Championship leading off the 2021-22 FedExCup Regular Season in September,” said Tyler Dennis, PGA TOUR President. “Napa is an extremely popular stop for our players, their families and our fans. We look forward to having Fortinet help grow the event to maximize charitable impact for the Napa Valley community.”

Net proceeds from the Fortinet Championship will benefit non-profit organizations in the areas of STEM, women and minorities in technology, as well as veterans reskilling programs.

“Fortinet is excited to partner with the PGA TOUR as both our organizations are committed to trust and creating exceptional experiences – ensuring players and customers are set up for success to overcome even the most trying conditions and challenges,” said John Maddison, EVP of Products and CMO at Fortinet. “This partnership will benefit our community, customers and local nonprofit organizations. We look forward to hosting the Fortinet Championship in Napa.”

Fortinet’s mission is to make possible a digital world that organizations can always trust by protecting edges, data and content, people, devices and systems. Fortinet delivers the most innovative, highest-performing network security fabric to secure and simplify organizations’ IT infrastructures. Fortinet is a leading global provider of network security and SD-WAN, switching and wireless access, network access control, authentication, public and private cloud security, endpoint security, and AI-driven advanced threat protection solutions for carriers, data centers, enterprises, and distributed offices.

Silverado Resort and Spa hosted the PGA TOUR from 1968-80 before returning in 2014. The venue has produced a prestigious list of winners including Jack Nicklaus (1969), Tom Watson (1978), Ben Crenshaw (1980) and Johnny Miller (1974-75). In addition, Silverado was a PGA TOUR Champions venue from 1989-2002.

All four rounds of the Fortinet Championship will be televised on Golf Channel, featuring a 156-player field, 500 FedExCup points and a $7 million purse. Stewart Cink, the winner of the 2009 Open Championship and a member of four U.S. Presidents Cup teams and five U.S. Ryder Cup teams, is expected to defend his 2020 title.

About Fortinet

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers our customers with complete visibility and control across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements today and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric platform can address the most critical security challenges and protect data across the entire digital infrastructure, whether in networked, application, multi-cloud or edge environments. Fortinet ranks #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide and more than 500,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. Both a technology company and a learning organization, the Fortinet Network Security Expert (NSE) Training Institute has one of the largest and broadest cybersecurity training programs in the industry. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, or FortiGuard Labs.

About PGA TOUR

By showcasing golf’s greatest players, the PGA TOUR engages, inspires and positively impacts our fans, partners and communities worldwide.

The PGA TOUR, headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, co-sanctions tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Series-China. Members on the PGA TOUR represent the world’s best players, hailing from 29 countries and territories (94 members are from outside the United States). Worldwide, PGA TOUR tournaments are broadcast to 216 countries and territories in 28 languages. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations to maximize charitable giving, and to date, tournaments across all Tours have generated more than $3.2 billion.

Fans can follow the PGA TOUR on PGATOUR.COM, the No. 1 site in golf, on the PGA TOUR app and on social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram (in English, Spanish and Korean), LinkedIn, Twitter, WeChat, Weibo, Toutiao and Douyin.

Fortinet Championship to kick off 2021-22 FedExCup Regular Season September 13-19 at Silverado Resort and Spa

If you were to picture a 130-year old Swiss Bank, chances are you’d imagine a black and white photo with a bunch of bearded guys wearing suits and smoking pipes in a wood panelled room.

Fast forward to 2014 and imagine that you’re the head of marketing. How do you pivot the brand for a new modern investor interested in sustainability, technology, and impact, but maintain its history of maximising wealth creation? How do you offer your clients and prospective clients a truly differentiated platform and experience that engages them to lean in and learn about new technologies and new innovation? And how do you make a global statement that gives you brand reach and scale in your key markets?

The ever-smiling and energetic, Marco Parroni, Managing Director and Senior Advisor, Head of Global Brand Programs, Partnerships, and Sponsoring of Julius Baer shared some of his insights into the drivers and impact of Julius Baer’s global sponsorship of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship: 

Julius Baer had not engaged in large sponsorship before, why did it make sense for Julius Baer to come above the line with a large sponsorship deal in Formula E? 

The crucial factor in Julius Baer’s decision to sponsor Formula E was to increase awareness of our brand around the globe. At the time, our traditional sponsorships of art, culture and classical music events were no longer enough to help grow the brand internationally and attract new clients. From the very beginning we also recognised the higher purpose of the Formula E racing series to promote the adoption of electric mobility for cleaner, healthier, cities and communities. In 2014, electric mobility was still more of a utopia than an urgent reality, but we joined the founders and pioneers, Jean Todt and Alejandro Agag, and decided to support the new motorsport series and its higher purpose.

What was the business case behind it? How did you sell it to the business? 

There was no detailed business case behind it. We went full in – as a sponsor and investor – almost before anyone else seriously believed in Formula E—actually even before the first race took place! At Julius Baer, we are proud to be the founding Global Partner of the world’s first fully electric racing series. Our pioneering spirit has paid off tremendously – Formula E is now the most important racing series in the world and it also plays a substantial role in shaping the future of mobility.

What, if anything, do you think is unique about a partnership in motorsport versus other sports? 

Formula E is not only different from sports but even differs significantly from traditional motorsports. Formula E does not take place on a racetrack, but in the middle of a city, which makes things complex, but at the same time very entertaining. You are much closer to the action, the cars all have the same chassis, the same battery and same tyres, so the driver field is much more competitive than in other championships such as Formula One. This is truly exciting. On the other hand, Formula E is not just a car race, it is a race with a purpose, creating enthusiasm for electric mobility, and promoting research and development. As a sponsor we not only get to be involved with the great emotions and enthusiasm but also exposed to new innovations, technologies, and approaches to mobility.

When the business was budgeting for the sponsorship, did it add new funds to marketing to make it happen, or did you displace other activities to make room for it? 

As we were investing in a new and global platform and wanted to expand our brand awareness, we needed the funds on top of the existing budget at that time.

What business outcomes were you trying to impact with the sponsorship? 

As a private bank, we are always keen on offering ‘money can’t buy experiences to our guests,’ mostly clients and prospects. This is exactly what we are providing with the Formula E hospitality and learning opportunities. The feeling they leave with is completely unique—full of emotions and new insights about mobility and Industry 4.0. Over the past six years, not only have we succeeded in increasing our brand visibility, but also in linking the values of Formula E and Julius Baer. We truly achieve an optimal value transfer in areas such as visionary thinking, pioneering spirit, sustainability and our forward-looking Next Generation investment philosophy.

Are those the same areas getting impact from the partnership, or are there others that you weren’t expecting? 

We are particularly delighted that Formula E Championship has succeeded in mobilising an extraordinary audience and public profile in connecting with a younger, urban audience interested in new forms of sport and content. The electric series showcases how to activate social media, e-gaming and a range of communication platforms to captivate a younger fan base. These formats also allow us to present the Julius Baer brand in an unexpected and fresh light.

Did you add new marketing staff internally or bring in an agency to help you manage the partnership? 

Our dedicated sponsorship team manages the partnership. For some races, we rely on external agencies to assist with hospitality. However, it is essential to build out our internal skillsets and know-how.

What are your key activation activities? Customer hosting? Social/digital media? Internal events? Above the line advertising? 

This year we are launching a global brand campaign that will allow us to link our Formula E sponsorship with our expertise as a bank in the field of next generation investments under the slogan and communication of ‘How We Invest Today is How We Live Tomorrow.’

If you could only choose one activation activity, what would that be? 

It is impossible to make a choice, especially since Formula E is constantly evolving and creating new formats. Thus, as a sponsor, we also have to continually reinvent our activities.

If you had one piece of advice for a company exploring its first partnership in motorsport, what would it be? 

Whether in motorsports or other areas – it is of utmost importance for a partnership to meet the needs and requirements of the business with a sponsorship.

Erm why….? 

According to the author Sam Gosling, these kind of outward facing stickers are ‘identity claims’, used to make deliberate symbolic statements about how we want to be perceived by others. Perhaps you’re incredibly academic (MIT), or you love to party (West Virginia University), or you’re handsome, smart and talented (Wake Forest University GO DEACS), or even that you’re likely unemployable (UNC Chapel Hill). Parents driving Volvo’s that they bought new in 1993 slap on their child’s Yale University logo halting any potential judgement of their 27-year old rust bucket.

Regardless of where you stand on the overall necessity of a university or college degree, the fact remains that very few of these people, either paid or are paying, $30k-$100k per year for a sticker on a car. Ultimately, the investment was about:

• What they learned
• Who they met
• The impact it had on their development over time

The impact to their personal brand

The exact same frame applies to motorsport sponsorship and partnership. So often in our industry, the yet-to-be-informed reject the notion of sponsorship as just an ‘expensive sticker on a car.’ The reality, however, is that it’s much more akin to going to university. Therefore, new partners should focus on:

Knowledge Transfer

Motorsport teams and championships are rich in technology across a variety of disciplines ranging from engineering, data storage, data analytics, cyber security, network communications, digital consumer engagement, IoT, and more. Providing enterprise-focused partners the chance to not only showcase their own technology but also pressure test and evolve it in a high-performance competitive environment. Almost as exciting as that continuing education course your engineers went to in Minneapolis last year.

Principal-to-Principal Network

Motorsport teams and championships are full of impressive blue-chip and challenger growth organisations with C-suite level buy in and support, so they’re a hotbed for principal-to-principal interactions and collaborations. Additionally, the sex appeal and entertainment value provide an ideal draw to engage senior and Board level prospects, customers, and investors.

 Cumulative and Compounded Impact to the Business

 Similar to university, the relationships, knowledge, maturity, and experiences compound over four years with the whole becoming much greater than the sum of the parts. Businesses who attempt to model potential sponsorships on linear commercial transactions often forget to add a compound interest multiplier as well as model out impact on softer targets like talent attraction, brand equity, employee engagement/retention, and even category prevention—keeping the opportunity away from competitors.

 The ‘Human’ Element

 While your university degree looks great on the wall, it was probably the Kappa Kappa Gamma keg parties that shaped you more as a person. 

Believe it or not your customers are not just Russian bots but actual human beings. Some are married, some aren’t, some have kids, and some get to sleep in on Saturdays, but what they all have in common is that they’re all after cool experiences, a bit of excitement, stories, and connection. Spending an exciting and interesting half-day or full day with someone and their spouse or kids creates an emotional and personal connection that takes you well beyond whatever your corporate brochure or latest case study says. I’ve watched a mild-mannered Chief Information Security Officer of a $20BN company absolutely lose his mind after a race-win, showering himself with a jeroboam of Moet amongst a sky of confetti. I’ve seen a hardcore female CEO of a technology company walk away giddy after an hour conversation on a yacht in Monaco with Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) and my body double; model David Gandy. I’ve seen a major CEO give his tearful 11-year old son a huge embrace following a photo with Felipe Massa. Motorsport is full of these incredible emotional moments getting you and your organisation off the page and into the hearts of your customers. Sharing in them adds colour to an often-drab corporate world.

 Brand Identity Claim and Association

A university brand or association can speak volumes about a student long before they walk into a room. Just as our friend Sam Gosling writes, motorsport partnerships create brand identity claims about who our organisations are, especially as it relates to B2B organisations in fragmented industries where differentiation isn’t always obvious or easy. Take three recent partnerships from the cyber security industry; DarkTrace’s partnership with McLaren in Formula 1 highlights their premium positioning and alignment to great British engineering. Forcepoint’s partnership with Formula E driver Lucas Di Grassi speaks to their role as a disruptor and innovator in Industry 4.0 and how human performance and data come together. Fortinet’s partnership with BMWi in Formula E speaks to Fortinet’s focus on process, efficiency, and performance.

Hopefully, the next time you’re in Montgomery Country, Maryland you’ll appreciate the rear window university logo phenomenon and know that it goes far deeper than just a sticker on a car. (And go to the Village Green in Gaithersburg—tell Ahmed that Ricky sent you)

*1440Sports accelerates business outcomes through motorsport partnerships.

There are a lot of people swimming in the cultural estuary between cars and watches. Both are showcases for mechanical brilliance, both can be extremely expensive. But it’s fair to say Rolex would sell just as many GMT-Master IIs if it cut its Daytona sponsorship, or gave up the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, or axed its F1 timekeeper responsibilities tomorrow and plowed that money into autoplay ads. So why is Rolex still doing it? Why is this Swiss house of horology such an ardent supporter of racing?

Rolex is a private company in every sense of the word. It’s owned by a family trust established by its founder, and its employees do not give interviews. Instead, the answers can be found in Rolex’s history, its place on the wrists of record breakers, and in a furtive glimpse of how its top brass quietly unwinds during the annual Monterey Car Week bonanza every August.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Rolex doesn’t make its executives available for interviews, it does maintain a roster of impressive humans to speak on its behalf. These “Rolex Testimonees” include artists, athletes, and great thinkers at the top of their fields—people like tennis giant Roger Federer, director James Cameron, and a rogues’ gallery of racers including Sir Jackie Stewart, nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, and former F1 greats Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber.

“We are done in by thousandths of a second, and that’s where it has to be reliable and dependable. Trust is a very big big word. Rolex is one of the most famous brands in the world right now because of the trust that people have in the product, because their focus is so brutally on that,” says Webber, a nine-time F1 grand prix winner with Red Bull in the early 2010s. “The human endeavor is something they love, to go out and do something very, very adventurous and yes, pretty extreme. When you’re with people that push excellence and people that demand the best all the time, you gotta find out how to make better products.”

It’s an interesting theory—Rolex hasn’t invested untold millions into racing over the years for the publicity, but for the inspiring access it affords them to frankly insane people who exist in a different reality than the rest of us. You need to operate in that space if you want to be the best in the world regardless of discipline, and Webber is right that Rolex’s association with generalized excellence is something of a two-way street. Surround yourself with giants and you’ll rise to meet them. Given the demands on both watch and wearer, Rolex’s study of the art of going fast actually makes complete sense.

There’s one more example illustrating how Rolex is for real here. Given its deep involvement with Monterey Car Week (and deeper pockets), you might expect Rolex to host a huge bacchanal every year, a blowout celebration to headline the weekend’s more hedonistic side. It certainly could if it wanted to. Instead, Rolex sets aside Friday evening for a small, private event where executives and a few guests of honor eat rare steak and listen to famous racing drivers tell their life stories. This year, the small ballroom watched Mark Webber and four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti banter and swap tales about Webber’s famous flip in the Mercedes-Benz CLR at Le Mans in 1999, his heated rivalry with former F1 Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, and why the risk of dying in a crash eventually pushed him to retire.

Again, this is Friday night during Monterey Car Week, when automakers are all putting on big, splashy parties with live DJs and open bars and breathtakingly expensive cars scattered about. The Rolex attendees could dip into any of these. Instead, they sit in silence punctuated only by the clatter of silverware and soak up the stories of a great racer in a signal about who they’re actually here for: the drivers.

Like much of modern life, racing would not be possible without the Faustian bargain of advertising. In exchange for funding everything from SCCA cars to Formula One teams to entire championships, sponsors get to slap their names and logos everywhere to become an essential part of the visual experience and cultural firmament for fans. So it matters when a big name cuts marketing budget and disappears from the scene, punching a quietly sad hole in your memories and dooming you to incorrectly call it Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca or the Verizon IndyCar Series for years to come.

Conversely, it also matters that there are bedrock racing sponsors like Rolex that support the sport not for the hell of it, not for the pure financial benefit, but out of a deep and abiding belief that the pursuit of speed is important. The time to be annoyed with the constellation of ads in racing was about a half-century ago. The time to appreciate the consistent zeal of a true believer is now.