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When 5-hour Energy wanted to overhaul its approach to marketing and advertising, one of the first places the energy-shot brand looked was to the racetrack. The result was a new deal as primary sponsor of the No. 3o Honda entry for Pietro Fittipaldi for the 2024 NTT IndyCar series this season. It’s the brand’s debut as a primary sponsor in open-wheel racing and included participation in the Indianapolis 500 in May and the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix in June.
5-hour Energy, the originator and leading brand of 2-ounce energy shots, expanded its relationship with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Fittipaldi after spending a few months as an associate sponsor earlier this year and monitoring the marketing uptake for the brand.
“5-hour kicks tired’s ass, and racing is a high-enegy sport,” Jeff Sigouin, president and chief operating officer of Living Essentials, owner of the 5-hour Energy brand, tells me. “And we’re doing a shift in how we are trying to build our brand.
“There are challenges in buying media efficiently and in the ways people consume it,” Sigouin says. “A 15- or 30-second commercial is just a chance for someone to look at their phone and see a notification and move on to different content. Our goal is to really shift from content that talks about helping people through really tough days to being more aspirational or emotional. Now it’s not about getting your grass cut or [enduring] through a double shift at work, but about getting through that double shift and then grabbing your surfboard and gonig to the beach.
“Our relationship with the [Rahal Letterman Lanigan] team has given us access to all kinds of new content, photography an interviews,” Sigouin says. “When the opportunity for racing [sponsorship] came up with iconic names like Rhal and Fittipaldi, it was easy to say ‘yes.’”
Fittipaldi, of course, is the Brazilian-American grandson of Emmerson Fittipaldi, the 1989 Indycar champion and two-time Indy 500 winner. The 27-year-old Pietro Fittipaldi made six starts in the Indycar series in 2018 and had planned to compete in more races, but his program was curtailed in mid-season after breaking both legs in an accident. By 2021, he was splitting the season in the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware entry with Romain Grosjean.
Racing fans, Sigouin says, are “really into it, and really loyal to their sponsors. The sport is growing.” Follow me on Twitter. Dale Buss Following Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions
