3 Questions with the CMO

3 Questions with the CMO.

On March 1, 2018, motorsports marketer Jim Bowie joined AIM Autosport as CMO. Here are three questions with Jim.

Q1) You’ve been involved in a lot of cool motorsports properties. What’s the highlight of your career…. so far?

Jim: There’s too many – can’t do just one. There are hundreds. Let me try it this way, I’ll try to pick one from each of my stops along the way; in 1997, Treadway Racing finished 1-2 at the Indy 500 with Arie Luyendyk winning. When Arie finished drinking the milk, he handed me the half-full bottle and I got to drink the milk on the victory podium. That moment, which was captured by about 200 photographers, and then receiving my Champion’s ring were highlights there. I actually still have every hat from the victory podium hat dance photo session after the race. Of course, bringing Sprint into motorsport was big. Sorry, that was four things. At PacWest Racing, I was able to complete a partnership agreement with HAAS CNC – one of their first forays into motorsport. When four brand new CNC machines arrived at the team’s shop, that was a great moment. Meeting Skip Barber – the man, the legend – and then getting to work for him remains a major career highlight for me. The impact that the Skip Barber Racing School has had on global motorsports for decades was unparalleled and will never be matched. Ryan Hunter-Reay, AJ Allmendinger, Andy Lally, T. Bell, Bryan Sellers, and too many others came through while I was there. While working for Chris Pook at Champ Car, I launched the Champ Car Hispanic Marketing Council and was integral in the Mexico City race event that had over 400,000 attendees over the three days. In 2004 and 2005, I ran Formula BMW USA. We raced at the Montreal GP and I ended up standing on the pit wall watching F1 practice with Tom Purves (CEO, BMW NA) on my left and Dr. Theissen (Director, BMW Motorsport) on my right. Kind of a surreal moment. We had significant drivers come through Formula BMW USA as well during my tenure; James Hinchcliffe, Robert Wickens, Tommy Milner, Billy Johnson, Daniel Morad, Graham Rahal, Kevin Lacroix, Lawson Aschenbach, and many more. After FB USA, I ran an agency that among other things, created the Mayor of Hinchtown persona and brand strategy for James Hinchcliffe with the support of his amazing parents and family. I have a 6-pack of Hinchtown Hammer Down Flat 12 beer on display in my office. And then while at Mazda, again too many highlights to pick one. My involvement in Global MX-5 Cup and the sale of nearly 170 race cars; my role in bringing Joest Racing there was a highlight, and the award-winning STEM high school community outreach program I managed was a big thrill, and one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in motorsports that reached nearly 40,000 high schoolers.

Q2) What is your mandate at AIM, and why do you think you can succeed?

Jim: My mandate is to make the key stakeholders in the automotive world aware of the capabilities of the people at AIM, with the goal of securing a long-term partnership with an automotive brand. Sanctioning bodies and their rule books take care of the cars so what sets a race team apart from others is the people. Having good people, who are experienced and have proven that they can adapt to change is key and AIM has that. We have experience in car prep, engineering and race strategy for sure. A proven history regardless of the car or class. With my joining AIM, we now have experience and accomplishment on the business side. When I started out in racing many years ago, I thought if I could work for a team, or for a race track, or a race series, or a racing school, or a sanctioning body, or even a manufacturer, how cool would that be? Well, I’ve actually been able to do all of that, at the highest levels, and I bring that capability to AIM as well. When you combine all of that, I believe that AIM makes a compelling case to over deliver on value, both on and off the track and do so in a responsible, cost-effective and sustainable way. So, it’s all about the people and that’s why I believe we will succeed.

Q3) Can you discuss the off-track value that you are referencing, and are clearly responsible for?

Jim: Motorsports is a budget-intensive activity so it is critical that the value derived from motorsports goes well beyond the traditional exposure metrics from TV, on-line and attendees at the events. So, my role will be to creatively generate measurable and sustainable value that goes well beyond those traditional metrics. For example, how can we take the lessons learned of how teamwork, technology, communication and planning are used in this extreme, time certain environment and apply those key learnings to the service drive and sales departments at car dealerships? How can we take the marketing communication content from motorsports and use it to help sell cars and lubes and tires etc. to customers who actually have no interest or awareness of motorsports? How can we use motorsports to rally everyone on the org chart of a car company resulting in increased productivity and profitability? How do we support social media efforts to demonstrate brand values and increase customer engagement? I’ll be required to be creative and provide answers to these questions with the goal of having AIM Autosport become an integral part of the marketing, communications, community outreach, product planning, engineering, design, retail and service operations of a car company or other major endemic brand. We’ve done this before and everyone at AIM is ready to hit the road running.