First links with Jo Siffert and the world of Formula One
During the final phase of Project 99, I became slightly nervous about how Heuer was going to finance the advertising for its new chronographs in all
the markets in which we were active. It had struck me that our advertising
budget was far too modest for us to make any real worldwide impact. The
solution came from a totally unexpected source. One day I was at my golf
club practising my putting together with an old friend of the family called
Claude Blancpain who ran the Cardinal brewery in Fribourg. Out of the blue
Claude suggested I should sponsor a young motor racing driver called Joseph (“Jo”) Siffert, who he admired and supported. Siffert, who was also
from Fribourg, had shot to fame by winning the Formula One British Grand
Prix in July 1968, beating drivers such as Chris Amon, Jacky Ickx and Jackie
Stewart, and Claude considered him one of the greatest talents in Formula
One racing at the time. Jo was also the factory driver for Porsche and drove
for them in long duration events such as the “24 Hours of Le Mans”.
This idea immediately appealed to me and a few days later I made an appointment to meet Jo in Fribourg. We got off to a very good start and quickly
agreed on the following: (1) During all races Jo would wear the Heuer logo
patch on his overalls and one of our chronographs, preferably the “Autavia”,
on his wrist; (2) He would put a red Heuer sticker on the front or the side of
all the cars he raced; (3) Heuer would allow him to buy its products at wholesale prices and he would be free to resell them privately to colleagues in
the pits and anyone else attending the races; (4) Heuer would pay him an
annual fee of CHF 25,000; and (5) the initial contract would be for 2 years.
Although I didn’t realise it at the time, this relatively simple sponsoring
contract with Siffert was probably one of the best marketing moves I ever
made, because it opened the door for us to the whole world of Formula One.When our meeting had finished and I was about to go home, Jo said to me,
“Jack, how can you drive around in an Alfa Cabriolet when you are my sponsor
and I am the official Porsche representative and dealer in Fribourg? You
must switch over to Porsche!” I hesitated for a moment, but loved the idea
of having this good excuse to buy a Porsche as a company car. I then went
on to drive Porsche 911s from 1968 until 1975 when I wrote one off by sliding
into a guard rail. In any case, 1975 was a crisis year for my company and
I decided it was no longer appropriate for a CEO to drive around in such a
flashy car and changed over to a Saab.
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