Creative agency Amsterdam Berlin took a new approach to sports marketing and sponsorship by teaming up with German driver Laura-Marie Geissler to launch its own NFT-funded LMG GT No1 racing team.
Leveraging Web 3.0, the LMG GT No1 racing project looks to offer an alternative, fresh approach to the tradition that so many professional athletes, particularly in motorsports and particularly female drivers, are largely dependent on external sponsors for their careers in racing.
So, to avoid such a dependence on corporate sponsors, the agency and driver Geissler teamed up to launch the first NFT-funded racing team with proceeds from the digital sales used to fund the 2022 season.
The asset, logo, car and apparel design inspiration for the LMG GT No1 team was based on the livery of a Porsche’s Le Mans racing legend – the ‘Pink Pig‘. But, instead of the well-known ‘butcher map’, Geissler’s racing car carries the marks beauty/plastic surgeons use for their operations to represent the pressure put on the physical appearance of female drivers and drive home a message of self-empowerment.
Thus, the team and its assets are positioned as a powerful statement against the objectification of women in motorsports and for gender equality in the racing world.
The NFT set includes a 360-degree digital rendering of the livery, a high-res top shot of the design, the buyer’s name on Laura-Marie’s real LMG GT No.1 race car and her signed Arai GP-6 helmet (which will be shipped to the winning bidder after the auction).
LMG GT No.1 from Amsterdam Berlin on Vimeo.
As well as the vehicle design, there is also a series of 1001 helmets and 100 digital race suits in different variations and rarities and these Items are for sale at a fixed price exclusively through its own lmggtno1.com online platform from 22 March 2022.
There is also a capsule collection, consisting of two long-sleeved T-shirt designs, available for purchase at the start of the new season.
“I want to be seen for my driving, to be measured strictly by my performance,” explained Laura-Marie Geissler. “Not by my private life, my looks or the sponsors that I find or don’t find.”
“This project attempts to rethink the way sport sponsoring works,” added Amsterdam Berlin GmbH Co-Founder Moritz Grub. “It uses the NFT technology to enable a new decentralised sponsoring model that creates a levelled playing field for the athletes, independent of gender, race or social status.”
“Using the power of the blockchain, Unblocked is super excited to partner with Laura-Marie Geissler to bring fans closer to the action than ever before – while amplifying some of its most underrepresented voices,” added Unblocked Co-Founder Harrison Wang commenting on the project.
Comment
No more bowing and kowtowing to sponsors, partners or extremely wealthy individuals and no more prioritising performances for cameras rather than just prioritising sporting performance?
Watch this space.
We can’t help but wonder whether this might actually be more of a case of owning the sporting property and controlling its media platforms and channels rather than eliminating corporate partners all together.
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