Time is right for Gordon, TAG Heuer campaign

It's not like Jeff Gordon has never been to New York.

After all, he's won four NASCAR Cup Series titles, and NASCAR holds its annual awards banquet at the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria on Fifth Avenue. He's enough of a New Yorker to be able to get a cab on the first whistle.

Gordon's moved a little farther east in Manhattan's skyline these days, to Times Square, and his picture is a little bit bigger than usual.

TAG Heuer (pronounced TAG-Hoy-er) unveiled its new "What Are You Made Of?" advertising campaign on May 2 with a big unveiling in Times Square. The announcement that Gordon would be the company's newest brand ambassador was made Feb. 9, days before Gordon won the Daytona 500 for the third time.

Jeff Gordon, along with TAG Heuer North America president Daniel Lalonde, unveils his image on a billboard near Times Square. Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

It's all about timing, one supposes.

TAG Heuer is, ironically, all about timing as well. Owned by Moet Hennessy and Louis Vuitton, TAG Heuer makes high-end watches, chronographs and other timing equipment for a variety of purposes throughout the world.

Some of the brand ambassadors the company boasts are superstars in their own right, and Gordon is the first NASCAR driver to be so honored. Among the brand ambassadors are golf superstar Tiger Woods, Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya, Wimbledon tennis champion Maria Sharapova and actress Uma Thurman.

What is so special about another endorsement deal for Gordon? After all, the list of companies Gordon represents is longer than a Michael Waltrip sponsor riff in Victory Lane.

TAG Heuer represents a different class of corporation for NASCAR. For years, TAG Heuer has been involved in varying degrees in Formula One, Champ Car (nee CART) and other, more genteel forms of motorsports, but not NASCAR.

The roots of TAG Heuer's motorsports presence run deep into Formula One, as the former owner of the company was a team partner with McLaren boss Ron Dennis during the glory years of the 1980s and 1990s.

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As a brand ambassador, Gordon will be involved in things like new product development -- look for the new line of watches at better stores everywhere -- and visual marketing, which is a fancy way of saying he'll be posing for lots of photos wearing the company's wares. He'll also do advertising and public relations for the company.

Deals like this are done with the celebrity to increase brand awareness -- and by now, you all know what brand awareness is and what it means. Woods is a perfect example. For years, Woods has been a brand ambassador for Buick, Nike and many other companies. The commercials you see on TV during golf tournaments are a direct result of such campaigns.

Gordon has done much the same with Pepsi, DuPont and others. Who can forget the commercial where Jeff is mowing the lawn while his ex-wife was preparing lunch of Fritos and chili? Frito-Lay is a Pepsico holding, and cross-branding is a time-honored practice.

Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

One interesting aspect of the TAG Heuer campaign is the fact that the company imported a renowned fashion photographer, Patrick Demarchelier, to shoot Gordon's photos for the advertising. One of his photos graced Times Square in the rollout early last month.

TAG Heuer is a company which competes with brands like Rolex and Patek Phillippe in the upscale chronograph market. This high-dollar slice of the market carries with it more weight than your regular old Citizen, Seiko or other upper-mid-level brands (nothing against any of those brands; just different marketing levels). It's a status thing, and that's why Gordon was chosen among NASCAR's drivers.

The company has been involved in sports since 1860, when company founder Edouard Heuer chose to direct his watch making at sports watches in general. Some of the world-famous timepieces the company has crafted include the 1964 Carrera, the 1969 Monaco, the Manhattan Chronosplit of 1977, the 2000 Series (1982) and the Kirium F! (2001).

Sailing and skiing make up the other centerpieces of TAG Heuer's sporting adventures and the company has been the official timing and scoring partner for the Formula One World Driving Championship since 1969. TAG Heuer also has its own Formula One driving school, founded in 2003.

This new ambassadorship represents a sea change in TAG Heuer's vision of the North American market as well as the reaction of the global market toward North American sportsmen, primarily NASCAR.