PORTFOLIO

Client the MAC Group is the head-mandatee of the Temporary Business Association assignee of the European bando di gara appointed by the Automobile Club of Brescia to organise the Mille Miglia and manage the brand from 2008 until 2012

Location Itinerant, from Brescia to Rome and back

Typology of project and activity Automotive - Car Race Management - Strategic Planning - Coordination, Organisation and Production - Organisational secretariat and Costumer Relation Management - Partnership and comarketing management - Territorial Marketing - Integrated communications and Media Relations

Objectives

• Enable the competitors to re-live the historic traditions of a race which, for 24 years from 1927 to 1957, has written epic pages of motor racing, of sport and trends of Italy.
• Fully enhance an event, which is the only one of its kind in the world, make it be even more itself with its own traditions, values and identity.
• In relation to the identity of the race, perfect those aspects that increase the quality, image and gratification for those who participate and those who spectate.
• Enhance and promote local economic development of the areas crossed by the Mille Miglia, placing in the foreground the typicality and values of the territories.
• Develop new business relations with a view to sponsorship, co-marketing and sub-licensing.
• Transform the event, as well as in an aggregative moment, into a business and strategic communications instrument due to collateral events created ad hoc before, after the race and during the year that amplify its opportunities of b2b meetings and public relations.

Strategic guidelines

MAC Group has elaborated a strategic project (strategic planning) by which to entertain and involve competitors in an event of exclusive and strongly emotional tone: plans have been laid for service needs, relations developed with suppliers (production), with the competitors (customer relations management) and all the operative, administrative, logistical and creative phases have been directly organised, managing the organisation and coordination of the activities of individual partners of the event. Communications with the specialist press, from the media plan to relations management, have been managed internally (media relations).

To give the legend of the Mille Miglia all the exposure it deserves, the MAC Group aims at the internationalisation of the event in such a way that the eyes cast on the people, on the cars, on the emotions, on the places of the Red Arrow are always more numerous: that includes promotion through the International Road Shows in the major world capitals involving the government institutions, the local business community and the international press.

To enhance the role the car manufacturers have played in the success of the historic Mille Miglia races, a formula of joint presenting sponsorship has been developed which will involve the greatest possible number of them, rendering the Mille Miglia the ideal instrument with which to create collateral events of public relations aimed at top clients. It is in this context that the Ferrari tribute to the Mille Miglia came about, a regularity race for 130 vintage and modern Ferraris along a good part of the commemoration race's route; Alfa Romeo exhibited the new Giulietta at the principal stages along the route in their centenary year; Mercedes-Benz presented the new SLS model in the 70^th year of its history; BMW promoted its M3, Z4 and Series 3 Coupé & Cabrio, making 12 cars available to the top customers chosen by its dealers to run over 12 stages of the commemoration race and a BMW corner was built in the main squares through which the race passed; Jaguar displayed its new top-of-the-range XJ, at the same time celebrating the 75^th anniversary of its marque.

Action

A regularity race for vintage cars in the FIA/C.S.A.I. calendar sustained and promoted by the Automobile Club of Brescia and organised by the Temporary Business Association of which MAC Group is the group head-mandatee. The Brescia-Rome-Brescia route extends along the roads of the historic race and touches seven regions: Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany. The event takes place over three days and two nights. The route crosses 169 municipalities and the competitors effect 49 timed tests, 18 time controls and 15 stamp controls.

The three race days are preceded by sports verification that terminates with the inauguration dinner - reserved for the participants in the 2010 Mille Miglia Cup - in the striking environment of Villa La Tassinara, a historic manor house with a centuries-old park on Lake Garda. The real competition began the following evening, after the traditional scrutineering in the Piazza della Loggia: the start in Corso Venezia was the signal for the parade of the glorious old cars, which took place over the three stages of Brescia-Bologna, Bologna-Rome and Rome-Brescia. Arrival in the capital to end the second stage was held in the marvellous environment of Castel Sant'Angelo: each of the competing cars and their crews were presented to the public by two special guests, Sky TV journalist Savina Confaloni and collector Simon Kidston, expert consultant and historic commentator at vintage car gatherings. The Ferrari Tribute cars were given a welcome by the president of the Maranello company, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who greeted each one of the 130 crews in the race on their arrival. The following morning, the challenge came to an end with the final Rome-Brescia stage, culminating in the finish in Viale Venezia, the parade of each car and the crew aboard it. The 2010 Mille Miglia Cup was won by the Cané-Galliani crew in a 1939 BMW 328 Mille Miglia Coupé and the prize giving ceremony was held in the Teatro Grande, Brescia.

The commemoration of the Mille Miglia Cup attracted an exceptional parterre of managers, VIPs and public personalities at both an Italian and international level: they included the heads of Aston Martin, Saab and Rolls Royce, respectively David Richards, Jan Ake Jonsson and Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes; the president of 20^th Century Fox USA, Jim Gianopulos; Marcello Fratini, president of the Fingen Group; and Karl Scheufele, chairman of Chopard. From the institutions came the Interior Minister Roberto Maroni; Franco Frattini, Foreign Secretary; and Stefania Prestigiacomo, Minister for the Environment. Competitors included the Princes Leopold Von Bayern and Van Oranje-Nassau, Van Vollenhoven. Numerous racing drivers from Formula 1 and other sectors of the sport competed in the regularity race: they were Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, Jochen Mass and Miki Biasion, Jackie Stewart and Jackie Ickx. While from the worlds of entertainment and music came Jay Kay (Jamiroquai) and Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) plus actor Kasper Capparoni.

The numbers

• 169 municipalities crossed.
• 1,400 km covered with 49 timed tests, 18 time controls and 15 stamp controls.
• Over 1,800 requests to participate.
• 375 (the number fixed by the regulations) selected competitor cars built between 1927 and 1957.
• 51 different marques.
• 60 cars that had competed in the 1927-1957 races.
• 34 nations represented.
• 178 Italian crews.
• 197 foreign crews.
• 49 escort cars for the competitors in the race made available by the municipal and traffic police.
• 170 time keepers.
• 900 volunteers.
• 85 people for setting up.
• 35 people for accreditation and the consignment of material.
• 705 journalists enrolled.
• By 14 May, 21 television stations had already requested audiovisual material produced by the media partner for distribution in 119 countries.
• 235,370 visits to the event's official site, an average of 7,593 hits a day.
• 1,706,521 visitors of the web site page.