Monster Energy to Take Whincup to court

[kittle]

Monster Energy says it will take Jamie Whincup to court to ensure that the three-time V8 Supercars Champion honours his deal with the company next season.

In a statement issued today, Monster Energy’s Australasian Manager Adrian Hunter says that his company will take Whincup to the New South Wales Supreme Court, seeking the four-time Bathurst 1000 champion to fulfil the final year of his Monster deal.

http://www.speedcafe.com/2012/11/09/...ncup-to-court/

[Umai Naa]

I'm sure Red Bull will take care of the matter.

[GTRMagic]

Sounds like someone forgot to put a force majeure clause in their contract...

[TSR]

Will be interested in the outcome, will RD crawl T888 out of this??

[eduardo1]

This could be a tricky one if there's no clause in there relating to conflict with team sponsors.

Monster have spent money on Whincup promoting him to their target market. Now - Red Bull come in and get the benefit of that promotion and use him in effectively the same market.

The only thing I can figure is that they'll be able to preclude Whincup from conducting any off-track ambassadorial roles for Red Bull - that he'll only be able to do on-track promotions.

Ultimately - it's more about p***ing off Red Bull and restricting the use of their new, very expensive driving asset.

[rik]

Originally Posted by eduardo1

This could be a tricky one if there's no clause in there relating to conflict with team sponsors.

Hopefully Whincup's lawyers/management are smarter than that... otherwise it's gonna get expensive for him!

Ultimately - it's more about p***ing off Red Bull and restricting the use of their new, very expensive driving asset.

Or perhaps Monster are just kicking up a stink to gain some coverage?

[kittle]

I am also guessing Roland Dane will ask V8 Supercars not to show incar footage of JW driving.

[Umai Naa]

Or getting into/out of the car.

[TSR]

Originally Posted by kittle

I am also guessing Roland Dane will ask V8 Supercars not to show incar footage of JW driving.

What Roland wants Roland gets off V8 Supercars.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Sounds like someone forgot to put a force majeure clause in their contract...

I would think this unlikely, however Monster are still getting press mileage out of this.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Mixer

I would think this unlikely, however Monster are still getting press mileage out of this.

Would you (or anyone else) buy a can of their product on the strength of taking Mr Whincup to court? Or that he may or may not prove to be in breach of a deal with Monster?

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Would you (or anyone else) buy a can of their product on the strength of taking Mr Whincup to court? Or that he may or may not prove to be in breach of a deal with Monster?

Personally I would have gone with

Would you (or anyone else) buy a can of their product

No amount of marketing will make me want to drink it

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Would you (or anyone else) buy a can of their product on the strength of taking Mr Whincup to court? Or that he may or may not prove to be in breach of a deal with Monster?

Absolutely not, they have not come out of this whole episode well AT ALL.

They clearly were bargain hunters who got maximum value for minimum dollars, and good luck to them for that. However they had the chance to handle this transition gracefully and they have shown themselves in my opinion to be petulant, arrogant fools.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Absolutely not, they have not come out of this whole episode well AT ALL.

They clearly were bargain hunters who got maximum value for minimum dollars, and good luck to them for that. However they had the chance to handle this transition gracefully and they have shown themselves in my opinion to be petulant, arrogant fools.

Were they bargain hunters?

One could argue they supported a driver and have developed a brand around him.

Red Bull have lobbed on the scene late and seem to be the one trying to get a bargain

Lightning McQueen knew what it was about

[Chris - Melb]

Originally Posted by Mixer

... However they had the chance to handle this transition gracefully and they have shown themselves in my opinion to be petulant, arrogant fools.

Really?

Wasn't it T8 that took Monster money to fund their Dunlop Series commode, sorry Commodore, this year? And wasn’t it Monster working on a deal for more involvement with T8 while all the time being a personal sponsor of their number one star driver?

After all that T8 took commercial competitor Red Bull on board...

[bluesport]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Would you (or anyone else) buy a can of their product on the strength of taking Mr Whincup to court? Or that he may or may not prove to be in breach of a deal with Monster?

Not likely that I would, but it never hurts to have your brand name thrown into the spotlight..........it's all subliminal, you know that.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by peckstar

Were they bargain hunters?

Yes - they have been doing all their driver sponsorships for pocket change - $3k- $5k each.

Originally Posted by Chris - Melb

Wasn't it T8 that took Monster money to fund their Dunlop Series commode, sorry Commodore, this year? And wasn’t it Monster working on a deal for more involvement with T8 while all the time being a personal sponsor of their number one star driver?

This is UTTER rubbish. After the Red Bull deal was announced, Monster spoke to journos about how they were working on a deal for Triple 8, but it is complete and utter face saving bull****. The DVS car cost them $200k and they never had any more than that to spend, so to try to claim they were working on a main game deal is utter ********.

They are a nothing but a bunch of liars trying to save face, most likely with their own head office.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Yes - they have been doing all their driver sponsorships for pocket change - $3k- $5k each.



This is UTTER rubbish. After the Red Bull deal was announced, Monster spoke to journos about how they were working on a deal for Triple 8, but it is complete and utter face saving bull****. The DVS car cost them $200k and they never had any more than that to spend, so to try to claim they were working on a main game deal is utter ********.

They are a nothing but a bunch of liars trying to save face, most likely with their own head office.

your making some big calls here mixerand seem overly passionate. Do you need to make a disclosure?

Would have thought not many DVS teams are running on more than $200k of sponsorship.

Would also think that if Monster are only paying those guys $3-5K for helmet sponsorship that the going rate is not very high for helmet sponsorship

[Umai Naa]

Mr Douglas got a freebie in exchange for full coverage of the lid.

[eduardo1]

Originally Posted by peckstar

your making some big calls here mixerand seem overly passionate. Do you need to make a disclosure?

Would have thought not many DVS teams are running on more than $200k of sponsorship.

Would also think that if Monster are only paying those guys $3-5K for helmet sponsorship that the going rate is not very high for helmet sponsorship

They're paying Whincup (in particular) and others way more than $5K a shot. Even Mostert gets more than $5K from them.

The DVS car - maybe $200K - but they can't afford to buy out the car in total - which was one of their earlier reasons for not being a title sponsor in the main game.

I don't know why they're doing this for any other reason than to gain publicity/be a nuisance. They do have a contract with Whincup, so they're within their rights, but it's not dignified.

Then again - I'm also assuming that they've attempted to reach some kind of settlement with JW/T8 prior to going public. There's always two sides to each story.

But there is absolutely no way that Whincup will be wearing any Monster signage and driving for Red Bull/T8 next year. Ultimately, someone will pay some money and it will all go away.

[Trev Campbell]

I find it strange that many of you are having a go at Monster for being cheap and also for taking them Jamie to court. I would have though getting any driver for cheap (If the figures here are acurate) is great business sense and poor work by the drivers management.

I would think that anyone here who had a contract with a builder to build them a house and the builder didn't build the house as per the contract, you would be mighty p***ed and inclined to take said builder to court.

Monster have done nothing wrong here, T8 and Jamie deserve to be taken to court.

[T-star]

Trev is 100% right.

Forget for a second the Red Bull vs Monster thing...a contract is beiing broken.

Monster wanted J-dub displaying their logo and are well within their rights to try and enforce the contract.

If this does go to court, Monster win this case easily. The only question is how (much) they are compensated.

[peckstar]

Originally Posted by T-star

Trev is 100% right.

Forget for a second the Red Bull vs Monster thing...a contract is beiing broken.

Monster wanted J-dub displaying their logo and are well within their rights to try and enforce the contract.

If this does go to court, Monster win this case easily. The only question is how (much) they are compensated.

I wonder if the question is how much Monster would be compensated before Redbull walk away.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Trev Campbell

I find it strange that many of you are having a go at Monster for being cheap and also for taking them Jamie to court. I would have though getting any driver for cheap (If the figures here are acurate) is great business sense and poor work by the drivers management.

I don't specifically have an issue with Monster taking Jamie to court. However ever since 888 signed up with Red Bull, Monster have been using misdirection tactics to stretch the truth and avoid the truth that they are being outbid by a very strong competitor.

Anyway there's a whole lot of assumptions being made here.

Monster are gonna make noise about it regardless of their legal position, because it keeps their name in the press.

Nobody here knows the wording of the contract Jamie has signed with Monster.
Nobody here knows the wording of the contract Jamie has signed with 888.

Until a court hears it, we'll just never know. I'm inclined to be suspicious about Monster because of their PR activities and comments past the midpoint of this year.

[STEALTHY]

As Mixer has said, no-one knows what the contract says, so no-one can accurately comment on anything. For all we know, there's an out in his contract and they're within their right to do whatever they want (such as putting a competing brands logo on their suits)