SEAT Sport UK
SEAT News
Proton
Simon Gregson

Simon Gregson

Project
To gain additional non-results orientated television coverage for SEAT UK during rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Strategy
With up to 1.5M people tuning in to ITV1’s live coverage of the BTCC on Sunday afternoons, there is a wonderful opportunity to reach an extremely large audience by creating news stories. The amount of airtime the racing cars receive during a race cannot be guaranteed, so to maximise the opportunity Good Evans & Co has successfully invited a number of celebrities to rounds of the BTCC ‘as guest of the team’. Without an additional appearance budget, these have all been personal invitations to celebrities sourced to have a genuine interest in motorsport. One of the most recent collaborations was with actor Simon Gregson, aka Steve McDonald from Coronation Street, who came to Oulton Park.

Results
Having liaised with ITV, Good Evans & Co got Simon into a SEAT jacket and onto the grid, where he was interviewed live on ITV1 by Vicki Butler-Henderson during her grid walk. Simon also presented the trophies in the first Blaupunkt SEAT Cupra Championship race and we gained significant coverage in the media following our post race press releases. Simon is a true gentleman and was a joy to have in the SEAT Sport UK hospitality area, where he happily mixed with guests and enhanced the day for all who met him.

Nota Bene
Good Evans & Co has worked with other celebrities: actor Sean Wilson (aka Martin Platt from Coronation Street), Lynn Davies MBE (President of UK Athletics/Long Jump Gold Medal Winner in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics Games), musician Dick Massey (drummer and founder member of The Commitments), actor Jason Priestly (Brandon Walsh in Beverly Hills 90210), Alex Criville (former 500cc Motorcycle World Champion), pop groups The Sugababes and Atomic Kitten, players from the Welsh Rugby Union and from the world of rallying, world champions: Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Ari Vatanen, Marcus Gronholm, Juha Kankkunen, Didier Auriol, Tommi Makinen, Miki Biasion, Stig Blomqvist and others, including Francois Delecour, Bruno Thiry, Piero Liatti, Harri Rovenpera and Toni Gardemeister.