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October 23, 2000 - Strategy Magazine
Special Report

Sponsorship & Event Marketing
Logos in space
Sponsorship of the cash-starved MIR space station could allow blue-chip clients to launch their brands into orbit

by Jim Pollock
page B 20

Space. Silent and infinite. As dark as night, and as icy as death.

Not exactly a prime location for advertising, one might think. But the operators of the MIR space station are convinced they can sell corporate clients on the idea of launching their brands into orbit. And a Toronto-based PR agency is going to help them try.

MIR, which orbits 200 kilometres above the earth, is managed by a company called MirCorp - a joint venture between Russian space systems manufacturer RSC Energia and U.S. investors Walt Anderson and Chirinjeev Kathuria. Increasingly decrepit after nearly 15 years in space, the station could badly use an infusion of cash to cover maintenance and repair bills. Which is why MirCorp is now actively looking to sell sponsorship packages to major corporations

GPC International, a global public relations firm founded and headquartered in Toronto, is responsible for soliciting sponsors on MirCorp's behalf.

It may all sound a bit, well, out there. But Freda Kemp, account group director, sponsorship with GPC sees a model here for private-sector involvement in future space exploration projects.

"We're inventing something new," says Kemp, who came to GPC from the Canadian Space Agency. "If MirCorp can be successful in the next five to 10 years, it will show that funding for other programs, like trips to Mars, won't have to come from government."

Coming up with the kind of money that MIR needs won't be easy. First deployed back in 1986, the station has, frankly, seen better days. For a start, it needs to be kicked into a higher orbit, because global warming is - quite literally - threatening to pull it down. The past few years have also seen a fire and some serious collision damage sustained during a docking procedure. Annual maintenance bills alone top $150 million, and there have been rumblings that Moscow would like to just close down the whole operation.

Still, the MirCorp folks believe blue-chip advertisers can be lured into the final frontier. Within the past couple of years, they've scored a few notable one-off deals. Pepsi-Cola, for example, shelled out US$1.5 million for the honour of having cosmonauts open a can of Pepsi in space, before an international TV audience. And Pizza Hut slapped its logo on the side of a shuttle bound for MIR - a name-drop that cost the company US$1.2 million, but generated "between $20 million and $30 million in media value," according to Kemp.

GPC is now pitching a number of different packages to advertisers. Notable among these is the opportunity to sponsor one of a series of "Citizen Explorer" missions in which private citizens make the journey to MIR. The first of these, featuring U.S. businessman Dennis Tito, who forked over $20 million for the privilege, is scheduled for February 2001.

Kemp says a number of major events are planned for Tito's mission - including the first-ever online stock purchase from space, and the first-ever credit-card purchase from space - and there are, of course, opportunities for sponsors in appropriate categories to associate themselves with each of these.

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