Why did Johnnie Walker take the plunge into sports sponsorship?
For golf, it’s simple – there are no greater Scottish exports than golf and scotch whisky. So the link with golf was very easy to make. As for Formula One, it was because of our shared values with McLaren-Mercedes. Owner Ron Dennis is very keen on this partnership. He feels that there is no better winning team than McLaren, and there’s no scotch more successful than Johnnie Walker. So, it was a neat fit. In terms of philosophy, the partnership goes well with our tagline, “Keep Walking”, which is about personal progress and achievement in life. That fits very well with the ethos of Fomula One, and what the drivers have go through to get to the top of their profession. Of course, McLaren have a great reach via Formula One’s media platform, with a global reach of about 800 million viewers per race. The visibility we’ve had over the past three years of sponsorship has been fantastic. How did the ‘Join the Pact’ campaign crystallise? We believe that moderate and responsible consumption of a
