MediaCom and Pennzoil Win Billboard's Concert Marketing & Promotion Award for Tim McGraw Partnership

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Nov 12, 2012) - Pennzoil and Tim McGraw's recent partnership was recognized with Billboard's Concert Marketing & Promotion Award on Thursday, Nov. 8 at the music industry magazine's Touring Conference & Awards in New York City. The motor oil brand and the Grammy Award-winning artist joined forces in 2012 as part of the "Long Love Cars" campaign and sponsorship of the Brothers of the Sun tour, an effort planned and activated by global media agency MediaCom. The music program strategy and talent and tour sponsorship negotiations were led by MediaCom's Entertainment and Sports Partnership (ESP) division.

The Billboard Concert Marketing & Promotion Award is given to a sponsorship or promotion that benefited the concert industry at large by stimulating attendance to live events, providing value to fans, and promoting the artist and brands involved. The sponsorship or promotion must achieve its marketing goal in a quantifiable way, and pertain to live performances that took place between January and September of this year. The winner was determined by a voting panel of Billboard editors and industry experts. Other nominees for the 2012 Concert Marketing & Promotion Award included Madonna and Smirnoff, Zac Brown Band and Jack Daniel's, and Lady Antebellum and Lipton.

"For a brand that has never played in the concert space before, receiving the Billboard Concert Marketing & Promotion Award is not only an honor, but also signals the successful culmination of an amazing year for all of us involved," said Aimee Cronfel, Pennzoil North American Marketing Manager. "The success we had throughout this concert season wouldn't have been possible without the help of MediaCom and Tim and his entire team."

The "Long Love Cars" campaign, conceived by creative agency Doner, focused on common themes associated with automotive passion, including music and freedom. The music platform was a truly 360° effort by MediaCom and Pennzoil's integrated agency teams across paid, owned, and earned marketing channels. The campaign used a variety of program extensions to leverage content across multiple channels, including advertising, custom media, tour sponsorship, retail promotions, public relations, and social media with the key goal of building a deeper emotional connection with drivers and fans.

"Tour sponsorships have evolved into robust marketing platforms for brands," said Morgan Buksbaum, Vice President of Entertainment & Sports Partnerships at MediaCom. "In working with Tim's team and the integrated agency partners, we were able to fire on all cylinders to link and leverage assets across channels beyond the tour itself, which is ultimately why this program was so successful."

Highlights of the program, which ran throughout 2012, include:

• Tim McGraw's name and likeness were attached to the "Long Love Cars" advertising campaign via print, digital, TV tags, radio, retail, and social media channels, along with promotional drivers to purchase tour tickets.
• Pennzoil offered fans exclusive content, including behind-the-scenes videos from the road and Tim's favorite car stories, further building the connection between cars and music, which were leveraged for digital distribution, social media posts, and also aired on jumbotron during the Brothers of the Sun tour.
• The Pennzoil "Tune-up" Series was a proprietary, pre-show VIP acoustic performance from Tim McGraw in every market; hosted more than 4,600 guests across the entire tour within private hospitality area, including more than 1,400 key Pennzoil customers getting to see Tim up close and personal.
• Pennzoil engaged the "Car Lover" target and Tim McGraw fans through custom media programs, leveraging the assets and access from the talent partnership:
  • Rolling Stone - Custom digital and in-book program -- the quest for the "Pennzoil Roadie," where the winner took a road trip following Tim McGraw to several cities on the Brothers of the Sun Tour
  • VEVO - Custom VEVO News Segment filmed during the tour, supported through paid media, blogger outreach; presenting sponsor of "Truck Yeah" video premiere
  • Pandora - Pennzoil's Country Music Playlist featuring Tim McGraw, included customized radio ad units from Tim McGraw and a playlist of hit songs from country music's biggest stars
  • Ticketmaster - Targeted media buy across Ticketmaster.com and Live Nation sites, also included a consumer offer on concert ticket backs for product discounts

The program was led by the Pennzoil Marketing team in conjunction with Pennzoil's partner agencies: MediaCom ESP (Music Agency), MediaCom, Doner, The Kerry Group, Coyne Public Relations, Integer Promotions Group and Sport Dimensions.

For more information on the program, visit www.pennzoil.com/tim-mcgraw/.

About MediaCom
MediaCom is one of the world's leading media communications specialists, with billings exceeding US $28 billion (Source: RECMA 2012). It employs 4,600 people in 113 offices across 89 countries around the globe. The company's strategy is driven by its "People first, better results" philosophy, which places people -- consumers, clients and employees -- at its core to generate optimum business results. The MediaCom family includes a number of industry-leading divisions, such as: MediaCom Entertainment & Sports Partnerships (ESP), our strategic consultancy specializing in helping brands engage consumers through their passion points; MediaCom Interaction, a global digital and interactive marketing agency, which uses future-forward proprietary technology to grow client businesses; direct response agency MediaCom Direct, which creates close, measured connections with consumers; branded content specialists MediaCom Beyond Advertising; sports sponsorship and strategy team MediaCom Sport; and MediaCom Business Science, which ensures clients achieve maximum sales return. MediaCom Worldwide is a member of WPP, the world's largest marketing communications services group, and part of GroupM, WPP's consolidated media investment management arm. For more information, visit www.mediacom.com.

About GroupM
GroupM is the world's largest global media investment management operation, with total billings exceeding US $90 billion (Source: RECMA 2012). It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including MediaCom, Maxus, MEC, and Mindshare. Its primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP's media communications agencies on behalf of its clients, its shareholders and its people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, and to bring competitive advantage to its clients and companies. For more information, visit www.groupm.com.

About Pennzoil

At Pennzoil, we're car people. We love cars and the role they play in our lives. Some of our most cherished memories are made possible by cars. That's why we tirelessly pursue the latest advances in oil technology -- to provide car lovers, just like us, with state-of-the-art motor oils that can help keep engines running strong for a long, long time. At Pennzoil, motor oil is our passion, but cars are our way of life. Long love cars.

Pennzoil® is the most trusted motor oil brand in America.^* Each Pennzoil motor oil is formulated with special Active Cleansing Agents™ that not only help prevent, but also clean out existing sludge. The full line of Pennzoil quality products includes Pennzoil Ultra™ motor oil with Hyper Cleansing Technology™, Pennzoil Platinum® Full Synthetic motor oil, Pennzoil® motor oil, Pennzoil Gold™ motor oil, Pennzoil® High Mileage Vehicle® motor oil, and Pennzoil Marine® engine oil. For more information about Pennzoil products, please visit www.pennzoil.com.

* Based on a survey of licensed drivers conducted by a leading research firm January 2005 - December 2010.

About Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw has sold over 40 million albums and dominated the charts with 32 No. one singles. He's won three GRAMMY® Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, 10 American Music Awards, three People's Choice Awards and numerous other honors. With 7.8 million spins at radio, McGraw was deemed "Artist of the Decade" (2000-2010) by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. McGraw's 11th studio album EMOTIONAL TRAFFIC debuted at No. one on the Billboard Country Chart, making it his 13th career No. one debut. McGraw is also an accomplished actor, having starred in films such as the Oscar-nominated blockbuster The Blind Side and the critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights.