Ferrari deepens its partnership with Philip Morris

Since 2010, the Scuderia F1 Ferrari team has been sporting Santander logos in all of the world’s major circuits. However, this major Spanish bank recently decided to stop financing Formula 1. Consequently, Ferrari is about to sign a new partnership with Philip Morris to promote IQOS.

IQOS is the new tobacco smoking device that we wrote about in a previous article. Its novelty is based on the fact that unlike electronic cigarettes, this device doesn’t use e-liquids. The system, developed by Philip Morris, heats up tobacco without using combustion, a method that considerably lowers the health risks associated with smoking traditional cigarettes. Already sold in 20 countries throughout the world, IQOS is predicted to earn approximately 700 million Euros for Philip Morris this year.

A partnership now in the hot seat

Thanks to Marlboro, Philip Morris and Ferrari have been successfully working together for 40 years. Their privileged relationship was only strengthened after Maurizio Arrivabene left the marketing section of the American tobacco company to become head of Ferrari in 2014.

However, the situation hasn’t always been ideal for the two companies. Although Philip Morris has successfully sponsored the Italian team for decades, a major shift in the industry could have soured the partnership. In 2007, Formula 1 formally banned tobacco advertising all of its circuits. Despite this ban, both companies decided to continue working together. Today, the Marlboro logo no longer appears on the body of racing cars, but the brand’s colors and typical signage still appear on the vehicles.

Due to this law, it is uncertain whether or not the Italian team will obtain authorization to advertise IQOS on the body of its racing cars: the advertising ban for tobacco consumption could also be applied to this new type of device.