• by Karl Greenberg , August 27, 2009

When editors at Hachette Filipacchi enthusiast pubs Road & Track, Car and Driver and Cycle World test vehicles over the next 15 months, they will be using Shell nitrogen-enriched gasoline -- and both entities will be letting readers know it.

The Houston-based division of Royal Dutch Shell Plc has signed a unique deal with the publisher that makes Shell "official fuel provider" for the three magazines. The deal includes comprehensive co-branded content and advertising in the three magazines and their Web sites' weekly radio broadcasts, which are carried by Radio America. The programs are broadcast via satellite and terrestrially to 400 affiliates.

"Shell, through both their branded gasolines and Pennzoil and Quaker State motor oils (divisions of Shell), has been a regular client of ours," says John Driscoll, senior vice president, chief brand officer, Car and Driver and Road & Track. "But we had never had a media partnership this deep and thorough."

The arrangement also gives Shell access to Hachette's consumer research data, from third-party Web-based survey management firm Vista Studies, garnered from "brand ambassador" panels discussing current ads, trends and editorial stories.

Shell will run print ads tailored to the three mags, something Driscoll says most advertisers don't do. "Most talk a good game, but when push comes to shove, it's expensive to do different creative for different magazines," he says. One ad, to be customized to each book, has a Shell engineer cracking a petro-chemistry textbook, grinning at the camera. The engineer is actually reading one of the three Hachette titles, which is sandwiched in the textbook.

Shell also gets its logo with "The Official Fuel of" super on the three magazines' mastheads. Data panels -- callouts listing parameters and results of vehicle tests -- will have Shell logos and text stating that Shell Nitrogen Enriched Gasoline is the magazine's official fuel.

"We run our own ads in print that promote our radio shows; Shell will have logos in those," says Driscoll, who adds that Shell gets the same "Official Fuel" designation on the magazines' Web properties.

Shell will also get branding on digital newsletters from the three publications. For its part, Shell will have Car and Driver, Road & Track and Cycle World branding on some of its Web site's content. "What was extremely important to me was that I can control the gasoline we put in the vehicles," says Driscoll. "And that it be from a national provider. From an editorial standpoint, when I have a logo saying what fuel is in the vehicle, I can guarantee that's what we used." Until now, reviews mentioned only the grade of gasoline used. Driscoll says Car and Driver has a circulation of 1.3 million, Road & Track about 700,000 and Cycle World 300,000.