Mobile Electronic News

In Phase Audio and Fast Car magazine prove that a joint

Fast Car magazine are calling this latest dark look ‘murdered out’, but for In Phase Audio it’s certainly not put the touch of death on their business…in fact, the opposite is likely to be true. The Nissan 350Z is a collaboration between the two companies, the log book having In Phase’s name on it, but the build-up of the car taking place in the pages of the magazine. However, it’s not quite as straight forward as a planned contra deal, in fact many of you may recall that In Phase previously had their own Nissan 350Z demo car. But with that car at the end of it’s tour of duty the plan had been to sell it and start anew until Fast Car turned up with another suggestion.

The deal basically worked out that Fast Car magazine would take the car away and use it to turn up to events in. They would put it in the projects pages of their magazine every month and give it a styling refresh as ultimately it was only the audio that had been touched up until that point. Obviously, while this meant In Phase put on hold some of the capital they could have raised from its sale to build a new demo car, the benefits for them were clear to see. Despite it’s progress perhaps taking a little longer than planned, In Phase have benefited from the regular association to what is a very cool car in the eyes of the Fast Car readers. With the 350Z recently being featured on the magazine’s cover too, further exposure has been given to them, plus there’s now shows for the car to attend in its current guise in 2010. It’s not only In Phase who benefit either, as already mentioned there’s some definite kudos of having a car like a 350Z as one of their project cars for the magazine. To get a 350Z onto their project pages themselves would probably have been a stretch too far for the magazine’s budgets and for the wages of the staff, so this kind of deal is often the only way higher end cars end up on any magazine’s project pages.

But it’s not just the specific gains that each party stands to make from this venture which are worth noting. Both In Phase and Fast Car are really doing something good for the mobile electronics market by building such a high profile, audio-based demo car. With Fast Car magazine now outselling the likes of Max Power their support of this project should be applauded by the industry, as it begins to raise the profile of car audio once again. With so few consumer magazines around for the message to spread it’s important that the likes of Fast Car are getting behind it. Some may disagree and suggest the audio market has been too tied-in with the young male sector at the expense of reaching the broader population, but while there may be a point in that, there’s no denying the proven potential in this area. Take a look at the install in this car for example and if you want to keep seeing these creations where three XT12 12in subs flow beautifully in the boot, IPA 2001d and IPA 1601 amps are positioned cleverly for effect and the doors are littered with speakers and an In Phase XT8 8in sub in each, then it’s only this market that will really keep pushing the extreme end. Sure, sell the discreet and subtle benefits of upgraded audio to the wider market, but for extremes it has to be the young male dominated modified scene.

All in all then, this makes the tie-up between In Phase and Fast Car something of a master-stroke, not only benefiting each party but doing something positive for the industry at the same time. While dealers may struggle to find the opportunities, or indeed the reasons, for entering a joint project like this, audio manufacturers and distributors should surely be searching for similar ways to get their products out there in front of your customers. What this project has shown is the forward-thinking approach of In Phase, who could quite easily have said ‘no’ to the whole thing but are now benefiting from some superb exposure for their products and their brand. There are additional levels of benefits too with this tie-up, readers of the magazine surely trust what the magazine tells them so an obvious close working relationship with In Phase can in turn win In Phase their trust too. If Fast Car magazine didn’t respect the products of In Phase then this project would have in all likelihood have never got off the ground associations like this where magazines essentially endorse a product are really the type of publicity that money can rarely buy, because editorial integrity is still a key for most..

The only downside to this whole project is that there really are limited opportunities for manufacturers to enter into this kind of collaboration. But it’s surely not impossible. While other collaborations between audio companies and magazines may have to be a more formal agreement (after all, magazines rely on income from advertisers and rightly realise the worth of coverage on their pages), it shouldn’t stop the discussions taking place. It’s not a ‘them and us’ battle with magazines and it’s short-sighted for any manufacturer or distributor to think that. Magazines help inspire enthusiasm for products, manufacturers create those exciting products and dealers supply them to the end customer. It’s a cycle that needs all parts to be working well with the ultimate aim of getting the end customer spending. Without the end customer buying products then none of us would be here so it begs the question; why don’t more parts of that cycle don’t come together to reach the end customer, just like Fast Car magazine and In Phase have done by creating this stunning 350Z.

What Fast Car magazine say about the project:

“All Performance Automotive titles at Future target the modern car enthusiast and our editorial teams go to great lengths to inspire readers to become more heavily involved with their passion; invigorating sales for the supporting industry. The mission for Fast Car is to define car culture; educating its readers about the latest products, exciting them about styles that reflect the cutting edge of car enhancement, and leading the ‘modified’ scene into new phases of evolution. The 350z project is a prime example of how we seek to work with the industry to help drive this progress. It takes a lot of hard work and input to realise such a project; but the results deliver fantastic impact for the brand we partner with, while the readers find the promotion highly engaging and inspirational. The results are well worth the effort and investment.”

Gez Jones, Publisher

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