17 June 2012
Working for a marketing company has its perks, like VIP access to Ferrari Racing Days Paddocks. This past weekend was Ferrari Racing Days at Shanghai International Circuit. It is the largest single brand racing event and is held for Ferrari owners and fans. My job was to mostly tag-a-long and have a good weekend, but I also helped with a banner signing and promotional giveaways.
300 Ferraris in attendance, a full 2012 line of show cars, and 5 star catering in the Paddocks; I think my days were quite enjoyable. Luckily for you all, I took lots of pictures, so be sure to check them out.
Saturday, I conducted a banner signing for Weibo (Chinese Twitter) promotion. Turns out I can attract quite a crowd which is the point, but soo many Chinese want to take a picture with me. The rest of the day was long and tiring just sitting around waiting, but I did get the lounging benifit of free gelato, and San Pellegrinos to keep me refreshed.
Sunday, I was at the entrance to the raceway to hand out tickets, tee-shirts, and flags to Weibo fans. Thankfully, I was not alone and had a team of 5 people but I got to see how mass Chinese crowds can get out of control very quickly.
-Oh, look they are giving out t-shirts. Gei ni, gei ni yifu(give me shirt)! No, what! Randsack the box, grab what you can...
Goodness for line dividing bars we had a barrier for ourselves and our merchandise until the mass mob settled to go inside. My coworkers and I took to the grand stand to hand out the remaining t-shirts and flags. Again, crowd quickly became out of control, but more dangerously in stadium seating. Chinese are used to haggling and not leaving even if you tell them no, so you can imagine it is a little more to deal with than an American crowd or elsewhere.
During the Sunday races, there were 4 car crashes and 2 total wrecks. No serious injuries I don't believe but the big screen showed a driver lying out on the track and rolling over to vomit everywhere until the medics arrived.
On the last race of the day, our team conducted a Weibo event that took 3 fans to stand on the podiums with the race winners. So, I got to tag-a-long to the press rooms and podiums to see the winning drivers and tropheys.
After another very long day at the circuit, my event manager and co-workers went to have dinner at a very Chinese place. I am an adventerous eater, but I didn't even know where to start. This was a traditional group meal so one person orders for the whole dinner and dishes just arrive to share. There was, chicken+chicken feet, special clams, snails of some sort, bullfrog, live shrimp being drowned in some sauce, minnow/sardine something, a 2 whole fish plate, stir fried veggies, some noodles, and a pork soup. Lets just say it was a feast, but to me, not so appetizing. I was glad to be a laughing matter for the 12 others at the table because I had never eaten most of the things there. What can you do.
Next weekend is another Chinese holiday; Dragon boat festival. I am sure to catch some activities in Shanghai and then I leave to Hong Kong on Sunday.
Buh bye,
Niko
