So long to the trading cards of old – pieces of cardboard with low quality photos in a wax-sealed pack, cheap chewing gum and statistics on the back of the cards even a 10-year-old has to squint to see.
Welcome to the new generation of trading cards — the M80e-card.
Courtesy of a small company operating quietly in the Gateway building in downtown Salisbury.
Similar in appearance and size to traditional trading cards, the M80e-card is printed with high-quality graphics and photographs. But there’s more to this card. The M80e-card is actually a rectangle-shaped mini-compact disc (CD) that can be played in any computer’s CD-ROM.
David Jones, vice president of interactive communications at iMAGE 500, inc. initially dreamed up the idea of an interactive trading card and teamed with co-worker Ryan White to pitch the idea to President/CEO Bill Gibson.
“I knew we were on to something big when I saw the excitement and possibilities of an entertaining trading card,” said Gibson.
Gibson, formed iMAGE 500 in July 2000 by combining his two companies, Race It Communications and Steadman-Gibson Corporate Design. iMAGE 500 is a niche-marketing firm specializing in image marketing and interactive branding.
Gibson moved to Salisbury from Kingsport, Tenn., to work with Allison Brothers Racing and fell in love with the area.
“Racing is what brought me here,” said Gibson, “but the community and people are what has kept me here.”
Gibson calls Salisbury a “small town-big town” where there is more industry innovations happening than most people realize. With deep racing heritage and a centralized location, iMAGE 500 is in a “good, strategic place,” said Gibson.
The entire iMAGE 500 team resides in Salisbury and the surrounding communities, with the exception of Jason Williamson, who lives in Columbia, S.C. The team chose the Gateway, at Lee and East Innes streets, as their office home because of its convenience and class.
“Image is our business, and as soon as our clients enter the Gateway, they know that we practice what we preach,” said Gibson.
M80entertainment was formed as a spring-off company from iMAGE 500 in mid-2001 with the mission to challenge the benchmarks in the sports merchandising sector and develop and market innovative trading cards. As the new company’s initial product, M80entertainment will launch the M80e-card during Daytona’s speedweek in February.
“With the popularity of NASCAR and the Winston Cup Series, it makes perfect sense to honor the sport and its heroes with the first M80e-card release,” said Beth Westmoreland-Ferguson, vice president of marketing at iMAGE 500.
Today, Winston Cup Racing is more than a bunch of people just getting together to watch a bunch of cars drive around in circles for hours. It is one of the fastest growing and most high-tech sports in the country, with the most loyal fans of any sport.
“Race fans are very loyal, not only to their favorite drivers, but to their sponsors too,” said Westmoreland-Ferguson. “The M80e-card makes an available way fans can expand their knowledge and interaction with their heroes.”
In today’s high-tech society, you cannot boast phrases like “interactive” and “entertaining” without backing it up with results, and the M80e-card does that.
Place it in your CD-ROM and you are in the driver’s seat. Hear the engine roar as you flip the “ON” switch and listen to the driver’s welcome message.
The M80e-card allows fans to get to know their favorite NASCAR drivers and teams in a way previously unimaginable. Never-before-seen video clips of driver interviews, pit-crew practice and other behind-the-scenes action allows NASCAR fans to dive into the lives of their favorite drivers and teams.
“The M80e-card provides an entertainment-driven platform from which to launch, view and interact with numerous features,” said Gibson. “Some of these features include exclusive video clips and photos, statistics, biographies, music, sound effects, internet links and other cross-promotional outlets.”
“NASCAR fans are more than race attendees – they are fanatics. They want to intimately know their heroes. M80e-cards will give the fans access to the stuff they don’t see on Sunday.”
The M80e-cards will officially launch and be sold on cable television’s QVC channel and online at www.M80e.com as the VIP Series Edition. This edition will include three cards each from approximately 12 Winston Cup teams in 2002. The three cards include a driver, crew chief and pit-crew card, and each card will retail at approximately $14.95.
A Garage Pass Edition will launch in spring 2002 in nationwide mass-market retailers and superstores and cost $7 to $10. This edition will only have a driver card for each of an estimated 12 Winston Cup teams.
The company will highlight about five up-and-coming Winston Cup drivers in a Speed Demons Edition scheduled for release this spring.
A more personal edition with information about the driver’s hobbies and private life is scheduled for this summer, featuring about four Winston Cup drivers in the Flat Out! Series Edition.
The company also plans a Platinum Team Set Edition for this summer, which includes a driver, crew chief, pit-crew and additional owner/organization highlight mini-CD for about eight Winston Cup teams. This set boasts shop tours, three-dimensional diagrams, more in-depth video footage and interviews and added collectible benefits such as gold foil stamping.
“With our team here at iMAGE 500 and M80entertainment, we have the talent to completely design the M80e-card, from the bottom, up,” said Gibson. “The only thing that will be done out-of-house is the actual production of the cards and any race footage we use of the drivers. We know the behind-the-scenes videos, photos and interaction are exclusive because we do it all.”
NASCAR Images, a daughter company of NASCAR, owns the race footage from each NASCAR event, so M80e has a licensing agreement with them for various video pieces.
Aside from that, the M80e-card is filled with never-before-seen footage and photos of the drivers and their race teams.
“The M80e-card is a very cool thing for Salisbury,” said Jason Williamson, CEO of M80entertainment. “It is a revolutionary product that goes right along with Salisbury’s racing connections and heritage.
“Innovations like this are the types of things our economy needs to get back on track. This product has a large potential for growth, not only through NASCAR but into other industries.”
M80entertainment already has plans to branch next into professional wrestling.
“If all goes as well, we will try to introduce World Wrestling Federation (WWF) M80e-cards in mid-2002,” said Gibson. “We think the potential for the M80e-cards is to spread to any sport, including baseball, football, hockey, golf and others.”
Twenty years ago children used trading cards to put in bicycle spokes to make noise, but today’s generation wants more than mere amusement – they want to be entertained.
“We plan to be like a firecracker,” Gibson said. “Explosive entertainment. That’s what the company name represents, and that’s how we are approaching the ongoing development, launch and growth of the new M80e-card.”
Contact Michael Board at news@salisburypost.com or 704-797-4245.
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