#corporate talks

[georgegraphys]

They better say thanks to George Russell contract negotiation for the media coverage boost /j

[pizzapops-offical]

We at pizzapops corporate have been hearing about "Offical" accounts, which seem to be more in line with our company policy and post tendencies, should we change to pizzapops-offical?

[georgegraphys]

People need to understand that the way Max and George differently approaches a discourse is not because one is fake and the other is honest but it also correlates to their organization culture.

Both of these guys have each been in Mercedes/Red Bull for years. George has known Mercedes since 2014. Max probably knew Red Bull in the same year. It has been ± 10 years since then and it's clear how their habits and the way they handle media is influenced by the years they've spent in their respective teams.

Mercedes are not the type of team to publicly confront a discourse in front of the camera/media/public eyes. This behaviour is shown several times like when Lewis complained about his car being slow in AUT22(?) and Toto saying something along the lines of "ik the car is slow, just drive" and when George got mad after QAT23 and Toto and Marcus went on the radio directly, telling him to "keep your head down". This behaviour is also shown amongst previous Mercedes drivers or even their academy talents. This culture shows a significant difference from Red Bull's who is known to be fiery, blunt, honest, etc which some probably favours more in terms of "honesty".

But all in all? No cultures are wrong. Mercedes is Mercedes. Red Bull is Red Bull. No one is being a two faced bitch or the definition of honesty and truth. These cultures just show how these organizations are different and they handle things differently. You can't expect 10 organizations in F1 to run the same just because they're in one sport. These teams come from parent companies who had differing principles, values, and business. Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin comes from Mercedes Benz, McLaren, Ferrari, and Aston Martin who handles cars. Red Bull comes from an energy drink company who invested in tons of different sports categories. Forget about analyzing their media behaviours, looking at their branding, logo, sponsors, and everything already explains how different they are from one another regardless of the categories you're fitting them into.

There are no rights and wrongs or "fake or honest" between organizational cultures and how these companies handle the public/media. The cultures are literally chosen by each company because it fits them. Of course those cultures have each of their own pros and cons but that's just their identity. You cannot fit one company's identities and how they work to another. There is a reason why they are unique in their own way.

And it's not even about being an honest angel or a lying snake. It's about how they deliver information to the public. They deliver the same thing, just with different processes and methods. If you can't identify that, you'll misinterpret their messages and it's on you.

[georgegraphys]

I don't need to say much on this.

If it's really a car launch, no sane corporations would put someone they'd fire after this year as a key figure to it. Car launches take years to complete globally. Take AMG C 63 S E that George ambassadored for. It's only released in Brazil, India, Malaysia, and China last year when it was revealed first in 2022. While in countries like Indonesia, it hasn't been released.

If it's not a car launch, my point still stands. Mercedes don't do individual campaigns with drivers that are going to quit. I feel like examples aren't necessary since it's a recent thing you can look back on 😉

So yeah an individual campaign + gifted an already rare hypercar painted with an EXTRA rare tricolored paint that there is only one configuration of it in the world? yeah i think thats a pen on paper

Update: Mercedes Benz posted too.

[georgegraphys]

our merc guys for 2025

[georgegraphys]

Warning: Self analysis, might be biased, personal thoughts

Everything wrong with Mercedes' social media team (+ PR)

Before this, I just wanted to acknowledge how hard they've been working as a team in such a tough position, dealing with the hates, etc. I perfectly understand that every team has different ways of social media management and PR strategy that can't be compared to one another. But I feel like I need to talk about what are the things I felt wrong and maybe give some of my thoughts or insights with it.

1. Content

Okay. I've talked about this before and anon said "They might be forced or ordered to make such contents. This and that yadda yadda and in the end they may not have much choices to make except follow their superiors" I just wanna yes. Yes it could be like that but let's talk about the overall content that has been put out now.

Objectively speaking, Mercedes' social media team's achilles heel is probably the fact that they could not force one party to do the same amount of social media PR as George does. It is perfectly understandable that LH might not want to do those things because as you age or progress in some sport, you get tired of doing those PR shits and I don't blame him. It is tiring and sometimes stressful.

But I also feel like there is a lack of creativity? and I don't know where it came from. Could be from themselves, being too lenient and relaxed for the past few years because they're drowning in success and fame and did not feel the need to expand more in terms of social media strategies OR they could be restricted by their superiors too which is understandable. It is also important to note that these things might happen because all these times, Mercedes fans are mostly there for one person so as time goes on, the team starts making contents that are specific only to that niche. And they might not feel the need to branch out of there to attract general team fans outside of that niche, which explains why some might call Mercedes' contents cringe, boring, etc.

Before George, I feel like none of the drivers are open to doing friendly contents to what other teams did. It's fine since it could be counter measured by lots of other strategies but again, they didn't and the reason for it could be lack of willingness or creativity or superior words. Ever since George came, they started picking up those trends and contents to do with George and that honestly helps because George is really PR flexible to those contents but at one point, it ended up not being too useful as the effort was kind of one-sided. These kinds of things had to be a collective effort from both sides.

I do not blame any of the drivers. The other one might feel fed up or just want to relax without having to do that stupid BS (It is tiring). I just feel like Mercedes could've handled that better with better strategies but they either let it happened or it was the superiors that were in the way of improvements or something. I don't know about that but it could definitely be handled better

I had hopes for 2025. Hopefully, with the new line up, we could see a fresher side of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team in terms of PR and social media strategy than what has happened in the past years. It would totally be exciting to see how the social media team and PR team would work with the new driver in 2025.

2. The involvement of the reserve drivers and juniors.

Mick Schumacher, ever since he entered the team as a reserve driver in 2023, has helped a lot in content making. He lessen George's burden a lot and i'm very thankful for his involvement and how he has been such a great guy in Mercedes' PR ways. He even participated on some PR campaigns like those of Monster Energy and Tommy Hilfiger.

But as there is a new reserve driver now in 2024 which is Frederik Vesti. I feel like Fred should be pushed equally like Mick does. No hate or anything but the team b&w photoshoots for example. I'm pretty sure at that moment, they are aware already of Fred becoming the new reserve driver but my question stands in "why is he not participating in those stuff?" like photoshoots or content making. And this is not only social media team's work but also PR team.

I feel like Fred should be included equally. Photoshoots, interviews, contents or whatever it is. I feel like now that they have two reserve drivers, they should work on equally treating them. I am perfectly aware that they are working on Fred slowly and consistently (hope that continues) but I do hope Fred got the chance to participate more in the future. And that would not just be advantageous for Fred but also for Mercedes because more people=more fame 🤣🤣.

And for the juniors part, I do see Doriane and Kimi getting more push in 2024 from the team as a junior. A part of me wished that last year, Paul and Fred got the same treatment. For their wins, for their points and involvement in content. Although those things are in the past, I hope what they are doing now with Kimi and Doriane could be improved and could be more consistently and equally applied to all their juniors. They should give some spotlight to Alex Powell too tbh. He did a great job at F4 UAE this year, scoring several podiums and wins. I hope they do improve in terms of equalization 😁.

3. Internal Dynamics of the Team

I think we all joked a lot about "oohh the grussell hater admin is at work today" or "oohh the gr63 lovers admin logged on today" and while it can be funny and stuff. If seen from a professional standpoint, it is very unprofessional.

"Why Ari? Are you sure it isn't just you overreacting?" No. Nope. These things aren't supposed to show. Internal dynamics aren't supposed to be readable the public. When it comes to this point where the public can know "who" is logging on, can get a grasp on the 'split' of the internal team dynamics, these all screams unprofessionalism. You are not supposed to know these things as a fan nor you are not supposed to let the fans/public know about these things if you're the employee. For these things to show blatantly means there is a lack of synchronization amongst the team and unprofessionalism.

Social media is about bragging. It's about building and retaining personal branding, promoting yourself, telling yourself and gaining attention. And that's what a corporate social media does too except it wasn't for themselves but for the brand and the company. As a social media admin for a company, you should not be known as admin 1 or admin 2 or admin 3. Because in doing your work, you are under ONE ENTITY to represent the company. One social media account means one entity no matter how much admins there are. And to be able to do so, they need synchronizing with one another. This is done so their actions remains equal. The equal actions reflects on professionalism and integrity.

To let an internal dynamic seep through how a social media account is working is kinda unprofessional especially when you can tell the admins' preference. That should not happen because it's a TEAM man.. a TEAM's social media account that's not supposed to show. Preferences, bias and stuffs 😭. BIG NO. They honestly need a fix on how they manage those stuffs so it doesn't seep to the general public knowledge. Being nosy to a company's dynamic is one thing but letting the public be aware of your company's dynamic is ANOTHER.

No one wants their company name stained because if you flop, they flop, well except if they did shitty things like RBR's TP but these internal dynamics such as who likes who or who sides with who, shouldn't be seen by the public. It should be kept under the sheets and be dealt with inside. For them to be noticed is a problem with unprofessionalism. I do hope they can synchronize more regarding these things, put up some T&C, be more strict, and improve this part.

4. Content planning

First of all, I am perfectly aware that this is a very subjective topic. My opinion can differ than yours and i am aware that how a team plan it's contents differs from other teams. I will not criticize nor scrutiny but I will just give my insight on what i found wrong and what they could do better (from my opinion of course).

Mercedes' content planning in 2024 have improved significantly than last year. They have been more consistent in terms of pushing George and doing their contents. But of course, a part of this wouldn't happen if it weren't for Feb 1 😀. There are several problems within how they work on their content planning (in my opinion) last year and I'm going to point out on it. And this is exhibit 1

Exhibit 1: Repetitive use of content materials

The George double is a funny cute one if you look at it for the first three videos. And honestly for contents like this? Three is the maximum. But they do EIGHT. EIGHT CONTENTS. And that is just over usage. That is just too much. You are feeding the general public the same contents 8x. They will get the ick. Besides, as time goes on, the contents are no longer funny and looks like it was forced. It lacked the original creativity when they first made it and as their objective has differed now that they had to 'milk it out' several times. Their first objective might just be "oh creative content" but afterwards it's just "how to milk more from this" and that's where a content loses its fun.

I understand that some people might find these enjoyable to a certain extent but the amount of similar contents Mercedes came to do in the end? Too much. And it also gets affected by how they post the content irregularly. It would've been a delivery if the content were to be made weekly or it became some kind of series. That would be more entertaining honestly instead of just dumping the same contents again and again all at once. People get bored so fast and if you just dump all of the same ones at once, it's like eating 30 of the same croissant at the same time. You get sick of it 🤣

Exhibit 2: The Unequal Portrayal of George Russell

I think I don't need pictures for this. But we all know how "George meme" or "meme guy" has been a thing for George. In a sense, I do acknowledge how it has been a good material for damage control (judging by how fast his image recovers post SIN23), to boost marketability/popularity, and to gain a solid base to attract new fans or the general public.

But it all went wrong when Mercedes milked too much out of this and portrayed George unequally compared to his teammates and even, his own TP who shouldn't even get that much spotlight. At this stage, it could be detrimental to his image and career as a public figure and a team's representative to the sponsors.

Mercedes' brand image for years now has always been the big guy brand. They don't do transitions and it has always been constant. So therefore, they attract big guy brands too like IWC, Puma, Tommy Hilfiger, Marriott Bonvoy, etc. They don't have McLaren-esque google or lego sponsors. And I understand that the approach with George memes were also probably an effort to reach the general audiences and branch out but it gets too much.

"Where did it get detrimental?" When it's overused and when he is portrayed as only the meme guy and not others. LH gets portrayed with his success and serious contents. Toto Wolff got a birthday edit, a proper one at it and is portrayed as a successful alpha man that brings his team to its peak (he didn't). All this while George can't have his 100th Grand Prix poster edited well. The moment they put an effort on him last year was if it's his meme. It is honestly DAMAGING for him. Because it might lead or have already led people to view him in a two dimensional way. Just George the meme guy not George the driver. And this part honestly contributes a bit as to why his crash in AUS23 is used as a joke and is laughed upon. Why? Because his team has been so comfortable, so supportive, and encouraging of people making jokes about George that people lessen George to just a mere JOKE when he is not. This is honestly damaging and sad. His TP is built with a better image by the social media/PR team last year. While George has the most effort put on him when it comes to his memes.

Then again, not only to fans, this could also be damaging to his image in front of sponsors. I've said earlier about how Merc sponsors are big guy sponsors. They are serious brands. They don't just recruit George as ambassadors just because George is a driver for the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team. 'How do you know Ari?' Look at Monster Energy and George. They don't fit. That's why they never did campaigns together and that's why they left and only decided to maintain a collaboration with Lewis. Puma, Tommy, Mercedes Benz and IWC collaborated with George because they viewed him as someone fitting to represent their brand. But what happened if George's image changed because of how his team has been portraying him and encouraging such acts? They could've dropped him. We've seen actors, idols and artists in real life getting their career wrecked after an overexaggerating wrong portrayal that changed their image. That could've happened.

"Ari, don't be too hard on them" I don't curse on them chill.. I am perfectly aware that this is not their sole decision maybe and I am perfectly aware of how this helps George too. But in a way, some of their moves are just wrong and could be damaging to George's career. And it is actually crazy to think that they still do such George's double and memes content up until Feb 1. If Feb 1 were to not happen, it could continue until now. There is no denying that part of the reason why the admins have been taking George seriously is because of what happens on Feb 1 and that is just so WRONG. There are tons of other approaches that you can use to milk out popularity/reach/marketability from these things without an overexaggeration, over usage, and not setting the limits to how the public views their driver. A team's PR and social media is also heavily responsible for the image building of their talent because the image their talent built reflects to the sponsors they retain and attract.

These all could be small, funny, unserious things but there are people whose career changed because of those small, funny, and unserious things.

Lastly, I give the biggest kudos to the people in the social media and PR team who have been doing their work well for George. And i am so proud to see their overall improvement. I hope to see that continues consistently. Not only for George but for Fred, Kimi, Doriane, Alex Powell, and whoever George's teammate is in the future. I hope they don't re-do their mistakes and continue to work their best. Don't forget to appreciate these guys regardless of the team's result. They are the front to the public's perception and feedback. It must've been hard for them too. But if they do something wrong, you can correct them in the right, proper and polite way without bashing them.

This whole thing is my opinion and insight to what I see wrong and what they can improve. Feel free to agree to disagree. Feel free to talk in my asks if there are other things I miss or if you wanna share your opinion.

[georgegraphys]

Why I personally think that Mercedes is doing a great job by not poaching too much "outside talents" from other teams and is possibly more focused on developing the new fresh talents and preparing for an early generational turnover

I'm not saying poaching is entirely bad but sometimes poaching employees from other companies (esp long term ones) came with monetary or other beneficial things that come with the offer. As an employee, of course you'd take it but that doesn't necessarily mean that the concerned employee actually has the motivation or the commitment to work there. And letting new people suddenly jump up the corporate ladder when they're poached, often doesn't work well with the employees who've worked there before because aside from new beneficial knowledge the new employee brought, they will also bring different work ethics to the team and they'll also struggle a bit to get a grip on the company's goals, habits and environment as they went there probably for other benefits, and if they continue to fail to adapt, that'll be a problem for their work too and how they handle everything.

But when you let employees climb up the hierarchial corporate ladder naturally (e.g. Shov from being a race engineer to trackside engineering director), by the time they're at the upper level management, they're going to have that grip that knows where the company's direction and goal is heading. They know what they're doing and what they're going to do. They know the culture. They know how they must act. And their loyalty grows as the team progresses each year. That loyalty will become their work drive and make them sometimes the better employees. Because at work, you can't only have the knowledge but you have to have the commitment, to be in the same direction as the company's goals and the loyalty.

If we're talking about ethics, it is ethical and fine to poach employees but IMO, poaching too much of an upper level management employee (that is a bunch of old guys too) is definitely not a good thing because you're kinda not letting the old ones progress naturally up the corporate ladders. And these things are short-term too like poaching is fine but if you don't invest in your current and fresh talents in your employee roster, then it'll always be for a short time. Employee A from Company B comes to Company A, is 56, leads the team for 4 years, builds work ethics and habits, retires. Hired employee B from Company C, is 49, has a different vision and leadership than employee A, team work ethics change, need time to adapt to the new work ethics, employee A retires, is replaced again with employee C with a new work ethics and diff commitments, adapt again, retires again, hire again anddddd the hellish cycle goes on.

While allowing fresher talents to grow and learn from the current upper level management, allows new innovations and ideas. It's not always about recruitment in HR, it's also about retaining employees. Employees that naturally went up the corporate ladder, imo, will always somehow be the better employee as they will always have the grip, commitment and investment on the company's direction in the present or future

[georgegraphys]

@grbambi63's theory really made me peek into Daimler's 2018, 2019, and 2023 annual report to see the difference between Zetsche's management to Kallenius' management.

Zetsche's objective:

Kallenius had a similar objective on that too but I won't include it for today because we're not talking about the similarity but... the one thing Kallenius had that Zetsche didn't.

2019 & 2023's Kallenius-term annual report objectives:

Lower cost base. Reduction of (...) costs.

This isn't just some move that Kallenius added just because he loved saving some pennies but it might be due to the chaos that happens in his first year as a CEO. I am going to highlight two major events here.

1) Diesel Emission Scandal

In the beginning of 2018 (Zetsche's term), Daimler was accused of having shit devices on their control software for their US products but they denied this allegations. Then it was reported that the US authorities were investigating them for diesel emission cheating scandals.

In June 2019, Daimler had to recall 60,000 Mercedes diesel powered cars in Germany, the model affected is the Mercedes-Benz GLK 220 SUV produced between 2012 and 2015, the car is fitted with software aimed at distorting emissions tests. And during the same year, Daimler was fined 870 million euros in Germany for "negligent violation of supervisory duties" in relation to not fully complying with emissions regulations. In 2020, they had to pay $2.2B in settlement.

The scandal got serious actually as "The Daimler boss is also putting the german federal government in trouble. It has its back against the wall internationally because of the fraud committed by its flagship industry. US President Donald Trump has targeted Daimler in the trade dispute and threatened that he no longer wants to see Mercedes cars on Fifth Avenue in New York" source

This crisis ironically started at Zetsche's management but the peak of the case was handled during Kallenius' early stage of leadership 💀💀💀 (I FELT BAD FOR HIM NGL LMAOOO)

2) COVID 19

Do you think Kallenius' trials decrease after his first year? No. COVID-19 happens. They still profit as they are THEE Mercedes but sales were slow at one point. Kallenius and other executives had to take pay cuts due to COVID and even before, COVID he also had to struggle with Daimler's stocks dropping drastically while having to deal with the lawsuit and satisfying the investors. He also said this: (source)

Looking at how they have interesting differences as CEO. Kallenius is definitely all about cost efficient and maybe this was due to the crisis he felt in 2021 and as a preparation for Daimler's future ventures in focusing more about EQs

Update: Yeah this confirms that he had a pretty rough start to his management year in 2019 due to diesel scandal (source)

And bold of you to think that Zetsche retired from Mercedes with a bang. No he didn't. (source)

AND THE BEEF THICKENS as some board member reportedly are against his rise to be the chairman of the supervisory board (source)

Just a personal thought from me, but what if the reason Kallenius was pissed at LH in 2021 is caused by all these financial wrecks Mercedes are in during these years? They were hit again and again. To add that, Kallenius is very adamant on his cost efficient and cost reduction objectives after these hardships. And at that time, just after 2020, LH demands a raise. A raise from a company who is literally in the trenches fighting for a surplus and good result from all the legal battles they're in and COVID that caused the board members and employees to get paid cuts. Maybe this was what pissed Kallenius off? Because at that time, Mercedes wasn't doing so well and suddenly, LH asked for pay raise to a guy who is very set and clear about saving every pennies 😭😭 That must've pissed the hell out of him. I'm not saying Lewis is wrong but kinda 💀💀 to think that the butterfly effect from that moment of their contract negotiation in 2021 to what is happening rn in 2024 💀💀.

If that is true then Zetsche is the catalyst for the butterfly effect happening rn:

Zetsche diesel scandal>Him retiring>Kallenius' rise to position>Mercedes financial flopification due to dieselgate and covid>LH demanding more salary>Cost efficient and suffering Kallenius, with his hands full on Zetsche's mess, getting pissed at LH>LH and Mercedes fallout>Kallenius using George as a piece in the contract negotiation>Toto Wolff power decrease in Kallenius' era>George to Mercedes>Another contract negotiation problems>Ambassadorial promise getting yeetus deletus-ed>LH pissed>Ferrari move early>George steps forward as team leader

If this is real. If the butterfly effect is real, then it's crazy.