Good summary.


Management is going to have to be more accountable to shareholders on what it is doing to maximize shareholder value.

Jim

Actualy all of it....you are promoting yourself....but you are also promoting what you are involved in... not to the extent of what a title sponsor of a series should..but you do promote it...the series... you want people to see your brand name... but they need to know where to see it and when.. plus...depending on who the series sponsors are when egos are out the door .. cross promotion works great to develop working promtion crossover relationships between companies....

The company i worked for, Soffe Sportswear, laid out plans to do promotion work with AFFES... military verion of WalMart...When winston heard of our plans they offered show car suport...not just the Winston show cars..but showcars from other teams they already had deals to promote Winston and the Cup series with...to make our promotions more effective...That promoted the other sponsors ..but it all tied back to the racing series getting promoted.....

I for get who mentioned that brand loyalty amoung motorsports fans is a myth..but that is completely wrong.. in the 90's Joyce Julis did surveys away from the tracks and the ball fields in malls and a county and state fairs on consumer product usage.. they asked what products they uses and asked for an explanation as to why... in the 90's it was in the 70 to 75 % range... Last night on ESPN they mentioned the new numbers are in the 80 to 85 % range... the old adage from then is still true now... they buy the products that sponsor cars and series because they pay the bills for them to enjoy the sport they love...

Great case in point... TIDE (proctor & gamble) dropped off of a cup car couple years ago.. since then.. sales have dropped 10%..no ease into a drop just dropped... they also lost shelf space in their largest retailer... Walmart... why?..because they no longer supplied in store promotions with NASCAR cars.. to bring in the NASCAR fans..

Some NASCAR teams have show car groups that service Walmart only....yes they are promoting their products..but they are promoting the NASCAR name as well.... fans want to see cars up close and personal.. even if it is not their favorite driver.. they just want to say they saw the car..... Same should go for and i'm sure it does... NHRA drag cars....

i lived in ATlanta for a few years.. and if i didn't already know the NHRA was coming.. i would have never known it looking at the area for promotions within the metro area....

Both Jims.. you are right on about accountability to shareholders...wiht the new HD deal.... it may be good for the sport of drag racing... it may roll over to the local santioned tracks that don't have the big events...


Billy

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I had no clue a simple editorial would result in this kind of response, but I’m nevertheless appreciative that I must have hit a nerve with some people, and that's always the intent of these things.

Jeremy MacKenzie’s “small town” advertising/sponsorship program is interesting, to say the least. He clearly understands that simply paying a racer to run a name and logo isn’t enough. HE, rather than the person he sponsors designs additional programs to maximize his exposure.

I have to ask: If Jeremy can see the value of working to enhance his sponsorship investment, I fail to understand why responders to these posts continue to insist that it’s NHRA responsibility to enhance the POWERade sponsorship rather than the other way around.

Like others who have posted on this thread I have worked in sponsorship acquisition on a part-time basis since the early 80s. I’ve had a few remarkable successes – and hundreds, if not thousands, of failures.

But in every instance in which I have been successful the companies I’ve worked with were not only prepared to spend additional dollars to enhance their direct funding efforts, they’d planned on doing so from the very beginning. They all knew that they couldn’t depend on a racer to enhance their exposure. They also knew that THEY had a heck of a lot better chance of enhancing those marketing efforts than did the racer himself.

Here’s where Jay Rathman is going to get angry with me again.

Jay, unless we absolutely KNOW the dollars involved in the POWERade/NHRA deal we’re merely speculating.

I agree in that we SUSPECT the price was dirt cheap, and POWERade’s actions – or lack thereof – since the deal was signed would tend to indicate that they could be thinking, “We didn’t pay jack for this deal, so it’s really not worth much, so we won’t do much to support it. We’ll see what it can do for us without our active support.”

I also agree that POWERade could easily make this a better deal for themselves, but apparently seem to feel that it’s not worth doing.

Jim Samuel, you’re right in suggesting that advertisers buy air time where the audience is, and don’t buy cheap air time in the hopes that they can somehow get the audience there to see their ads. That’s why the ads on the Super Bowl telecast are so high – they KNOW that’s where the audience is going to be.

Regarding team sponsorship situations, I think you have to take a little broader view. Simplistically, a racer’s goal is to learn how to drive the car, then learn how to race, and finally, how to win. Yes, he or she absolutely shows more potential value to a sponsor if he or she can demonstrate an understanding of marketing.

But, let’s say you’ve got a relatively young, good looking and well-spoken driver who shows tremendous promise as a racer, but has no understanding of marketing. Isn’t that driver still a potentially valuable investment because he or she can be trained in the marketing arts far more easily than he or she can be trained to drive a race car?

Jim, NHRA has been making an effort to increase brand awareness of the NHRA name. Our problem is that we don’t necessarily see the efforts they make in promoting the sport other than national event marketing.

I have a very strong difference of opinion with NHRA people regarding not necessarily their marketing/media efforts, but their promotional hires. I believe those jobs need to be filled with seasoned professionals making lucrative salaries, while they believe in hiring young people fresh out of school or with minimal work experience in the field, and paying them commensurate “starter” salaries.

I did not produce the 4 million new Winston customer number out of thin air. That’s the figure that was given to me by the last couple of people who ran the program. I’m assuming that SME/RJR is manned by some very competent people, but where they came up with those numbers is beyond me.

Regarding the Coca-Cola Family of Drivers, I viewed that program as one of personal product endorsements backed by national advertising to that effect.

Jim, I never suggested those drivers were unknowns. Coke obviously signed them for the very reason that they WERE already well known. But what made them well known were successes on the track and other promotional efforts, usually mounted by their individual team sponsors. You’re suggesting the drivers made the effort to make themselves more valuable, and to some extent a minority may have actually done so, but in the majority of cases it was some other entity besides the drivers who mounted those efforts.

No offense intended Jim, but name one title rights sponsorship that was put together by a track operator and not by the association.

Wow, Jim, you’re painting a picture of ego-driven corporate executives that I emphatically disagree with. Yes, certainly some guys are going to be boastful about their individual sponsorship deals, but if those corporations are making decisions based on potential results for their particular product or service, they may chose to get involved with wht some might call a "lesser" series. In other words, one company’s belief that a NASCAR program is right for them could just as easily be another’s belief that drag racing is the best arena for them.

Case in point: Some years back a low-buck stereo company had a major involvement with CART. I managed to get the CEO on the phone to talk up drag racing, and since I had nothing to lose I tossed into the conversation the fact that, at the time, the CART audience was perceived, and their marketing demographics showed (you can obviously skew any demographic study to demonstrate anything you want) that this was an upscale audience, one unlikely to purchase this guy’s bottom-of-the-barrel products.

He laughed and heartily agreed with me that drag racing would be a better place to spend his promotional dollars IF HIS INTENT WAS TO SELL PRODUCT TO THE AUDIENCE. It wasn’t. Their goal was to use the CART races as a hospitality tool with retail store owners. They’d found that by giving away tickets and hosting those people by wining and dining them and showing them the race, in the days and weeks following they would get better store display space for their stereo products, which in turn resulted in higher sales. He had the store-by-store, before-the-race and after-the-race numbers to back up his claim.

Now, in defense of Jim’s statement, I had a corporate executive tell me in no uncertain terms that his particular company’s decision to go NASCAR racing had been a gut decision by the top guy who liked the NASCAR atmosphere, liked being in the VIP suites and liked visiting with other corporate types. The guy I talked with feels his company could be better served in drag racing, but predicts that until there’s a change in upper management it won’t happen. He also said that he had no clue how they were justifying their massive NASCAR investment because they couldn’t prove it was doing them any good at all.

Just as we suspect with the POWERade deal, the guy also told me that on a dollar-for-dollar basis, even if they couldn’t prove that drag racing was doing them any good either, it would still be a better investment for his company because for one thing it would cost so much less.

Regarding Jim’s last statement about the days of corporate executives making decisions on personal likes and dislikes being over, I once again heartily and emphatically disagree. Maybe SMART companies don’t do that, but a heck of a lot of them still do.

In Jim’s later post, when he asks why companies would get involved if they then had to spend more money promoting that involvement, the money they spend doing that isn’t to promote the team, event or series, it’s to promote their own involvement in those activities. They’re (simplistically) saying to the public, “Hey, we’re a hot product and we’re associated with the very hot sport of drag racing.”

Jon Asher

F1 definitely didn't help George much with the problems you mention. But they know they have a value, maybe not in the US but worldwide and they won't sell themselves cheap. It is also not easy for a private company such as IMS to make money on F1 with the controls that Bernie Ecclestone exerts on a track.

Yes and it is working. It is hard to track an exact ROI since the resulting sales may not be immediate. Some of the support is tied to a geographical area and I can see those results fairly easy. For example I recently started a sponsorship with a group mostly from France and I saw an increase in sales from their. But in the long term sales are increasing at a good rate and I continue to increase both conventional advertising and sponsorships as sales will allow.

Thought-provoking thread to say the least, people.

Jon.. even with the disagreements here this has been one of the best disscussions i have come across on the net... thanks for insiting a great bit of conversation...


little know fact about ROI from motorsports... in the mid 80's. Head of marketing for Kraft Foods wanted to get in on the growing NASCAR trend... he had the forsight to see the potential.... iforget his name.. but when he went to the board to try and test the waters they decided it wasn't going to work.. and he insisted it would....He was informed that they needed hard proof before they would react...
he asked if he could take his petty cash budget and get them more info... he found out that the amount alotted would not cover what was needed.. when requesting the extra funds they told him nope.. no more wil be allowed... he offered to pay the difference if he would be reimbursed if it worked... they agreed with terms.. he could not use a current product from their line... he went ahead... signed a one race deal for a car to run Talladega... after the race ... fans went to their local grocery store and requested the product... it was no where on the list of products available... not for current or future sales... finialy stores started inquireing about the product..... within 2 months nearly a milion dollars worth of pending orders were waiting... Driver was Davey Allison in his first Cup race. which he led by the way... and the product was... BULLSEYE Barbeque Sauce... rest is history...

i know myself and a couple other keep comparing to NASCAR and other sports.. but you have to look at their success... but for every success they have there are falures as well...

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You are comparing apples to watermelons....There is just a tiny, tiny difference between the POWERade deal and Warren Buffet...Like billions of dollars....

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Jay
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You should read my earlier posts in this thread...It is explained in there....

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Jay
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Hey, a girl has to come up with the best example possible to make a point... after explaining to adults all day just why they need to be doing their job, this stuff has turned my brain into fruit salad.... did you say watermelon?

Funny...lol

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I can be a regular barrel of laughs and I look funny too time for me to get into the studio... nite

It is NHRA's responsibility to promote the series -- not the POWERade sponsorship -- because the series is what NHRA owns. The series is what NHRA sells to sponsors. You have said yourself that POWERade got the sponsorship at bargain rates. Why? Because NHRA has not done enough to promote the series and make it more valuable to sponsors.

When NHRA promotes the series, they make the series more valuable to sponsors. That, in turn, increases the amount of money that NHRA can get for the sponsorship of that series. To expect a sponsor to come in and work to increase the value of the product that NHRA sold them is off the mark.

Where is the incentive for POWERade to increase the value of NHRA's property? Remember, all NHRA really owns is the value of the series it operates.


Jon, you are confusing the practice of sponsors spending additional dollars to enhance their sponsorships efforts with sponsors spending money to promote the series they have purchased. Your column took POWERade to task for not doing enough to promote drag racing. You took them to task for not being friendlier to racers and not having as many people at the track as RJR. That is not the same thing as leverage your sponsorship by spening money on other activities.


Or, they could be thinking "We are paying X dollars to achieve these goals. Spending more would be fruitless because the series just isn't well known enough to justify spending any more on it."


[quote=Jon Asher;81462]Jon, you outline a viable situation. But let's look at another alternative. You have two drivers...the one you describe and another who is also young, good looking, well-spoken and shows tremendous promise. The difference is that the second driver either understands marketing himself (or herself) or has aligned himself with someone who does. If you're a sponsor with money to spend, which driver are you going to sponsor?

I agree with you 100%, Jon. The only difference would be that I would considering seasoned pros and some people fresh out of school to work with the pros. I've been in marketing for 24 years and would love to work in drag racing full time, but the truth is that no one is willing to pay me what I can get in other industries.

I do not want to put it in public but I will send you the info by private message.


Jon, if you don't think corporate execs are ego-driven, you are kidding yourself. Just look at United Way....its entire fund raising efforts are driven by appealing to the egos of corporate execs.

I agree 100%. It is my belief that when you compare NHRA and NASCAR as sponsorship opportunities, NHRA can give you a lot more for the money than can NASCAR. But there are problems that have to be overcome. For example, say you are a corporate executive and want to invite some of your biggest customers to the VIP suite at a race. Call them and say "Would you like to bring your family to the NASCAR race next weekend?" They know exactly what you are talking about. Ask them the same question about NHRA and the response is likely to be "What's that?"

Absolutely correct. Hospitality and side events are much more important than the race car on the track. That also explains why companies that do not even sell to end users are active in motorsports. Take Dupont, for example. How many of us actually go out and choose to buy Dupont products? Within drag racing, a perfect example is the Werner sponsorship that Clay Millican had for several years. Very few people in the stands hire trucking companies. One of the goals of that program was to attract and retain truck drivers. The company had VIP lounges set up at every race for Werner truck drivers to go with their families. When the company dropped the sponsorship, the reason given was that the company had achieved its goals. It's a shame to see Werner leave, but it is a clear case of a company having specific goals and achieving them through a sponsorship program.

Overall, Jon, I don't think we disagree on the major points...just some of the nuances.

Jim

That's great Jim. I'm glad to hear you are making it work for you. But it also sounds like you are doing a lot to make it work.

Jim

Maybe this is too simplistic but really isn't it to the benefit to both the NHRA and Powerade to promote the sport. They each would see gains from it. Why does it all need to fall into the lap of only one of the two?

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I'm not business nor Market saavy enough to debate ROI or any of these other issues. The fact of the matter is; NHRA from Compton/Light's point of view has absolutely no incentive to grow this sport. These guys are Salaried employees, how little some events are attended or promoted are of no consequence.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in one of the Meetings between Tom Compton and the HD suits to why attendance is so stagnant from year to year! And why NHRA is PAYING for TV time! When Tom Compton was brought in the Replace Dallas Gardner I thought it was a breath of fresh air. I can't think of one accomplishment Dallas Gardner ever did for this sport, can anybody??

Now that Tom Compton's been with NHRA for what 5-6 years? His Non racing background is more of a hindrance than anything else. Making decisions about Racecars that he has No knowledge of is an insult to say the least.

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