Petty Enterprises' Sponsor Appreciation Conference,
held for the fifth time last week over two days in NC, was
"part down-home family reunion and part high-brow business
meeting," according to David Scott of the CHARLOTTE
OBSERVER, who writes that the Pettys hosted "nearly" 50 reps
of 16 companies that have either primary or associate
sponsorships with the family's race teams. The Petty's
perceive their partners -- including General Mills, Mattel,
Sprint, Coca-Cola and Red Lobster -- as "wholesome, family
friendly and stable." At the conference, the Pettys helped
the sponsors "come up with ideas" on how to cross-promote
their products and do business with each other through
NASCAR's "highly visible window, or other, more low-key
ways." On the first day of the conference, sponsors "broke
into small groups, where they performed several exercises,
including devising mock race-team marketing plans." Mattel
VP/Motorsports Brad Perrigo: "These are about the two most
beneficial days we can have for marketing. It's always
interesting to see what others are doing, and this is a
really blue-chip roster." Petty Enterprises Exec VP Bill
Scott, on sponsors' desires for returns on their
investments: "We have to work a lot harder now. [Former
sponsor] STP was a more traditional sponsor. These other
companies understand that they're spending 'x' millions of
dollars, and they want more out of it. So they're more
active, and it might put more of a stress on us as a
business group" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/30).
