High Banking: BofA Rebranding Name Of October Sprint Cup Race

By Michael Smith, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

Bank of America is rebranding its Sprint Cup race in October to bring greater visibility to its NASCAR affinity credit cards and banking products. The October 17 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway (LMS) will be called the NASCAR Banking 500 only from Bank of America, and BofA already has changed its signage on the scoring pylon at LMS to reflect the new name. The race was formerly known as the Bank of America 500. Bank execs said the name change has been under consideration for about a year. "This is going to be a great way to grow our NASCAR banking line of business," said BofA Senior VP & Motorsports Platform Exec Mike Hargrave. "NASCAR banking has been the focus of our relationship with NASCAR and this is a great way to bring it greater focus." It is not uncommon for a title sponsor to emphasize a product in place of or along with the brand itself. Subway puts Fresh Fit in the title of its race in Phoenix and Lowe's uses its Kobalt Tools brand on the title of its spring Atlanta race. Both Martinsville races are named after company slogans: Tums Fast Relief and Goody's Fast Pain Relief. BofA now offers 13 NASCAR drivers for both its checking account and credit card products. Many more are offered as part of the affinity credit cards program. The bank also offers affinity cards for MLB, NFL, the U.S. Olympic team and various teams. "It's a really smart strategic marketing decision," NASCAR VP/Corporate Marketing Jim O'Connell said of the sport's official bank. "This will enable them to promote a very successful line of NASCAR banking products to a national audience in a very visible platform. We've always emphasized that the most successful programs are fully integrated, involving the sanctioning body, race entitlement, teams, drivers. You see all of this coming together for Bank of America."

USE OF NASCAR CARDS UP FROM '08: The bank reports that usage of the NASCAR credit and debit cards is up 32% over May '08 and that the sale of NASCAR banking checking accounts has nearly doubled in the past year. Specific figures were not available. The rate of redemption on Racepoints, NASCAR's frequent buyer program, is up 140% by NASCAR banking customers. "Our sports-themed products represent 10% of our checking account sales, year over year," Hargrave said. "For a bank of this size, 10% is a significant number." The bank also will launch a promotion in August that will award the sweepstakes winner the chance to present the trophy to the race winner in victory lane.