Sprint Sees $323.1M In Exposure During NASCAR Sprint Cup Telecasts

Companies that aligned themselves with NASCAR in '09 received $1.9B in TV exposure for their brands, up 12.5% over '08, according to research from K.C.-based sponsorship measurement firm Image Impact. This year’s research captured more than 200,000 sponsor impressions, 45% more than last year’s study, through NASCAR’s 36-race Sprint Cup Series schedule, plus the Sprint All-Star Race. Series title sponsor Sprint received the most value of any brand at $323M, accounting for 17% of the total exposure value in the top series. AT&T (ranked No. 7 in total value) lost nearly one-quarter of its exposure value compared with last year after being forced by NASCAR to terminate its primary sponsorship of Jeff Burton’s car following the '08 season. Ask.com, in its first season as NASCAR’s official search engine, netted $27.3M in exposure as the primary sponsor of Bobby Labonte’s car for most of his races. Office Depot (No. 41), which became one of Tony Stewart’s primary sponsors this season after four years with Carl Edwards, saw a decline of 27% of its value, to $10.68M. Edwards' primary sponsor this season, Aflac (No. 8), which is also an official NASCAR partner, earned $40.5M, an increase of 244%. NAPA, Quaker State and Shell Oil also each lost about one-quarter of their exposure value compared with '08. For the '09 season, 96 drivers received at least one detection for a sponsor placement. The 12 Chase drivers finished among the top 16, led by Jimmie Johnson, through whom sponsors drew more than $72M million in value during the season. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who did not qualify for this year's Chase, lost more than one-third of his exposure value compared with '08. Also see tomorrow's issue of THE DAILY for sponsor exposure figures at Sprint Cup tracks (Image Impact).

METHODOLOGY: Video feeds from each race were broken down and evaluated for all brand detections that occurred on screen and were clear and in focus for at least one full second. Each of those individual detections was then evaluated based on its duration, average size, location and relative isolation (or lack thereof) from competing brands. Because location and clarity significantly affected the measured value of each detection, quantity did not always translate into increased value. Also, for the purpose of summary calculations, each audio mention was assigned a duration of five seconds. A monetary value for each sponsor detection was calculated based on a formula combining all these factors and the network-provided rate-card price of a 30-second spot for each specific race. Overall, ad rates decreased by an average of 5-6% this season compared with '08, according to Image Impact.