Jimmie Johnson Tops Keselowski In Driver Exposure Value; Sprint TV Ad Spend Down 8%

NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson led all Sprint Cup drivers in terms of exposure value for his sponsors during race telecasts this season, tallying over $100M, according to data from sponsorship measurement firm Joyce Julius. Johnson led Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski -- who ranked second in exposure -- by over $26M. Johnson also easily topped Kyle Busch’s tally of $68M in exposure last season, which led all drivers. Busch finished eighth this season with over $52M in exposure. Carl Edwards saw a sharp drop in exposure this season. After finishing second in the Cup standings in '11, Edwards finished third with just over $64M. However, after missing the Chase this season, he fell to 14th with close to $32M. Jumping into the top 10 in exposure this season were Denny Hamlin (No. 3), Kasey Kahne (No. 7), Clint Bowyer (No. 9) and Greg Biffle (No. 10). Falling out of the top 10 were Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch.

BIG GAINS THIS YEAR: There were several reasons that led to a large overall increase in values for drivers this season. Most notably, the Daytona 500 being pushed to a Monday night led to two days of telecasts and 10 hours of additional on-screen time cumulatively for sponsors compared to the '11 race.  Overall, there were also two more replays for races this season than in '11.

TWEET TWEET: Joyce Julius also measured exposure for Twitter handles during the races, with @LowesRacing leading the way. The handle saw over an hour of exposure on TV races over the season, compared to second-place @LarryMac28, which had 46 minutes. Rounding out the top five were @mikejoy500, @AllWaltrip and @Keselowski.

TOP NASCAR SPRINT CUP DRIVERS IN TERMS OF TV EXPOSURE DURING '12 SEASON
RK	DRIVER	SPONSORS	MENTIONS	VALUE (M)	INTERVIEWS
1	Jimmie Johnson	50	260	$100.48	90
2	Brad Keselowski	47	304	$73.81	69
3	Denny Hamlin	44	214	$70.88	53
4	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	39	156	$67.49	54
5	Jeff Gordon	67	203	$65.62	58
6	Tony Stewart	48	156	$58.65	53
7	Kasey Kahne	37	163	$53.13	33
8	Kyle Busch	55	125	$52.59	21
9	Clint Bowyer	52	150	$51.53	43
10	Greg Biffle	55	139	$46.86	27

NOTES: Statistics reflect live and replay race telecasts. Joyce Julius calculates TV exposure value by comparing the in-broadcast visual and verbal exposure to the estimated cost of a national commercial during the telecast and applying Joyce Julius Recognition Grading -- which takes into account such factors as size and placement of the image on screen -- as well as brand clutter and integration of the brand into the activity.

TV AD SPEND: Sprint spent $23.22M on TV ads across the top three NASCAR series this season (Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Camping World Truck), down 8% from the company’s spend last season, according to data from Nielsen. The $23.22M was tops among all companies. AT&T ranked second with $21.88M, down 2% from its spend last season. Yum Brands ranked third overall this season, due in part to a large spend on KFC. Zurich Financial also cracked the top 10 with ads for its Farmers Insurance brand.

TOP TV RACE ADVERTISERS ACROSS RACES IN THE THREE NATIONAL NASCAR SERIES DURING THE '12 SEASON*
RK	COMPANY	TV AD SPEND
1	Sprint	$23.22
2	AT&T	$21.88
3	Yum Brands	$19.44
4	Toyota	$17.05
5	GM	$16.96
6	Ford	$16.08
7	Geico	$14.11
8	Fiat	$12.72
9	Zurich Financial Services	$10.13
10	Pfizer	$9.69

NOTE: * = Measured period was from 2/1/12-9/30/12