Promising to approach NASCAR with a fresh set of eyes from a production and commentary perspective, NBC Sports has taken the same approach with ad sales, finding new partners and approaches as its NASCAR coverage launches this weekend. The net, which kicks off its 10-year, $4.4B NASCAR deal with Saturday's Xfinity Series Subway Firecracker 250 and Sunday's Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, has seen strong sales in the QSR, movie-studio, autos and insurance categories. It has been working on fresh ways to integrate brands with both traditional 30-second ads and less traditional content, according to NBC Sports Senior VP/Ad Sales Jeff Clachko. He said, "We called it our car wash, where we would take potential advertisers through our approach to the sport and how we're going to make it about storytelling, not just going to focus on the top few drivers but really come at this from a way that we think is most interesting for the fans." Oklahoma City-based QSR Sonic, which has amassed a more robust sports portfolio in the past year, signed on to sponsor all 20 pre-race shows, which will now be called "Countdown to Green, Served by Sonic." Additionally, in a bit of a twist, NBC NASCAR talent Rutledge Wood and Kyle Petty will be used as endorsers in four different tongue-in-cheek, NASCAR-themed Sonic commercials that will live digitally and on TV. The duo recently filmed the spots at a Sonic outside L.A., with the first ad airing this weekend. NBC's consumer-marketing team led by Senior VP/Marketing Bill Bergofin created the ads, and the net is looking to do similar moves with other brands. Other QSR sponsors include Hardee's and Subway
PORK BELLIES: Virginia-based CPG pork titan Smithfield also has purchased a package that includes a one-hour documentary on NBC this Sunday and sponsoring the first 43 laps of the race commercial free (matching the sponsor's car, Richard Petty Motorsports' No. 43 driven by Aric Almirola). NBC said it honed in on having Smithfield connected to this race because Almirola won this race last year and it represents content around a driver who is not one of the sport's biggest stars. Bergofin added that NBC will continue to look for "tentpoles" to marry on-track events with sponsors like this moving forward.
WHO'S ON BOARD? NBC's ad-sales team has made a concerted effort to find presenting sponsors of specific races when the race entitlement sponsor has not made a media buy. Clachko said his team felt the movie category "had been underserved in NASCAR," and the net has "done really well" with leveraging this category to serve as presenting sponsors. For example, NBC Sports has created a package for Sony Pictures where its forthcoming release "Pixels" starring Adam Sandler will be the presenting sponsor of the yet-to-be-entitled Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 19. Other brands that have signed on include Sprint and Xfinity, both of which have media spends built into their NASCAR series entitlements; Toyota; Ford; GM; Coca-Cola; AARP; Quicken Loans; Geico; McDonald's; Weinstein Films ("No Escape"); K&N Filters; and Axalta, the B2B company that traditionally has not done TV ads. NBC Sports execs approached Axalta about possibly doing a 30-second spot around its driver, the retiring Jeff Gordon, that celebrates his victories and accomplishments, and the brand agreed. NBC also has put an emphasis on digital and has packaged in rights on that front to "everything we're doing," Clachko said.
