Nature’s Bakery is looking at slightly reducing the size of its deal with NASCAR Sprint Cup team Stewart-Haas Racing starting next year. However, the savings are likely to be redeployed toward activation around the program, and SHR already has a partner lined up to fill the open inventory. Nature’s Bakery, the Nevada-based healthy snack maker that signed on last year to replace longtime Danica Patrick sponsor GoDaddy starting this season, was announced as having 28 primary paint schemes annually on Patrick’s No. 10 Chevy. SHR VP/Sales & Marketing Mike Verlander confirmed that Nature’s Bakery evaluated this season whether it needed to have that many races moving forward, because “some brands need to be at all of them, some don’t need 28.” This coincided with Code 3 Associates, an animal-focused non-profit that is one of outgoing SHR driver and team co-owner Tony Stewart’s sponsors, wanting to switch over to Patrick. Her other primary sponsors, Aspen Dental and TaxAct, both have four primaries each. Verlander said Nature’s Bakery is looking at going down by around three races next year because “28 to 25 doesn’t really affect their proportionality of owning the lead sponsor role,” which Nature’s Bakery is intent on retaining.
GOOD FIRST STEP: Nature’s Bakery -- which was founded in '10, has around 400 employees and works with Just Marketing Int'l on its motorsports strategy -- has not previously had a marketing expenditure of this scope or size. The company did see success in its first year in the sport, said Verlander, particularly on the B2B side. Verlander: “They’ve seen huge bumps from sales this year, and if you look at the number of stores and shelves they’ve increased, they’ve had huge home runs. So the program is working.” Nature's Bakery Sponsorship Marketing Manager Tyler Key noted that by the end of the season, the company will have had 16 different retail partners on the car. Key wrote in an e-mail that the company “utilized the NASCAR program to gain new distribution at several retailers across the country as well as increased distribution with current retail customers.” He also noted that by the end of the season, the company will have given out 1.1 million free fig bars to fans at 22 different events on NASCAR’s schedule.
