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Marketing and Sponsorship

Xfinity: Metrics show benefit of NASCAR deal

When Comcast executive Peter Intermaggio presented Daniel Suarez the Xfinity Series championship trophy two weeks ago at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he used the opportunity to remind viewers of the series’ slogan.

“They say, ‘Names Are Made Here,’” Intermaggio noted to Suarez, a 24-year-old Mexican who became the first foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR national series championship.

Xfinity Series champion Daniel Suarez became the first foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR national series.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Suarez’s title gave Intermaggio the perfect chance to use the slogan, which Comcast believes illustrates the series’ up-and-coming nature.

Comcast’s cable brand is still looking to align that message with the series, which is viewed by some fans and industry executives as lacking an identity. Many believe the series, positioned mainly for young drivers, is overly dominated by Cup Series drivers — specifically Kyle Busch — who often moonlight in the lower division.

But with brand loyalty metrics exceeding expectations after two years and coming competition changes designed to diminish that Cup dominance, Xfinity feels good about its 10-year, nearly $200 million partnership thus far.

“We went into this thing talking about how the alignment between Comcast and NASCAR — and specifically the Xfinity brand — was such a great alignment,” said Matt Lederer, Comcast’s executive director of sports brand marketing, who oversees the relationship. “Our Xfinity X1 platform really allows us to lean into the idea of changing the way fans experience NASCAR … and we’ve seen some really strong results” from both nonsubscribers and subscribers.

The deal is a part of Xfinity owner Comcast’s major investment in NASCAR. NBC Sports has a 10-year, $4.4 billion contract with NASCAR through 2024, and Comcast’s spend on the Xfinity Series counts toward its up to $10 million annual marketing commitment as part of its broadcast agreement, according to previous reports.

Brent Dewar, NASCAR’s chief operating officer, noted the benefit of Xfinity’s partnership is that it has extended to areas outside of racing or even television. For example, he noted Xfinity had the idea that NASCAR take its Fuel For Business council off-site to its Philadelphia headquarters, a move that NASCAR not only accepted but now has made part of its model.

“Very similar to Sprint and Nextel 13 years ago, Xfinity is a high-tech company that’s providing entertainment technology to their consumers,” Dewar said. “It’s been a win-win the first two years.”

To measure the sponsorship’s effectiveness, Lederer said Xfinity focuses on performance indicators like awareness and consideration of how NASCAR fans who are nonsubscribers view the brand. While refusing to disclose specifics, Lederer said the results, which are measured quarterly, are higher than anticipated, and called consideration levels “beyond anything we’ve seen in any other segment.” Lederer added that Xfinity has seen upticks in its measurements from last year to this year.

Xfinity, which has about 22 million TV subscribers, has used the sponsorship to promote its X1 platform, its interactive operating system, which has added several NASCAR-specific features, such as live stats during races, exclusive NASCAR-related video-on-demand content and DVR capabilities to record missed action. It has run creative around the series broadcasts, such as a spot this year that showed off what it looks like to watch a race on X1, where the screen can be split between the on-track action and charts showing the leaderboard, race summary and statistics.

When it comes to at-track activation, the company brought its Xfinity Zone — the 85-foot-by-85-foot display area that shows off X1 technology — to 14 of 33 races in 2016.

Even though it doesn’t have a presence in several major NASCAR markets, such as the Carolinas and Texas, Lederer says the company still saw benefits of activating at those races because the tracks successfully draw fans from nearby states where Xfinity does provide service.

“It forces us to make sure we’re being a little bit smarter in where we go and what we do,” Lederer said.
More important to where the brand activates is the message it offers: that Xfinity is there to support the sport and help the fan experience.

“You can’t come in there and just sort of do what you do normally; you need to go in there and celebrate with the fans,” he said. “Once you do that, all of a sudden you’ll start to see fans engaging with your product on-site.”

Xfinity, which works with GMR Marketing for strategy and activation, is looking at cross-promoting its other sports and entertainment sponsorships next year in NASCAR, as it did earlier this year when it brought the esports team it sponsors, Evil Geniuses, to Chicagoland Speedway to play against fans. It also is considering adding a heavier messaging emphasis on purchasing.

Xfinity has also made a concerted effort to become a partner with the teams of the series. For example, Joe Mattes, vice president of licensing for JR Motorsports, has been impressed with how many drivers Xfinity has looked to work with.

“They’ve come up with new and innovative ideas to include teams and drivers in their social media platform — Twitter takeovers, store appearances, Xfinity Zone appearances — but they’re also not doing that for four or five drivers,” Mattes said. “I like our drivers [getting coverage], but I also like the sport itself in its entirety getting the proper coverage.”

Getting the proper coverage for the series’ up-and-coming drivers is the main aim of the competition changes recently unveiled for next year. The rules limit the number of appearances Cup Series drivers of a certain seniority can make in the lower-rung series. However, it doesn’t ban the appearances either, a point of contention for dissenters who feel the rule won’t go far enough to have a significant effect.

How any competition changes would affect viewer interest is uncertain. The series averaged 1.4 million viewers this season across Fox Sports and NBC Sports, down 7 percent from 1.5 million in 2015.

Nonetheless, most industry observers believe the move is a step in the right direction.

“I think NASCAR — the series, teams — all represent a very complex business model that’s been developed over time, and what’s great is NASCAR fully understands that,” Lederer said. “We truly believe in the name and theme of ‘Names Are Made Here,’ and the changes they’re implementing for next season support that.”

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