This weekend's Toronto Molson Indy Car Race was a big event
for sponsors, some spending $25,000 to $700,000 to get their
names out during the event. Molson Breweries subsidiary, Grand
Prix Management, Inc., runs the event and handles all three of
Molson's motorsport competitions. Companies such as Digital
Equipment of Canada are using the Indy to "build awareness of its
brand." Their sponsorship costs them close to C$60,000-70,000
per race, but DEC/Canada Commun. Manager Ron Catcheside says "its
not that much when you consider all the people who see our signs"
(Art Chamberlain, TORONTO STAR, 7/15). Companies spent close to
$770M in sponsoring motorsports in North America last year,
according to the FINANCIAL POST. Spending on IndyCar will hit
about $130M alone this year, with the Molson Indy getting at
least $1M. Molson pays about $10M for the race, and while Molson
VP/Sports Entertainment Brent Schrimshaw said they take a loss,
it's "in the range of acceptability." Scrimshaw: "The marketing
benefits that accrue to Molson Breweries are almost impossible to
quantify. But the brand recognition and broadcast exposure from
this race and the rest of the series gives us an indispensable
tool to sell our products" (Gayle McDonald, FINANCIAL POST,
7/15).
CHECK THE DEMO'S: CART, the sanctioning body for the PPG
Indy Car World Series, surveyed fans from the Toronto event as
part of new President Andrew Craig's effort to learn more about
Indy Car fans. Nancy Lewis is Market Research Manager for CART.
The following are results from survey's at nine races in the
U.S.: Fans are mostly young males, who are twice as likely to
have attended college than the national average; average
household income of those attending races is $51,570; fans travel
on average of 225 miles to races; baseball is their No. 1
spectator sport, while football is their favorite TV sport (which
is why Indy-car's schedule for the first time will end before the
football season opens); and they drink and smoke "well above the
national average" (Frank Orr, TORONTO STAR, 7/15).
