NHRA sponsor Papa John’s this morning will announce it is launching a new national TV spot and limited-edition pizza box leveraging driver Leah Pritchett, the first female athletic endorser in company history. Papa John’s this season became the official pizza of the drag-racing circuit as well as a 20-race primary sponsor of Pritchett. The spot features Pritchett doing a voice-over that compares her unlikely rise with Papa John’s Founder & CEO John Schnatter’s passion to keep improving his pizza chain. The ad, touting an XXL pizza, will run around programming on outlets including ESPN, MLB Net, TBS, Discovery and truTV. The spots start tonight on ESPN’s “Monday Night Baseball.”
Financial terms of Papa John’s deals in the NHRA were not disclosed, but sources valued the sanctioning body's pact in the high six figures annually and the Don Schumacher Racing deal around $3M. The DSR deal is for one year, while the NHRA did not reveal the length of its pact. Papa John’s works with Genesco Sports Enterprises on marketing and Edelman for PR.
