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National sees target in sports

When Bob Dimmick joined National Car Rental Inc. in 1997 as vice president of marketing and advertising, his top priority was clear: Build brand awareness.

And his approach was straightforward.

"I would define it as [seeking] the most direct route to our target customer," said Dimmick, who previously worked for National competitor Thrifty Car Rental.

Not only has his approach worked, helping take National's brand recognition and awareness to their highest marks in 15 years, but it has also taken the rental car company deep into the arena of sports media and marketing.

That's largely because sports tends to appeal to National's primary customer base: upscale 25- to 54-year-old males with household incomes of more than $80,000 a year.

National's push into sports has made the company a player in five major properties: the NFL, college football, PGA and Senior PGA golf, thoroughbred racing and figure skating.

National, a subsidiary of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based AutoNation, just became the new official car rental company of the NFL, signing a three-year deal last month that makes it the exclusive rental car provider to the league, to NFL Properties Inc., and to the next three Super Bowls and Pro Bowls.

"It's a logical step up," Dimmick said. Certainly, the NFL has high appeal for males 25-54.

What remains to be seen is whether the NFL deal will force National to trim its sports spending in other areas, particularly horse racing and figure skating. Because the budget will be relatively flat in 2000, versus this year, the dollars that went into the NFL sponsorship, Dimmick said, will "have to come from elsewhere."

He said there probably will be "some tweaks" in the company's sports media/marketing lineup in 2000.

To leverage its new NFL sponsorship, the company will run a monthlong, NFL-themed consumer promotion beginning Sept. 7. Its Emerald Club members who rent a car during that time will receive a free NFL gym bag.

It's also likely that the company will conduct another NFL-related promotion, possibly a consumer sweepstakes, in early 2000 to showcase the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl.

"We're looking at doing more to get value out of our relationship with the NFL," said Dimmick. "We want to integrate marketing around the properties we own."

On the media front, National is considering making an ad buy on ABC's "Monday Night Football" telecasts this season. For the first time, it is buying in-game commercial time on a Super Bowl broadcast, closing in on a deal with ABC, which will televise Super Bowl XXXIV on Jan. 30. The rent-a-car company has three 30-second spots on ABC's Super Bowl XXXIV pregame show and one spot in the 15- to 20-minute slot immediately before kickoff.

Last season, National was a sponsor of Fox's weekly NFL pregame show. It will be back this season, having bought ad time on "Fox NFL Sunday."

Before last season, National struck a multiyear deal with ABC to be a sponsor of the network's Bowl Championship Series. That agreement, which sources say is valued at as much as $7 million a year, gave the company category exclusivity on the network's broadcasts of the four major college football bowl games: the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta. National also became title sponsor of the halftime shows for ABC's bowl-game broadcasts.

Additionally, National has plenty of regular-season college football ad inventory this season, having secured deals with ABC as well as with Fox Sports Net's and ESPN Plus' regional telecasts.

Earlier this year, National cut a deal to become the official car rental company of Pebble Beach. As part of that agreement, it became the official car rental company of the 2000 U.S. Open Golf Championship, which will take place at famed Pebble Beach. The company plans to produce a TV commercial touting its association.

Last October the company debuted the National Car Rental Golf Classic, a PGA Tour event at Walt Disney World that is televised by ESPN and ABC. That sponsorship deal runs through 2001.

In horse racing, the company has a colossal presence. Said Dimmick: "It started off as a modest investment, a low-cost way to own a sport. Now the sport is getting hotter [with a resurgence on television]. As big as horse racing is getting, we just may not have the financial wherewithal to cover it all. We run more television commercials in horse racing than anybody."

National is also the official car rental company of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. It has an option on the NTRA sponsorship for 2000 and 2001.

Some 30 percent of National's rentals are made to females. That explains, in part, the company's affiliation with figure skating. Typically, the TV audience for a figure skating event is an affluent group, more than half of whom are women.

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