Hill CarrowCEOSports & Properties Inc.After a major wave of consolidation, the four market leaders in this category — BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell — are typically within a point or two of each other in terms of market share. The companies are huge and moving the needle on market share for any one of them is truly like turning a battleship. And their sports marketing, accordingly, tends to reflect more inertia than effectiveness.
These big companies require big sports marketing platforms to be at their best. I miss Shell’s longstanding brand association with professional golf (now down to one event) and Texaco/Havoline’s eight-year Olympic partnership (Texaco and Havoline got divvied up before the end of that sponsorship by Shell and Chevron).
Instead we are left with regional platforms like BP’s naming-rights sponsorship (Arco Arena) and ConocoPhillips’ Big 12 and Kansas State sponsorships. I thought ExxonMobil was stepping up to a big platform when I saw their Olympic-themed ad on NBC during the Torino Games. Unfortunately, ExxonMobil is not an official sponsor and the ad, instead, simply made them an official ambusher. Surely, they have a marketing budget big enough to play by the rules! Therefore, the big four rate no better than a B- in my book.
The next tier of companies, though, (and no doubt they are trying harder) fare much better.
Chevron, for example, latched onto the mighty NFL and drove in-store through a Seattle Seahawks promotion and got a double hit on both its gasoline and oil (Havoline) brands. (Grade B+).
Citgo has hooked itself to the highly popular Bassmaster series and has developed a nicely integrated program with title sponsorship of the series and two sub-tours, endorsements of star anglers, co-sponsor promotions, and entertainment of gasoline resellers at tour sites. Their “Citgo Racing to the Kentucky Derby” series of 12 races leading up to the Kentucky Derby could really stand out this year with no Triple Crown sponsor. And with two CITGO “blue” monster wall signs (Boston and Houston), its Baseball Hall of Fame deal and rumors of a major MLB sponsorship, the company is at the top of my grade scale in terms of integrated sports sponsorships. Give them an A.
Normally I would discount motorsports sponsorship for a company in this category since it comes across as too obvious. However, Sunoco’s 10-year NASCAR partnership, where fan loyalty is at the top of the charts and where every driver has to wear the Sunoco patch, with supporting sponsorship at more tracks than any other company in the category, special Rookie of the Year and regional racing series entitlements and awards, cause-related programs (with Petty Enterprises), and motorsports diversity program leadership merit Philadelphia-based Sunoco a strong A.
Overall grade: B+
Jeff EhrenkranzVice presidentOctagonThe sports sponsorship dollars in this category drive consumers to the pump and into the attached convenience stores, and are heavily merchandised to franchisees. Still, with the top brands having as many as 15,000 locations nationally, it is surprising that only one has built a top-level national sports platform.
Sunoco’s 10-year NASCAR deal is the most significant in the category, not only due to the dollars, term and the fact that it replaced 76 after 40 years, but also due to the company’s commitment to use it as a core component of its marketing strategy. In the first two years of the agreement, Sunoco has demonstrated the ability to leverage a national sponsorship through an integrated activation plan, which last season included two successful traffic-driving retail promotions.
Citgo’s sponsorships of NTRA and the Bassmaster Elite Series are good examples of a brand using sponsorship to target specific audience groups, and ExxonMobil’s and Texaco’s retail businesses have benefited from piggy-backing on NASCAR investments led by their lubricant divisions.
Shell’s title sponsorship of the Houston Open is a supremely logical headquarters market play, but it will likely suffer nationally once the new PGA Tour schedule drops it in the week before the Masters.
Two deals stand out as being highly targeted, almost niche — ExxonMobil and the American Ski Co. is a purely regional play that generates some nice purchase incentive programming on a mostly regional basis, and ConocoPhillips/USA Swimming is a relationship of such long standing that the brand probably views it more as an obligation to an Olympic-affiliated property than it does as an activation platform to drive meaningful results on a national level.
Grade: B-
Rob YowellVice president, sponsorship salesThe Bonham GroupThis has been a category that has been hard to gauge over the years with so much of its sports marketing budgets focused on motorsports efforts. Consolidation and mergers have further complicated the marketing initiatives of some companies doing business in the United States but owned by foreign parent companies.
The top players have been ExxonMobil (NASCAR), Shell (PGA golf), ChevronTexaco (NASCAR) and ConocoPhillips (Big 12 basketball). Sunoco entered into the game by snapping up the NASCAR “Official Fuel” category vacated by Unocal 76, and that deal alone has helped raise the brand’s profile, but it has not translated to the national expansion one would expect from such a significant spend.
The category itself seems to be more effective on a regional level (ARCO/AMPM especially in California), with consumer promotions and traffic-building programs leveraging team or event rights. Now with many of the gas companies getting into the retail side with their own brand of convenience stores (i.e. Tiger Mart, Mobil “On the Run,” etc.) — taking on incumbents like Circle K and 7-Eleven, the category is adding a new dimension for pass-through and cross-promotion with consumer brands active in sponsorship.
Perhaps the future holds a broader reach of sponsorship directives and the major players will step beyond the world of motorsports for their sports marketing programs and explore new brand-building opportunities. The recent naming-rights deal by Lucas Oil for the Colts’ new stadium may be a sign of things to come.
Grade:B-
Steve LaulettaPresidentRadiate Sports GroupI hope you are sitting down when you read this because the shocking news is that gasoline companies have focused their sports sponsorship spending on … motorsports. They are all there, from NASCAR to F1, beating each other up in an already cluttered environment. It just breeds a predictable category and boring activation.
Some have stood out such as ExxonMobil’s use of Ryan Newman to promote their Speedpass, Sunoco’s work in taking over the Official Fuel of NASCAR, and Shell’s longtime affiliation with Ferrari.
I would like to see this category expand into more unique areas, which is possible on the local level and by using its retail/convenience store supplier affiliations.
Shell’s sponsorship of the PGA’s Houston Open and First Tee program allows them to impact not only their hometown but a national audience while leveraging their suppliers for strong retail programming. This also has been done successfully in local markets with relationships such as Chevron and the L.A. Lakers, Union 76/Circle K and the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Hess with the New York Giants.
Programs like these give me hope that there is some creativity in this category outside of where I expect them to be, on the racetrack.
Grade: C
Jaine LucasMarketing consultant; former Sunoco marketerYou’d be hard pressed to find a category that could benefit more from nontraditional marketing than retail gasoline: an invisible product, a low involvement purchase, the perception of wallet gouging. So you’d think gasoline retailers would jump on the sponsorship bandwagon, building market share by one of the few pathways capable of overriding price and convenience: fan loyalty.
Yet this category is anything but high octane. Virtually zero major naming rights or official league sponsorships. With gasoline margins swinging wildly and unpredictably, what looks like a viable way to increase market share in year one could be sucking margins dry in years two and three. What’s more, “pay at the pump” and brand management issues have made promotions at retail a tremendous challenge.
Citgo, leveraging its Venezuelan roots, is reaching out to the Hispanic population through an MLB marketing platform focused on the significant role of Latinos in baseball and sponsorship of Venezuelan female phenom Milka Duno in Grand Am. As the Official Fuel of NASCAR, Sunoco has done a credible job of rebranding tracks, leveraging driver personalities and partnering with Nextel and other sponsors in promotional efforts. The company is heavily invested in other motorsports, including American LeMans, NHRA, ARCA/Remax and Grand Am. While shying away from official sponsorships and rights deals, ExxonMobil was a large advertiser in the 2006 Winter Olympics and MLB’s 2005 postseason, and partnered with several NFL clubs in the Southeast late last year in a promotion for its two major convenience store brands.
A handful of companies advertise during network and cable sporting events, but most spots target investors rather than bonding with fans.
Grade: C
