Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.
Nickelodeon and NASCAR have entered into a co-branded licensing agreement, the next step in the sport for the children’s television network.
The deal, to be announced this week, will see NASCAR produce apparel and hard goods with Nickelodeon marks and logos, with the first items coming out in May and a second push coming in the summer.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but sources said NASCAR, which has around 150 licensees, typically earns a mid-single-digit percentage to low-double-digit percentage royalty from sales of licensing deals of this nature.
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Nickelodeon has produced items with tracks and teams, but this is a first with the sanctioning body.
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To start, Nickelodeon, which has in the past produced co-branded merchandise with NASCAR tracks and teams but not the sanctioning body itself, will make shirts and hard goods around the two franchises it has most recently activated in the sport: SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Items include T-shirts, hats, souvenir glasses, koozies and magnets. Gear will be available at Fanatics’ trackside superstore and on NASCAR’s online shop.
NASCAR will market the line mainly through digital and social media to start.
The licensing agreement, with last week’s announcement that the Ninja Turtles brand will title sponsor Chicagoland Speedway’s September Sprint Cup Series race, gives NASCAR a new avenue to reach kids, a key demographic for a sport with an aging fan base.
“We know, whether it’s a Nickelodeon-branded promotion or any partner, if it’s integrated — if it includes a track component, team component, NASCAR component with licensed merchandise extensions — it’s going to be successful because there’s so many touch points for the fan,” said Jill Gregory, NASCAR’s senior vice president of marketing and industry services. “The fact that it is Nickelodeon and NASCAR partnering together, and we can continue to be focused on being younger and more diverse — this is right in the sweet spot for that.”
In past years, Viacom-owned Nickelodeon has purchased a spate of other race title sponsorships and accompanying driver paint schemes during those races. More recently, it ran a NASCAR-themed show titled “Hammer Down” on its Nick Sports platform. But the licensing element with NASCAR marks a new stage.
Talks over the licensing deal began after last year’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway. That event helped convince Nickelodeon executives that a larger licensing deal was worth pursuing.
“With Kansas Speedway … a significant amount of the merch was sold out before we even got to the race,” said Anthony DiCosmo, Nickelodeon’s senior vice president of sports marketing and development. “We knew our properties resonate with the audience and that the NASCAR consumer is very hungry for new things and not afraid to purchase. So we’re looking at the opportunity to make something really fun and take advantage of some of the energy that we have behind SpongeBob and Turtles.”
DiCosmo indicated that Nickelodeon will look to strike a national partnership with a brick-and-mortar retailer to sell the line in stores and also is looking to work with clothing companies on possible tie-ins. Nickelodeon recently struck a similar deal with New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony and Macy’s to produce and sell a line of Ninja Turtles-themed lifestyle apparel called “Turtles by Melo.”
“When we looked at what we did in Kansas, it was a really good pilot program for us,” DiCosmo said. “When you see something move that quickly, and then you have a property like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles … you’re like, ‘Wow, it’s a really great opportunity to put the Turtles property in aisles it’s not typically found in.’ And I think that’s good for us and I think it’s good for NASCAR as well.”
