Ratings and Research
Tony's Take: NASCAR sponsorship
Tony Ponturo is executive vice president of strategy for Turnkey Intelligence. He oversaw Anheuser-Busch’s marketing, media and sponsorship from 1991 to 2008.
It should not come as a big surprise that half of the companies represented in our Sponsor Breakthrough study had over 40 percent sponsor recall among NASCAR fans, which is great.
NASCAR has traditionally been known as the sport that understands the importance of sponsor appreciation. NASCAR started this philosophy as a foundation of their sport from day one: no money = no sport. Passionate NASCAR fans respect that and reward sponsors, especially ones that back their favorite driver.
As a sponsor, there is no other sport where you can be talking to the athlete 10 minutes before the competition, touching and smelling all the elements of this sport on race day. It is an experience like no other.
Looking into some of the finer details, kudos to official soft drink Coca-Cola, sponsor of the Coca-Cola family of drivers, for attaining almost equal recall as title sponsor Monster Energy Drink. Using drivers such as Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez and Joey Logano gave Coke great breakthrough, which is especially difficult as both brands sell beverages.
The fact that 45 percent of NASCAR fans do not know that the title sponsor is Monster should highlight to Monster that greater activation can be beneficial.
Nice work by M&M’s with 51 percent recall and a 7-point increase. There was good synergy with driver Kyle Busch, who is always competitive, which usually leads to greater TV exposure.
It’s not totally surprising that automotive brands split the category on a recall basis and each automaker is down from the previous year. When you invest more than $100 million, new creative and stimulating consumer interest is necessary.
Like all sports, NASCAR has had difficulty exciting the next generation of fans. One could argue that shortening the time of the races and less complicated race-to-the-Cup rules should be considered.
