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Marketing and Sponsorship

Sponsors find value in NASCAR esports series

NASCAR sees the game as a way to preserve sponsorships and introduce some newer brands to physical inventory.getty images

After the NASCAR Pro Invitational Series esports race two weeks ago, Joey Logano received notes from sponsor Autotrader thanking him for his effort.

Logano is a NASCAR Cup Series champion, but he didn’t come close to winning the simulator race, finishing 17th. Still, he sent out social media posts throughout the week promoting Autotrader’s virtual paint scheme. During the Fox Sports race broadcast he wore a company hat, and Autotrader signage was plastered within camera shot to get the company maximum exposure.

Autotrader was supposed to be on Team Penske’s actual No. 22 Ford driven by Logano that weekend at the actual Bristol, until NASCAR’s season was postponed indefinitely by the coronavirus pandemic. But the situation is an example of how the esports series, which is averaging over 1 million viewers on linear TV, has not only helped entertain fans during the shutdown but is starting to deliver team sponsors tangible value in the digital realm.

“It’s not the same thing as real racing, but it’s the best we can do right now,” said Warren Vigus, co-founder of Clutch Studios and agent to Logano. “Eventually, we will get back and hopefully this will bridge the gap from now till then to show our partners how we’re getting from Point A to Point B.”

The combination of the solid viewership and lack of competing live sports events has given NASCAR teams the opportunity to bring on new sponsors for these virtual events.

But out of the more than half-dozen major organizations that spoke to Sports Business Journal, almost all of them are giving the virtual paint scheme asset to their current sponsors for free as a goodwill value-add. This comes at a time when such teams are far more concerned about not losing major sponsorship dollars after the pandemic than getting a small check for esports during it. 

One such team is Hendrick Motorsports, which says all of its sponsors have become interested in the Pro Invitational Series. Pat Perkins, HMS’s vice president of marketing, said the team has no plans to charge its existing sponsors anything for the paint schemes. However, he said HMS has received unsolicited calls from brands interested in sponsoring the team’s cars in the virtual series, which he said shows the “kind of value this is generating and that marketers are paying close attention to what NASCAR is doing in the esports space.”

Virtual hospitality


With hospitality
such a key part of NASCAR race weekends, Hendrick Motorsports has rolled out virtual versions to support sponsors. Before the two most recent Pro Invitational Series races, HMS had its drivers use video chats to connect with corporate partners.

 

During the most recent weekend at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, driver Alex Bowman spoke to people from GM and Hendrick Automotive, while fellow driver Chase Elliott later did a session where he answered questions from guests of NAPA Auto Parts.

Pat Perkins, HMS’s vice president of marketing, said the team has “tried to offer solutions that, to the extent we can, help fill the void and create some level of normalcy and entertainment.”

Said Perkins, “It’s not a replacement for what we do at the track, but it’s something positive we can offer that fits the current circumstances and delivers added value.” — A.S.

“With the first few events setting esports viewership records, we’ve seen essentially across-the-board interest,” Perkins wrote in an email, citing Ally, Axalta and Liberty University as examples. “We haven’t had a single partner that hasn’t wanted to at least understand our approach and how it might make sense for them. We’re all getting a crash course in esports.”

NASCAR has run three Pro Invitational Series events so far. The series is scheduled to pick back up this weekend at virtual Richmond Raceway.

NASCAR has been using the series to give some added value to the race title sponsors whose events were postponed by coronavirus and has been working with iRacing to get those sponsors’ logos inserted into the game. Broadcast partner Fox has done in-race ad integrations of its own, including having play-by-play man Mike Joy call the last lap of the race the “Credit One, One To Go” as part of a deal with Credit One Bank.

Some smaller teams that have fewer traditional sponsorships have been out selling deals involving the series, and sources said the asking rates were anywhere from the high four figures to low five figures. Deals for the esports series include Pit Boss Grills sponsoring driver Timmy Hill for three virtual races, and GunBroker sponsoring driver Garrett Smithley both for the virtual events as well as the real-life Brickyard 400 scheduled for Fourth of July weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Carlos Padilla, director of sports marketing for Dansons, which owns Pit Boss Grills, said the company values family time and saw how the Pro Invitational Series was leading to NASCAR fans around the country watching the virtual races with their family while quarantining at home.

AdventHealth, a sponsor of Chip Ganassi Racing, was the virtual primary sponsor on Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chevy at Texas three weeks ago, and the team and company did a joint social media PSA thanking health care workers as part of that.

Shell has featured its relationship with Logano in the Pro Invitational Series. Heidi Massey-Bong, Shell global manager of sponsorships, creative solutions, said the company thought the series “was a great idea for racing fans to have something to turn to during this very tough time. It’s been great to see the incredible fan viewership and engagement on social media.”

Some teams and drivers who have yet to sell a sponsorship specific to the series still have been in the marketplace gauging the value they’re creating. 

For example, retired driver and NBC Sports broadcaster Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been participating in the iRacing events (including one in IndyCar), and he’s used them as an opportunity to give extra value to current partners including Unilever’s Hellmann’s mayonnaise brand and Nationwide.

Earnhardt and his management team held a recent conference call with Endeavor to discuss ways to monetize the gaming realm. While it hasn’t happened yet, Tony Mayhoff, director of brand marketing and partnerships for Earnhardt, said he could likely ask for six figures from a brand to sponsor Earnhardt in a virtual race. He has received calls from brands looking to get involved, and is open to taking a meeting but interested only in long-term relationships with corporate partners.

Another team, Front Row Motorsports, has received several unsolicited calls from brands wanting to get involved, but is telling companies that it is only interested in doing business on the esports front if they also will buy real-life inventory.

“We have to be careful, because we can’t devalue what sponsors are participating for on the real car,” said Jeff Dennison, senior director of sales and marketing for Front Row. “But if we can get them in with an iRacing package and then they buy a race or two of open inventory in real life, iRacing is a perfect platform to get them into sport.”

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