Cost of Sponsorship (1 Viewer)

[clwill]

Interesting read on sponsorship in NASCAR.

Your Brand Here | Adweek

Also interesting points about the look of the cars. Wonder if the relatability of funny cars is a similar issue?

 

[sdwarf36]

Funny thing they dont mention part of the "how + why" they ended up with the COT jellybeans.

Back when Nascar couldn't make anymore money if the had a printing press, one of their tricks was to figure out who else was making money-and make sure they got a cut of that too. One of the cash cows was the collectible market. 1st they bought into Action collectibles (bought-strongarmed-unsure. But to have the tag as the "official collectible of NAscar" has to be quite the premium to begin with-i guess its better to own the cow.) So now that are making even a better percentage of the MANY million dollars of collectibles out there-if only they could get more...
If you make a model of a Ford, you gotta give Ford a chunk. They found a way around that.( that almost went unnoticed)There was a press meeting that wasn't really announced-and a rookie writer happened to stuble across it. Although there were none of the major agents there, Nascar announced that the COT-was now a "nascar race car" not a Ford or Chevy or Toyota. Look at the sticker right on the A-pillar of the car-thats exactlly what it says-Nascar race car. Poof-overnite they saved themselves millions more in royallties. What are the car compnaies gonna do-pull out because of it? Nope-it just stayed pretty hushed. Now that the bubble has burst, Nascar realizes that they better keep everyone happy-the companies can + may leave the sport.

 

[Toejam]

Since NASCAR will maintain aero parity, I wonder how long before all of the new cars start looking the same?

 

[Baron]

Cars which look more like their stock counterparts will help Nazicar, I believe. A suggestion: require the B pillars to be painted as on the stock models. The Ford gets closer to a stock look by using a low gloss paint on the B pillar as on the model you and I can buy.
I would also suggest that they work hard to get Dodge back in the ranks.
We'd do well to get some of this thinking to work in Funny Car.

 

[HEMI6point1]

One thing I'll never understand is how a company would think that a NASCAR sponsorship that cost 15-20 million has a better ROI than a Top Fuel / Funny Car sponsorship that cost 3-6 million.

 

[clwill]

One thing I'll never understand is how a company would think that a NASCAR sponsorship that cost 15-20 million has a better ROI than a Top Fuel / Funny Car sponsorship that cost 3-6 million.

Average NASCAR race viewership: 6-8,000,000
Average NHRA race viewership: 6-800,000

 

[vegasnitro]

One thing I'll never understand is how a company would think that a NASCAR sponsorship that cost 15-20 million has a better ROI than a Top Fuel / Funny Car sponsorship that cost 3-6 million.

Come on Sam, this has been covered a gazillion times on this board. But I will indulge once again.

How is a NASCAR sponsorship better ROI? Simple Math.

NASCAR races average 8 million viewers. NHRA less than 800,000.
Average attendance for a NASCAR race is 100,000. NHRA averages less than half of that ... for the whole weekend.
NASCAR events are televised live on major networks. NHRA events are tape-delayed on ESPN2 and are oft-delayed or the time slot is a moving target.
NASCAR has daily TV shows during the season on multiple networks. NHRA doesn't.
NASCAR highlights are on Sportscenter with sound bites from several drivers. The only time when NHRA is on Sportscenter is when somebody has a bad wreck.
NASCAR has a well televised and promoted star making system in the Trucks and Nationwide series, so people know who to follow when they get to Cup. NHRA does have the Lucas Oil series, and it is televised. Sometimes. By show of hands, who knew who Gary Scelzi was when he got the ride in the Winston dragster? That would never happen in Cup.

Lastly, and this is key, sponsorship activation. If a company is willing to spend 10+ million, that is likely a big portion of their marketing budget, so they are going to make sure you know they are sponsoring that car via TV commercials starring the driver, online/social media presence, contests, merchandizing, etc.

The days of slapping some stickers on a car and seeing an appreciable ROI in any form of auto racing, are for the most part, over. The sanctioning bodies, teams and drivers truly need to be marketing partners for the sponsors.

 

[cephus]

and NHRA has no idea how 2 compete with nascrap, they r 2 concerning with lining their pockets and the big 3 and keeping them happy

 

[HEMI6point1]

Come on Sam, this has been covered a gazillion times on this board. But I will indulge once again.

How is a NASCAR sponsorship better ROI? Simple Math.

NASCAR races average 8 million viewers. NHRA less than 800,000.
Average attendance for a NASCAR race is 100,000. NHRA averages less than half of that ... for the whole weekend.
NASCAR events are televised live on major networks. NHRA events are tape-delayed on ESPN2 and are oft-delayed or the time slot is a moving target.
NASCAR has daily TV shows during the season on multiple networks. NHRA doesn't.
NASCAR highlights are on Sportscenter with sound bites from several drivers. The only time when NHRA is on Sportscenter is when somebody has a bad wreck.
NASCAR has a well televised and promoted star making system in the Trucks and Nationwide series, so people know who to follow when they get to Cup. NHRA does have the Lucas Oil series, and it is televised. Sometimes. By show of hands, who knew who Gary Scelzi was when he got the ride in the Winston dragster? That would never happen in Cup.

1. That's because NHRA drag racing translates much better live and in person than on TV. NASCAR translates much better as a TV package.
2. Most NASCAR tracks are much bigger and can accommodate more people just by proxy. It's an apples to oranges comparison.
3. Who's fault is that. NHRA, or ESPN2? I know everyone here wishes that ESPN2 would move a live sporting event that ran over to ESPN or some other network. But said sporting event probably gets more ratings than our races.
4. Shame on NHRA for getting rid of Raceday. But when it was on I heard a lot of people just skipped it. So it's a case of damned if you do damned if you don't.
5. Again, who's fault is it, NHRA's or ESPN's? It would only take, what 2-4 minutes to show the final rounds?
6. Fans know who he is now. But there are a lot of unknowns who turn pro and become well-known.

There are three things that I want to say about this:

1. Companies should look at the fan loyalty that NHRA fans have with their driver's sponsor. Many times NHRA fans will buy a product just because it sponsors their favorite driver's car. The majority of NASCAR fans don't give a hoot who sponsors their favorite driver's car.
2. I know I'm going to take heat for this but I don't care. The majority of "fans" who watch a NASCAR race just watch the races to see who's going to wreck. Kind of like how most people tune into a hockey game to see who's going to fist fight. NHRA fans watch the racing to see.... THE RACING.
3. I never take stock in what the Neilson ratings say. In fact me and a lot of other people consider it a joke. There are 1,500 people who are determining what the rest of us in the country should watch. There are TV shows that it highly rates that neither I nor anyone I know personally watch.

 

[clwill]

ESPN doesn't control when/how NHRA appears. NHRA pays ESPN to broadcast it, the contract they have determines a great deal of this. Except of course the ratings, which is a chicken & egg problem. We're not going to get SportCenter clips with 0.5 ratings, we're not going to get bigger ratings without more publicity.

As for Nielsen, you really need to step into the 21st century. The days of the 1500 people keeping a log being the entire ratings industry are long gone. Smart cable boxes and DVRs replaced that. These millions of boxes report watching info in great detail, ratings have never been more accurate.

Finally, if you don't think that smart race teams (DSR, JFR, and many others) haven't done their homework and aren't comparing NHRA to other sponsorship opportunities, you're naive. If there was a huge loyalty or engagement difference, sponsors (and us) would never hear the end of it.

Enough excuses. Products are worth what the market will pay. Period.

 

[mick]

IMO if NHRA could get back to 100,000 paid attendance over entire
nat. events and get the TV ratings to at least 1.0; i think the chances of
more sponsors spending 2-3 mil. could increase.

In the present day atmosphere of hospitality what companies (who enjoy
motorsports) wouldn't love to be wined & dined within a pit space at
an NHRA nat. event?, but if the tv ratings and attendance are flat or declining,
(and i'd say attendance is down from 10+ years ago), then at some point
the companies have to ask themselves what's the object of the exercise?.....
if the perception or reality is that no one is watching either on TV or live,
and the sanctioning body is not showing means to remedy the situation,
then lets spend the same money over at the next niche' entertainment
that does have 1.5+ nielsen ratings and draws greater attendance.
(and that could be the X games, or MMA, or AMA supercross, etc.)

 

[HEMI6point1]

One thing that hurts the NHRA is that simply put, it's either a "you get it or you don't" sport. As a drag racing fan, I've lost count on how many times people told me, "It's just two cars going down a straight line, why do you watch that?"

Yet when I offer to take them to a race at PBIR to give it a chance, they always decline.

As for Nielsen, you really need to step into the 21st century. The days of the 1500 people keeping a log being the entire ratings industry are long gone. Smart cable boxes and DVRs replaced that. These millions of boxes report watching info in great detail, ratings have never been more accurate.

I'm going to give you an example. Modern Family. I don't watch it, my parents don't watch it, and nobody I know personally watches it. Where are its high ratings coming from? Personally, people watch it for Sophia IMO...

 

[clwill]

I'm going to give you an example. Modern Family. I don't watch it, my parents don't watch it, and nobody I know personally watches it. Where are its high ratings coming from? Personally, people watch it for Sophia IMO...

All that proves is that you aren't the target market for Modern Family, except your last sentence indicates you know why.

Personal anecdotes don't matter. Have you ever been to Antarctica? How do you know it exists? Come on...

Again, you think advertisers are stupid and are somehow being snowed by decades old ratings techniques? You don't think they ask these questions? Sheesh...

 

[vegasnitro]

Enough excuses. Products are worth what the market will pay. Period.

THIS.

Bottom line, there is more value to sponsoring a NASCAR team than there is a NHRA team. This not good or bad, or us versus them like some try to make it ... it is just business.

 

[vegasnitro]

I'm going to give you an example. Modern Family. I don't watch it, my parents don't watch it, and nobody I know personally watches it. Where are its high ratings coming from? Personally, people watch it for Sophia IMO...

It has been explained where the ratings come from. TiVo/DVR's do not exist in a vacuum. They are IP based. ALL of your viewing habits are uploaded to a server which is parsed by your provider (satellite or cable) with the statistics distributed or sold to networks, advertisers, etc.

They know you fast forward through the commercials, advertisers are adapting ... product placement and superimposed images are going to continue to become more prevalent during your favorite shows.

 

[Toejam]

Average NASCAR race viewership: 6-8,000,000
Average NHRA race viewership: 6-800,000

You have a link for that?

 

[Toejam]

Come on Sam, this has been covered a gazillion times on this board. But I will indulge once again.

How is a NASCAR sponsorship better ROI? Simple Math.

NASCAR races average 8 million viewers. NHRA less than 800,000.
Average attendance for a NASCAR race is 100,000. NHRA averages less than half of that ... for the whole weekend.
NASCAR events are televised live on major networks. NHRA events are tape-delayed on ESPN2 and are oft-delayed or the time slot is a moving target.
NASCAR has daily TV shows during the season on multiple networks. NHRA doesn't.
NASCAR highlights are on Sportscenter with sound bites from several drivers. The only time when NHRA is on Sportscenter is when somebody has a bad wreck.
NASCAR has a well televised and promoted star making system in the Trucks and Nationwide series, so people know who to follow when they get to Cup. NHRA does have the Lucas Oil series, and it is televised. Sometimes. By show of hands, who knew who Gary Scelzi was when he got the ride in the Winston dragster? That would never happen in Cup.

Lastly, and this is key, sponsorship activation. If a company is willing to spend 10+ million, that is likely a big portion of their marketing budget, so they are going to make sure you know they are sponsoring that car via TV commercials starring the driver, online/social media presence, contests, merchandizing, etc.

The days of slapping some stickers on a car and seeing an appreciable ROI in any form of auto racing, are for the most part, over. The sanctioning bodies, teams and drivers truly need to be marketing partners for the sponsors.

50,000 for the whole Weekend? Maybe Phoenix or Seattle, but I bet it's higher than that! But NHRA no longer announces Attendance figures, so...

 

[cephus]

i second Joe on figures, i think this was also reported on the nascrap piece on 60 minutes

 

[vegasnitro]

50,000 for the whole Weekend? Maybe Phoenix or Seattle, but I bet it's higher than that! But NHRA no longer announces Attendance figures, so...

The main grandstand at Vegas seats 16,000. Even if it sold out all 3 days of the weekend (which it doesn't) ... that is 48,000 (plus the GA tickets). Vegas 2 is one of the best attended races of the season, and they are barely getting 50,000 for the weekend. My guess is that only Gainesville, Pomona and Indy have bigger gate than Vegas 2.

I was also talking average attendance over the course of the season. For instance, there are NASCAR races where only 50,000 fans show up, and there are races where 150,000 fans show up, so I put the average at 100K. I thought I was putting the NHRA average high at 50K for the weekend.

Lastly, NHRA cannot announce attendance figures anymore because they inflated them constantly, and since Bruton Smith's company is publicly traded (SMI) they can't have the false reporting. So, rather than announce the true numbers, they just stopped announcing.

 

[MM]

Don't use logic and numbers here Chris. It confuses people.