NHRA's media blitz?? (1 Viewer)

[Toejam]

I'll admit Melanie Troxell drew Huge Media to Drag racing, but other than maybe Cory Mac's crash which aired 100 times. The Mainstream Sports media stills looks at NHRA as a minor league Motorsport.

http://competitionplus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1043&Itemid=24

 

[NHRADeuce]

Nice to see Anthony and his crew get some props, they certainly work their asses off. It's surprising just how much press NHRA gets in comparison to even 5 years ago.

NHRA Media

 

[rocketman]

Mainstream coverage was a little better this year but there's still a lot of room for improvement. Just when you think the sport has turned the corner you notice something important being overlooked.

One thing that was incorrect in that article was that Sports Illustrated has done feature stories prior to this year on drag racing, There was one on Garlits, Garlits teaming up with Shirley in 1989, and one on Prudhomme in 1977. Still that's not many. There may have been others that I'm not aware of.

 

[none]

One thing that was incorrect in that article was that Sports Illustrated has done feature stories prior to this year on drag racing, There was one on Garlits, Garlits teaming up with Shirley in 1989, and one on Prudhomme in 1977. Still that's not many. There may have been others that I'm not aware of.

There was a little blurb in SI leading up to the Finals a couple weeks ago, but of course no mention of anything AFTER the event! Rich, I remember there was a big layout on Bernstein in SI back in like `87,88. I still can`t believe that magazine has never done a feature on Force!

 

[Darryl]

Rich, there's always room to improve and that's just what Anthony and his whole crew of Pros have done over the last few years. Ever since Winston went away NHRA Media has pretty much had to stand on it's own and it's really easy to underestimate what a tough sell NHRA is to the mainstream press. Those folks have to work twice as hard for 10% of what NASCAR gets for coverage.

It always amazes me when I see what the new reporters grab onto when they go to the drags. Mel and J.R were HUGE stories for those that bothered to look while drag racing fans pretty much yawned. I've been around the sport for a long time and I've pretty much amazed how color and gender blind most of the fans are. Can you imagine what NASCAR would have made of this if they had the same situation?

 

[rocketman]

I agree, if it had happend in NASCAR the press would have a tizzy and jam it down our throats! We would hear about it for a month.

 

[yoda]

I agree, if it had happend in NASCAR the press would have a tizzy and jam it down our throats! We would hear about it for a month.

And thats just fine... With so many other things that make our sport pretty damn amazing (power, technology and engineering, excitement), the weak fallback would have been to over-hype race and gender (two things, IMHO, that have NOTHING to do with how well you can drive a race car or how much you win)...

Mel ant J.R. tamed the perfect beast, at least for a little while. That in itself should have been the foundation for public interest. DIGGING IN AND MAINTAINING that interest is where the media department seems to be having it's biggest problem...

 

[Toejam]

Winston was a Great sponsor while it lasted, but I certainly don't remember any Huge Drag racing exposure other than a Huge crash that always end up on Sportscenter. Female racers have always drawn the media to Drag racing, Shelly Anderson brought Good Morning America to Topeka one year. Take the Gender factor out of the equation and it's the same old "Who cares about Drag racing" montra!

 

[knightrider]

Winston was a Great sponsor while it lasted, but I certainly don't remember any Huge Drag racing exposure other than a Huge crash that always end up on Sportscenter. Female racers have always drawn the media to Drag racing, Shelly Anderson brought Good Morning America to Topeka one year. Take the Gender factor out of the equation and it's the same old "Who cares about Drag racing" montra!

When nascar comes to town here, (D.F.W.) There is a FULL section in the sunday papers about it. At least 15 to 20 pages full of stats, interviews, pics of the cars and drivers,
Then when nhra gets here, you have to look REAL close to find anything in the paper at all. Then just maybe they will have final rd results in monday's paper.

 

[megadeth]

To bad it doesn't resonate into higher TV ratings! They just continue to drop.

 

[Joker]

What I found disturbing last week while sitting in the Charlotte, NC airport I was reading a Sports Illustrated that I bought at the bookstore and it had the listing of Motorsports ratings on TV. Nascar was ofcourse first by a huge margin, and then, not us! I really couldnt believe we werent 2nd. NHRA was 3rd but what beat us surprised me even more. MOTORCYCLE RACING!!! Are you f*cking kidding me??? Slow azz motorcycles or a 330 mph almost out of control nitro bomb on wheels? Now according to SI if I remember correcty they were 12.7 and we were 12.4 and we had a decent lead over 4th. Nascar was like 50,60 something. I dont remember. I was just amazed that we werent 2nd and that motorcycle racing was ahead of us. The NHRA needs major marketing parnters or something b/c the product is better than Nascar by far and I am a Nascar fan.

 

[yoda]

What kind of motorcycle racing, Justin? I doubt if it was GP- probably its stregnth was in motocross and its offshoots, extreme stunt riding and ATV racing. If thats the case, I've seen more of that on the tube in the past few years than most everything else. And everywhere I go in America, I see alot more motocross bikes in yards and on trailers going somewhere than I do drag cars

 

[megadeth]

Motorcycle racing on the professional level is a great spectator sport and is very big especially in Europe.
The AMA and Super Bike series make great TV they run maybe 20 laps a heat it's very TV friendly I'm not surprised at all that they are second in ratings and it's great for the Speed Channel it's one of there big ratings earners.
My favorite Motorsport is Drag Racing always has been but I'm a fan of speed in general. I love Speed Channels Boat Drags also.
This is were I think Bruton Smith would make the biggest impact as far as promoting Drag Racing.

 

[Joker]

Martin, all it said was motorcycle racing. I have went to several motocross events a few years ago and yeah its fun, but its no where near the entertainment to me than seeing two nitro burning fuels car lining up besides each other. For most newbies I have introduced to racing, once they go to a live race they are hooked and many had seen it on tv tons of times. We have to find a way to market better. I dont know the answer but there has to be one.

 

[Toejam]

Darr Hawthorne at DRO last year or the year before had an article showing the Ratings for all NHRA events over the last 3 seasons. Not one event in any year showed a Rating share at or over a 1.0 ratings share. From a marketing standpoint that's basically Non-existent! I've often said that we Diehards had better thank the Evan Knolls, Connie Kalitta's, Ken Black's, Don Schumacher's and Jim Jannard's of this sport. Because our sport would be barely breathing without them!

 

[megadeth]

Darr Hawthorne at DRO last year or the year before had an article showing the Ratings for all NHRA events over the last 3 seasons. Not one event in any year showed a Rating share at or over a 1.0 ratings share. From a marketing standpoint that's basically Non-existent! I've often said that we Diehards had better thank the Evan Knolls, Connie Kalitta's, Ken Black's, Don Schumacher's and Jim Jannard's of this sport. Because our sport would be barely breathing without them!

You are absolutely right Joe it would be as close to a ghost town as you can get!

 

[rocketman]

Well think of it this way we are the no. 2 car racing sport!

 

[NHRADeuce]

The problem is not with the marketing, it's with the event. Drag racing events in their current form are simply not TV friendly. You have to have a product that can be shown LIVE. Live shows always take precedence over tape delay, no matter how lame the live event is. Delay shows will always be bumped out which is horrible for ratings. NHRA will not see any huge growth spurts until national events can be shown live in a 3 hour time slot. That means less than 45 minutes between rounds to get 4 rounds of racing in, assuming no oildowns.

 

[ProStockJunkie]

"For decades the NHRA’s myriad public relations managers fought a losing battle in trying to convince the press that an alcohol-fueled teenager killed in an illegal speed contest was not, in fact, a “drag racer,” nor was that “stoplight Grand Prix” even a drag race. "

Sorry, the only fighting I've ever seen in the battle to convince the press that street racing is not drag racing, has been from the racers/fans themselves. Not NHRA.

A letter to the editor of the Bergen Record back in the late 60's on this very subject, was my first step in writing.

I contact major NJ papers days before a National event, and they have received nothing from NHRA, only individual racers press releases. There's some coverage in the NY papers, but for crying out loud, when an event is being run in NJ, I expect to see NHRA media coverage in NJ papers as well.

Maybe I'm swimming against the tide here, but the marketing I see being done has been by the PR people from individual teams, not the sanctioning body. Brut for example, has done an excellent job of putting drag racing in front of the non-racing public. Melanie's PR folks have done a superb job of marketing her and drag racing to the public.

I live in the Northeast. I would expect to see more done in this market. Even though I'm always looking, but I still don't see anything but the efforts from the PR people of teams. Maybe it's different in other parts of the country.

Don't kill me because you have a different opinion. My opinion is based on what I've seen and still see (or more correctly, don't see) as far as NHRA marketing drag racing out here.

 

[Toejam]

It's amazing just how much the Coverage of NHRA races varies from race to race. It Gainesville the Local paper will have a Gator Natl's section in the paper every day of the event. While at Indy the coverage in the Star is minimal IMO.