Strivectin, He was also sponsored by Zantrex-3 a weight loss pill.
They Call me Mello Yello (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Raconteur
- Start date
Strivectin, He was also sponsored by Zantrex-3 a weight loss pill.
It's called sarcasm Kevin
Just trying to make a point that because a brand is not racing specific or does not "sound fast", it's still a sponsor that's investing in the sport.
SundayNiagara
Nitro Member
Must be an ironclad contract!
luxexpress
Nitro Member
Chris
Nitro Member
This pretty much makes it official. Citrus soda to replace energy drink as NHRA title sponsor ? USATODAY.com
ditto !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is another interesting thread that demands comment.
Throughout their involvement with NHRA Coca-Cola has made a great many promises about in-market promotions in grocery stories with POP (Point of Purchase) displays, regional and local television advertising in conjunction with the national events and even driver appearances at retail outlets.
None of that happened.
If Coca-Cola truly cared about drag racing they would figure out a way of producing at least one million dollar winner at the end of the year, and to get there they’d only have to invest another $500,000, which truly is chump change considering Coke’s total national advertising budget.
Companies often “rate” their emotional involvement in a promotional program by how much it costs them to do it. For many marketing types, the more expensive a program is, the better it must be. Otherwise, why would it cost so much?
What Coca-Cola “appears” to have paid for the NHRA series is not very much. I said “appears” because unless you’ve seen the contract, we don’t really know what they’ve paid, despite what appeared in Sports Business Journal.
Yes, having Coke involved is a positive, but if NHRA had done a better job of selling the series in the first place they might have been able to wring more direct funding out of them. But remember, despite NHRA stating they were willing to go it alone without a series sponsor after Winston left, they appear to have hastily signed on with Coke just so they could tout the fact that NHRA never went without a series sponsor.
I don’t know the caffeine level in Mello Yellow, but Coca-Cola is definitely going to market the brand against Mountain Dew, so you can count on upbeat advertising. Now, if those national ads featured drag racing, and those ads appeared during telecasts other than motorsports, that would be great for drag racing.
Some of what Jeff White wrote has validity, but let’s not forget that NHRA’s involvement with POWERade and then Full Throttle did exactly nothing for those brands, and it wasn’t the fault of NHRA. A series sponsorship is not much more than a blown up version of a team sponsorship. You wouldn’t expect a race team to promote and activate a sponsorship to the masses. That’s the responsibility of the sponsor (think Brut and how they maximized their involvement with DSR through an aggressive national advertising program that benefitted both the brand and NHRA Drag Racing). In this instance it’s Coke’s responsibility to tout the series and make it appear “big.”
They failed to do that with both previous brands.
I’m not saying there won’t be a dramatic turnaround with Mello Yellow. One can only hope.
And Jeff, tobacco advertising is gone from F1. The European Union has more restrictive tobacco advertising laws than we do. There are no more Marlboro Ferraris and the like.
On a per capita basis I’d wager Camping World does more to promote their involvement with the Truck series than Coke does for drag racing.
Michael Hayes, I think you need to reconsider your posting. You may not personally “approve” of K-LOVE on Pedregon’s car, but if they’re paying him to carry their name and logo, why is it any of our business to suggest they don’t belong in drag racing? Who does “belong?” Only automotive-related companies?
That’s no different than the attitude SOME people inside NHRA took when Jim Dunn had the Penthouse sponsorship. Because they didn’t personally approve of the sponsorship, they did their best to curtail the amount of ink the car got, and if you doubt that, think again.
I’ll tell you what Schumacher was thinking when he put Wonder Bread on the sides of his three cars: “Wow, I’m being paid money to do this! Wow, maybe this is the tip of the iceberg, and after bringing in this general interest company my drag racing buddies can find sponsorships from Tide or Oscar Meyer Weiners.”
Chris Williams, don’t you think that it’s at least POSSIBLE that Mello Yellow will roll out a complete new campaign in short order? If they’re expanding the brand nationally it seems likely they’ll do that, so worrying about what they’ve got up there now might be premature.
Mike Minick, you’re placing the responsibility for promotion on the wrong people. It is very much the sponsor’s job to promote their involvement with a particular promotional program (Castrol sponsoring JFR, Coke sponsoring NHRA, etc.). The activation of the sponsorship has to work with both parties understanding their roles. John Force is supposed to win races, always act like a pro, be nice to the fans and appear where Castrol asks him to appear. Castrol, in turn, promotes it’s involvement by advertising his victories earned with Castrol products, and uses him as a spokesperson, because if someone who wins races like John Force says Castrol is good, it must be good.
Coke is in the same position with drag racing, but as has been pointed out here, up until now they’ve failed to promote their involvement with the sport. If that changes with Mello Yellow it will have the POTENTIAL of raising drag racing’s national profile.
Mark Breznay, how do you know Sprint is getting nothing out of its involvement with NASCAR? Do you know the numbers? What’s your source.
I’m not busting on you, but unless you can state that Sprint’s total number of subscribers has only increased by 4,000 since they started sponsoring NASCAR, you have no case. I don’t know the number either, so again, I’m only making a point. For all we know Sprint has signed up an additional 175,000 subscribers, subscribers that they can quantify came about as a direct result of their NASCAR sponsorship.
Jon Asher
Senior Editor
CompetitionPlus.com
Throughout their involvement with NHRA Coca-Cola has made a great many promises about in-market promotions in grocery stories with POP (Point of Purchase) displays, regional and local television advertising in conjunction with the national events and even driver appearances at retail outlets.
None of that happened.
If Coca-Cola truly cared about drag racing they would figure out a way of producing at least one million dollar winner at the end of the year, and to get there they’d only have to invest another $500,000, which truly is chump change considering Coke’s total national advertising budget.
Companies often “rate” their emotional involvement in a promotional program by how much it costs them to do it. For many marketing types, the more expensive a program is, the better it must be. Otherwise, why would it cost so much?
What Coca-Cola “appears” to have paid for the NHRA series is not very much. I said “appears” because unless you’ve seen the contract, we don’t really know what they’ve paid, despite what appeared in Sports Business Journal.
Yes, having Coke involved is a positive, but if NHRA had done a better job of selling the series in the first place they might have been able to wring more direct funding out of them. But remember, despite NHRA stating they were willing to go it alone without a series sponsor after Winston left, they appear to have hastily signed on with Coke just so they could tout the fact that NHRA never went without a series sponsor.
I don’t know the caffeine level in Mello Yellow, but Coca-Cola is definitely going to market the brand against Mountain Dew, so you can count on upbeat advertising. Now, if those national ads featured drag racing, and those ads appeared during telecasts other than motorsports, that would be great for drag racing.
Some of what Jeff White wrote has validity, but let’s not forget that NHRA’s involvement with POWERade and then Full Throttle did exactly nothing for those brands, and it wasn’t the fault of NHRA. A series sponsorship is not much more than a blown up version of a team sponsorship. You wouldn’t expect a race team to promote and activate a sponsorship to the masses. That’s the responsibility of the sponsor (think Brut and how they maximized their involvement with DSR through an aggressive national advertising program that benefitted both the brand and NHRA Drag Racing). In this instance it’s Coke’s responsibility to tout the series and make it appear “big.”
They failed to do that with both previous brands.
I’m not saying there won’t be a dramatic turnaround with Mello Yellow. One can only hope.
And Jeff, tobacco advertising is gone from F1. The European Union has more restrictive tobacco advertising laws than we do. There are no more Marlboro Ferraris and the like.
On a per capita basis I’d wager Camping World does more to promote their involvement with the Truck series than Coke does for drag racing.
Michael Hayes, I think you need to reconsider your posting. You may not personally “approve” of K-LOVE on Pedregon’s car, but if they’re paying him to carry their name and logo, why is it any of our business to suggest they don’t belong in drag racing? Who does “belong?” Only automotive-related companies?
That’s no different than the attitude SOME people inside NHRA took when Jim Dunn had the Penthouse sponsorship. Because they didn’t personally approve of the sponsorship, they did their best to curtail the amount of ink the car got, and if you doubt that, think again.
I’ll tell you what Schumacher was thinking when he put Wonder Bread on the sides of his three cars: “Wow, I’m being paid money to do this! Wow, maybe this is the tip of the iceberg, and after bringing in this general interest company my drag racing buddies can find sponsorships from Tide or Oscar Meyer Weiners.”
Chris Williams, don’t you think that it’s at least POSSIBLE that Mello Yellow will roll out a complete new campaign in short order? If they’re expanding the brand nationally it seems likely they’ll do that, so worrying about what they’ve got up there now might be premature.
Mike Minick, you’re placing the responsibility for promotion on the wrong people. It is very much the sponsor’s job to promote their involvement with a particular promotional program (Castrol sponsoring JFR, Coke sponsoring NHRA, etc.). The activation of the sponsorship has to work with both parties understanding their roles. John Force is supposed to win races, always act like a pro, be nice to the fans and appear where Castrol asks him to appear. Castrol, in turn, promotes it’s involvement by advertising his victories earned with Castrol products, and uses him as a spokesperson, because if someone who wins races like John Force says Castrol is good, it must be good.
Coke is in the same position with drag racing, but as has been pointed out here, up until now they’ve failed to promote their involvement with the sport. If that changes with Mello Yellow it will have the POTENTIAL of raising drag racing’s national profile.
Mark Breznay, how do you know Sprint is getting nothing out of its involvement with NASCAR? Do you know the numbers? What’s your source.
I’m not busting on you, but unless you can state that Sprint’s total number of subscribers has only increased by 4,000 since they started sponsoring NASCAR, you have no case. I don’t know the number either, so again, I’m only making a point. For all we know Sprint has signed up an additional 175,000 subscribers, subscribers that they can quantify came about as a direct result of their NASCAR sponsorship.
Jon Asher
Senior Editor
CompetitionPlus.com
yoda
Nitro Member
Well they just announced it.
And get this, the truck they brought in with the Mello Yello/NHRA livery on the side, displays a funny car with only 3 headers on each side!
Ahh... NHRA has figured out hot to get speeds under control- 6 cyl Nitro cars...
Jon, good post! Wasn't Winston paying NHRA $12 Mil per year before they bailed out? What was Full Throttle paying?
For the love of God, it's call SARCASM Jon!! This is the second time I had to post it (post #103 for your reference), if you would take the time to read instead of just start writing a freaking novel!!! I guess some people just like to listen to themselves talk.....carry on!
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well I guess life as we know it is officially over! put the cars for sale, buy a fishing boat..... were so screwed!!!!! . . .if there is anything I left out, I am sure others will post it !!!!!
WELCOME TO NHRA MELLO YELLO!
x 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!!!
Paul
Nitro Member
A couple of interesting points from that story-
The deal is for 6 years, until 2018. With today's uncertain economy, getting a deal signed with a long lifetime like that is a big plus, hopefully there's no early termination clause that Coke can take before the 6 years are up.
It also says that Full Throttle will remain as the "official" high energy drink of the NHRA, unfortunately this likely means no other energy drink sponsors will be able to come back into the sport, too bad, I liked the Monster and Rockstar teams of the past.
I don't think the actual company and associated product name of the series sponsor company actually makes that much difference.
What is really important is how much economic push, effort and brainpower the company puts behind promoting their product's association with the NHRA.
Expecting a series sponsor to promote the NHRA "out of the goodness of their heart" is foolish. They will only do heavy promotion if they fully believe that the association of the product with NHRA is going to help its sales and market presence.
Coke must believe that the association with the NHRA will help Mello Yello or they wouldn't have signed this deal. Hopefully they view the association as a major component of the marketing push behind the product and will do some significant marketing beyond just during NHRA broadcasts.
With a talented and motivated marketing team, Mello Yello as an associated product can work fine with the NHRA, its just needs to be given a smart and creative spin and a big push in the media, hopefully that will happen.
Ahh....he has been around this sport for 50 years, I think he knows what he's talking about.
smokemasterJ
Nitro Member
I find it kind of shocking that a sponsorship of the entire series of professional drag racing can be purchased for 3-4 million for a year. In the grand scheme of things that's kind of peanuts. This morning when doing my grocery shopping I took a stroll down the soft-drink aisle... one slot for Mello Yello down at the bottom at the end of the rest of the Coke products. Just for sh*ts and giggles I pulled the 12-pack out and found that it was out of date. The store I was in... Glendora Stater Bros.
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