Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Marketing Jun 2, 2015

Nascar overhauls the fan experience, how the car-racing giant overcame flagging engagement..

Eric T. Anderson

Yevgenia Nayberg

Earlier this year the NASCAR marketing communications team won PRWeek ’s prestigious In-house PR Team of the Year award, beating contenders like Taylor Swift’s PR team and the United States Olympic Committee. But the NASCAR of 2015—launching a new digital platform, increasing its YouTube views by 1,190%, and securing the most valuable television broadcast contracts in the company’s history—is a far stretch from the NASCAR of 2011, which had plummeting race attendance, falling TV ratings, and fleeing sponsors. What transpired between then and now was nothing short of a marketing transformation, says Professor Eric Anderson, chair of the Kellogg School of Management’s marketing department. And what it took to truly transform the organization’s image went far beyond changing a logo or increasing an ad budget. It took a thorough reexamining of the entire fan experience.

The full Kellogg case, “NASCAR: Leading a Marketing Transformation in a Time of Crisis” is available in English and Spanish for corporate trainings or university classrooms.

Researching Its Own Irrelevance

“Dangerous irrelevance” were the words used in 2011 to summarize an outside consultant’s comprehensive assessment of the state of NASCAR. Brian France (NASCAR’s CEO and the grandson of its founder) had commissioned the research, concerned that the multibillion-dollar sport of stock-car auto racing had been in a state of decline since 2006.

“The digital age was upon us, so I was wrestling with questions like: Are our young fans going to consume us differently? Are attention spans really shortening, and are these new devices really going to be what drives content? If so, how does our industry understand all these things? Everywhere I looked, we were doing things very traditionally, which had worked for a long time but wasn’t working anymore,” said France.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, NASCAR had enjoyed double-digit growth annually. But with viewership and attendance declining, major sponsors defected in the late 2000s. As NASCAR had always garnered more Fortune 500 corporate sponsors than any other U.S. sport, France sensed major problems were brewing. The business model of the entire industry (the privately owned sanctioning body of NASCAR, the publicly owned race tracks, the race teams and their drivers, the OEMs of the race cars, and broadcast partners) hinged on sponsors. And sponsors wanted engaged fans.

To find the root cause of tanking race attendance and television viewership, the jolting symptoms of disengagement, France initiated what became one of the largest marketing research initiatives undertaken by a U.S. sport. The research, led by Taylor Strategy, explored four areas: 1) the broader sports industry’s digital and social communications capabilities and how they compared to those of NASCAR, 2) fans’ live experience at the race tracks, 3) the level of star power of NASCAR’s drivers compared to that of other sports stars, and 4) the next generation of NASCAR fans. Many of France’s advisors were weary of investing so heavily in research in the midst of a recession. But France felt independent research would be a key asset in engaging the whole industry surrounding his sanctioning body in major change.

“Millennials are different from baby boomers. They want social engagement and digital interaction with brands.” —Eric Anderson

“Before the mid-2000s—and this would be true for any industry—the value creators had all the say in a company’s future, while the cost cutters were managing money, paying taxes, and keeping things in the lane. As soon as [the recession] hit, the cost cutters suddenly had a bigger seat at the table. That’s one of the hardest things to deal with internally… [but] when you have falling metrics and things are tough, your commercial partners are going to put pressure on you. If you can’t say that you have a credible plan, a plan that they can join into, they’re not going to join you at all.”

Neglected Millennials

The company’s research painted a picture that, if anything, was more dire than predicted.

NASCAR had not engaged millennials or more broadly pursued new customer segments. Facing an aging core fan base—white married males with an average age of 47—the segments that would fuel the sport’s future growth had not yet been identified.

“Millennials are different from baby boomers.” explained Anderson. “They want social engagement and digital interaction with brands.”

But the organization’s current digital strategy lacked any real, well, strategy for changing this. NASCAR had outsourced its online presence to Turner Sports, to whom it had been licensing all of NASCAR’s digital properties since 2000. Turner controlled NASCAR.com, NASCAR’s Facebook page, its Twitter handles, etc., and it did so with an eye for maximizing its own bottom line, not a long-term vision for growing the sport.

As a result, inconsistency abounded on NASCAR’s online platforms. The NASCAR.com pages of smaller teams that were unable to pay Turner for the right to post their driver photos and sponsor logos appeared half empty. “And our corporate sponsors weren’t able to push out digitally and socially to our fan base, their customers, in a way that allowed them to maximize their sponsorship unless they went through Turner,” explained NASCAR’s Chief Marketing Officer, Steve Phelps. This created a disjointed user experience that discouraged online exploration of the sport.

Further, NASCAR drivers were not motivated to interact with fans on social media. With the longest season (10 months) of any professional athlete and race teams focused on R&D to make their cars go faster, drivers’ priorities and competencies were not in building their personal brands on social media. Some of the sport’s most popular stars even denounced it. “Contrast this with the amount of activity it takes to create a brand like LeBron James, and you can see why fan engagement was a serious challenge for NASCAR,” says Anderson.

Millennials who made it to the races and loved the live experience also faced disappointment when attempting to share it with their social networks. Attended by over one hundred thousand fans, each NASCAR race typically took place in a rural area at a track that was utilized by NASCAR once, maybe twice, per year. This created a challenging environment for cell phone service and WiFi.

The fan experience is critical, explains Anderson: “NASCAR is competing not just for a share of customers’ auto dollars or sports dollars, but entertainment dollars,” and the research had revealed that millennials largely attended sporting events not for the sport itself but as a social occasion. Aspects in which fans perceived NASCAR as inferior to other sporting and live entertainment events were scrutinized.

Comprehensive Solution Required

The plan that France’s team developed in response to the research results to prioritize the myriad issues was the Industry Action Plan. To create this vision for the future of the sport, NASCAR reached across the breadth of the sanctioning body. “Importantly, we didn’t grab the thirty highest titles in the [organization]. We grabbed people who we knew were highly influential within our company, young people and executives—people who had a lot of energy for the direction we knew we needed to take the sport,” said Eric Nyquist, NASCAR’s Vice President of Strategic Development.

France then took the lead in resourcing some of the plan’s objectives—like hiring the talent to staff an Industry Services group within the sanctioning body to provide media training and marketing resources to drivers and teams—and was the key advocate in pitching the plan to the rest of the industry. Many changes necessitated gaining commitments from independent partners, like the public corporations who owned the majority of tracks on which NASCAR races were held, to make massive capital improvements.

“There is more connectivity at our events [than almost any other event in the U.S.]. It’s like moving two square blocks of Manhattan around the country as a traveling circus,” described Nyquist. “[Tackling infrastructure] was a major undertaking that has taken place over the last two years, but it was critical. Without it, we couldn’t build to the next level of elements that we wanted to bring to the fan experience.”

What resulted was not a transformation of the sport itself but rather innovation in service and innovation in collaboration. The fruits of innovation can been seen in NASCAR’s 2015–2024 broadcast rights deals, the revenue cornerstone of the sport that trickles to all of the industry’s stakeholders. They totaled $10.94 billion —more than double its 2007–2014 deals.

“France not only initiated changes within NASCAR, he developed a compelling plan for his industry partners to join onto. He had clear asks and invested time in selling his vision,” says Anderson. “If he had merely transformed his sanctioning body, the sport would not have seen the level of success it has today.”

Polk Bros. Chair in Retailing; Professor of Marketing; Director Kellogg-McCormick MBAi

About the Writer Vasilia Kilibarda is the manager of case writing for Kellogg Case Publishing.

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Beyond the Racetrack: Inside NASCAR’s Marketing Strategies

nascar marketing case study

Beyond the Racetrack: Inside NASCAR’s Marketing Strategies 15 min read

In the world of motorsports, few names evoke the same level of excitement and passion as NASCAR, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing . Founded in 1948, NASCAR has become synonymous with high-octane action, daring passes, and the roaring thunder of stock cars tearing around oval tracks at breakneck speeds.

The Birth of a Racing Legacy

NASCAR’s origins can be traced back to the moonshine runners of the southeastern United States. These daring individuals, who evaded law enforcement by transporting moonshine on souped-up stock cars, laid the foundation for the sport that would become NASCAR. In 1948, Bill France, Sr., a promoter and racer himself, recognized the potential of stock car racing and organized the first NASCAR race at Daytona Beach, Florida.

NASCAR runs its first race in Daytona Beach at the beach road course

The Evolution of NASCAR: From Humble Beginnings to Global Recognition

From its humble beginnings, NASCAR has grown into a global phenomenon, captivating millions of fans worldwide. The sport has expanded beyond its southern roots, with races held across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. NASCAR’s popularity can be attributed to its accessibility, relatability, and sheer spectacle. Fans can relate to the cars they see on the track, as they are based on production models, adding an element of realism and connection to the sport.

The Thrill of NASCAR: A Symphony of Speed, Strategy, and Skill

NASCAR races are exhilarating events, where drivers push their vehicles to the limit, navigating the twists and turns of oval tracks at speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour. The sport demands a unique blend of skill, strategy, and endurance from its drivers, who must carefully manage their tires, fuel, and racing tactics to emerge victorious.

The NASCAR Experience: More Than Just a Race

NASCAR events are more than just races; they are immersive experiences that cater to the entire family. Fans can enjoy pre-race festivities, live music, and interactive exhibits, creating a lively atmosphere that extends beyond the track. The sport’s iconic personalities, from legendary drivers to charismatic team owners, add to the appeal, making NASCAR a truly captivating spectacle.

NASCAR’s Impact: A Cultural Phenomenon

NASCAR’s influence extends far beyond the racetrack. The sport has become deeply ingrained in American culture, with its iconic cars, logos, and personalities recognized across the country. NASCAR has also made its mark on fashion, music, and popular culture, solidifying its position as a significant cultural force.

The Future of NASCAR: Embracing Innovation and Sustainability

As NASCAR looks to the future, it remains committed to innovation and sustainability. The sport is actively exploring new technologies, such as hybrid engines and renewable energy sources, to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining its thrilling racing experience. NASCAR is also embracing diversity and inclusion, attracting a wider range of fans and participants to the sport.

NASCAR has cemented its place as a cornerstone of American motorsports and a global cultural phenomenon. The sport’s combination of adrenaline-pumping action, relatable vehicles, and captivating personalities has captured the hearts of millions of fans worldwide. As NASCAR continues to evolve and embrace innovation, it is poised to continue its legacy of thrilling racing and cultural impact for generations to come.

Marketing Strategies of NASCAR

NASCAR, one of the most popular motorsports organizations in the world, has built a successful brand that captivates millions of fans every year. Behind the thrill of the race lies a well-executed marketing strategy that has helped NASCAR maintain its position as a leader in the sports industry. From its humble beginnings in the 1940s to its current status as a global phenomenon, NASCAR has consistently adapted its marketing approach to stay relevant and engage with its diverse fanbase. Let’s explore the various marketing strategies that NASCAR has implemented over the years, and examine how they have contributed to the organization’s continued success.

1. Branding

Branding is a crucial marketing strategy for NASCAR, as it aims to establish a strong and distinct identity that resonates with its fans. NASCAR’s brand represents the excitement, speed, and thrill of stock car racing, and the organization works diligently to ensure that its brand is consistently presented across all channels and touchpoints. From the iconic NASCAR logo to the colors, fonts, and imagery used in its marketing materials, every element of the brand is carefully crafted to evoke emotion and create a lasting impression.

One example of NASCAR’s successful branding effort is its “Drive for Diversity” program . Launched in 2004, the program aimed to increase diversity in the sport by providing opportunities for underrepresented individuals to participate in NASCAR’s developmental series. The program’s logo features a stylized image of a race car with diverse ethnic groups represented in the driver’s seat, surrounded by the tagline “Fueling the Future.” The program has been incredibly successful, not only in increasing diversity within the sport but also in building a positive reputation for NASCAR as a champion of inclusivity. The “Drive for Diversity” program has helped to create a more welcoming environment for fans from all backgrounds, further solidifying NASCAR’s position as a leader in motorsports.

2. Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful marketing strategy for NASCAR, as it allows the organization to connect with its fans on an emotional level and create a deeper appreciation for the sport. By sharing the personal stories of its drivers, teams, and officials, NASCAR can humanize its brand and make it more relatable to its audience. Whether it’s highlighting the journey of a rising star or sharing the triumphs and tribulations of a veteran driver, NASCAR’s storytelling efforts help to build a stronger bond between the fans and the sport.

An example of NASCAR’s effective storytelling is its “My Track, My Roots” campaign . Launched in 2020, the campaign featured a series of short films that told the stories of six NASCAR drivers and their connections to their home tracks. Each film was shot in a documentary style and showcased the drivers’ personal experiences, from their early days racing on local tracks to their rise to the top levels of the sport. The campaign not only gave fans a glimpse into the lives of their favorite drivers but also highlighted the rich history and tradition of NASCAR’s grassroots racing culture. By sharing these personal stories, NASCAR was able to generate increased fan engagement and enthusiasm leading up to the season’s biggest races.

3. Social Media Presence

Social media presence is a vital marketing strategy for NASCAR, as it enables the organization to connect with its fans and promote its brand in a dynamic and engaging way. With millions of followers across various platforms, NASCAR utilizes social media to share real-time updates, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive offers that enhance the fan experience and drive engagement. From live tweeting during races to hosting Instagram takeovers with drivers, NASCAR’s social media presence helps to cultivate a loyal community of fans who can share their passion for the sport with others.

A recent example of NASCAR’s effective use of social media is its #NASCARThrowback campaign . Launched in 2015, the campaign invited fans to share their favorite throwback photos and moments from NASCAR’s history using a custom hashtag. The campaign quickly gained traction, with fans and drivers alike sharing their fondest memories and stories from the sport’s rich past. NASCAR then curated the best submissions and shared them across its social media channels, creating a digital time capsule of sorts that celebrated the sport’s heritage and brought fans together. By tapping into the power of user-generated content and leveraging the nostalgia surrounding its history, NASCAR was able to generate significant buzz and engagement around the campaign, further solidifying its place as a beloved and enduring motorsport brand.

The #NASCARthrowback campaign marked a significant milestone for NASCAR Social Media, boasting widespread impact and exceptional engagement from August 24 to September 6, 2015. Across various platforms, a total of 378 posts contributed to an impressive 91 million impressions. Notably, #NASCARthrowback content exhibited a remarkable 17% higher engagement per post compared to all other NASCAR-related posts during the same period. An overwhelming 95% of “throwback” mentions originated from fans and individuals outside of official NASCAR roles, emphasizing its resonance with the broader audience. The campaign’s visual appeal was evident, with half of all #NASCARthrowback mentions featuring captivating photos.

Here’s a breakdown of the campaign’s success on different social media platforms:

  • Facebook: A total of 68 posts garnered 65 million impressions and 1.3 million total engagements, surpassing non-NASCAR throwback content by 17% in engagement.
  • Twitter: With 224 tweets generating 25 million impressions and 45,000 total engagements, #NASCARthrowback content achieved an impressive 21% higher engagement compared to non-NASCAR throwback content.
  • Instagram: 55 posts on Instagram resulted in 228,000 total engagements, showcasing a remarkable 26% higher engagement than non-NASCAR throwback content.
  • Snapchat: The campaign achieved approximately 645,300 views on Snapchat, with 593 screen shots, underscoring its widespread appeal and impact on this platform.

4. Partnerships and Collaborations

Partnerships and collaborations are an essential marketing strategy for NASCAR, as they enable the organization to expand its reach and create new experiences for its fans. NASCAR collaborates with various brands, organizations, and influencers to develop co-branded initiatives, activations, and content that promote the sport and engage fans. These partnerships not only generate exposure for NASCAR but also provide value to its partners through exclusive access to NASCAR’s intellectual property, audience, and experiential assets.

One of the examples of NASCAR’s partnership and collaboration strategy is its agreement with Netflix . In 2023, NASCAR announced a multi-year deal with Netflix to produce a docu-series which follows the lives of several NASCAR drivers and teams throughout the season. The show premiered in February 2020 and received critical acclaim, drawing in a new audience of fans who may not have previously followed the sport. Through this partnership, NASCAR was able to tap into Netflix’s massive subscriber base and expose its brand to a global audience, further boosting its profile and relevance.

netflix nascar

In addition to Netflix, NASCAR has collaborated with other major brands such as Monster Energy, NBC Sports, and Toyota. These partnerships have led to innovative activations, such as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race and the ToyotaCare 250, which provide unique experiences for fans and reinforce the sport’s connection to its sponsors. By working closely with its partners, NASCAR creates mutually beneficial initiatives that drive business results and enhance the overall fan experience, demonstrating the effectiveness of partnerships and collaborations as a key marketing strategy for the organization.

5. Fan Engagement

Fan engagement is a crucial marketing strategy for NASCAR, as it seeks to cultivate a loyal and passionate fanbase that will support the sport and its sponsors. To achieve this, NASCAR employs various tactics to encourage fan participation and create memorable experiences. One of the ways NASCAR engages its fans is through its nascar.com website and mobile app , which provide comprehensive coverage of the sport, including live timing and scoring, news, and video content. Fans can also participate in fantasy games, vote for their favorite drivers, and enter sweepstakes for a chance to win prizes.

6. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a key component of NASCAR’s overall marketing strategy, as it allows the organization to engage with its fans and tell the story of the sport in a compelling and meaningful way. NASCAR creates a wide range of content, including articles, videos, and social media posts, that highlight the excitement, drama, and personalities of the sport. This content is designed to resonate with fans and make them feel closer to the action, whether they are attending a race in person or following along from afar. By providing valuable and entertaining content, NASCAR builds trust and credibility with its audience, which ultimately drives interest and engagement with the sport.

One example of NASCAR’s content marketing strategy is its “Behind the Scenes” series, which takes fans inside the world of professional stock car racing. This series, available on NASCAR’s website and social media channels, provides an intimate look at the sport, showcasing the preparation, strategy, and skill involved in competing at the highest level. Fans get to see drivers and crew chiefs discussing their approach to different tracks, mechanics working on cars, and the intense pressure and excitement of race day. By giving fans a deeper understanding of the sport, NASCAR creates a more engaged and informed audience, which is more likely to support the sport and its sponsors. Additionally, this type of content helps to attract new fans who may be interested in learning more about the inner workings of the sport.

7. Live Events

ive events play a crucial role in NASCAR’s marketing strategy, as they provide an opportunity for fans to experience the excitement of the sport up close and personal. NASCAR host numerous events throughout the year, including races, qualifiers, and practice sessions, which are designed to engage fans and create unforgettable experiences. At these events, fans can watch their favorite drivers in action, meet and greet with them, and immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the race track. By offering a variety of ticket packages and hospitality options, NASCAR makes it possible for fans to enjoy the sport in a way that suits their interests and budget.

Nascar Fans

In addition to the on-track action, NASCAR also leverages live events to engage fans through interactive experiences, such as fan zones, autograph sessions, and pre-race ceremonies. These activities allow fans to get closer to the sport and its stars, creating a sense of connection and loyalty that extends beyond the race itself. Furthermore, NASCAR uses live events as an opportunity to showcase its sponsors and partners, providing them with visibility and activation opportunities that help to strengthen their relationship with the sport and its fans. By combining high-octane racing with engaging fan experiences, NASCAR’s live events serve as a powerful marketing tool that helps to build and maintain a loyal fanbase.

8. Community Involvement

Community involvement is a key marketing strategy for NASCAR, as it allows the organization to connect with its fans and build a positive reputation in the communities where it operates. NASCAR recognizes that its success is dependent on the support of its fans and the communities in which it races, and therefore places a strong emphasis on giving back to those communities. Through its NASCAR Foundation , the organization supports a range of charitable initiatives and community programs, including education, healthcare, and youth development. By engaging in community involvement, NASCAR is able to demonstrate its commitment to making a positive impact beyond the racetrack, which helps to build trust and loyalty among its fans.

One example of NASCAR’s community involvement is its annual “NASCAR Day” celebration , which takes place in May. On this day, NASCAR and its partners come together to raise awareness and funds for various charitable causes, including cancer research, education, and disaster relief. Fans are encouraged to participate by wearing NASCAR-themed clothing and donating to the cause. Through initiatives like NASCAR Day, the organization is able to give back to the communities that support it, while also raising awareness and funds for important causes. By engaging in community involvement, NASCAR is able to build a positive reputation and foster a sense of community among its fans, which ultimately drives interest and engagement with the sport.

NASCAR Day Giveathon

9. Cross-Promotion

Cross-promotion is a marketing strategy that NASCAR employs to increase exposure and engagement with its brand. The organization partners with other companies and organizations to co-promote each other’s products or services. For example, NASCAR has partnered with brands such as Coca-Cola, Goodyear, and Sprint to offer special deals and discounts to fans who purchase tickets to NASCAR events. In return, these partners promote NASCAR events and activities to their own customers and audiences. This cross-promotion helps to expand NASCAR’s reach and attract new fans who may not have previously considered attending a race.

nascar marketing case study

Another example of NASCAR’s cross-promotion strategy is its partnership with the National Football League (NFL). In 2018, NASCAR and the NFL launched a joint promotion called “NASCAR vs. NFL,” which allowed fans to compete against each other in a virtual racing game. The promotion was designed to capitalize on the popularity of both NASCAR and the NFL, and to attract new fans who might be interested in either sport. By teaming up with another major league sport, NASCAR was able to reach a wider audience and generate additional excitement around its brand. Overall, cross-promotion is an effective marketing strategy for NASCAR because it allows the organization to leverage the resources and audiences of its partners to amplify its message and attract new fans.

In conclusion, NASCAR has employed a variety of marketing strategies to promote its brand and engage with its fans. From traditional methods such as print and television advertising, to newer approaches like social media and influencer partnerships, the organization has demonstrated a willingness to adapt and evolve in order to stay relevant in a rapidly changing landscape. By leveraging its unique assets, such as its high-speed races and iconic drivers, and by actively engaging with its fanbase, NASCAR has been able to maintain a strong following and continue to grow its brand. As the sports industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how NASCAR continues to innovate and adjust its marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition. Regardless, it is clear that the organization remains committed to delivering exciting and engaging experiences to its fans, and will continue to be a major player in the world of motorsports for years to come.

Also Read: The NFL Playbook for Marketing: Strategies that Win Big

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8 Things You Can Learn from NASCAR’s Content Marketing Strategy

Learn eight important lessons about creating a successful content marketing strategy from the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).

You can learn a lot of important lessons about creating a successful content marketing strategy from the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).

Yes, even content marketers in other fields can learn things from NASCAR, the privately-owned company that is best known for stock-car racing.

If you’re skeptical, then ask yourself, “What do I know about NASCAR that I didn’t ‘learn’ by watching movies like “Herbie: Fully Loaded” (2005) or “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” (2006)?”

Be honest, Hollywood stereotypes die hard.

So, here are five things that you need to know about NASCAR’s business challenges and marketing structure before I list the eight things you can learn from their content marketing strategy:

‘NASCAR Dad’

The term, “NASCAR dad,” was used during the U.S. presidential election in 2004 to describe a demographic group of roughly 45 million white southern males, who were generally middle-aged and usually working-class or lower-middle-class.

This group of men supposedly enjoyed watching NASCAR races to see car crashes. However, the deaths of stock car drivers Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, and Tony Roper in 2000, and Dale Earnhardt in 2001 were a “wake-up” call for stock car racing fans.

In response, NASCAR made aggressive changes to its safety measures. How did the so-called NASCAR dads react?

Well, according to an article, “UI study finds fewer fans watching NASCAR for the crashes,” which was published in 2011:

“A study by a University of Iowa economist finds that many car race fans do, indeed, watch NASCAR races because they want to see car wrecks, but more of them have been tuning in to see who actually wins the race since the circuit adopted its Chase for the Cup championship series in 2004.”

Unified Content Group

According to a story by Sahil Patel, “ NASCAR revamps its content group to meld edit and content marketing ,” which was published in March 2018 by Digiday:

“As a sports league that both produces a ton of its own content and needs to market its brand to younger and newer fans, NASCAR exists as both a publisher and a marketer. It’s forced the league to restructure how it approaches its editorial and marketing content internally.”
“Last summer, NASCAR created a new 40-person content strategy group to oversee the league’s editorial and content marketing operations. Previously, NASCAR had separate teams dedicated to its website, social pages, video production, creative design, advertising partners and entertainment marketing efforts. These were individual business units, with their own, often overlapping goals, which created natural inefficiencies with how NASCAR created and distributed videos and other content across platforms.”

Better Storytelling

According to a story by Carla Johnson entitled, “ How NASCAR Drives Better Storytelling With a Unified Team ,” which was published in July 2018 by the Content Marketing Institute blog:

“Enterprise content marketing is an exercise in collaboration. Planning, creating, distributing, and promoting content typically involves people on more than one team. It also leads to overlapping or conflicting priorities that can slow everything down.”
“That’s the challenge Evan Parker faced when he set out last year to lead NASCAR’s new content team. The mission was daunting: to engage NASCAR’s fan base beyond the racetrack and win new fans among a generation that seems to watch any screen but television. But the results his team ultimately achieved – hundreds of millions of online views, a Facebook docu-series, a broader audience – earned him a nomination for Content Marketer of the Year.”

Marketing for a New Generation

According to a story by Jameson Fleming entitled, “ NASCAR Hopes Marketing a New Generation of Drivers Can Lure Fans Back to the Sport ,” which was published in February 2019 by Adweek :

“Nascar has suffered some of the largest declines across major American sports during the last two years. In 2016, Monster Energy Cup races averaged about 4.5 million viewers, but that number fell to 4.1 million viewers in 2017 and just 3.3 million viewers last year. All but a few individual races saw viewership declines, year over year. In addition to the dropping ratings, some individual tracks have had trouble filling seats. Notably, fan favorites like Charlotte, Daytona and Richmond have torn out tens of thousands of seats to avoid mostly empty grandstands.” He added, “Despite falling viewership and attendance numbers, Nascar’s top marketers tracked its brand health through a number of key markets from 2017 to 2018, which experienced a ‘big bump,’ according to NASCAR VP of brand marketing Pete Jung. Heading into the 2019 season, NASCAR plans to leverage its crop of young phenoms—who he called the greatest influx of new talent the sport may have ever seen—in its marketing, tap new technology and improve the in-person racing experience to boost fan interest in the sport.”

Increased TV Ratings

Finally, according to a story by Dave Caldwell entitled, “ NASCAR Finally Gains Some Measurable TV Ratings Traction ,” which was published in August 2019 by Forbes :

“With appreciable enthusiasm, NBC Sports reported Tuesday that 2.919 million watched Kevin Harvick win the NASCAR Cup race at Michigan on Sunday, a notable and impressive 14% increase over the 2.566 million that watched same race in 2018 — and the biggest audience for a Cup race on cable in nearly two years.”
“It is too early to declare that NASCAR has finally hit bottom, and NASCAR won’t ever be what it was. And not slamming up against pro golf helped. But a 14% bump is still a 14% bump.”

So, NASCAR’s content marketing strategy has helped to successfully turn around a struggling brand.

Now, that’s a story that content marketers in other fields can learn things from. Let’s examine eight of these important lessons.

1. Utilizing NASCAR’s Star Power

As I mentioned above, NASCAR optimizes its videos and metadata to feature the top-of-the-line talent they have available. Big stars often drive traffic through search and suggested videos.

NASCAR’s content marketing strategy is focused on:

  • Knowing their audience : They understand which stars and races resonate most with their audience. How? By using tools like Google Trends to figure out what search terms to highlight in their metadata.
  • Being true to their fans : While certain drivers may spike in search trends, NASCAR doesn’t feature them if they don’t appeal to their audience. Highlighting topics that aren’t interesting to their core fanbase (even if they are broadly popular) can lead their best viewers to unsubscribe.

For example, “ NASCAR fans roar after Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishes fifth, honors father: Darlington Raceway ,” is optimized for the search term, Dale Earnhardt Jr,” even though he finished in fifth place.

2. Using What Makes NASCAR Unique

NASCAR understands that its unique access to drivers or team owners can be a powerful tool. If you got it, flaunt it!

So, their content marketing strategy emphasizes:

  • Showing something new : Most fans don’t get a chance to see what goes on behind the scenes. NASCAR has found success by bringing this previously unseen side of sports to their fans.
  • Letting a star’s personality show through : NASCAR encourages its top stars to showcase their personalities in new and fun ways. This includes Austin Dillon , Jimmie Johnson , Daniel Suárez , Kyle Busch , and Ty Dillon , who have started their own YouTube channels to reach fans.

For example, watch “ Chase Elliott offers inside look of motorcoach at Darlington: 10-Minute Tour .”

3. Programming for the Off-Season

This year’s NASCAR schedule started on February 10, 2019, and ended November 17, 2019. And next year’s NASCAR Cup Series schedule starts on February 9, 2020, and ends November 8, 2020.

But, even though drivers get an off-season break, NASCAR’s YouTube channel doesn’t.

NASCAR has found that keeping a consistent flow of 2,604 uploads a year – an average of 50 a week – month in and month out is critical to cultivating a lasting audience.

Here are some additional elements of their off-season programming strategy:

  • Planning ahead : The off-season often means limited access to drivers and team owners. So, NASCAR makes sure to shoot what it needs before everyone heads for the beach.
  • Reviving library videos : NASCAR thinks about ways they can rework what they already have. And they create compilation packages or highlights of memorable races will keep their feed active without requiring brand-new footage.

For example, “ Chase Cabre ready for big things in 2020 | NASCAR Home Tracks ,” talked about next year’s season right after this year’s season ended.

4. Being Quick

NASCAR knows that speed is key when their audience is looking for something specific, like the results of the latest race or a multi-car wreck. So, they upload clips of highly searched events as soon as possible to capture every potential view.

Here are some additional things that help make this content marketing strategy successful:

  • Putting their workflow in place : As mentioned above, NASCAR has streamlined its upload process to turn clips around quickly. For example, they’ve created a preset metadata template and a library of great thumbnails can make the process even faster.
  • Utilizing their social media channels : Once NASCAR uploads a new clip, they communicate that to fans on all the social channels they use, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

For example, “ Bowyer and Newman go at it on pit road after All-Star Race ,” was uploaded to YouTube on May 18, 2019, the same day that Clint Bowyer walked up to Ryan Newman’s car on pit road and started throwing punches after the two had a confrontation in the All-Star Race.

5. Powering up for Tent-Pole Events

NASCAR races dot the calendar from February to November. But, the most important “tent-pole” events are:

  • The Daytona 500 in February.
  • The GEICO 500 (fka Winston 500) in April.
  • The Coca-Cola 600 in May.
  • The Southern 500 on Labor Day.

NASCAR often builds a programming schedule that centers around the events people want to see.

For example, the Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar, carrying by far the largest purse. This year, the race was held on February 17, 2019.

But, according to Google Trends, both Google and YouTube search interest in “Daytona 500” started in mid-December of 2018. So, that’s when NASCAR uploaded “ Dale Jr. to drive first-ever Daytona 500 Chevy pace truck .”

For this “tent-pole” event, NASCAR uploaded 30 videos with “Daytona 500” in their titles during the 10 weeks before the race was held.

NASCAR uploaded 5 videos on the day of the race and another 7 videos the day after the race. And NASCAR uploaded a video a day over the next four days during the week after the race.

Here are ways that content marketers in other fields can use this content marketing strategy:

  • Checking out recent trends : Google Trends has Google search data from as far back as 2004 and YouTube search data from as far back as 2008. So, you can investigate events from previous years to see how much search traffic they drive each year in your field.
  • Avoid waiting for the top of the wave : It may be tempting to wait until search traffic peaks to upload a tent-pole video, but by then the opportunity may be gone. So, upload as the search traffic starts to rise to optimize your video’s chance of being seen by a large audience.

6. Thinking Outside the Box

Funny, genuine, and unique clips work well with YouTube audiences. Fans often share clips that make them laugh or leave them astonished. The more strongly your audience feels about a clip, the more likely they are to share it.

For example, watch “ Daytona’s biggest moments told with toy blocks .”

Here are some additional things that content marketers in other fields should do:

  • Staying informed : Keeping up-to-date with the memes and popular videos that are dominating YouTube takes time. And what’s trending typically change frequently. But keeping a regular eye on what’s popular on YouTube can be fun and rewarding.
  • Collaborating with established YouTube creators : Your target audience is already watching and engaging with video content created by popular YouTube influencers. So, identify the right influencers, find the right engagement tactics, and measure the performance of your programs. But, be original. YouTubers are naturally skeptical of traditional endorsements. So, think of a clever (and transparent) way to involve a creator with your brand. And be authentic. If the audience doesn’t believe the collaboration is authentic, then nobody wins.

7. Scoring Big by Building Community

Many video content creators have conversations with their fans to create a community.

NASCAR created the Official NASCAR Fan Council in 2008 to allow fans a way to communicate directly with the NASCAR organization, providing feedback on things that matter to them with the sport.

NASCAR also cultivates an invested fanbase by engaging with viewers on and off-screen.

For example, watch “ Engine in the Brain: One fan’s incredible story .” It features Christian Sanchez, an amazing NASCAR – and Daniel Suarez – fan with autism.

Here are some additional things that content marketers in other fields should consider doing:

  • Asking fans for their help : Solicit direct feedback from your audience to find out what they like and what they may not be as enthusiastic about. Asking specific questions often yields a large number of responses.
  • Rewarding their engagement : Rewarding your best fans is easy. Whether you shout out their name or invite them to meet their favorite star, let your biggest supporters know they’re special. It’s a terrific way to keep them engaged with the community.

8. Convert Drop-By Viewers into Loyal Fans

Finally, you should optimize your channel for long-term viewership.

You should use general best practices like end screens, calls-to-action, and channel trailers to help convert viewers into subscribers. Why?

Because subscribers typically watch twice as much as non-subscribed viewers.

For example, the current trailer on the NASCAR channel is “ Six minutes of ‘Seven-Time’: Watch Jimmie Johnson’s career unfold .”

Why feature this video to visitors who haven’t subscribed to the channel yet?

Because 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson has just announced that the 2020 season will be his last, so viewers won’t want to miss a single one of his races next year.

Here are two extra things that you incorporate into your content marketing strategy:

  • Adding end screens : End screens are a powerful tool that allows you to promote up to four elements. They can point viewers to other videos, playlists, or channels on YouTube; ask viewers to subscribe to your channel; and promote your website or merchandise. You can add them to the last 5-20 seconds of a video and they appear on both desktop and mobile devices.
  • Creating cards : Cards are preformatted notifications that appear on desktop and mobile devices which you can set up to promote your brand and other videos on your channel. You can choose from a variety of card types like merchandise, fundraising, video, and more.

So, how do we know that NASCAR’s content marketing strategy helped to successfully turn around a struggling brand?

Well, according to Tubular Labs data, NASCAR uploaded 2,185 videos to their YouTube channel from mid-November 2017 to mid-November 2018.

These videos got 28.6 million views and 472,000 engagements, for an engagement rate of 1.6%.

And NASCAR uploaded 2,604 videos to their YouTube channel from mid-November 2018 to mid-November 2019.

These videos got 28.7 million views and 540,000 engagements (comments, shares, and likes), for an engagement rate of 1.8%. That’s a slight increase in views, but a significant increase in engagements.

And, what’s strategically important is that 26.7% of this audience is 18-24 years old, 30.6% is 25-34, and 14.7% is 35-44. No, these are not your father’s NASCAR dads.

This is a new generation of stock car racing fans. And that’s why NASCAR’s content marketing strategy can teach us a lot of important lessons even if we are in other fields.

More Resources:

  • 7 Brands That Will Inspire You to Create More Awesome Content
  • How to Build Your Brand With Content: 4 Things You Must Do
  • 6 Brands That Will Inspire You to Create Better Content

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DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

By: Mark Jeffery, Justin Williams

In 1992 Joe Jackson, former manager of DuPont Motorsports for twelve years, was angling to get the paint business at Rick Hendrick's sixty-five automotive dealerships across the United States. In…

  • Length: 26 page(s)
  • Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
  • Discipline: General Management
  • Product #: KEL166-PDF-ENG

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In 1992 Joe Jackson, former manager of DuPont Motorsports for twelve years, was angling to get the paint business at Rick Hendrick's sixty-five automotive dealerships across the United States. In order to win the Hendrick car dealership paint contract, Jackson and Hendrick met to discuss the possibility of sponsoring Hendrick's new team and rookie NASCAR driver-Jeff Gordon. As a result of that meeting, DuPont signed on to be the primary sponsor. By 2006 Gordon was a NASCAR superstar, and the DuPont logo-viewed by millions-was a household brand. While this level of exposure was exciting for the company, executives at DuPont could not help but wonder if they were fully leveraging this tremendous marketing opportunity. Gordon was on fire-but was DuPont maximizing the heat? The DuPont-NASCAR case tasks students and executives with designing a creative marketing campaign to activate the NASCAR sponsorship opportunity and maximize value beyond conventional sponsorship marketing. This open-ended challenge encourages students and executives to think outside of the traditional marketing tactics typically employed by business-to-consumer (B2C) NASCAR sponsors. Additionally, the nature of DuPont creates the need to develop a multi-dimensional plan that caters to a breadth of brands. Beyond designing a new marketing campaign, a key objective of the case is to focus students and executives on designing metrics for measurement of the return on investment (ROI) into a campaign plan. As a first step, it is important to clearly articulate the campaign, business strategy, and key business objectives mapped to the strategy.

Learning Objectives

Students and executives learn how to design a marketing campaign for measurement. Specifically, they are tasked with designing a new marketing campaign for DuPont to activate the DuPont/NASCAR relationship. Students and executives must define metrics for measurement and learn to use a balanced score card approach. Since the DuPont sponsorship of Hendrick Motorsports is a brand campaign built to reach the DuPont business-to-business (B2B) customer, both non-financial and financial metrics are used. The key to success is to have a clearly defined sponsorship marketing strategy and business objectives. The case teaches students and executives how to define key metrics and articulate a methodology for campaign measurement pre and post to quantify the return on investment (ROI).

Jan 1, 2007

Discipline:

General Management

Geographies:

United States

Industries:

Agriculture sector, Apparel industry, Automotive industry, Professional sports industry

Kellogg School of Management

KEL166-PDF-ENG

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nascar marketing case study

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, nascar: leading a marketing transformation in a time of crisis.

Publication date: 20 January 2017

Teaching notes

It is February 2011 and Brian France, CEO of NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), is facing a crisis. In the last five years, attendance at weekend NASCAR races has fallen 22 percent and television viewership has declined 30 percent. Key marketing sponsors have recently left the sport. At the same time, the U.S. economy was only beginning to recover from an economic recession that had an adverse impact on the sport of auto racing as a whole. Some leaders within NASCAR counseled Brian that these trends in attendance, viewership, and sponsorship stemmed from the recession and that NASCAR should continue with business as usual. But Brian sensed that the industry needed fundamental change and that he, as CEO of NASCAR, was the one that must lead this change.

With Brian at the helm, NASCAR embarked on an unprecedented amount of qualitative and quantitative research to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the entire industry. At the center of this research was the NASCAR consumer. Highly engaged, enthusiastic consumers were at the heart of an industry business model that had been successful for decades. But in 2011, marketing within all of NASCAR needed to transform, as it was clear that consumers were disengaging with the sport.

As the consumer research results unfold, Brian and leaders within NASCAR must make tough choices and set priorities. The case focuses on four key areas in which decisions need to be made by NASCAR leadership: digital marketing and social media, targeting the next-generation NASCAR consumer, enhancing the star power of NASCAR drivers, and enhancing the consumer experience at NASCAR events. Focus group videos offer students a customer-centric deep-dive into these challenges.

At its heart, this is a case about great leadership and transforming marketing throughout an entire industry. A wrap-up video from CEO Brian France summarizes how NASCAR executives tackled the difficult questions posed in the case.

Understand how deep consumer engagement is at the heart of a successful marketing ecosystem

Analyze focus group videos to understand the needs of today's consumer

Prioritize the market segments that should be cultivated as the next-generation consumer

Understand how differing incentives within an industry are at the heart of many marketing problems

Analyze a complex set of problems and set and manage priorities

Understand the importance of leadership in a time of crisis

  • Consumer marketing
  • Crisis management
  • Market research
  • Marketing communications
  • Marketing strategy
  • Social media
  • Strategic planning

Anderson, E.T. and Kilibarda, V. (2017), "NASCAR: Leading a Marketing Transformation in a Time of Crisis", . https://doi.org/10.1108/case.kellogg.2016.000229

Kellogg School of Management

Copyright © 2015, The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

You do not currently have access to these teaching notes. Teaching notes are available for teaching faculty at subscribing institutions. Teaching notes accompany case studies with suggested learning objectives, classroom methods and potential assignment questions. They support dynamic classroom discussion to help develop student's analytical skills.

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nascar marketing case study

Sports marketing is a huge field, accounting for billions of dollars in advertising and other promotional fees each year. And one of the most fascinating stories in the sports marketing industry is that of NASCAR, which, in only a few years, has graduated from a regional weekend pastime to a national phenomenon, creating personalities with rock-star popularity and causing those you’d least suspect to plant themselves in front of their televisions on weekends to watch their gear-head heroes compete in “the chase.”

Among those you’d least suspect: women. Of NASCAR’s 75 million fans, 40 percent are women. Women will spend $250 million this year on NASCAR-licensed products, and most experts believe this segment of the market will continue to grow in coming years. The interesting thing about those statistics is that NASCAR never set out to attract women to the sport; instead, the sports entity created something with infectious enthusiasm and “buzz,” and relied on its rabid fans to pull others into the fold. As a result, the entire line of NASCAR marketing products now includes pink shirts and stiletto heels because a portion of the fan base—affectionately referred to as the “race mommas”—demands them.

In a cover story on NASCAR in late 2005, Fortune magazine called it “the fastest-growing, best-run sports business in America—with the emphasis on business.” Many experts in sports marketing believe NASCAR can be a model case study for those wishing to enter the field.

NASCAR is the nation’s No. 1 spectator sport, and 17 of the top 20 most-attended sporting events in the country are NASCAR events. It is the second-most-watched sport in the United States, after the NFL. In addition to the huge number of female fans, more than 21 percent of fans are minorities, and more than 50 percent of the nation’s young people, ages 7 to 17, report they are NASCAR fans.

NASCAR fans are among the most loyal. They will switch brands to be supportive of their favorite drivers or to protest other drivers. Nearly two-thirds of them willingly spend more to buy a NASCAR sponsor’s product. They see it as a way to support the sport as well as the sponsor. Female fans report they would buy non-racing-related items, such as detergent, if they had NASCAR logos on the packaging.

The keys to NASCAR’s success are many, but one is the manner in which it has learned to manage the brand. Marketing executives realize that stock car racing is more than a sport; it’s a lifestyle. They share the life stories of drivers, crew chiefs and pit crew members as part of their promotional strategy. They have learned to capitalize on the “common man” down-to-earth personalities of the drivers, and they have combined that with the drama of a truly life-threatening activity that is clean, family friendly and patriotic. They leverage the fact that no NASCAR driver has been caught up in moral controversies, tested positive for steroids or been embroiled in public family disputes.

New technologies allow fans to follow the race intimately, from inside the car and via communication between drivers and their crews. NASCAR commentators are informed, seasoned professionals with long careers either following or participating in the industry. They are likable, approachable folks who can translate the technology of driving into something that nearly anyone can understand.

A key marketing strategy was NASCAR’s decision last year to partner with Harlequin romance novels to support the publication of three NASCAR-theme books, featuring NASCAR drivers on the covers. Even our local NASCAR hero, Carl Edwards, consulted with the author of those books to ensure she created a true-life representation of a driver for her steamy stories.

Driver Web sites are some of the most popular on the Internet. In recent months, many drivers have started blogs, resulting in tremendous fan response. For example, at one recent count, there were nearly 20,000 posts on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s blog, even though he had posted only a handful of times.

Another Web technology regularly trolls message boards, podcasts, social networking sites and blogs for sponsors to look for mentions of drivers. This gives sponsors an assessment of many factors, including how well a driver is connecting with fans. This “listening” technology is invaluable to sponsors, who often invest upward of $15 or $20 million per year in a racing team. The technique shrewdly capitalizes on a recent trend marketers are learning more about: the greater tendency than ever before for consumers to rely on the opinions of peers in making buying decisions. The Internet has become “word-of-mouth” marketing through a megaphone. And sports marketers, as well as their colleagues in other industries, are getting the message.

For example, marketing firms and potential sponsors have closely tracked the Internet traffic around Earnhardt’s departure from DEI and joining of Hendrick Motorsports to learn the implications of that transition from the fans’ perspective. Among other things, it has allowed them to gauge how many fans will follow Jr., regardless of sponsor or number.

The dollars wrapped up in this kind of market research are enormous.

But that’s nothing compared to $239 for stilettos sporting NASCAR logos.

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NASCAR Marketing Strategy: Top 10 Takeaways to Learn From

With a fanbase comprising half of America, it is safe to say that this particular car racing competition is one of the most popular sports in America and the world.

People with no interest in motorsports have heard “NASCAR” at least once. That is why we have decided to list 10 things we could learn from the NASCAR Marketing strategy.

Why is that so? They definitely haven’t always started this famous. They had their weaknesses in both their sports and marketing systems and worked them out and turned them into their strengths.

nascar marketing strategy

NASCAR Marketing Strategy

So, while there are obviously things that can be done better. The NASCAR marketing strategy is probably one of the best marketing strategies in the racing car industry right now.

And we’ll tell you why in a minute. Before that, we must know what NASCAR really is and why they have so much hype surrounding them.

What is NASCAR?

NASCAR  stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It is essentially a sports organization that manages and arranges the competitive racing of fast-paced stock cars.

About 40 cars race around a small, round track, and the winner is the one to finish all laps first. That’s the crux of it. It’s literally just a racing competition. So, what’s with the hype surrounding it?

What’s with its extremely loyal yet large fanbase? How do they manage to keep their audience involved in the competition?

It’s certainly because of the NASCAR Marketing strategy. We can learn so many things from it; you don’t necessarily have to be into motorsports to learn why it is as big.

How is NASCAR so Successful

Keeping the loyal fanbase engaged.

The smart management behind it and the grand scheme of presenting their races to the audience is ultimately why the brand and the Nascar Marketing stratgey stands out.

They have a very specific demographic that they target their races to (which are young and middle-aged men in America, but more on that later). Additionally, they keep their fanbase constantly involved by arranging events and tournaments throughout the year.

All these tournaments and competition series are sanctioned. And all of them have live, dedicated audiences that buy tickets to be present.

nascar marketing

Keeping the Sponsors Satisfied

Ultimately, by doing all the above, NASCAR gets popularity that exceeds many other motorsports. It gets the  highest ratings on TV , which seem to go higher every season. Sponsors are bound to come pouring in.

Most of their profit comes from the insane amount of sponsors they can get. In fact, most fortune 500 companies  prefer to sponsor NASCAR than any other sports competition  (a total of 114 fortune 500 companies have sponsorships with NASCAR currently).

Some companies have sponsored teams or drivers, such as Allstate, BestBuy, and Lowe. And others are official partners of NASCAR itself; these companies include Coca-Cola, Hewlett Packard, Ford, and so many more. (The detailed list is given  here ).

10 Lessons from the NASCAR Marketing Strategy

Let’s get to the part we have all been waiting for. What is NASCAR Marketing Strategy, how do they get so many sponsors, and why should everyone learn a thing or two from it?

1. They know their target audience, and they cater to them

While this is not always the most diverse way to go about your marketing strategy. It is the most effective as it targets a very specific demographic.

As we mentioned before, for NASCAR,  that demographic is young  and middle-aged American men. 62% of the NASCAR audience is male, while the rest is female. Most of their promotional activity is based on their targeted audience’s likes and dislikes.

This keeps these “Hardcore” fans completely engaged.

2. There’s never a dull moment

A very important aspect of the NASCAR marketing strategy is their play on the element of surprise. The fun and thrilling moments on screen, the extreme stunts that keep the audience on their toes, and, dare we say, the adrenaline rush from watching the possible dangerous laps.

This keeps their loyal fanbase engrossed and attracts other one-time viewers or casual watchers to look more into the sport.

3. They know what the audience wants

Whether it’s live events, meet and greet, or possible venues. NASCAR is popular for giving its fanbase and audience exactly what they want. The main goal of the NASCAR marketing strategy is to provide fans with an unforgettable, worthwhile experience.

This can be shown through the pricing of their products and services and is another efficient NASCAR marketing strategy.

nascar

4. They promote their uniqueness

While there are so many different types of motorsports out there with their own successful marketing strategies. The one thing that’s unique to NASCAR is its accessibility. There is no secrecy, everything and everyone is out in the open.

It’s like a tight-knit community. They give the spotlight to their stars so that they can be relatable to the spectators’.

In addition to that, NASCAR has a wide range of event coverage. They have cameras planted everywhere. The audience can have a firsthand experience of everything that goes behind the scenes and on screen.

5.  They always have ongoing events/ series

The NASCAR-sanctioned series takes its course over ten months. During these ten months, there are events almost weekly. There are four major series that take place during the season. The cup series is the top-rated series.

The Xfinity Series is the second tier. There is also the Camping World Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series.

Imagine all of these being constantly covered on TV and on official social media platforms, 24/7; they’ll get some attention.

6. They keep their promotions up even during the off-season

During the 2 off-season months. NASCAR’s social media platforms are consistently active. The media teams consistently post highlights, clips, and even casual behind-the-scenes interviews with their stars.

What this does is, keeps their audience and fanbase on the lookout for more content, hence preventing them from losing interest. This usually happens to many other sports competitions and organizations during the off-season, which affects their popularity.

7. They spend a lot on their promotional campaigns

One of the most famous NASCAR marketing Strategies is doing all sorts of promotional campaigns. And its popularity is proof of how successful this strategy is.

Types of promotional campaigns NASCAR has done range from customer/ fan events to car shows, billboard advertisements, meet and greets, interviews, and even Hollywood movies. This has garnered NASCAR’s attention and brought in more fame and sponsors.

nascar marketing case study

8. They work with other companies through co-branding and sponsorships

As we have mentioned, NASCAR has the largest number of sponsors out of any other motorsports competition.

This works for both NASCAR and the company that is sponsoring it. By actively collaborating with famous companies on their products and services, NASCAR has built a name for itself.

Some examples of such sponsorships can be taken from certain NASCAR themed/ licensed products from different companies that have sponsored NASCAR. (Such as Cheerios by General Mills product based on car #43).

9. Maximize the popularity of their stars and products

NASCAR keeps a close eye on the trends going on in the community. They specifically showcase and highlight topics, stars, and products that appeal more to their target audience (Even if it’s for a little while).

NASCAR also directly engages with its core audience through different platforms to get their feedback and opinions. This helps solidify their already very dedicated base and get public opinion on certain things.

10. Consistent and Professional Coverage of their Events

As we mentioned before. NASCAR has always had a huge Television presence . Before social media, most of NASCAR marketing strategy was based on TV coverage and ratings.

And despite dipping into social media, NASCAR still tends to get most of its attention from Television. They also promote their events through radio stations and have now started things like live streaming and uploading YouTube videos.

Promoting their events on social media creates an online presence for NASCAR, which ultimately helps diversify its fanbase.

Since NASCAR is majorly based only in America and some parts of Canada, having an online presence through the internet brings fans from all over the world where there is no access to American television channels.

While the NASCAR Marketing Strategy is very sound and has been working perfectly for years. There are certain things that they need to fix.

Despite having such a presence worldwide, NASCAR has yet to properly market its products and sports in places other than the USA and some parts of Canada. By targeting a specific demographic and limiting themselves to certain countries, NASCAR is not fully taking advantage of its popularity and growth potential.

Interested in learning about other marketing strategies? You may want to check out this article:

  • Chanel Marketing Strategy: 5 Brilliant Lessons to Learn From
  • Starbucks Marketing Strategy: Selling 4 Million Coffees Daily
  • Tesla Marketing Strategy: 10 Curious Things To Know
  • Hermes Marketing Strategy: 4 Billion-Dollar Marketing Lessons

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nascar marketing case study

eBrandCast

May 5, 2021

Brand strategy case study – nascar.

eBrandcast / Brand Strategy Case Study – NASCAR In today’s episode, I present a case study of how NASCAR is using content marketing to renew their brand, and attract new fans. Although they’re not an eCommerce brand, their genuinely innovative content campaign offers many lessons for entrepreneurs. As long as you have done the work of defining your brand, there’s nothing NASCAR has done that you couldn’t adopt for yourself. So have a listen to how NASCAR took their floundering brand and renewed it for a new generation. Each element of their approach is broken down with ideas for implementation in eCommerce.

You'll Learn

What went wrong for the NASCAR brand

How NASCAR revolutionized their content creation process

How NASCAR fueled their content with storytelling

Practical tips from NASCAR’s strategy for eCommerce entrepreneurs

Checkout: The Step-by-Step, 7C Method to Build a Dominant eCommerce Brand

eBrandcubator: eBB’s Flagship 7-week Coaching Program

Full Podcast Transcript

Hello Beings of Earth! I’m your host Neil Verma. Welcome to eBrandCast, where we decode what branding truly is, so you can build a dominant eCom Brand. In this episode, we’re going to take some content marketing lessons for an unlikely source… NASCAR. Yep, that NASCAR. Why? Because they’ve managed to powerfully revive their sport and brand to its former glory with a smart approach to content marketing. And they’ve used tricks and tactics that anyone of us can steal for our own brand building. Ready to race? Let’s get into it. Although NASCAR remains one of the most successful sport franchises in the US, they have struggled to stay relevant in the last decade. As of 2019, TV ratings for the Daytona 500, the most popular race on the schedule, were down 38% from 2015. They were able to stem the bleeding in 2018 – there was only a 1% drop in viewership between 2018 and 2019 – but those fans weren’t getting any younger. As of 2016, the average age of a NASCAR TV viewer was 58. In the 10 years since 2006, that average fan age rose by 9 years. Meaning, the same core group of fans were watching, but NASCAR seemed to be failing to pull in a new generation. But they lost a few of their die-hard fans, too. In the mid 2010’s, NASCAR was still trying to find a way to recover from major changes to the sport’s culture originating in the early 2000’s, as well as a huge cheating scandal in 2013. It was a hard fall for a once mighty brand. So powerful, in fact, that the term “NASCAR Dad” was actually described as a demographic group in the 2004 US Presidential election. But by then, the sport was already changing. In the span of 6 months in 2000, 3 NASCAR drivers were killed: Adam Petty, a fourth-generation driver, Kenny Irwin Jr., and Tony Roper. Then, in early 2001, Deal Earnhardt was killed during the final lap of the Daytona 500. Earnhardt’s death, in particular, spurred intense investigations, and led to sweeping overhauls to driver safety measures. The result was far fewer crashes. A study conducted by the University of Iowa in 2011 discovered that the likelihood of seeing a crash increases viewership. And each additional crash leads to a 6% bump in viewers. So despite being the absolutely right decision, a significant number of fans found NASCAR a lot less exciting following the changes, and started tuning out. A few years later, in an attempt to boost ratings, NASCAR totally overhauled their championship qualifications. Up until 2004, just like Formula 1, NASCAR championships were decided strictly by a point system. Depending on where a driver finished on the podium, points were awarded, with the most points going to the winner. At the end of the season, the driver with the most points won. But with TV ratings dwindling, NASCAR noticed that the point system was exacerbating the situation. There were seasons a driver could mathematically guarantee a championship win several races before the end of the season. And it was totally possible for a driver to finish poorly in several races, and still win the championship. In fact, in 2003, the NASCAR champion was Matt Kenseth, who only won 1 race, but finished in the top 10, 25 times, meaning he had a steady stream of points. Ryan Newman won 8 races, but because he crashed in several races and was unable to finish, he lost out on enough points to wind up 6th in the championship by the end of the season. NASCAR worried the points system was becoming confusing to fans, and contributing to viewership numbers dwindling as the season went on. So in 2004, they introduced a playoff system. The first half of the season would be based on points, after they redistributed the point values to reward drivers for consistent winning over consistent finishes. And throughout this first half, drivers at the bottom of the pack are eliminated. In the second half of the season, only 16 drivers compete over the final 10 races, with the most points winning the championship. However, the system has gone through several iterations, starting in 2004, it underwent upheavals in 2007, 2011, 2014, and 2017. To an extent, the change worked – at first. The same University of Iowa study that found fewer people were tuning in because the sport was safer, also found that close point races leading up to the championship was a big draw for viewers. And networks also saw more even viewer numbers across the season. But the new playoff system had its drawbacks. The bracket-style system put huge pressure on teams to crack the top 12 in the standings. Not just to qualify for the championship, but in order to secure sponsors, as being in the top 12 meant greater visibility over the course of a full season for sponsors, not just the first half. Once the playoff rounds began, the eliminated 31 drivers are more or less ignored. Unwittingly, it puts teams and drivers under pressure to cheat. And unsurprisingly, they did. In September of 2013, Clint Bowyer, a driver for Michael Waltrip Racing, appeared to purposefully spin out with only a few laps to go in the race. As a result of the crash, a safety flag was brought out – meaning drivers were forced to slow down, and prohibited from passing each other. It’s a bit like a pause button, but every lap still counts. The move ended up blocking Ryan Newman from qualifying for the Chase Series, and instead ensured his teammate, Martin Truex Jr. squeezed through. Fans were some of the first to cry foul, as those listening to radio conversations between the teams and their drivers heard the Michael Waltrip team telling Bowyer to “itch” his arm right before the spin out. At the end of it, Michael Waltrip Racing was fined $300,000 and stripped of points. Truex was pulled out of the playoffs, and the drivers who were blocked from qualifying, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon, were put in. The decision polarized fans, and it precipitated another huge rule change in 2014, including a winner-take-all race between the top 4 drivers at the end of the season. The legacy of the scandal was two-fold. First, it seriously undermined the NASCAR brand, and many fans started to question whether results could be trusted. Second, fans were starting to get annoyed with the constant changes to the rules, changes they often didn’t like. It created a lot of disenfranchised fans who ended up losing interest altogether. Entire sections of empty seats became a regular sight on broadcasts. And even though NASCAR does not release official attendance numbers, deserted grandstands at even the most prestigious races were hard to miss. Tracks like Daytona and Richmond made the decision to rip out tens of thousands of seats to avoid the bad optics. So, by 2018, with TV viewership plummeting, and race attendance dwindling, it felt like NASCAR had bottomed out. Of course, the start of the 2020 season was delayed due to the COIVD pandemic, and races eventually aired with no fans in attendance at all, but these are extreme circumstances. Prior to this season, though, these converging crises sparked big changes to the brand, spearheaded by a new content marketing strategy. And it wasn’t all bad news. They recognized they had amazing assets to leverage. Heading into the 2019 season, lots of experts pointed out NASCAR was attracting maybe the best generation of young drivers into the sport. It was an opportunity to connect to a whole new audience of fans and re-engage lapsed believers. The core insight was that as a sports franchise, and just like modern eCommerce entrepreneurs, they are both marketers and publishers. That means any content they produce has a dual role. Of course, it should encapsulate and sell the NASCAR brand and experience. But it also needs to be entertaining, and engaging enough, to convert the curious into loyal fans. Even though they had been marketing and producing content for years, it lacked a cohesive message. Up until 2018, NASCAR’s marketing was divided into separate, specialized teams. For instance, there was a team dedicated to maintaining their website, another team took care of their social media profiles, another did video production, and so on. Content creation under this system almost always meant every piece required coordination among several teams, who didn’t always have the same priorities. NASCAR’s content pipeline as a result was slow and unpredictable. It also lacked the coherent arc of a story, so it wasn’t capturing anyone’s imagination. As a first step, in the summer of 2018, NASCAR decided to unify their content team, into a single group who would manage everything. It was partly inspired by the hope that modernizing their content approach, would more effectively expose the sport to a younger audience. Like any other publisher, they have to ensure their content will be found easily. The content team uses metadata to optimize their videos according to what their audience values most. They use tools like Google Trends to figure out which search terms to use in their video titles and metadata. But it doesn’t stop there. Because of the unpredictable nature of sports, certain drivers, for instance, may spike in search trends for any number of reasons. NASCAR has to combine insights gained from trends with a deep understanding of their audience. So they’re looking for trends that will appeal directly to their core base of fans. For instance, one of their video titles is: “NASCAR fans roar after Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishes fifth, honors father: Darlington Raceway.” This video is optimized for popular keyword searches like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Darlington Raceway. But because his father was a NASCAR legend, adding “honors father” helps place the video in suggested videos for someone researching Dale Earnhardt Senior. Even adding “finishes fifth,” will attract fans who didn’t watch the race but are looking up Dale Earnhardt Jr’s result. It’s adding this kind of a metadata that gives the video visibility to a wide array of searches, and will keep it relevant. NASCAR knows their drivers are their best assets, so leveraging their popularity in metadata is key. For eCommerce entrepreneurs, metadata plays a similar role, as it impacts your brand’s visibility when consumers Google product attributes they care about. Making sure your brand is discoverable with a meta description that will capture the attention of the right audience. For example, the meta description for eCommerce brand Death Wish Coffee, uses keywords like “top online coffee-seller” which communicates they’re the best, trusted choice. And also “fair-trade” and “high caffeine” to capture consumers that may be looking for strong coffee but aren’t yet aware of the brand. It’s a description that will capture consumers coming from several different perspectives, just like NASCAR’s video titles. As for the content itself, NASCAR recognized an important lesson from their shrinking TV numbers. Which is TV viewership isn’t the whole picture. One of the reasons viewership is declining, is that a fan’s relationship to the broadcast is changing. Before the internet was in everyone’s pocket, sports broadcasters were the key figures educating fans about the sport. Broadcasters would almost always have access to more facts and stats than the average viewer at home would. So, part of the draw to tune in, was to get a more complete analysis of how a race would unfold, and why. Watching broadcasts regularly would also give fans an opportunity to absorb a lot of the sport’s history, as announcers discussed past races and championships. But now, fans at home have instant access to all the same information a network or announcer does. Where the TV broadcast used to be the best lightning rod for engaging with the sport, it’s now almost last on the list. Younger fans are much more likely to stream sports than they are to watch on a traditional network, numbers that aren’t included in TV ratings. Not only that, the number of ways a fan can now follow the sport has multiplied. NASCAR offers a phone and tablet app called RaceView, services like Race Buddy, which allows fans to stream in-car cameras, view leaderboards, and listen to live team radio. And while NASCAR has yet to offer an official, centralized streaming service like other sports, fans can watch races live through FOX and NBC – who share the NASCAR broadcast rights. The content team understood that in order to keep fans engaged, they’d have to showcase something new, that fans don’t have access to. Once again, it was an opportunity to leverage NASCAR talent, by giving teams and drivers the chance to give fans a look behind the scenes. One popular video example, is driver Chase Elliott giving a tour of a motorcoach the team used at Darlington. By showcasing drivers, NASCAR is leveraging what’s totally unique to them. They also encourage their drivers to express their personalities, and many of them have their own dedicated YouTube Channels. This helps drivers connect with their own community of fans, each its own micro-demographic. For example, Austin Dillion’s channel features a regular podcast called “Barn Life.” Whereas Kyle Busch’s channel has lots of behind the scenes clips of races, as well as candid videos of his family and new puppy. But Jimmie Johnson’s channel is almost exclusively focused on the racing world. You may not have that kind of asset in your business, but the point is to zero in on what you can showcase in your content that no one else can. This insight will require some creativity to put into practice. The obvious content types to start leveraging is behind the scenes looks at the manufacturing process, employees, and operations. Don’t underestimate the appeal of this kind of content. Although it might be mundane to you, most of us are always interested to see how other people live and work, especially the people behind the brands we love. If, like NASCAR, you have proprietary assets you can leverage: do it. But for many of you, the unique value you deliver in your content might be your brand’s personality, or unique perspective on widely available information. Remember, information alone isn’t very valuable, helping people understand what information means, is valuable. Just like NASCAR, a lot of this content will be top-of-funnel, capturing curiosity in your category or solution. One eCommerce brand that creates amazing content at this level is ProFlowers, who created a near-encyclopedia of 151 Types of Flowers. Each type is complete with images, seasonality, and other information like where it grows. Is this information available with a simple Google search? Sure, but what makes it unique is ProFlowers putting it all in one place. Back to NASCAR, they also recognized that newer fans were more likely to engage with the brand online. So NASCAR totally revamped NASCAR.com for mobile, as half its visitors were using their phones to access it. The site now operates like a companion to watching a race – and its user numbers are likely about the skyrocket with attending a race out of the question for the foreseeable future. It’s the essence of omnichannel, understanding how your customers interact with your brand and how. Some customers like to shop in store with eCommerce channels as a research guide. Others prefer to research on mobile and purchase on desktop. Or order online then pick it up in store. Understanding how to build an integrated omnichannel landscape tailored to how your customers prefer to interact with your brand is key as the online and offline worlds only continue to blur. Again, the core lesson for entrepreneurs here is that creating compelling content is all about knowing who your audience is, and what their needs are. And those needs change. Fans used to need to tune into a TV broadcast. Now they want to get to know the personalities of their favorite driver. But that doesn’t mean NASCAR didn’t also experiment with out of the box thinking. There are only so many driver interviews of backstage tours that will get fans excited. One of the most popular videos on NASCAR’s channel is called “Daytona’s biggest moments told with toy blocks.” The video matches archived audio of race broadcasts with stop-motion, including a hilarious brawl re-created with Play-Mobile figures. The video also ended with a setup for the next Daytona 500, featuring Play-Mobile figures with animated faces. It’s a reminder to keep an eye on other creative trends out there, including memes. It’s not a guarantee you’ll go viral, but it can result in some really fun content. Don’t forget to collaborate with other creators. You might have no idea how to produce a stop-motion video, but there are plenty of people out there who do. And having an unconventional team-up can have the added benefit of helping your brand feel more authentic. And like NASCAR leveraging interest in Daytona, one of their biggest events, you can do the same. Seamless, an online delivery service based in the US, did something similar in 2014, they piggybacked on the Oscars and created the hashtag #OscarNomNoms. They posted a series of images that transformed the posters of nominated movies into food puns, so The Wolf of Wall Street, became The Wolf of Waffle Street. Another way NASCAR is appealing to a younger generation is by integrating emerging tech into their content strategy. Understanding most millennials are online, NASCAR is using virtual and augmented reality to give younger fans a more immersive experience, closer to what it’s like to attend a race. And it’s going to be interesting to see whether these advancements take off with the older generation of fans now that social distancing will reshape what it means to watch a race. NASCAR live-streams pre-race events with 360-degree views, including driver’s meetings and in team garages as they prepare. The 360-view can be accessed through a mobile device or a VR headset. They also posted links across their mobile app, Facebook profile, and on Youtube. They have plans to put 360-degree cameras inside the cars during a race in the future, to offer fans a driver’s-eye view. NASCAR also added augmented reality experiences to their app. It was first offered to fans attending the Daytona 500, and allowed them to take pictures of the event while adding race-themed items to their photos. It was a way to encourage fans to create and share their own content, and it also motivated more NASCAR fans to download and start using the NASCAR app. Future plans are to give users the ability to access the technology at any time, not just during events, and to allow them to place bigger items, like full race cars, into their own environment. Emerging tech is becoming an increasingly important tool in eCommerce as well. From furniture retailers that allow you to imagine an item in your own space before delivery, or apps that let you preview cosmetics, glasses, and jewelry. Most of the applications in this tech is to use them as purchase tools, rather than content, but they can easily be combined with more traditional behind-the-scenes tours. If you have a tech product, using virtual or augmented reality to allow customers to kook at the internal components could be another creative application for valuable and unique content. In essence, don’t put emerging tech into the silo as a conversion tool only, there’s lots of potential for content as well. NASCAR has also been working with voice assistants. They’ve made their weekly podcast, “Glass Case of Emotion,” and created a NASCAR Flash Briefing for Alexa and Google Home which will give fans full updates on race results every Monday. NASCAR sees this as a bet on the future, and that building a presence on voice platforms will help them grow with the technology as it develops. And just like we counsel entrepreneurs at eBB, NASCAR explains they feel they have fans who are already using this technology, and so are trying to offer valuable content that reaches them. Critically, NASCAR isn’t just catering to current fans. They also optimize their content to convert casual viewers into diehards. Their YouTube channel, for instance, is primed to encourage subscribing and long-term viewership. They adhere to all the best practices, by adding end screens that promote other videos on the channel, their website, and links to merchandise. Videos also feature calls-to-action to like and subscribe, and they’ve set up channel trailers. All of their driver channels use these techniques as well. On average, subscribed viewers watch twice as many viewers as non-subscribers, so converting subscribers is one of the best ways to start nurturing a new fanbase. NASCAR is especially smart about it, too, and carefully selects channel trailers. For example, leading up to the 2020 season, the featured trailer is the video “Six minutes of ‘Seven-Time’: Watch Jimmie Johnson’s career unfold.” Following Jimmie Johnson’s announcement that 2020 will be his last season, giving new fans this retrospective can help them emotionally invest in the season even before it starts, and prompting them to tune in. For entrepreneurs, this is a lesson in storytelling. The path any given customer takes to discovering your brand will vary widely, but making sure you’re always leading with a story will go a long way to hooking their curiosity and attention. Just like NASCAR’s YouTube channels use the channel trailers to peak curiosity on following the larger story. Not strictly an eCommerce brand, but Columbia does an excellent job of this on their homepage. They use a Pinterest-like tile design on their homepage, each image has text overlaid like “Shop Men’s,” Shop Women’s” and so on. The images feature people wearing their products, but they’re lifestyle photos including nature shots. The products are just a small part of the image, and at the top of the page is the title “Adventure Awaits.” Columbia invites visitors to see the purchase journey as a choose-your-own-adventure story, peaking curiosity and drawing them in. Of course, it’s not just the content you publish, the other side of a successful content strategy is timing. NASCAR understands that its fans won’t always be able to catch a race, or are just looking for highlights. So they make sure to upload sought-after clips as soon as possible. This is made possible by the fact that the content team is now unified, so there’s a solid workflow in place and clips can be turned around quickly. Aside from finding a clip and uploading, they have a premade library of metadata templates and thousands of optimized thumbnails to make sure there’s as little delay as possible. The faster NASCAR can upload an official clip of a viral moment, the more views they’ll get. For example, other than the usual race results and recaps, they upload multi-car wrecks, and any scuffle between drivers or teams. In 2019, one such video was “Bowyer and Newman go at it on pit road after All-Star Race,” which featured a fist fight and a lot of finger pointing. It’s all integrated with their social profiles, too, as uploaded clips like these are shared across their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. NASCAR also uses content to prime fans for the season’s tent-pole events, like the Daytona 500 in February, among others. Using Google Trends, NASCAR pinpoints when interest in these events starts to pick up, and they start posting relevant content to build excitement. For example, last season, NASCAR posted 30 videos in the 10 weeks leading up to the Daytona 500 with “Daytona 500” in the title. They then front loaded 5 Daytona videos the day before the race, and posted 7 the day after, and one each day for the next 4 days. You’re not likely going to have this kind of event, but you will have natural highs and lows throughout the year. Certain holidays may bring significant upticks in order volume, or your products are strictly seasonal, like Christmas decorations, or Mother’s Day cards. Tailoring your content strategy to gear up your customers for these events can ensure you’re setting consumers on the buyer’s journey just in time to order at the best time. You don’t want to wait until traffic peaks in order to put out matching content. Timing is everything, and making sure you’re capturing that early interest ensures your content stays at the top of search results when that peak hits. Getting this right will depend on the peculiarities of your customers. But because about one quarter of American consumers start holiday shopping around Thanksgiving, most holiday gift guides will start to pop up in the week or two leading up to Black Friday. Finally, like most other sports, NASCAR has a lengthy off-season. In 2020, obviously, it was a lot longer than usual, too. But NASCAR has always used this gap as an opportunity to keep fans engaged, and get them excited about the up-coming season. So by the time the season usually ends in November, the content team has already shot lots of film before drivers and teams take a break. Enough to feed their average of 50 uploads a week to YouTube. They also dive into the archives and put together season reviews, compilations, and blooper reels which cuts down on their need for new footage. This also gives them an opportunity to strategically plan the release of pre-shot video. Like posting driver interviews recapping their season experience right after the season ends, and features looking forward to the new season starting after New Year’s. As a result of this content strategy overhaul, NASCAR is seeing their digital numbers explode. Of the 2,604 videos posted to their YouTube channel from mid-November 2018 to the end of the 2019 season, they’ve gotten 28.7 million views, and 540,000 engagements. But the best part is who is watching. Remember the average age of a NASCAR TV viewer at 58? For NASCAR’s online channels, 26.7% of the audience is 18-24; 30.6% is 25-34; and 14.7% are 35-44. That’s 72% of their audience under 44. And their TV ratings are starting to show signs of a modest recovery. Mid-way through the 2019 season, NBC announced that viewership of the Cup race in Michigan had improved by 14% since 2018. Not all due to the content strategy, I’m sure, but it goes to show you how any brand can turn around with the right tools. Remember, content plays 2 interrelated roles: it’s a marketing tool and a branding tool. It doesn’t just sell your brand experience, it engages your audience’s emotions in order to transform curiosity into loyalty long-term. As a branding tool specifically, you need to see yourself as a content publisher, which means your strategy should be planned out in advance. Not just to avoid scrambling for content, but so you can produce content that works together to tell a larger story, to have an overall arc that keeps your audience hooked. You’ve been listening to ebrandcast, where we decode what branding truly is, so you can build a dominant eCom brand. If you enjoyed today’s show, please let us know! We’d love the feedback, and we read every review we get. Not just that, but since our podcast is brand new, reviews help us out, a lot. They increase the visibility of the podcast, and help us reach more entrepreneurs like you. More importantly, your suggestions let us know what we’re doing well, and what we can improve, so post your thoughts! And as a thank you for taking the time, we’re offering everyone who leaves us a review free lifetime access to the 7C Canvas platform. It’s an online tool that allows you to fill out, save, and share as many versions of the 7C Canvas as you can come up with. What’s the 7C Canvas? It’s the ultimate one-pager, building-block technique to creating an eCommerce brand strategy. It accompanies our flagship 7C method, and is the perfect companion for our book, Checkout. Getting access is an easy 3-step process. First, post a review on Apple Podcast – 5-stars is always welcome. Second, take a screenshot of your review. 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2024 Daytona 500: How CBS Sports' telecasts of 'The Great American Race' transformed NASCAR on television

Cbs sports played a major role in making the daytona 500 what it is today.

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Nearly a full 45 years later, and despite generations of great racers and great moments that followed in its wake, the aftershock of the 1979 Daytona 500 is still felt each February at the open of Speedweeks. In many circles, it is regarded as the most pivotal race in the history of NASCAR. In some circles, it is regarded as the single greatest NASCAR race of all-time.

Before a live television audience -- many of whom were stuck at home due to a massive snowstorm along the east coast -- NASCAR was launched from a regional racing novelty to national relevance and reverence as Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough took each other out racing for the win on the final lap, opening the door for Richard Petty to hold off Darrell Waltrip to win his sixth Daytona 500 and drive to Victory Lane as Yarborough and the Allison Brothers fought each other in the infield. For much of America, it was their introduction to the very essence of stock car racing itself -- and for CBS Sports, it made for quite the first impression.

From the first live, flag-to-flag broadcast of the Daytona 500 in 1979 onward], CBS Sports spent 21 years as the race's television home and would come to play an enormous role in shaping the lore and mythos of "The Great American Race," as well as forever changing the way NASCAR was presented on television and how the story of the race and the stories of its drivers were told. This year, CBS Sports spoke with several who were involved in the network's Daytona 500 broadcasts about their lasting impact on NASCAR, from the Hall of Fame broadcaster who drove them forward to the technical and storytelling advancements still felt today.

Ken Squier's impact and influence

Compared to the decentralized and often chaotic sports media landscape of today, the 1970s presented a much simpler time for many sports on television. While major sports such as NFL football, Major League Baseball and NBA basketball were taking hold as network staples, many other sports were presented in condensed, edited-for-TV formats on programs such as ABC's "Wide World of Sports." These programs marked the first exposure of many to NASCAR racing and its biggest race, the Daytona 500, which had come to be featured annually on Wide World of Sports.

But in the late 1970s, CBS Sports began executing a strategy to cut into the dominance ABC had enjoyed over sports media, and focused specifically on Wide World of Sports events that the network could pick up by promising the rights holder either expanded tape coverage or live coverage outright.

The Daytona 500 was identified as one such event that fit into this strategy. But actually bringing the Daytona 500 on CBS to life was largely the work of one man who was in a unique position to bring NASCAR to the masses.

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In CBS' employ as a sports broadcaster was Ken Squier, a racing broadcaster from Vermont who had spearheaded efforts to produce and broadcast national radio broadcasts of NASCAR races as the co-founder of Motor Racing Network. A racing insider with influence extending all the way up to NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and president Bill France Jr., Squier would come to serve as the single most important advocate for stock car racing at CBS, fostering an important connection between CBS executives and the France family.

"The idea to steal the Daytona 500 was Ken's," said Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports. "Ken came to Barry Frank and to me and said, 'I have it on pretty good authority that Bill France is looking to show the race live. And if we, CBS, would agree to that, I think we could make a deal.'"

The process of acquiring the rights to the Daytona 500 took several years, and there were several hurdles to clear on both the network's side and NASCAR's side to make it possible. At CBS, skepticism lingered over the feasibility of having a live broadcast for a four-hour, unscripted event with no real time constraints, and also whether NASCAR -- which to that point had little reach outside of the southeast -- would be accepted by a mass television audience, CBS affiliates, or their advertisers. Meanwhile, NASCAR brass had its own concerns about how a live television broadcast would impact at-track ticket sales, the sport's primary source of revenue.

After negotiations spanning half a year, which included the condition of a regional blackout in Florida, CBS Sports agreed to a five-year contract with International Speedway Corporation to carry the Daytona 500 live on television in May 1978. Squier would serve as lead announcer, accompanied by analyst and British racing star David Hobbs in the booth, former NASCAR Cup champion Ned Jarrett and Brock Yates as pit reporters, and Marianne Bunch-Phelps as a roving reporter. The deal was consummated with a celebratory meal at the Steak 'n Shake on International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona -- a France favorite -- that came out to approximately $6.40.

Neat piece of @CBSSports company history. This is the press release announcing they'd broadcast the Daytona 500 for five years starting in 1979 pic.twitter.com/qA1vQXzLrV — Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) May 30, 2023

Production talent for the Daytona 500 included Mike Pearl, who achieved industry fame as the producer of "The NFL Today" on CBS, and others like director Bob Fishman and Bob Stenner who later succeeded Pearl as producer. But much of the vision for the Daytona 500 on CBS was Squier's -- with many of his willing students on the production team new to broadcasting racing, a great deal of Squier's work centered around teaching them what made for a comprehensive racing broadcast and how to best show and tell both the action on the racetrack and the drivers behind the wheel.

"He was instrumental in everything in the early years. Feature ideas -- 'This is a great story with so-and-so' -- the rivalries, he was the one who said, 'We need to get down into the pits more. We have to explain what's happening with a tire change, what everybody on the crew does,'" Fishman said of Squier. "We started doing interviews down there, showing the incredible trailers these guys live in when they're down there for Speedweeks ... He was our silent leader. He was quiet, but a guy who knew what he wanted and knew it would make the sport better. And he was right."

"He was kind of, television-wise, the face of NASCAR," Stenner said of Squier. "So through him, he introduced me to a lot of the car owners, drivers, crew chiefs, where I could go down to the garage area and kind of know my way around and know the people I needed to talk to. But I listened to him totally. ... I can't tell you how much credit he deserves."

The famous finish to the 1979 Daytona 500 would see Squier's influence on the production team play out in real time and in dramatic fashion. Because Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough had built up such a massive lead over the rest of the field by the final lap, cameras were not on the three-car group of Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt when Allison and Yarborough crashed in Turn 3.

The production crew had to scramble to try and identify third place on back, and at one point a cameraman mistakenly picked up the car of Buddy Arrington -- who ran cars purchased second-hand from Petty Enterprises and painted identically -- before Squier gave direct instructions as to where the race for the win was ( "They're still up in Turns 3 and 4! THE LEADERS ARE UP IN TURNS 3 AND 4!" ).

"I take a shot of Arrington thinking it's Petty, and it's not. And Squier keeps pleading with me over the air ... And now I realize, 'Oh s--t, I gotta get this camera to Petty,'" Fishman said. "And that's how we got Petty crossing the finish line, and then of course we go right back to the fight because now they're out of their cars punching each other. It was mayhem, and Ken Squier saved the show. Because if it wasn't for him, I may have stayed on Arrington and I would've lost Petty coming to the finish."

The visuals of the final lap of the 1979 Daytona 500, and everything that happened afterward, are now permanently etched into the minds of race fans and made for a seminal moment in NASCAR's history. The sport had become viable as a national sports property, and one CBS had taken the lead on.

"We looked at each other saying, 'It can't get any better than this,'" Pilson said. "It was a lot of luck and a lot of skill and a lot of planning -- quality people in place -- and it turned out to create a whole new marketplace for NASCAR racing."

Technical innovations

From the 1979 race onward, the deployment of cameras across the Daytona International Speedway expanded as the production crew tried to find ways to both show the audience the action on-track as well as provide them with a sense of speed. One important concept, an in-car camera, was featured in the 1979 broadcast aboard Benny Parsons' car. The camera was somewhat more developed and less cumbersome than previous iterations of onboard camera, but it came with limitations: The camera sat in a fixed position, and its pictures could be unreliable when Parsons drove toward the backstretch and began losing signal from CBS' production compound behind the frontstretch grandstands.

Then, in the early 1980s, Bill France Sr. acquired a tape from the Hardie Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst in Austrlia and passed it along to Mike Joy -- who later became a pit reporter and lead announcer for CBS, and who has since served as lead announcer for all Daytona 500s on Fox from 2001 onward -- at Motor Racing Network. Interested, Joy began watching the tape, which featured an in-car camera unlike anything he or Squier had ever seen.

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"They cut to the onboard camera ... As he comes up to make a pass on another car, the camera pans. And this was something we had never, ever, seen before," Joy said. "And I got right on the phone to Waterbury, Vermont to call Ken. Ken wasn't there. He was right across the street from me meeting with Bill France Jr. I call over there -- 'Well, y'know, they're in a meeting.' 'I'm sorry, you've got to interrupt him.' And I said, 'Before you leave, you have got to come over to my office, you have to see what I've got here.' 

"And he saw it and had the same reaction I did. A tilting and panning onboard camera was unheard of in U.S. sports television."

As luck would have it, Squier was scheduled to travel to Australia two weeks later for a broadcast of "World's Strongest Man" with Arnold Schwarzenegger. There, he met with camera creators John Porter and Peter Larson to discuss their equipment, and he eventually convinced the pair to bring their technology to the United States and form Broadcast Sports International -- now the industry leader in remote camera operations for live sports, including all in-car cameras in NASCAR.

Convincing race teams to carry the camera proved difficult -- it added approximately 60 pounds to the car, and there were also concerns about what could happen if the camera came loose in a crash and became a projectile inside the cockpit -- but Squier was able to leverage his friendship with star driver Cale Yarborough into the camera being placed in Yarborough's car. Its coming out party would come in the 1983 and 1984 Daytona 500s, with the onboard camera picking up everything from Yarborough making racecar noises from behind the wheel to his dramatic last-lap passes to win the 500 in back-to-back years.

February 20th, 1983, Cale Yarborough won his 3rd Daytona 500. The noise is Cale making engine noises. pic.twitter.com/Kbskf4pc1D — Andrew (@Basso488) December 31, 2023

"Ken got that all to happen. Ken and Cale Yarborough, it was their friendship that resulted in that being in Cale's car," Joy said. "Because that was way bigger, heavier, and more involved than what had been in Benny's car in '79 which was just a fixed camera and a transmitter.

"You go to somebody today and say, 'Hey, I want to put a 60-pound lump in your racecar to maybe get you some better TV coverage' … You know that's not happening. But again, that was all Ken Squier and his forward thinking and knowing what a game-changer that would be."

Other concepts advanced by CBS Sports included speed shots from cameras nearly in the racing groove to give viewers a sense of speed, the first of which was a hand-operated camera at a hole in the catchfence near the exit of Turn 4. Operating the camera was heads-up work: Cameramen like Hermann Lang and Joe Sokota were required to wear helmets to protect themselves from debris, and they were given specific instructions to hit the deck and get out of dodge if a car came toward the wall where they were situated. Eventually, those shots were handled remotely through robotic cameras -- "I think to the insurance companies' delight," Joy remarked.

Interestingly, CBS Sports crews were interested in using an in-car heart monitor on a driver, but NASCAR denied permission to use such technology due to ethical concerns in the event of a serious or fatal accident. However, heart monitors have since become a feature of present-day NASCAR broadcasts.

Showing the moment, telling the story

As NASCAR's drivers became more famous and identifiable to the television audience, CBS' Daytona 500 broadcasts came to feature more intimate looks at racers throughout the field. For many years, this was done through pre-produced, in-race features profiling drivers throughout the field, whether it was Dale Earnhardt's roots in the mill town of Kannapolis, N.C. to J.D. McDuffie trying to make ends meet as an independent driver who owned his own cars. But as time went on, the humanity of the Daytona 500 would play out in real-time, and the real-time decisions of the CBS crew would make certain moments in the race's history outright unforgettable.

The most famous example came in the final laps of the 1993 race. Sensing that Ned Jarrett was becoming emotional watching his son Dale battle for the win, producer Bob Stenner watched as the second-generation Jarrett took the lead from Dale Earnhardt on the final lap. Then, as Jarrett led to the leaders to the back straightaway, Stenner hit the all-key to instruct the rest of the booth to stop talking, and for Ned Jarrett to drop his veil of objectivity and cheer his son to the finish line.

"Everybody lay out -- Alright Ned, be a Dad. Call your boy home."

"Ned's a wonderful guy ... It turned out to be a good decision at the moment, and it turned out to be great television," Stenner said. "It was just a spontaneous thing. I could hear it in his voice ... So, 'This is your son winning the 500, who better to bring him home than you?' And we even had a camera at the motorhome where his wife was watching. It was just something that was spontaneous and it worked out very well."

The elation of Jarrett watching his son take the checkered flag quickly became a case study in the magic of television, and another stroke of quick thinking would elevate another emotionally-charged moment five years later. When Dale Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 in 1998 after 20 years of trying, a massive line of crew members coming out to congratulate him was captured live thanks to associate director Jim Cornell, who sensed that something special was about to happen as producer Lance Barrow tried to get the broadcast to commercial break.

"We knew the whole Earnhardt story, we'd all lived it," Joy said. "So I think in the last couple of laps of that race, all of America was pulling for Dale, and of course he wins. Usually we set the finish order, shot of the winner, shot of the celebrating crew, 'We'll be back to go to Victory Lane' because it takes a car almost two minutes to go around there not at speed, plenty of time for commercial break.

"And it was Jim Cornell, our associate director who's in charge of getting us to commercial. Lance is going, 'Alright, let's get this to break.' And it was Jim who said, 'Wait a minute, don't go to break, don't go to break, there's something happening here.' And that's when that big receiving line formed up on pit road and we were there to capture that moment instead of having to play it back."

Those moments and more -- Bobby and Davey Allison's father-son 1-2 finish in 1988, Buddy Baker and Darrell Waltrip's breakthrough wins, Derrike Cope's massive upset in 1990 and multiple wins for Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin and Jeff Gordon -- were all captured by CBS Sports until 2000, when the network gave way to Fox, NBC and Turner Sports in a new media rights deal. Nearly a quarter century after its last NASCAR broadcast, though, the impact CBS Sports had on the Daytona 500 and on NASCAR broadcasting in general is still felt today.

Ahead of this year's Daytona 500, much will be made of the lasting legacy and influence of Ken Squier, who died last November at the age of 88. But while Squier's impact is still felt -- from the term "The Great American Race" to the moments in time that will forever be associated with his voice -- so too are the contributions of other CBS personnel. Several members of the NASCAR on CBS crew, headlined by Joy in the broadcast booth, went on to continue their work through Fox Sports. Pilson, meanwhile, remained involved in the sport as a consultant for several years after the 2001 media deal began.

Above all, it can be argued that the heights that NASCAR has reached today are a residual after-effect of the 1979 Daytona 500, a seminal broadcast in the history of CBS Sports and one that sparked stock car racing's rise to national prominence and into the fabric of mainstream American sports culture.

"It was one of the great success stories of live sports television," Pilson said. "Lots of good things flowed from our live coverage of the Daytona 500."

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Dupont-nascar marketing description.

In 1992 Joe Jackson, former manager of DuPont Motorsports for twelve years, was angling to get the paint business at Rick Hendrick's sixty-five automotive dealerships across the United States. In order to win the Hendrick car dealership paint contract, Jackson and Hendrick met to discuss the possibility of sponsoring Hendrick's new team and rookie NASCAR driver-Jeff Gordon. As a result of that meeting, DuPont signed on to be the primary sponsor. By 2006 Gordon was a NASCAR superstar, and the DuPont logo-viewed by millions-was a household brand. While this level of exposure was exciting for the company, executives at DuPont could not help but wonder if they were fully leveraging this tremendous marketing opportunity. Gordon was on fire-but was DuPont maximizing the heat? The DuPont-NASCAR case tasks students and executives with designing a creative marketing campaign to activate the NASCAR sponsorship opportunity and maximize value beyond conventional sponsorship marketing. This open-ended challenge encourages students and executives to think outside of the traditional marketing tactics typically employed by business-to-consumer (B2C) NASCAR sponsors. Additionally, the nature of DuPont creates the need to develop a multi-dimensional plan that caters to a breadth of brands. Beyond designing a new marketing campaign, a key objective of the case is to focus students and executives on designing metrics for measurement of the return on investment (ROI) into a campaign plan. As a first step, it is important to clearly articulate the campaign, business strategy, and key business objectives mapped to the strategy.

Case Description DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

Strategic managment tools used in case study analysis of dupont-nascar marketing, step 1. problem identification in dupont-nascar marketing case study, step 2. external environment analysis - pestel / pest / step analysis of dupont-nascar marketing case study, step 3. industry specific / porter five forces analysis of dupont-nascar marketing case study, step 4. evaluating alternatives / swot analysis of dupont-nascar marketing case study, step 5. porter value chain analysis / vrio / vrin analysis dupont-nascar marketing case study, step 6. recommendations dupont-nascar marketing case study, step 7. basis of recommendations for dupont-nascar marketing case study, quality & on time delivery.

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Case Analysis of DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

DuPont-NASCAR Marketing is a Harvard Business (HBR) Case Study on Leadership & Managing People , Texas Business School provides HBR case study assignment help for just $9. Texas Business School(TBS) case study solution is based on HBR Case Study Method framework, TBS expertise & global insights. DuPont-NASCAR Marketing is designed and drafted in a manner to allow the HBR case study reader to analyze a real-world problem by putting reader into the position of the decision maker. DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study will help professionals, MBA, EMBA, and leaders to develop a broad and clear understanding of casecategory challenges. DuPont-NASCAR Marketing will also provide insight into areas such as – wordlist , strategy, leadership, sales and marketing, and negotiations.

Case Study Solutions Background Work

DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study solution is focused on solving the strategic and operational challenges the protagonist of the case is facing. The challenges involve – evaluation of strategic options, key role of Leadership & Managing People, leadership qualities of the protagonist, and dynamics of the external environment. The challenge in front of the protagonist, of DuPont-NASCAR Marketing, is to not only build a competitive position of the organization but also to sustain it over a period of time.

Strategic Management Tools Used in Case Study Solution

The DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study solution requires the MBA, EMBA, executive, professional to have a deep understanding of various strategic management tools such as SWOT Analysis, PESTEL Analysis / PEST Analysis / STEP Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, Go To Market Strategy, BCG Matrix Analysis, Porter Value Chain Analysis, Ansoff Matrix Analysis, VRIO / VRIN and Marketing Mix Analysis.

Texas Business School Approach to Leadership & Managing People Solutions

In the Texas Business School, DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study solution – following strategic tools are used - SWOT Analysis, PESTEL Analysis / PEST Analysis / STEP Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, Go To Market Strategy, BCG Matrix Analysis, Porter Value Chain Analysis, Ansoff Matrix Analysis, VRIO / VRIN and Marketing Mix Analysis. We have additionally used the concept of supply chain management and leadership framework to build a comprehensive case study solution for the case – DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

Step 1 – Problem Identification of DuPont-NASCAR Marketing - Harvard Business School Case Study

The first step to solve HBR DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study solution is to identify the problem present in the case. The problem statement of the case is provided in the beginning of the case where the protagonist is contemplating various options in the face of numerous challenges that Dupont Nascar is facing right now. Even though the problem statement is essentially – “Leadership & Managing People” challenge but it has impacted by others factors such as communication in the organization, uncertainty in the external environment, leadership in Dupont Nascar, style of leadership and organization structure, marketing and sales, organizational behavior, strategy, internal politics, stakeholders priorities and more.

Step 2 – External Environment Analysis

Texas Business School approach of case study analysis – Conclusion, Reasons, Evidences - provides a framework to analyze every HBR case study. It requires conducting robust external environmental analysis to decipher evidences for the reasons presented in the DuPont-NASCAR Marketing. The external environment analysis of DuPont-NASCAR Marketing will ensure that we are keeping a tab on the macro-environment factors that are directly and indirectly impacting the business of the firm.

What is PESTEL Analysis? Briefly Explained

PESTEL stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors that impact the external environment of firm in DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study. PESTEL analysis of " DuPont-NASCAR Marketing" can help us understand why the organization is performing badly, what are the factors in the external environment that are impacting the performance of the organization, and how the organization can either manage or mitigate the impact of these external factors.

How to do PESTEL / PEST / STEP Analysis? What are the components of PESTEL Analysis?

As mentioned above PESTEL Analysis has six elements – political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal. All the six elements are explained in context with DuPont-NASCAR Marketing macro-environment and how it impacts the businesses of the firm.

How to do PESTEL Analysis for DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

To do comprehensive PESTEL analysis of case study – DuPont-NASCAR Marketing , we have researched numerous components under the six factors of PESTEL analysis.

Political Factors that Impact DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

Political factors impact seven key decision making areas – economic environment, socio-cultural environment, rate of innovation & investment in research & development, environmental laws, legal requirements, and acceptance of new technologies.

Government policies have significant impact on the business environment of any country. The firm in “ DuPont-NASCAR Marketing ” needs to navigate these policy decisions to create either an edge for itself or reduce the negative impact of the policy as far as possible.

Data safety laws – The countries in which Dupont Nascar is operating, firms are required to store customer data within the premises of the country. Dupont Nascar needs to restructure its IT policies to accommodate these changes. In the EU countries, firms are required to make special provision for privacy issues and other laws.

Competition Regulations – Numerous countries have strong competition laws both regarding the monopoly conditions and day to day fair business practices. DuPont-NASCAR Marketing has numerous instances where the competition regulations aspects can be scrutinized.

Import restrictions on products – Before entering the new market, Dupont Nascar in case study DuPont-NASCAR Marketing" should look into the import restrictions that may be present in the prospective market.

Export restrictions on products – Apart from direct product export restrictions in field of technology and agriculture, a number of countries also have capital controls. Dupont Nascar in case study “ DuPont-NASCAR Marketing ” should look into these export restrictions policies.

Foreign Direct Investment Policies – Government policies favors local companies over international policies, Dupont Nascar in case study “ DuPont-NASCAR Marketing ” should understand in minute details regarding the Foreign Direct Investment policies of the prospective market.

Corporate Taxes – The rate of taxes is often used by governments to lure foreign direct investments or increase domestic investment in a certain sector. Corporate taxation can be divided into two categories – taxes on profits and taxes on operations. Taxes on profits number is important for companies that already have a sustainable business model, while taxes on operations is far more significant for companies that are looking to set up new plants or operations.

Tariffs – Chekout how much tariffs the firm needs to pay in the “ DuPont-NASCAR Marketing ” case study. The level of tariffs will determine the viability of the business model that the firm is contemplating. If the tariffs are high then it will be extremely difficult to compete with the local competitors. But if the tariffs are between 5-10% then Dupont Nascar can compete against other competitors.

Research and Development Subsidies and Policies – Governments often provide tax breaks and other incentives for companies to innovate in various sectors of priority. Managers at DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study have to assess whether their business can benefit from such government assistance and subsidies.

Consumer protection – Different countries have different consumer protection laws. Managers need to clarify not only the consumer protection laws in advance but also legal implications if the firm fails to meet any of them.

Political System and Its Implications – Different political systems have different approach to free market and entrepreneurship. Managers need to assess these factors even before entering the market.

Freedom of Press is critical for fair trade and transparency. Countries where freedom of press is not prevalent there are high chances of both political and commercial corruption.

Corruption level – Dupont Nascar needs to assess the level of corruptions both at the official level and at the market level, even before entering a new market. To tackle the menace of corruption – a firm should have a clear SOP that provides managers at each level what to do when they encounter instances of either systematic corruption or bureaucrats looking to take bribes from the firm.

Independence of judiciary – It is critical for fair business practices. If a country doesn’t have independent judiciary then there is no point entry into such a country for business.

Government attitude towards trade unions – Different political systems and government have different attitude towards trade unions and collective bargaining. The firm needs to assess – its comfort dealing with the unions and regulations regarding unions in a given market or industry. If both are on the same page then it makes sense to enter, otherwise it doesn’t.

Economic Factors that Impact DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

Social factors that impact dupont-nascar marketing, technological factors that impact dupont-nascar marketing, environmental factors that impact dupont-nascar marketing, legal factors that impact dupont-nascar marketing, step 3 – industry specific analysis, what is porter five forces analysis, step 4 – swot analysis / internal environment analysis, step 5 – porter value chain / vrio / vrin analysis, step 6 – evaluating alternatives & recommendations, step 7 – basis for recommendations, references :: dupont-nascar marketing case study solution.

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NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion (Case Study Competition)

Motorsports education is at its finest when it’s being applied, and NASCAR Kinetics just launched its annual Marketing In Motion competition to offer students at select universities, not just racing schools, the opportunity to take part in the fall semester motorsports education program. The winner(s) will earn an all-expense paid trip to Charlotte for the NASCAR All-Star race weekend. Take a look at this great motorsports engineering opportunity – information from NASCAR’s website – that you can apply to take part in if you attend one of the 18 eligible universities:

NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion is an innovative, engaging program that gives college students an opportunity to work through real-world business challenges and opportunities they may encounter once they begin their career. Just the like the sport itself, the NASCAR Kinetics program is fast-paced, competitive, and fun.

Whether the NASCAR Kinetics program is the first step in an illustrious career in sports or simply valuable experience for any number of paths, it will definitely leave a lasting impression on all students who participate.

What should students expect?

Expect to be challenged. To be engaged. To get out of your comfort zone and think differently. Most of all, expect to learn and have fun. • Each team of select students will be given case studies that affect NASCAR, our sponsors, or the tracks and will be asked to create original solutions for each case study. • Every team will also be tasked with hosting a viewing party for one pre-determined NASCAR-sanctioned race. • A dedicated member of the NASCAR marketing department will be assigned to assist and mentor each team.

What do we expect of students?

Each student chosen for the NASCAR Kinetics program will be considered an official NASCAR brand ambassador at their school, giving them many important responsibilities. (1) Foster brand awareness of NASCAR throughout the campus community (2) Keep up on and report upcoming trends on your campus (3) Create effective group dialogue within your team to solve case studies and prepare for the viewing party (4) Communicate with your NASCAR Kinetics contact about relevant issues facing your team (5) Utilize all your resources, including field research, professional contacts, and teammates to solve case studies (6) Complete and submit all materials for each case study and the viewing party in the time given. (7) Ensure all ideas are approved by NASCAR before activating (8) Represent the NASCAR brand in a professional and positive manner

What will students get out of the NASCAR Kinetics program?

Of course, the biggest incentive to participate in the unique program is receiving relevant, hands-on experience in the world of sports. But that’s not all dedicated, ambitious students can obtain through this program: • The team with the strongest performance (based on pre-determined guidelines) will receive an all-expense paid, once-in-a-lifetime NASCAR-sanctioned race weekend experience. • Each student who meets the standards of work in the program will be eligible to receive a personalized letter of recommendation from NASCAR. This letter will be a powerful tool in your post-graduation plans. • By virtue of being a NASCAR Kinetics Brand Ambassador, each student will have the opportunity to apply for various NASCAR internships and positions.

NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion is currently available at these participating universities:

Belmont Abbey College Central Michigan University Centenary College Coastal Carolina University Delaware State University East Tennessee State University Elon University High Point University Howard University Indiana State University Ohio State University Ohio University Oklahoma State University Southern New Hampshire University Syracuse University Troy University University of Central Florida University of Florida University of Massachusetts, Amherst University of Miami University of Oregon Virginia State University Note: When you apply for this job online, you will be required to answer the following questions:

1. Yes/No: Are you currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at one of the participating schools? If so, what school do you attend? 2. What year are you in school? 3. What is your expected date of graduation? 4. What is your cumulative GPA? 5. What is your major and minor? 6. What is the name of the high school you attended? 7. Where is the high school located? 8. What was your cumulative GPA in high school? 9. What high school sports did you play if any? 10. What extracurricular activities were you involved in if any? 11. How did you find out about NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion? 12. Why are you interested in being a part of NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion? 13. What do you hope to gain from NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion? 14. What are your career goals and how can NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion help you achieve them? 15. What skills, experience, and interests do you have that you feel would be beneficial to the NASCAR Kinetics team? 16. What extracurricular activities (i.e. student organizations, intramural sports, and/or intercollegiate athletics) are you involved in on your campus and what is your role? 17. How many hours each week do you devote your extracurricular activities? 18. How many credit hours will you be enrolled in during the semester for which you are applying to the NASCAR Kinetics program? 19. Will you seek academic credit (i.e. internship credit, independent study) from your school if you are selected to be a part of the NASCAR Kinetics team? 20. In 250 words or less, please explain the impact you think NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion will have on your college campus.

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DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

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This case study talks about NASCAR (a car racing company) marketing and challenging for its growth. It talks about how it was built, their growth with the passage of time, their Running head: DUPONT NASCAR MARKETING 1

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Marketing Analysis: A Case Study of NASCAR and NBA

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Dupont Nascar Marketing Case Solution & Answer

Home » Case Study Analysis Solutions » Dupont Nascar Marketing

Dupont Nascar Marketing Case Study Analysis

Introduction

In 1802, E. I. du Pont established DuPont, which started to manufacture black gunpowder and currentlyit has spread its business in a diverseportfolio, which include apparel, agriculture, automotive, and construction. Net sales of the DuPont had increased from $24.0 billion to $26.6 billion, from 2002 to 2005.

In 1992, the first seven-year sponsorship was signed between Hendrick Motorsports, DuPont, and Jeff Gordon. A 50% ROI was yieldedover this sponsorship in the form of increased profits. Thus, the third contract was signed for three years, from 2006 to 2008, along with two years’ expansion,in which Jeff Gordon had to promote DuPont’s products at each race. In addition to this, the No. 24 car had been designed to clearly express the DuPont’s branding. Joyce Julius conducted a research to examine the effectiveness of sponsors’ brand logos.Joyce Julius report reflected a number of exposures for this sponsorship, but Joyce Julius was a B2C company and DuPont was a B2B business.

Problem Statement

DuPont Motorsports’ Manager, Larry Deas was analyzing the attractiveness and efficiency of the Gordon-NASCAR sponsorship. Joyce Julius’ report reflected a number of exposures for sponsorship, but Joyce Julius was a B2C company and DuPont was a B2B business. Deas was wondering about this sponsorship’sopportunities and how he could take it to the next level.(JEFFERY, 2008).

Situational Analysis

Currently, DuPont has signed a sponsorship with Hendrick Motorsports, DuPont, and Jeff Gordon for three years, from 2006 to 2008. A detailed quantitative as well as qualitative analysis has been performed in order to examine the case solution.

Quantitative Analysis

Quantitative analysis has been performed in order to examine the ROI of the Gordon-NASCAR sponsorship along with examining its effectiveness.

NASCAR has 75% million fans, in which 40% are male fans 30 million female fans. With the help of horizontal analysis, sales growth has been evaluated from 2002 to 2005 in order to develop a background information for projected sales for net three years. The analysis represents that the company will earn a significant profit with the help of an increased sales along with a ROI of 203 million.(See appendix 1&2)The total investment would be $12 million per year for this sponsorship. In addition to this, the Tyvek promotional approach represents a 45% margin out of the total competitive valuation- a largest figure. (See appendix 3 & 4).

Qualitative Analysis

Quantitative analysis has been performed in order to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the Gordon-NASCAR sponsorship, along with examining its effectiveness………………………………

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Case study description.

In 1992 Joe Jackson, former manager of DuPont Motorsports for twelve years, was angling to get the paint business at Rick Hendrick's sixty-five automotive dealerships across the United States. In order to win the Hendrick car dealership paint contract, Jackson and Hendrick met to discuss the possibility of sponsoring Hendrick's new team and rookie NASCAR driver-Jeff Gordon. As a result of that meeting, DuPont signed on to be the primary sponsor. By 2006 Gordon was a NASCAR superstar, and the DuPont logo-viewed by millions-was a household brand. While this level of exposure was exciting for the company, executives at DuPont could not help but wonder if they were fully leveraging this tremendous marketing opportunity. Gordon was on fire-but was DuPont maximizing the heat? The DuPont-NASCAR case tasks students and executives with designing a creative marketing campaign to activate the NASCAR sponsorship opportunity and maximize value beyond conventional sponsorship marketing. This open-ended challenge encourages students and executives to think outside of the traditional marketing tactics typically employed by business-to-consumer (B2C) NASCAR sponsors. Additionally, the nature of DuPont creates the need to develop a multi-dimensional plan that caters to a breadth of brands. Beyond designing a new marketing campaign, a key objective of the case is to focus students and executives on designing metrics for measurement of the return on investment (ROI) into a campaign plan. As a first step, it is important to clearly articulate the campaign, business strategy, and key business objectives mapped to the strategy.

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[10 Steps] Case Study Analysis & Solution

Step 1 - reading up harvard business review fundamentals on the leadership & managing people.

Even before you start reading a business case study just make sure that you have brushed up the Harvard Business Review (HBR) fundamentals on the Leadership & Managing People. Brushing up HBR fundamentals will provide a strong base for investigative reading. Often readers scan through the business case study without having a clear map in mind. This leads to unstructured learning process resulting in missed details and at worse wrong conclusions. Reading up the HBR fundamentals helps in sketching out business case study analysis and solution roadmap even before you start reading the case study. It also provides starting ideas as fundamentals often provide insight into some of the aspects that may not be covered in the business case study itself.

Step 2 - Reading the DuPont-NASCAR Marketing HBR Case Study

To write an emphatic case study analysis and provide pragmatic and actionable solutions, you must have a strong grasps of the facts and the central problem of the HBR case study. Begin slowly - underline the details and sketch out the business case study description map. In some cases you will able to find the central problem in the beginning itself while in others it may be in the end in form of questions. Business case study paragraph by paragraph mapping will help you in organizing the information correctly and provide a clear guide to go back to the case study if you need further information. My case study strategy involves -

  • Marking out the protagonist and key players in the case study from the very start.
  • Drawing a motivation chart of the key players and their priorities from the case study description.
  • Refine the central problem the protagonist is facing in the case and how it relates to the HBR fundamentals on the topic.
  • Evaluate each detail in the case study in light of the HBR case study analysis core ideas.

Step 3 - DuPont-NASCAR Marketing Case Study Analysis

Once you are comfortable with the details and objective of the business case study proceed forward to put some details into the analysis template. You can do business case study analysis by following Fern Fort University step by step instructions -

  • Company history is provided in the first half of the case. You can use this history to draw a growth path and illustrate vision, mission and strategic objectives of the organization. Often history is provided in the case not only to provide a background to the problem but also provide the scope of the solution that you can write for the case study.
  • HBR case studies provide anecdotal instances from managers and employees in the organization to give a feel of real situation on the ground. Use these instances and opinions to mark out the organization's culture, its people priorities & inhibitions.
  • Make a time line of the events and issues in the case study. Time line can provide the clue for the next step in organization's journey. Time line also provides an insight into the progressive challenges the company is facing in the case study.

Step 4 - SWOT Analysis of DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

Once you finished the case analysis, time line of the events and other critical details. Focus on the following -

  • Zero down on the central problem and two to five related problems in the case study.
  • Do the SWOT analysis of the DuPont-NASCAR Marketing . SWOT analysis is a strategic tool to map out the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats that a firm is facing.
  • SWOT analysis and SWOT Matrix will help you to clearly mark out - Strengths Weakness Opportunities & Threats that the organization or manager is facing in the DuPont-NASCAR Marketing
  • SWOT analysis will also provide a priority list of problem to be solved.
  • You can also do a weighted SWOT analysis of DuPont-NASCAR Marketing HBR case study.

Step 5 - Porter 5 Forces / Strategic Analysis of Industry Analysis DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

In our live classes we often come across business managers who pinpoint one problem in the case and build a case study analysis and solution around that singular point. Business environments are often complex and require holistic solutions. You should try to understand not only the organization but also the industry which the business operates in. Porter Five Forces is a strategic analysis tool that will help you in understanding the relative powers of the key players in the business case study and what sort of pragmatic and actionable case study solution is viable in the light of given facts.

Step 6 - PESTEL, PEST / STEP Analysis of DuPont-NASCAR Marketing

Another way of understanding the external environment of the firm in DuPont-NASCAR Marketing is to do a PESTEL - Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental & Legal analysis of the environment the firm operates in. You should make a list of factors that have significant impact on the organization and factors that drive growth in the industry. You can even identify the source of firm's competitive advantage based on PESTEL analysis and Organization's Core Competencies.

Step 7 - Organizing & Prioritizing the Analysis into DuPont-NASCAR Marketing Case Study Solution

Once you have developed multipronged approach and work out various suggestions based on the strategic tools. The next step is organizing the solution based on the requirement of the case. You can use the following strategy to organize the findings and suggestions.

  • Build a corporate level strategy - organizing your findings and recommendations in a way to answer the larger strategic objective of the firm. It include using the analysis to answer the company's vision, mission and key objectives , and how your suggestions will take the company to next level in achieving those goals.
  • Business Unit Level Solution - The case study may put you in a position of a marketing manager of a small brand. So instead of providing recommendations for overall company you need to specify the marketing objectives of that particular brand. You have to recommend business unit level recommendations. The scope of the recommendations will be limited to the particular unit but you have to take care of the fact that your recommendations are don't directly contradict the company's overall strategy. For example you can recommend a low cost strategy but the company core competency is design differentiation.
  • Case study solutions can also provide recommendation for the business manager or leader described in the business case study.

Step 8 -Implementation Framework

The goal of the business case study is not only to identify problems and recommend solutions but also to provide a framework to implement those case study solutions. Implementation framework differentiates good case study solutions from great case study solutions. If you able to provide a detailed implementation framework then you have successfully achieved the following objectives -

  • Detailed understanding of the case,
  • Clarity of HBR case study fundamentals,
  • Analyzed case details based on those fundamentals and
  • Developed an ability to prioritize recommendations based on probability of their successful implementation.

Implementation framework helps in weeding out non actionable recommendations, resulting in awesome DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study solution.

Step 9 - Take a Break

Once you finished the case study implementation framework. Take a small break, grab a cup of coffee or whatever you like, go for a walk or just shoot some hoops.

Step 10 - Critically Examine DuPont-NASCAR Marketing case study solution

After refreshing your mind, read your case study solution critically. When we are writing case study solution we often have details on our screen as well as in our head. This leads to either missing details or poor sentence structures. Once refreshed go through the case solution again - improve sentence structures and grammar, double check the numbers provided in your analysis and question your recommendations. Be very slow with this process as rushing through it leads to missing key details. Once done it is time to hit the attach button.

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IMAGES

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