From ESPN.com
Analysis by Travis Garth in SRM 334
I decided to analyze the sport of NASCAR in this week’s class discussion. A few weeks ago NASCAR hall of famer Richard Petty was prompted on the subjected of Danica Patrick, he stated: “This is a female deal that's driving her. There's nothing wrong with that, because that's good PR for me. More fans come out, people are more interested in it. She has helped to draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport." Petty also states that, “The only way she will win a race is if everyone else stays home.” Richard Petty’s comments bring an interesting theme in NASCAR racing. His comments suggest that the drivers that win the most races do not receive the most attention in the sports media world or in the sport itself. This suggestion is supported by the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won NASCAR’s most popular driver award for a record breaking 11 consecutive years despite only winning one race in the past five years. Also, Danica Patrick was the most popular driver award winner in NASCAR’s nationwide series and has yet to win a race in her career. It seems that NASCAR is becoming a popularity contest for drivers who have not proven their skills on the racetrack. On the other realm of the spectrum there is a driver like Jimmie Johnson who has won 26 races in the past five years. He also won the championship for five consecutive years and earned another championship in 2013. Even with Jimmie Johnson’s proven success in the sport he has yet to win the most popular driver award. With Jimmie Johnson’s career still in progress the media still tends to overlook him and other winning drivers in the sport.
Overall, it is intriguing that the most publicized drivers are not the ones who are winning the races. In competitive sport, where the overall goal is to win, the winners on the race track still lose in the world of sports media. This poses the question of how the drivers that are winning the races must feel, and what role sports media plays in the sport of NASCAR.
Showing posts with label NASCAR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NASCAR. Show all posts
Friday, February 21, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
"America's Largest Spectator Sport Is Finally Embracing Digital"
From Adweek
Video 1
Video 2
Review by Kelsey Holmes in KIN 501
In 2013, NASCAR re-gained its digital rights from Turner Sports allowing them to control their own website, NASCAR.com and better integrate their digital media presence with social media. Senior Marketing Partner, Andrew Campagnone admitted, “We were behind in the technology space.” While other professional leagues, such as the NBA and NFL, were using technology and social media to take fan interaction to a whole new level NASCAR was falling behind.
In 2013, NASCAR, America’s largest Spectator Sport, began working to increase their digital media presence. 5 weeks after their new campaign launch, Nascar added 25,000 Facebook fans, 20,000 Twitter followers, 46,00 YouTube subscribers, and 1000 Instagram followers. As of January 27th, 2014 those numbers were up to a total of 583,00 Facebook fans, 1.33M Twitter followers, 52,000 YouTube subscribers, and 94,000 Instagram followers. Their current marketing strategy includes; pulling together the Nascar brand, teams drivers, fans, and sponsors to cheer on their favorite cars and drivers through the use of the hash tag #Whatdriversneed across all of their social sites. The current campaign focuses on the use of Twitter and Instagram while Nascar.com, Facebook, TV, radio, and print playing supporting roles. The new campaign seems to be helping NASCAR reach their fans as they have seen increase on all of their digital media platforms. Along with the new campaign came the innovative Fan and Media Engagement center. This center allows NASCAR professionals to stay up to date on trends and happenings on social media. Also, the center analyzes data and then adapts to better serve the fans.
While some leagues steer their athletes away from social media in fear that it will damage their brand, NASCAR is doing quite the opposite. NASCAR has very lose rules on social media and race day tweeting, and that helps to give them a competitive advantage over other sports that monitor their athletes so heavily. NASCAR vice president Steve O’donell says “it’s one of the cool things about our sport. We feel like social media gives us that direct access to some of race fans”. The more interaction fans have the more interested they become, and the bigger the interest the more likely they are to come to a race, which is what NASCAR ultimately wants. NASCAR already has a cult following and social media allows their fans to engage even more. NASCAR themselves have said they want to bring fans as close to the driver seat as possible, which is done through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
A survey of 1,500 adults in October 2012 found that 54% of avid fans said they visit social media sites regularly for NASCAR content and that percentage jumps to 78% for 18-34 year old fans. This is great for building your brand when you can reach most of your fans through digital media. With social media you can reach new fans and gain a bigger audience especially children and college age consumers where NASCAR fans are most lacking. The push in digital media can help build the star power of your drivers by letting fans interact with them intimately and more often. Most NASCAR tracks are now installing wifi, to improve the racetrack experience, allowing fans to tweet or post about their day at the track. By engaging fans on a regular basis NASCAR digital media push is helping to build the NASCAR brand for today and the future.
As a sports marketing professional it is important to realize that social media, when used properly, is a great tool and can always be used to your advantage. Digital media plays an integral part in building your brand in today’s society. Staying up on recent trends allows the company to remain relevant at all times. Knowing how to actively engage fans with the company will definitely pay off in the long run.
Video 1
Video 2
Review by Kelsey Holmes in KIN 501
In 2013, NASCAR re-gained its digital rights from Turner Sports allowing them to control their own website, NASCAR.com and better integrate their digital media presence with social media. Senior Marketing Partner, Andrew Campagnone admitted, “We were behind in the technology space.” While other professional leagues, such as the NBA and NFL, were using technology and social media to take fan interaction to a whole new level NASCAR was falling behind.
In 2013, NASCAR, America’s largest Spectator Sport, began working to increase their digital media presence. 5 weeks after their new campaign launch, Nascar added 25,000 Facebook fans, 20,000 Twitter followers, 46,00 YouTube subscribers, and 1000 Instagram followers. As of January 27th, 2014 those numbers were up to a total of 583,00 Facebook fans, 1.33M Twitter followers, 52,000 YouTube subscribers, and 94,000 Instagram followers. Their current marketing strategy includes; pulling together the Nascar brand, teams drivers, fans, and sponsors to cheer on their favorite cars and drivers through the use of the hash tag #Whatdriversneed across all of their social sites. The current campaign focuses on the use of Twitter and Instagram while Nascar.com, Facebook, TV, radio, and print playing supporting roles. The new campaign seems to be helping NASCAR reach their fans as they have seen increase on all of their digital media platforms. Along with the new campaign came the innovative Fan and Media Engagement center. This center allows NASCAR professionals to stay up to date on trends and happenings on social media. Also, the center analyzes data and then adapts to better serve the fans.
While some leagues steer their athletes away from social media in fear that it will damage their brand, NASCAR is doing quite the opposite. NASCAR has very lose rules on social media and race day tweeting, and that helps to give them a competitive advantage over other sports that monitor their athletes so heavily. NASCAR vice president Steve O’donell says “it’s one of the cool things about our sport. We feel like social media gives us that direct access to some of race fans”. The more interaction fans have the more interested they become, and the bigger the interest the more likely they are to come to a race, which is what NASCAR ultimately wants. NASCAR already has a cult following and social media allows their fans to engage even more. NASCAR themselves have said they want to bring fans as close to the driver seat as possible, which is done through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
A survey of 1,500 adults in October 2012 found that 54% of avid fans said they visit social media sites regularly for NASCAR content and that percentage jumps to 78% for 18-34 year old fans. This is great for building your brand when you can reach most of your fans through digital media. With social media you can reach new fans and gain a bigger audience especially children and college age consumers where NASCAR fans are most lacking. The push in digital media can help build the star power of your drivers by letting fans interact with them intimately and more often. Most NASCAR tracks are now installing wifi, to improve the racetrack experience, allowing fans to tweet or post about their day at the track. By engaging fans on a regular basis NASCAR digital media push is helping to build the NASCAR brand for today and the future.
As a sports marketing professional it is important to realize that social media, when used properly, is a great tool and can always be used to your advantage. Digital media plays an integral part in building your brand in today’s society. Staying up on recent trends allows the company to remain relevant at all times. Knowing how to actively engage fans with the company will definitely pay off in the long run.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
"Marketing moguls, potential sponsors await Patrick's NASCAR punch"
From the Daytona Beach News-Journal
Review by Rick Reardon in KIN 435 (section 2)
In this article the author, Skylar Swisher, discusses the opportunity that is currently in front of Danica Patrick. Danica Patrick won the pole position for the Daytona 500 this past Friday. She is turning all sorts of heads because she is only the third woman to race the Daytona 500, and the first to win the pole there. The author stresses that if she could pull off the upset and win the Sunday at Daytona 500 this Sunday, the marketing opportunities are endless for her. Danica is already extremely well known, 68% of Americans know her by her name or face. This shows that she is already a well known house hold name, and winning this race could only bolster that. She is even very popular amongst avid NASCAR fans, 87% of Americans said that they are hoping that Danica does well in the race, and 80% said that she is good for the support. So across the board she has positive support from all fans already, a win could only help that stat. If Danica would win the race it could attract all sorts of non traditional sponsors to NASCAR, and especially to Patrick. Swisher gives some examples of what kind of non traditional sponsors she could attract. He says that she could attract sponsors everywhere from lotion, all the way to wine. Danica Patrick, could cause sponsors to go away from the traditional blue-collar and automotive products and start sponsoring mass retailers. This is a great opportunity for the sport of NASCAR as well as Danica herself. She could really help improve the sport as well as her own image.
Review by Rick Reardon in KIN 435 (section 2)
In this article the author, Skylar Swisher, discusses the opportunity that is currently in front of Danica Patrick. Danica Patrick won the pole position for the Daytona 500 this past Friday. She is turning all sorts of heads because she is only the third woman to race the Daytona 500, and the first to win the pole there. The author stresses that if she could pull off the upset and win the Sunday at Daytona 500 this Sunday, the marketing opportunities are endless for her. Danica is already extremely well known, 68% of Americans know her by her name or face. This shows that she is already a well known house hold name, and winning this race could only bolster that. She is even very popular amongst avid NASCAR fans, 87% of Americans said that they are hoping that Danica does well in the race, and 80% said that she is good for the support. So across the board she has positive support from all fans already, a win could only help that stat. If Danica would win the race it could attract all sorts of non traditional sponsors to NASCAR, and especially to Patrick. Swisher gives some examples of what kind of non traditional sponsors she could attract. He says that she could attract sponsors everywhere from lotion, all the way to wine. Danica Patrick, could cause sponsors to go away from the traditional blue-collar and automotive products and start sponsoring mass retailers. This is a great opportunity for the sport of NASCAR as well as Danica herself. She could really help improve the sport as well as her own image.
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