Motorsports Marketing in This Day and Age

What do you see when you look at the side of a race car? Do you see the nice paint job, the flowing lines of the body, or the names of businesses that are plastered sometimes to every inch of the car? There are millions, maybe billions, of dollars spent every year hoping you notice the last one first.

Now that the economy has taken a turn for the worst, companies are cutting back on their funding for advertising, or they are at least looking for more measurable return on investment. If billion dollar companies are sponsoring top level racing teams, I am sure they have a staff of marketers whose sole job is to track and measure their investment. But, what about small or medium size businesses, can they take advantage of the benefits of sponsoring a race car? You bet they can. It might take a little different thinking and some experimentation and collaboration between team owner and the sponsoring business.

You see, marketing itself is in the process of a revolution. Marketing teams are beginning to realize that original methods of marketing are not working like they used to a decade or two ago. It’s estimated that the return on investment of television campaigns is in the one to four percent range, and falling. Advertising companies could get better return with simple investments and never sell a product. Newspaper readership is down, which means dollars spent on newspaper ads won’t return like they used to. So where do the experts think marketing is headed and how is it going to work in auto racing?

Social networking or social media marketing is the current developing trend in marketing. Basically it is the age old word of mouth marketing, adapted to the vast connection power of the internet. A common social media plan is a blending of several social networking sources like Twitter, Face Book, LinkedIn, networking forums in any particular niche, and blogging. It’s a marketing plan centered on building friendships. People are more likely to buy products based on recommendations from friends than they are to buy from that thirty second media blast on television or radio. Or run out and buy something because they saw a billboard or a magazine add. People are now on the internet building friendships globally and smart marketing firms are pushing clients into the medium.

So, where do race teams fit into all this internet stuff? Race teams are natural community builders. Charismatic race car drivers attract attention and build a following. A following can be used to sell a company’s brand or product or both. Some marketing surveys done show auto racing fans are some of the most brand loyal people throughout all types of sports. Even to a smaller local business, getting involved with auto racing can be well worth the investment. Small local race teams are not looking for a large chunk of money. If a good plan is developed and implemented with the help of the race team, I could definitely see a return on investment in the one hundred to two hundred percent range. For a small local business that could be huge in these tough economic times. So let’s explore some ways to develop a good plan to make that happen.

Race teams, no matter what kind of budget they are asking for, must understand that they have an obligation beyond simply putting a name on the car and collecting the check. To make a marketing plan like this work, they must understand the businesses that sponsor them and the products they are trying to sell. Sitting down with business owners in the offseason when things are slow and getting to know them will go a long way in developing not only a good strategy, but will also help build rapport. Many businesses have been burned in years past with the ‘take the money and run’ type of sponsorship and it has left a bad connotation towards auto racing.

Let’s say for instance you want to propose a sponsorship opportunity to a local chain of oil change places. I would first do some simple research about the chain like: who is the owner, or if it is a corporation, who is the president and some other key members of the business. Besides just oil changes, assemble a list of services provided by the business. Maybe they also do transmission servicing, or wiper blade replacement. Then I would come up with a rough sketch of a plan you would like to propose to the owner. Think about some simple promotions you could propose. Always keep in mind that your pitch shouldn’t be about your race team, unless they ask, keep the conversation on their business and how you can try to help with marketing their business. You should provide an over view of what you do. Tell them where you race, about your team, maybe a little about the car. But, I wouldn’t get real long winded about the number of wins you have had or how you passed a guy on the last lap to win a race. Make them understand that you are truly interested in their business. There will be plenty of time for the racing stories once a deal has been stuck.