Finding Green in a Checkered Flag

Short of a blimp, a Times Square billboard, or a product placement on Survivor, advertisers have no bigger a forum than the marketing opportunities presented with NASCAR. As a marketing major (what was I thinking?) and a sports fan, I know that there are many places in which you can tack a logo, slogan, or a combination of the both (“slogo.” I’m copyrighting that one.) In baseball, there’s the rotating behind home plate billboard. In hockey, unsuspecting forwards can expect to checked, right into the heart of product promotion. Soccer puts the team’s sponsor right on their jerseys. But when it comes down to the most exposure, throw some money at a racing team in the biggest auto racing circuit in America and watch as your logo becomes more associated with the driver than the brand of car he drives.

If you don’t mind your ad traveling at 180 miles per hour. So blurry.

But from a marketer’s standpoint, it really works. People draw allegiances to products just as much as they do to drivers. Didn’t have a preferred office supply superstore before? Well, if you like Carl Edwards and the Number 99 car, you do now and you have no idea why it’s better than Staples. Blind loyalty.

Now sports have official sponsors of everything from soft drinks to reprographic solutions providers. But when it comes to NASCAR teams, there’s no monopoly to be found. If you’ve got the cash and an interest in cars that only turn left, you can sponsor a NASCAR team no matter how many of your rivals have the same exact idea. Exclusive License does not exist in NASCAR. The only licenses in this sport are Drivers’.

From my research it appears that there are 10 different industry categories that go head to head on the hood of uberfast vehicles. And since a sharp paint job tells you very little about the products’ actual attributes, I think it is a safe assumption that the quality of two rival products are best summed up by the NASCAR standings at the end of the day. Right? In a month completely rife with sports, let’s blindly proclaim some superior products and services based on the points standings.

Battle of the Shipping – UPS vs. FedEx. Because of Dale Jarrett in the #88 brown car, FedEx may want to rethink their NASCAR marketing strategy and stick to Tom Hanks movies.

Battle of the Breakfast – Kyle Busch drives the Corn Flakes care past his competition, Jeff Green in the Cheerios car. But remember kids, put milk in your cereal, not Busch.

Battle of the Hardware – Now this makes sense. The NASCAR watching public is a target market for home improvement. The #20 HD car of Tony Stewart has a slim lead over the $48 Jimmie Johnson car, once and for all proving that you can’t spell Lowe’s without SLOW.

Battle of the Wireless – It really doesn’t matter that the Alltel car is performing better than the Cingular car. They race for the NEXTEL cup. That’s like Coke and Pepsi sponsoring MLS teams to win the RC Cola Trophy. Waste of ad dollars.

Battle of the Militia – Greg Biffle’s National Guard car has outperformed the Army car of Joe Nemechek this year. Apparently, offense wins wars, but defense wins championships.

Battle of the Brew – Another target market lock, the soon-to-retire Rusty Wallace is making Miller Lite a better happy hour buy than Little E’s Budweiser wheels. Oh yeah, don’t drink and drive.