NASCAR sucks at marketing the sport to kids
NASCAR sucks at marketing the sport to kids
Brian H Cotnoir
Since 2006, NASCAR has been on the decline in popularity. They have tried everything (and I mean everything) to bring in new fans, while at the same time trying not to alienate it's hardcore/loyalist fans, expanding the schedule, building new tracks in new markets, returning to old venues, remodeling or rebuilding current tracks, throwback paint scheme weekends, tweaking the points for the championships. Some things have improved the racing while other things have turned off lifelong fans entirely.
I am as a diehard as a fan as they come by, NASCAR is practically in my blood. The day I was born, Bill Elliott won at Phoenix AND Hollywood was shooting Days of Thunder the same day at the same track. I raced quarter midgets in Connecticut and competed against future NASCAR Champion Joey Logano (he beat me every time, that's why he's in NASCAR and I'm stuck here talking about it). Every Sunday my butt is parked on the couch and I'm watching the race, and even during the Off-Season, I'm watching old races on YouTube! I somehow convinced my wife to let us to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on our Honeymoon! Since I was three-years-old NASCAR has been one of the most important things in my life so much so that it's practically a part of my family! You want to know how I became this big of a fan: Back in the 1990's NASCAR knew how to Market the Sport to us children. Something NASCAR, probably, should have learned in the 30+ years when they were sponsored RJ Reynolds Tobacco: the best way to get new customers is to hook them young, and NASCAR is missing out on a key demographic.
What is NASCAR at its most basic premise: A bunch of brightly painted numbered cars go around in a circles'! That alone isn't enough to make a kid interested in the sport, but you know what is: Toy cars. As a child the toys I played the most with my Matchbox and Hot Wheels. Companies like Racing Champions made and sold 1:64 diecast versions of the toys, and as a kid I loved nothing more than collecting them. This made it easier to learn the drivers based on the cars because they diecast typically came with a cardboard picture of the driver with their name on it. As a kid, I knew many kids at school who picked a favorite NASCAR driver based on the driver's car being their favorite color or having their favorite/lucky number on their car. Hell, Toy Maker Mattel used their Hot Wheels brand to sponsor driver Kyle Petty, who had one of the most colorful and iconic paint schemes of the 1990's. Today, I find more adults collect diecasts then kids, which isn't a problem (I still have a few 1:24 diecasts that I proudly display in my home) but NASCAR needs to find a way to encourage kids to want to play more with the toy diecasts. If parents are willing to by their 5–7-year-old a thousand-dollar iPad, then I'm sure they'll be more than willing to drop $60 on a few diecasts.
Now while, some of the drivers were sponsored by things that weren't very useful to a kid like Motor Oil, Beer, or Power Tools stores some drivers were sponsored by Kid Friendly Products & Companies. McDonald's is probably the most well-known as they've been a part of NASCAR for in some way shape or form for almost 30 years. Even former McDonald's CEO, Ed Rensi had his own Busch Series team from 1998 to 2011. McDonald's sponsored NASCAR's Most Popular Driver at the time, Bill Elliott, from 1994-2000. Although Elliot never won a race with the McDonald's sponsorships I still remember wanting to go to McDonald's even more when they had Bill Elliott NASCARs in the Happy Meal, and even though they were cheaply made, and the stickers fell off after playing with them a few times, it was still motivation enough for me as a kid to beg my parents to take me to McDonald's. Burger King did the same thing with driver Joe Nemechek who they sponsored at the time. I can recall Cheerios having a promotion where you could get a free NASCAR diecast with the purchase of one of Cheerios and wanting them despite the fact that I hadn't eaten Cheerios since I was four.
Another Kid Friendly sponsor that made its way around NASCAR was the Cartoon Network. As a child, one of my favorite cartoons was Scooby Doo, and when Robert Pressley showed up at races in a purple car with Scooby Doo, Shaggy, and the Cartoon Network on it, I was immediately hooked (strangely, enough this was made into a toy that was available in a Burger King Big Kids Meal). Cartoon Network even sponsored the Melling Racing team for a number of years with different paint schemes featuring some of their most beloved Cartoon Characters. NASCAR really screwed up by not producing a decent animated series about the sport. Instead, NASCAR chose to produce a series on Fox Kids called "NASCAR Racers", which very few fans I know can even recall ever seeing, and then of course years later they produced the "Digger & Friends" cartoon shorts that would play on Fox as part of their pre-race show, and honestly whenever Digger was on screen, I'd immediately change the channel; it was that bad.
If NASCAR were to market the sport more effectively to children, they can also help with another integral part of maintaining a fan base: Brand Loyalty. So many products I buy and use today are because of NASCAR. I only buy Gain Laundry detergent because Jeff Burton won several races in the Busch Series with his Gain sponsored car. I prefer Lowes over Home Depot because Jimmie Johnson won seven championships while driving the Lowes car. I used to drink Monster Energy because of Kyle Busch winning in the Nationwide/Xfinity Series. The first car I wanted when I was 8 years old was a Pontiac Grand Prix because that was the car make my favorite driver, Ernie Irvan, drove on track, and the fact that he was sponsored by my favorite candy, Skittles, just made me love it even more. They don't even make Pontiac's anymore, but that's how committed I was to the GM brand as a kid that I wanted it to be my first car as a kid (I wound up with 1991 Honda instead though).
One brilliant Marketing strategy I do see is that I see them advertise kids under twelve get into NASCAR Truck and Xfinity races for free. This is something I wish NASCAR did when I was a kid, because NASCAR was so popular that every race on the schedule was sold out. As a kid to three NASCAR races (1 truck and 2 Cup) as a kid at my home track, New Hampshire Motor Speedway because the race was frequently sold out and my dad bought them second-hand off a family friend who couldn't go to the races. It's a smart advertising move because attending a race can be sponsored when you total of ticket prices, gas, parking, food and hotel (if you're travelling a great distance to see a race), so the fact that NASCAR has this offer should be a great incentive for any parent who is a fan of NASCAR to go to a race with their kids. However, I only have ever seen this advertisement during races, and it's mostly targeted towards the adults. I know if when I was a kid, and they said I could get into a NASCAR race for free, I would have bugged my parents until they took me to the track that race weekend.
Comments
Post a Comment