IT’S MORE THAN JUST VEHICLES-AS-BILLBOARDS

THE HIDDEN B2B BENEFITS OF MOTORSPORTS SPONSORSHIP

Motorsports, like any of the other major American sports, certainly attracts millions of eyeballs. From a 30,000-foot view, motorsports sponsorship can be viewed simply as a brand awareness play based on media and other above-the-line exposure. However, there are a variety of other business-building considerations to keep in mind when thinking about sponsorship’s role in motorsports – it’s more than just a “vehicle” for advertising.

Motorsports is an ideal platform to creatively accomplish B2B goals. Start by thinking about which partners have a positive correlation with your business, then identify some mutually beneficial scenarios. Who is your biggest potential account? Want to be its exclusive supplier? A sponsorship could be the first step in bettering these relationships.

Success in a motorsports program is defined by how well your brand maximizes the available assets. Drivers, teams, promoters, sanctioning bodies and media partners all need to work in unison to create an effective program to achieve your goals.

rEvolution has experience both in crafting original and fully-integrated sponsorship programs in the motorsports space and in measuring their success.

Target

rEvolution activated Target’s first-ever motorsports mobile product sampling program at NASCAR and other tracks’ events. Our team conceptualized and fabricated 10’ tall motorized shopping carts that made their way around the tailgates for sampling and even turned a couple of laps. The program offered Target significant race presence, but also smartly passed some cost of activation and sponsorship to its vendor partners included in the giveaways, couponing and on-car branding.

Lowe’s

Our consulting and research team developed a groundbreaking survey research model based on Miller Lite’s NASCAR sponsorship, which isolated incremental sales attributable to its sponsorship. This model has since become the industry standard in the sponsorship measurement space and has been utilized by several major brands in motorsports including NAPA, Shell and Lowe’s. We evaluated the overall impact on brand image, with each sponsorship, and how the program influenced consumers’ purchase intent.

Retail Relationships

Retailers and brands can create vendor participation to enhance the touchpoints and offset costs.

Drive your customer relationships with a full calendar of ad features or POS display programs.
Create shopper experiences with at-store events, sharing race access and exciting sensory elements.

Business-to-Business

Find channel partners that you want to solidify a relationship with or that may have a direct correlation to your business goals.

Create exclusive supplier deals with large clients or prospects.
Mutual racing interests offer far better pitch opportunities than cold calls – but you’ve got to join the club first.

Endemic Sponsors

Endemic brands have the ability to integrate authentically into the tribe of the passionate enthusiasts. “Proven on the track” is an automotive cliché that is not going way anytime soon.

Create authentic connection between high performance and your product.
Access relationships that impact OEM and aftermarket to expand distribution.

Continental Tire

Continental Tire is the official tire of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) sanctioned WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge. Continental uses its sponsorship to create engaging consumer activations at each race. In addition, its access is utilized to create hospitality programs to incentive the dealer network and to support important B2B relationships. And for the teams on track, well, we just sell them thousands of performance tires a year.

Case Study

General Tire

In 2016, rEvolution helped General Tire to solidify a multi-year strategic partnership with the ARCA Racing Series – marking the century-old brand’s first foray into the world of stock car racing. General Tire activates on-site at ARCA races with a head-turning footprint, bridging generational gaps and a century of automotive history at a single “gas station” seemingly stuck halfway between today and the automotive world of 50 years ago. As an endemic partner, General Tire gains the performance insight and validation from the competing teams to continually improve their products. They also sell thousands of performance tires a year to the teams themselves.

Case Study