This message was edited on
July 05, 2013 at
02:16:06 AM by raj
Scott: "...advertise to a wider demographic and help develop the drivers into the names they deserve and connect with a new fan base that craves personalities..." This is the formula that worked for NASCAR and is starting to work now for Izod Indycar. It seems useful (for some; I suspect you already do because of how you promote your OR shows) to understand how much money NASCAR had to plow into this 30 years ago, how much Indycar is plowing into it now by buying major channel airtime for their shows (buying time; not getting paid for content), how much DK (and his family) threw at the media 15 years ago, and how much you may have to invest to get those personalities across in a huge, heavily media-cluttered, sports market.
A business-experienced perusal of USAC's, KWS's and even WoO's websites should make it clear that they are not doing what you're suggesting... most likely because they don't have the spare change.
Something a lot of people don't understand: The auto racing business at the "traveling circus" level is changing, and WoO seems to be establishing the new business model for the Big Night at the Small Track. They used to go to each promoter and say, "Here's our show. It's the biggest one you can do, and you can make some dough, but we want to see 90 thousand George's before we tow." It was killing them (of course).
So they went to track rentals with guaranteed -- if limited -- income for the track operator who (if he's a smarty) leverages all the promotion WoO will do for their show to promote his other shows to people who rarely show up at his joint because they don't know about how good the Ocean Sprints or the CRA or the WC 360 shows are.
I was in the major amusement field for several decades. I know about leveraging special events and using those big shows to tell the stories that need to be told about the smaller ones. Steve Faria and John Prentice appear to understand how to use their big shows to help their smaller ones. But I do not see that being done in the manner that it can be -- and on the relatively cheap -- at most California tracks.
At the very least, I'd hit every windshield in the parking lot at the major shows with a carefully crafted flyer that includes a full schedule of events and at least four large displays of the track's website address just for starters... and something on that website that induces a large number of lookies to provide you with their email addresses, like, say, a chance to win two free tickets to one of the "regular" shows.
I'd learned by 1982 that the best potential customer for my joint was the one who'd already had a good time there. I let him know I appreciated him. Now they call it "relationship marketing."
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