Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Another question(S)....when it comes to placement of the name/logo on the car how much time/money is devoted going into that? Do you have any say in how the car looks or is that part of the sales pitch?

Is there a certain spot(s) you want to be on the car (engine cover, front wing, side of the wing, middle part of the wing) ?

Do you have any insights (don't have to give $$$ figures) as to what are some of the "prime" spots on the car.

Do keep track if the logo stays in the same place on the car? Reason I ask that question is because I am a racing fan in general so I would go to the local asphalt track here (Columbus Motor Speedway, may it now RIP) and would see guys get into accidents one week and then the next week with new body panels on but no sponsor logos as previously before. Always wondered if the sponsor knew after paying for a spot on a car that it was no longer being represented. 

1. Depends. Most teams (at least on a local/regional level) will have some sort of "ala carte" options for say just placing your logo on the car.  So a small company might say we want our logo on the car and look at the ala carte list and say ok for $1,000 (which will be their entire budget with the team) we'll take spot X on the car.  That's a sponsorship. Partnerships, as I've talked about, make more sense because of the increase of opportunities with an active and engaged audience. If you're spending the $ it's advantageous to see it this way because of the increase in opportunities.  When you're talking about larger partnerships you can "break down" the cost of something like this, but in the end you're paying a larger fee for a true partnership so the "ala carte" price for that spot is probably priced higher than when you have a full on partnership.  Another example is KKR.  They recently signed NAPA.  NAPA is the primary, major sponsor of Sweet's car for half the season.  The entire car is a rolling NAPA billboard because they have a very large fiscal and partner commitment to the team.  In that instance the look of the car was "part of the package" per se and I doubt if KKR broke it out to say, ok "X%" of our partnership is the cost of the logo on the car, etc.  In that instance they have a say in how the car looks. All that said, the "logo" on the car is usually (or was traditionally) billed as the main portion of the partnership....We have a say into how our logo looks (obviously) and have been asked about the look of the entire car by our driver, but in the end we do not tell our driver how we want the entire car to look.  Again, see KKR above for an example of that, but that comes with a major, major sponsor.       

2. Side of wing is prime.  Middle wing is also a prime spot (especially nowadays because of the influx of social media, sprint cars in the corner and steaming down the front stretch are prime photo ops and you see the mid wing). Side panels on the car can be prime if done in totality (again look at KKR) especially with more guys running left side arm guards/panels.  If you're an engine manufacturer you want to be here or the hood/engine cover somewhere.  Front wing probably follows all those listed above.  For whatever reason it's not seen as "sexy" of a spot (probably because of lack of "real estate" being a smaller component).

3.  When you're a primary sponsor you get the same spot, so there's no "making sure it's there." It's there on every wing they have. Unless something goes awry and they borrow a wing during the night due to a wreck. But when the new wing is purchased and decaled, it's there. Same spot.  What you say may have been comp partners/parts partners and not full paying sponsors/partners.  We have/had the mid wing for the last few years.  That's our spot on every single wing our driver has. When you work with a professional team it's not even a question of checking in on this.  They udnerstand the importance of it. 

Does that help?

     How does social media such as this message board or the junior high pissing match that is Facebook affect a sponsor's willingness to sponsor a team, a track or a series?

(Race fan here, sprint car zombie in fact.)

1st I wouldn't consider this board a form of "social media." 

Social media is an incredibly powerful tool that can really make a partnership "stick."  Look at it this way, the cost of social media is time (yes I know time is money, but we're talking about minutes, not days).  The hurdle to entry is also minimal as a large % of people are on social media (Twitter, IG, Facebook).  We focus mainly on Twitter as a means because of the "right now" nature of it.  We can Tweet pictures from the track in real time.  Facebook isn't quite as intuitive as this. We use IG as well, especially during big (WoO, All Star) events.  Partners absolutely want to see a race team be professional on social media.  I'd never tell my driver what to say or muzzle what they say on social media, but they should absolutely be aware that I'm paying attention.  Most professional drivers understand this and will use social media as a tool rather than a platform or soapbox.  Does that mean there's never a time where they spout off, no, but I'm paying attention, closely.  When you have a close knit partnership your driver is seen as an extension of your brand (again and again the driver as an extension of your brand is a powerful tool because of the access we have in this sport) so you have to pay close attention.  It may seem like "big brother" but again I'm not telling him/her what to say, I'm just watching out for my brand and the association with someone.  If you have common goals as your driver/team then its usually not an issue. 

I'll give you an example where it might be.  There's another regional driver in our area (not sprint car) that we at least took a cursory glance at and on his Twitter every other tweet has profanity or is a RT of a not so savory Twitter account, so yeah we knew pretty quickly (because we use social media as an egagement tool) this wasn't the driver for us.

Same can be applied to a track or series, though because those are "business" type accounts there's rarely any issue with getting into a pissing match or personal feelings being put forth.   

Here's two quick articles discussing Nascar fans brand loyatly.  Not a ton of "take home data" or info, but just a quick overview.  This can be trickeld down to the dirt track level and teams can use information such as this to demonstrate the power of motorsports marketing to prospective companies that do not have knowledge of Sprint Car Racing. 

http://nielsensports.com/nascar-fans-most-brand-loyal-among-all-american-sports-fans/

http://www.thedrivetoconnect.com/insights-into-nascar-fan-brand-loyalty/