IMV43: NASCAR

The following is a transcript for IMV43 : NASCAR. The original podcast is located here.

Announcer:

Welcome to the Internet Marketing Voodoo podcast, brought to you by MindComet. And now, here’s your host, Paul Lewis.

Paul Lewis:

Welcome to Internet Marketing Voodoo. I’m your host, Paul Lewis, and today’s topic is consumer marketing on the Internet. Our special guest today is Barbara Emener. She’s the senior manager of consumer marketing for NASCAR. Barbara, welcome to the show.

Barara Emener:

Thank you for having me.

Paul Lewis:

I think the first thing I’d like to open up with is an understanding, as you’re making investments to reach consumers, how does NASCAR go about apportioning the difference between a digital versus a traditional approach?

Barara Emener:

NASCAR is still in its infancy from a league perspective. We have directed dedicated marketing initiatives for the last, I don’t know, decade or so. And as our technology evolves, we find ourselves going from traditional media and emerging into the digital realm more and more. And you’ll find that from a traditional segment as a league, but also with all of our partners that come onboard as well. From our media partners and our sponsors and licensees, you’ll find that we are all migrating more and more into the digital world.

Paul Lewis:

So would you see that that activity has obviously picked up in the last few years, and do you think the pace is increasing the rate at which the migration is occurring?

Barara Emener:

Absolutely. And I would also say that I think one of the larger elements that we find is, as an entertainment property, communicating with our fans, or communicating with the consumers, is one thing, but also how they entertain and take in the sport and consume the sport and consume the entertainment factor that we bring is just as important, so we want to communicate out to the fans, but we also want to deliver the content in a medium that also pushed the envelope on a digital front when they’re not just receiving the marketing messages, if you will.

Paul Lewis:

Sure, absolutely. Do NASCAR fans seem to have a strong correlation with online?

Barara Emener:

They do, absolutely. You’ll find, especially with our main Web site, NASCAR.com, which is run through Turner Interactive out of Turner Sports, we find that more and more traffic is driven there. We’re becoming a lot more savvy. There’s a lot more digital and video content than we’ve ever had before. And I believe that the future is going to be on the Internet but a lot of other multimedia facets as well.

Paul Lewis:

So would you say that the Internet is bringing you a new audience, as well as helping you reach your existing one?

Barara Emener:

Absolutely. We also really recognize that we have to be very true to our core and not alienate the avid fans that have brought the sport to where it is today.

Paul Lewis:

Great. Where do you put most of your digital investment when trying to reach prospective people interested in the sport? Do you focus on e-mail, banners, video? What types of investments are you making today?

Barara Emener:

Honestly, there’s two kind of trains of thought here within NASCAR. Some of it is on the marketing front where we deliver our marketing messages out to the fans. It’s obviously on the Internet. But more than anything, the technology that is on the front-end from a competition standpoint, we want to make the sport easier and more exciting for our fans to follow, and a lot of that has to do with the digital era, in-car cameras, in-car microphones, multi-angle views of a racecar. You’re not just watching it in 2-D or 3-D on your television set at home anymore. You can go onto the Internet and see your favorite driver from eight angles for an entire race, and all of that can be found logging onto the Internet during a race, or an in-demand type of a component to what you see at track, the Nextel fan view that brings all of your drivers into one handheld device at track as well, so we really try to push the envelope with the digital era to bring the sport to people with marketing messages, but like I said before, delivering the on-track performance content to the fans directly, and a lot of that is over the Internet.

Paul Lewis:

From a marketer’s perspective, whether that be if you were going out to advertise on other sites to attract people to come to NASCAR.com or to come to a race in person, or from the flipside, from working with other advertisers, partners and sponsors, what are some of the key takeaways that you’ve learned about successful versus unsuccessful campaigns on the Internet?

Barara Emener:

To be very honest, from a league’s perspective, my role, on the consumer marketing front, is to be where NASCAR isn’t. My – the lion’s share of my job is to bring new fans into the sport. And if you look at the fan continuum, on one end of the spectrum, there’s fans that don’t know anything about NASCAR, don’t even know what it stands for. And then on the opposite end of the spectrum is our avid diehard fan who would sell their grandmother for two tickets to the Daytona 500.

Paul Lewis:

Right.

Barara Emener:

And at what point do we segment and analyze, number one, how does a fan enter the sport and why? Number two, how long do they stay there at the entry level position? And how do we as a sport continue to provide the sport in a compelling way that will move them along the continuum at a faster rate or a slower rate where they continue to buy more, consume more of the sport and the product? We rely on a lot of our official partners and official licensees to help drive people back to our Web site and vice versa.

So, for example, if I have grassroots initiatives in New York City, I’ll encourage our media partners in New York City to have a hyperlink to drive everybody to NASCAR.com for more information. It’s the number one site to get everything all about NASCAR, for a new fan, for an avid fan, or the casual fan.

Our alliance and our strategic partnership with ESPN was a critical new thing for 2007 for us. But at the end of the day, we drive everybody to NASCAR.com because we find that’s the one hub where they can consume all of the relevant content in one place.

Paul Lewis:

Yeah, I think you demonstrate some really advanced thinking about that. I think one of the elements of modern marketing that is coming to the forefront is really relationship marketing and looking at the holistic value of the consumer that you’re trying to reach. So in previous times, your goal might be ticket sales for a particular event or marketing a particular product. And now, where marketers are beginning to think is, “Okay, there’s still a value if I can move them to my Web site and get them – engage my brand. There’s a greater value if I can get them to register and give me their e-mail contact information, so I can pull them back in. There’s a greater value if I can obtain from them demographic and psychographic data about their preferences, interests and other things that help me speak more on-target, more eloquently, to their specific interests and draw them into a deeper, and hopefully, more profitable relationship with my brand, and then still, with the goals of also increasing immediate, the ticket sales, the product sales, the other things that are the primary goal, but these secondary goals together, create a much more effective strategy, and it seems like that’s the strategy you’re employing as well.

Barara Emener:

Correct, 100%.

Paul Lewis:

One of the things I was excited about having you on the show was because NASCAR has done some really amazing advancements in technology to put people, as you said, all the different viewing angles and the updates and the constant information. I really think you’re leading the way there. Are you having any new things on the drawing board that are going to be coming out soon, or some new technologies that you’re using elsewhere that you really are enamored with?

Barara Emener:

The DIRECTV Hot Pass, which came out this year, in 2007, has really shown our fans a different and unique way to engage themselves in watching the sport at home. The other element, as I mentioned, was the Nextel fan view at track. I really think that the emerging technology of bringing the on-track content in unique and compelling ways really towards our avid fan will continue to be where we’re going in the future. I also think too, with a lot of our technology partners, like a Sprint Nextel, like a Sirius Satellite Radio, and even iTunes, the broadband content, the streaming audio and streaming visuals of race broadcasts, of in-car cameras, real-time telemetry and statistics, you can see everything you want to see about your favorite driver in real-time, where the average viewer on terrestrial radio or terrestrial TV doesn’t get that. So there’s a compelling reason to pay more for the added value of understanding other elements of the race that you wouldn’t normally get by sitting at home and watching on TV.

Paul Lewis:

Great. Well, Barbara, we’re at that point in the show where we’re going to do “Truth or Marketing.” Are you ready?

Barara Emener:

I’m ready.

Paul Lewis:

All right, so here’s the predictions. Two thousand and eight, Florida Gators will win another national sports title in either football or basketball.

Barara Emener:

Marketing.

Paul Lewis:

American Idol will launch an online tryout, and you will vote on their Web site.

Barara Emener:

Truth.

Paul Lewis:

All right, and the last one is a prediction, a year prediction. What year will interactive marketing constitute more than 50% of the advertising, the national advertising, spend?

Barara Emener:

I would say we’re not too far off. I’d say maybe 2010.

Paul Lewis:

Twenty-ten, I think that would be my guess as well, so I think you’re in good company there. Well, Barbara, it was a pleasure having you on the show today. Thanks for making the time for us.

Barara Emener:

Thank you for having me. I’ve enjoyed it.

Paul Lewis:

Well, for all the fans out there, this concludes another issue of Internet Marketing Voodoo. Until next time, keep it real.

Announcer:

For more information on this week’s topic, visit internetmarketingvoodoo.com. This podcast has been brought to you by MindComet, the Relationship Agency.

[End of Audio]

Marketing Resources
Contact MindComet for more information on online marketing.

Subscribe to the Internet Marketing Voodoo podcast in iTunes.

Audio Link