ESPN/ABC, NASCAR

Racing Looks To Find New Fans…Pinewood Derby Anyone?

We are coming up fast on Daytona for NASCAR’s start,  the IRL is looking to rebrand and re-emerge after unification with IZOD as a title sponsor, even Forumula One is looking to find its place again. So as the economic times start to recede and sponsor dollars are becoming a tad looser again, what can racing do to find audiences to grow and keep adding fans for life.  One idea is for one of the circuits to embrace a time-honored tradition between thousands of boys and their dads with the Boy and Cub Scouts of America: brand the Pinewood Derby. For those who don’t know, Pinewood Derby is a mid-winter troop by troop competition in which dads and sons take a wooden block of five ounces and fashion it into a mini-soap box car to cpmpete against other troop members on a downhill track.  Pinewood Derby bonds fathers and sons, instills interest in science and design, gives kids an interest in racing away from a video screen and is just plain fun.  Virtually every troop in the United States has the race, and generations of scouts have enjoyed the practice over the years.  Yet, no one in racing has thought to find ways to honor design (especially now in the digital age), and add on some branding to enhance the car design. It probably is not a stretch that hosts of drivers, technicians and even sponsors who have gone through scouting can connect with Pinewood Derby as well.  To have one of the major circuits latch on and find ways to promote scouting through a Pinewood Derby promotion could be a cheap, affordable longlasting promotion at a time when racing is not top-of-mind, but could provide a great lead-in to the upcoming season.  Does it answer all the questions as to where racing can go to increase its viewership and demo?  No.  But it is a great grassroots tie to a group that has a strong  affinity for brands that support it (the scouts) and has very little downside or large cost associated with it.  Start your engines (or at least your blocks of wood).