Six Months Into A “Crisis” Year and NASCAR Continues Its Strong Refinement…

July 1, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

If any sport could be hurt by the global economic problems it should be NASCAR. The essence of the “traveling circus” of a circuit, especially one built around the auto industry and legions of fans that have to travel to see their stars, makes survival problematic and growth questionable. Outside the US, racing in the form of Formula One has been devastated, with more bad news that good. Yet NASCAR, although taking a hit, has continued to build its brand, redefine itself and find ways to satisfy its core audience and find new, casual fans in these crazy times. How? By staying on message, looking for new avenues, listening to their fans and doing everything possible to keep their TV, digital and brand partners happy in these tough times. A look around this week sees the NASCAR story told point by point in USA Today , and in an indepth all access show on CNBC . Prior to that, away from the sports and business pages, the New York Times spent A Night Out with driver Jimmie Johnson recently in Manhattan, while SUNOCO re-launched their campaign for Free Fuel for NASCAR fans and loyal customers in early June. Are things all rosy? No. The discretionary dollar for many fans has dried up, which will hopefully lead them to TV or more digital coverage, but NASCAR has done a great job of showing all partners that they are remaining strong in these tough times and will do whatever it takes to reward all involved with their brand. Great mid-year push by a sport fueled by loyalty.

UFC Continues To Grow Its MMA Marketshare With Mainstream Brand building…

December 17, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

A year ago the UFC continued to build its brand pretty much as it had before…by appealing to traditional MMA and fight fans with a smattering of the mainstream...a good part of the mainstream pitches were left to two principal competitors at the time, the IFL and ProElite, which forged mainstream TV deals and some pretty strong branding ties.  Now that those two brands have faded into bankruptcy and with no traditional strong contender in site in the MMA world, the UFC is growing its marketshare even more, and the latest examples are  a deal with Topps for trading cards and a mall/book tour with athletes pushing new UFC product. Although for mainstream sports, both deals are pretty much old hat, for the UFC they are strong statements to show that the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, although still limited in mainstream audience, is gathering up key followers at a time when most sports are slacking off.  Now there will always be a stigma with the sport, but from a branding standpoint the UFC has taken what little market they didn’t have and has now grown their share…a smart move in a down economy and one that shows that they are more savvy than sometimes media and competitors give them credit for.