Racing Back To The Top…

As one looks for continued signs of resurgence in sports marketing…record viewership for the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympic Opening ceremonies, more global sponsors building activation platforms, increased and more diverse ad spending dollars being but forth from ’09…perhaps one should look to racing as a bell weather. Yes it is true that “The Great American Race,” the Daytona 500, will just beginning NASCAR's season this weekend, and that the aggressive new launch of IRL is still a few weeks away, but there are continued positive signs which are showing that racing, one of the the industries hit hardest in the recession the last few years, may be returning to form in terms of viewership, attention and brand awareness. NASCAR has started awareness campaigns in theaters across the country, designed to promote the personalities of the sport, has enhanced their digital presence and begun a more intense program to get their faces out to the widest possible audience going into the season.

On the NASCAR side, Danica Patrick's move has helped create even more buzz for Daytona and the ancillary events around the start of the season, while as Barry Janoff posted in his blog this week, a new group of brands have been looking to replace departing ones for activation and fan engagement. On the IRL front, IZOD has already started rolling some big marketing dollars into their new title sponsorship, including IRL-custom tagged ads that continue to pop up in other major sporting events across the dial. The IRL has a long way to go to return to the glory days of the Indy 500 of the ’70's and ’80's, but with an engaged and interested title sponsor leading the way, it appears like the circuit, now reunified, could also be on an upswing.? The early part of the sports year is already packed with large scale events, from the Olympics to the NBA All-Star game, and the world is awaiting Tiger Woods’ return to jumpstart golf, but racing appears to be just as engaged, if not more engaged. going into a season than the sport has been in years, and that push to not just re-engage their loyal fan base, but to find more reasons for the causal fan to tune in, could spell much better times ahead.

Some other good reads…on the NASCAR front, George Vecsey in the New York Times had a good look at Andrew Giangola's book about the loyalty of the fan… Yahoo's Mark Spears had a good q and a with NBA Commissioner David Stern… and Sherdog.com has a look at the race issues still hindering the growth of Mixed Martial Arts.