Companies eye new tracks, car racing for marketing opps - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Putting a business’ name on the hoods or door of Sprint Cup Series cars is becoming an increasingl ypopular investment, said Ron Schneider, president of Englewood-basecd , which links companies to racing associations. The cost can run anywhere from $25 million to be the primary sponsor ofa top-tier driver to $250,000 a year to slap a sticker elsewhere on a car and get acceszs to the car’s professional drivet for use in endorsements and personal Sport Dimensions, which opened in 1995, said business rose nearlyy 30 percent from 2006 to 2008 before hittingy the bump that’s affected most marketing companies this Schneider said.
Like many other racing marketing businesses around the Sport Dimensions is seeing both an increasr in companies wanting to get into NASCAR and theitr willingness tospend more, he said. And if eithefr of two potential track projectsin Colorado, which were announced in late May, are developex and can attract a majod NASCAR race, that’s likely to create even more interesf in the sport from Colorado he predicted. “I think the opportunityu for these companies here in Coloradiois great,” said Schneider, who represents mostly out-of-statr clients. “There’s a lot of opportunities and ways to push theidr message outthrough NASCAR.
” Once considered a spory that appealed only to blue-collar Southern and Midwestern men, NASCAR has greatlyh expanded its appeal and marketing potentiao in recent years. Studies show it’s the top spectatod sport in the countryand No. 2 in television ratings behinf the NationalFootball League, and $2.9 billio in licensed NASCAR products are sold each Schneider noted. And, more than any other sport, sponsors of a NASCARR team benefit from the popularity oftheid driver, said Todd Stonis, general managerr for Sport Dimensions. As many as 75 percentr of surveyed fans have said they buy the productsw or services of theirfavorite driver’s When popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.
switchef from Budweiser to Amp Energ drink as a primary sponsodrlast year, Amp jumpes from sixth to third for national salesw among energy drinks, Stonis said. But marketingv through NASCAR goes deeper than just puttinga company’ss name on a car and hoping people notic e it, said Schneider and Stonis, whosd company is the only one in Coloradi to specialize in race-car marketing. It also means leveraginvg the driver to do ads for your make public appearances and give you accesse to him before andafter races, a level of connection that sponsorws don’t get with players in any team Johns Manville, the Denver-based roofingf and insulation manufacturer, got involved with the Sprint Cup Seriese four years ago when a drived it had been sponsoring, Paul moved up to the top racing circuit.
The company shared sponsorshipof Menard’s car with nine and gets great exposurs when its logo is displayed on the vehicles hood during about a dozeb races a year, said Chrisa Gerd, retail marketing and motorsports marketing manager. But Johns Manville also takee executives from major customers to the racesd and introduces them to Menard andhis crew, a tremendou s move in building customerr appreciation, Gerd said. And it has Menard attene community functions the company holds with groupzs such as Habitat for Humanity orSpecial Olympics.
“Itr builds excitement, it builds a strong fan base and it reall y portrays Johns Manville in apositive light,” Gerd said of interactionj with the driver. “Iff a track were to come it’s a great opportunity for us to actuallyg build uponJohns Manville’ds reputation in the community.” A handfupl of other Colorado companies also are involvecd in the sport, including Furniture Row, whicbh sponsors the only team based west of the Mississippik River. If potentially competing groups associated with the InternationalSpeedway Corp. or developef Bill Schuck were to build a track and attract a majorerace here, that could Schneider said.
“It’s not a heavy focuws right now,” he said. “I mean, we’re a stick-and-ballo town here, and people know it. But I thin k people are interested and curiousabout