IRL Marketing Ideas

[boom boom]

I read this Forum every day, but haven't posted or commented for awhile. We all have Ideas on how good or how bad the series is, we all have ideas on what types of tracks we should run, and we all have ideas on TV coverage.
Verus is new and even with low ratings to start with, I think we can agree they have better coverage and they are promoting the IRL better then we seen in awhile. And in the End it comes down to Money and Sponsors for the Teams and the Series, and marketing themselves is key. So my question is if we were a Sponsor, Team Owner or The IRL, how would we market ourselves? We can't be any worse than Gene Simmons.

1. So anyone here anymore from Alex Lloyd lately? I've heard Her wants to be full time next year, why don't they take their Money to Panther. Pink Lloyd in the Pink Panther? a Win Win for everyone. P.S. I just bought my first Her last weekend, not Bad

2. Gieco: a commercial with Danica (or anyone else) complaining about bad drivers and dumb moves (while we we see clips of PT driving) and then she says come on these cars are not that hard to drive (a caveman can do it)

3. Target, why haven't they marketed their race team lately like they used to do? I remember there commercials in the 90's. This last weekend I was in Target to buy myself some Her and then went to the toys to see if by any chance they would have some IRL hotwheels. Nope, not even Dario or Dixon. So then I look through the N stuff and to my horror no JPM either what gives? Part of me really hopes Danica gets in to a Ganassi Car so Target would want to market there Indy cars more, even if it was another sponsor if she is on the same team, maybe they could cross promote.

Just some of my thoughts, any other ideas or suggestions?

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by boom boom

3. Target, why haven't they marketed their race team lately like they used to do? I remember there commercials in the 90's. This last weekend I was in Target to buy myself some Her and then went to the toys to see if by any chance they would have some IRL hotwheels. Nope, not even Dario or Dixon. So then I look through the N stuff and to my horror no JPM either what gives? Part of me really hopes Danica gets in to a Ganassi Car so Target would want to market there Indy cars more, even if it was another sponsor if she is on the same team, maybe they could cross promote.

Just some of my thoughts, any other ideas or suggestions?

As it was explained to me by someone at that team the Target money to the irl decreased over the years as the value of the sponsorship went down due to the decline of open wheel racing in the USA. And then it essentially got to the point Ganassi was using the Nascar team to fund the irl team, which is partially why he could never get his Nascar team running right.

[johntt]

1) Cars that look good

2) Cars that sound good

3) Some better tracks (there are some good ones but its largely quite poor).

4) Technical innovation

Get that right and it will market itself

[The Snout]

Originally Posted by johntt

1) Cars that look good

2) Cars that sound good

3) Some better tracks (there are some good ones but its largely quite poor).

4) Technical innovation

Get that right and it will market itself

Thank You.

[JagtechOhio]

It's about competition, and the casual viewer feeling like they have a personal stake in a particular driver's result.

That means better tracks, yes: I'm in the Sonoma/ Laguna/ Elkhart Lake/ Mid Ohio/ Toronto/ Homestead/ Indy faction.

Technical innovation, yes: that's competition that American consumers relate to directly. It fuels the drama of reliabilty and adaptability of new designs as they face a new test at every style of circuit. Hell, that's why most of us buy a new cell phone to trump the one we call our buddies on.

Most importantly, it's about consistancy of the driver lineup and exploitation of every avenue to make the drivers recognizable to the public. I can close my eyes and see the faces of Sneva, Mears, Mario, Al Sr. and Uncle Bobby, Lone Star J.R., Gordo...they were competitors for years, and yielded the kind of fan loyalty that CRASHCAR has developed.

That doesn't mean the driver linup has to be American, it means that it has to be devoid of silly seat swaps and translucent personalities. Danica's swimsuit pics and Helio's tango serve far more benefit to the series than the pitch of full chat exhaust note. Somebody has to get Scott Dixon on "Survivor", or Mr. Judd into a movie with his wife...no casual sports fan knows who they are, and they have been at the top of the game for years.

Challenging races with drivers we recognize, while keeping a wary eye out for the other guy's latest equipment and how he might now challenge our hero. Or become our new one.

Alex Z was a star because of the Target promotional effort, his affable nature, and his incredible competitive driving. Laguna forever, Kansas never.

J.R. dominates in the Chaparral, and everybody wants to get a look at the bottom of his car. Sneva shows up with sliding skirts, and the chatter about the innovation drowns out the evil scraping sound of full ground effects. The mighty Penske organization builds a new chassis that leaves Mears struggling to qualify. That's competition.

That was the model of open wheel racing we once had, between drivers and teams we came to know. It is not reactionary to look back to find the marketing stratagies that will work today. That's all I got, sorry if it's not too profound.

[Jacques Rabbit]

Originally Posted by johntt

1) Cars that look good

2) Cars that sound good

3) Some better tracks (there are some good ones but its largely quite poor).

4) Technical innovation

Get that right and it will market itself

Couldn't agree more. IRL is taking this "omg Danica and Marco!!!" approach, and it's failing. CART never promoted drivers in particular, and yet North American open wheel was at its most popular then. People who watch NAOW are pretty hardcore; so appeal to them, not people who will turn you off to watch Talladega instead.

[JagtechOhio]

Nice screen name.

Watch what fails if OMG Danica leaves. Marco is a razor salesman, and I'd rather buy a faster brand. On a good day, the average American has a shot at naming either one of them from a line up. Other than Helio, all the rest are just suits.

[Jacques Rabbit]

I'll give you that...losing Danica would be pretty substantial for the IRL. However, if they had regulations that promoted an interesting on-track product, I don't think she would matter as much. The IRL put too much focus on the drivers and not enough on the racing; so now when you lose the drivers, you lose everything.

People would be able to name 'em if they watched...they won't watch if there's little going on during the races.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

That doesn't mean the driver linup has to be American, it means that it has to be devoid of silly seat swaps and translucent personalities. Danica's swimsuit pics and Helio's tango serve far more benefit to the series than the pitch of full chat exhaust note. Somebody has to get Scott Dixon on "Survivor", or Mr. Judd into a movie with his wife...no casual sports fan knows who they are, and they have been at the top of the game for years.

What you're advocating there is that the drivers become celebrities doing something else and that people will come to watch the series if it has these 'celebrities' driving in it. If people are watching the IRL because of that, it's already done for it. As important as it is to market drivers, it has to be the series 'making' the drivers into celebrities and not the other way around - F1 and Nascar drivers aren't famous because they can dance or look good in swim suits.

I think the IRL needs to broaden its horizons - starting with everything in johntt's list. It has to try to attract fans of F1, former Champ Car fans and even some Nascar fans, as well as other sports fans. CART did all of that in the early 90s, and that IMO, should be a blue print for the new series heading forward.

[zac510]

But Jay it's human nature for people to attach to the drivers on a more personal level than a series that supposedly made them (mind not the hard work getting to that series). It's true the world over.
That's why F1 drivers have become PR drones and the WDC so important - because the drivers draw the attention to sponsors, not the series or the cars.

However a series based purely on driver marketing would be a bit narrow minded and probably lack the respect of the enthusiasts, although potentially having a large following. Maybe the Race of Champions is a bit like this - made for drivers and nothing to do with the cars.

[Teretonga]

The WDC has always been important and the top drivers have always been stars, because they are the top drivers.....

You promote the racing not the drivers.
Racing is what the sport is about. The drivers are incidental.
When they go new people replace them because its about the racing not the stars...
People support their favourites but that does not determine the success of the sport, the racing does.

So if Danica goes yes it will make a difference but if that is what the series is about then how weak is the series????
If their was any strength in the series it wouldn't matter because the racing would be whats important.
Anyone who thinks the 'stars' are more important to the series than the racing has forgotten what the sereis is about and the reason for its existence....

Oh.... Is that why the IRL is foundering? .... Because its not about the racing but winning an ideologiccal battle with the former CART board who are now racing in the series....
That may be a reason why the IRL doesn't really work. It's foundation is wrong.
It should be about the racing...

[JagtechOhio]

Jay, I think you are speaking from the point of view of a racing fan who wants to watch a quality product. I am speaking about attracting and keeping the interest of casual fans to sell the product: I think that was the point of this thread. What I am advocating is making every attempt to change the fact that the average American sports fan is oblivious to IRL racing. If that means more television commercials with pit crews dressed in drag, so be it.

We are in agreement with the much needed improvements to the competition. Any casual fan who watched the Kansas race for a few minutes switched it off before he could remember the names of the participants.

The spec cars have made the competitive balance stagnant, and the oval races insufferable. All staged by teams and drivers that Average Joe has never heard of and doen't care about. So he doesn't stay tuned, potential sponsors know it, and the NHRA and CRASHCAR get the biggest pieces of the shrinking pie of advertising investment. Care for a free John Force hat with your case of Castrol? You sure won't be getting one that says Alex Tagliani.

Sarah Fisher was on John Stewart's Daily show the week of the 500. Guaranteed that attracted a few viewers, especially female ones, to follow the race. The fact that it was a snoozefest is a major problem, but at least there were new eyeballs to see it. None of them are reading this, but they might be drinking an HER while talking on their clutch mobile.

I already wrote a letter to Dollar General to thank them for supporting Fisher Racing, and now I'm patronizing their store when I need something they might have.

The drivers are not incidental, the drivers are the spokespersons and rolling billboards for the sponsor of their entry. Exposure of the drivers raises public awareness, brings eyeballs to the sponsor's billboard, increases advertising investment, and enables teams to fund research and development budgets when the rules are changed to allow them. I think you call that growth.

[Jacques Rabbit]

Sorry for the length, I may have gotten carried away

The problem with the casual fans is that if you cater to them, you'll end up with an over-the-top product based around in-your-face entertainment, like NASCAR or NHRA. The average US American television viewer decided somewhere down the line that NASCAR was what he/she wanted to watch; drivers and cars they could relate to, and a lot more action with a lot less thinking behind it. It's like any other TV show: you watch it and enjoy it. It lets you be a casual fan.

You can't be a casual fan of the IRL because it isn't something you'll invite your friends over to have snacks and drinks and watch because there aren't bump-and-runs and rivalries and green white checkereds and all these other gimmicks that appeal to them. When you watch open-wheel, you have to use your mind a bit: strategies, technology, etc.

You can try to sell some names, but people aren't going to be too interested if the names you're selling are running mid-pack. Sarah had a great run at Indy considering how hard she works for it, so don't get me wrong, but does the casual viewer comprehend that? Probably not.

The casual viewer won't come back, so you have to maximize what you can with the actual race fan. The NHL's been trying to do it (leaving ESPN for VERSUS was the first step). They realized that as great as hockey is, for whatever reason, every man, woman, and child in the US aren't going to gather around the TV for National Hockey Night. So now they're trying to just appeal hockey to the hockey fans, and it's working well. You can be profitable with just die-hards. A few million US Americans watched the Monaco Grand Prix in 2002 (it was shown on ABC right after the Indy 500)...so there are enough people in the USA to make a profitable series; it just has to be a good one.

And that's just one country. If you make a more traditional formula-car product (essentially, an affordable alternative to F1 with more passing and contact as well as some oval circuits), you open up an entire world of fans who will gladly pay to see the product if you allow them to.

Marketing will help a tad, but I'm not sure it'll be any more successful than the VERSUS ads they show on other networks...they've promoted the racing, some of the drivers (Danica, Scott, TK, Graham), etc pre-season during programs like the NCAA basketball tournament on network TV, and that didn't help their ratings at all for the first round.

I will give you this: the part about the John Force hat. We do need sponsors that will use drivers for promotion...but it's a weird cycle. No viewers, no major sponsor investments. No on-track product, no viewers. So that makes it tough.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

The WDC has always been important and the top drivers have always been stars, because they are the top drivers.....

I agree with everything in your post - just wanted to highlight this sentence, as it's the point I was trying to get across.

JagtechOhio, I don't disagree that it's important to get the drivers out there - they are the spokespeople of the series. Cutting straight to the point, I just think it's a big mistake for the series to completely orient itself around one driver, Danica Patrick. Even Helio's five seconds of fame ended when Dancing With The Stars ended... viewers knew him for his dancing and didn't care about what else he did...just like all of the other "celebrities" on that show.

The IRL is in a sports oblivion where nobody knows about them unless you tell them they race at the Indy 500. It will take a lot more than promoting a driver or two to change that. The series has fundamental problems with both its racing formula and business model that are preventing it from advancing. The mess of the Toronto race is a perfect example of that. You had a large number of people in Toronto that knew exactly how to make the event a success, yet AGR almost completely blew them off, and the race barely registered locally with a small fraction of its 2007 attendance.

All that said, I think the series will have to go lower before it can start rebuilding...and it's still has a ways to fall.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Jay

The IRL is in a sports oblivion where nobody knows about them unless you tell them they race at the Indy 500. It will take a lot more than promoting a driver or two to change that. The series has fundamental problems with both its racing formula and business model that are preventing it from advancing. The mess of the Toronto race is a perfect example of that. You had a large number of people in Toronto that knew exactly how to make the event a success, yet AGR almost completely blew them off, and the race barely registered locally with a small fraction of its 2007 attendance.

I think the Toronto race was a horrific failure considering it's long term successful stature. Says a lot about what is wrong.

Much of what I see going on at the irl is similar to the last year of Champcar with the same befuddlement and lack of any kind of management or input or control going on. I think the obit was written when "reunification" happened a year and half ago. TG is gone because his other members in the trust realized the fundamental problems ran much deeper and when the meek reunification occurred and things got worse the writing was on the wall.

Personally from what I heard, the irl is up for sale. If that is not the case, it will be soon. The impetus, desire, financial backing to make it a successful series is gone.

I think only after it is divested we can speculate on what can be done with it. Right now it is drifting aimlessly in the ocean with no engine power.