Marketing in Motorsports

For the past 5 years, I've hosted "Pit Pass: Rumors, News & Opinions From The Track" on AutoRacing1.com. This past week's show, I combined motorsports & marketing to challenge teams to consider themselves Marketers, not just Racers. See, from a 25 million dollar team like Jeff Gordon's, down to my amateur racing with a budget of just a few thousand dollars, our search for sponsorship is the same. However, for too long, Motorsports as an industry has said "Hey, we've got these neat racecars, put your logo on them" but the client couldn't see the bigger picture. Instead, we need to see Motorsports as a platform for sponsors to use the way THEY see fit. What do THEY want to do? My sponsor loves seeing his name on the car & I've let him drive it a couple of times. Jeff Gordon's sponsor wants to sell more widgets. Success will only be measured by the folks who lay the ground rules. Make sure you know what those rules are from your client's perspective and then you can develop a plan that will reach it.

Now, tell the World!

John