Securing Sponsorship in NASCAR: 4 Top Strategies
With an average of 2.86 million viewers per race and 8.9 million viewers for the Daytona 500, sponsorships in NASCAR are a big ticket item.
Are you still trying to secure a six or seven figure NASCAR sponsorship with a PowerPoint or PDF?
Modern times call for modern solutions, and in the competitive sponsorship landscape, teams, racetracks, and elite drivers need to stand out from the crowd to win big. By the end of this article, you’ll be equipped with four innovative tactics to implement in your sponsorship activations.
NASCAR Sponsorship Landscape
There are four primary ways to provide sponsorship in the race world:
- Official NASCAR Partnership
- Race Team / Driver
- Track / Race Entitlement
- Media
Choosing the right entry point typically falls into the hands of the sponsors themselves, but it’s up to the industry sales teams & agencies to accurately convey the value of each sponsorship opportunity.
Official NASCAR Partnership
An Official NASCAR partnership refers to a formal agreement directly with the NASCAR sanctioning body. Sponsorship at the league level does not provide direct access to teams or drivers. Instead, it allows companies the opportunity to associate their brands with the NASCAR logo and use “Official Partner of NASCAR” in their branding/messaging.
Team / Driver
The branding on your favorite race car is achieved through team sponsorship. This lucrative opportunity allows for fan-facing visibility— which is valuable because it’s proven that 66% of dedicated fans take action after seeing a team’s sponsorship.
Teams aren’t limited to only one sponsor. Multiple companies can showcase their sponsorship on a vehicle, and the usage depends on if the brand is a primary or associate sponsor.
Primary Sponsors
Associate Sponsors
Other Team Assets
Primary sponsors showcase their logo on the most visible parts of the car, including:
- The hood
- The rear quarter panels
- TV panel
(license plate area) - Roof area
Associate sponsor placements are typically smaller and slightly less visible:
- Lower hood
- Lower rear quarter panel
(behind rear tires) - Trunk (deck) lid
- Areas between windows
(B and C posts)
Beyond the car, all other team assets are branded by team sponsors, including:
- Fire suits
- Driver suit
- Track equipment
- Truck & hauler
- Social media & PR assets
Typically, drivers are connected to their team’s sponsorship. However, independent driver sponsorship can happen through a Personal Service Agreement (PSA). These sponsorships are essentially a spokesperson deal and do not grant the sponsor rights to a driver’s car or their branded fire suit.
Track / Race Entitlement
Like at traditional sports venues, track sponsorships allow for signage, such as:
- Race Entitlement
- Logos on the walls of the track
- Billboard signs around the track
- Logos painted on the grass
- Hospitality elements (Suites, infield access, tickets, access to garage/pit road)
- Experiential activation areas
- Branded entitlement areas in facility
All of these logo placements are visible to in-person spectators and on TV broadcasting.
Additionally, brands can showcase their products in the midway (or “fan zone”) area. This large display area allows fans to interact with and purchase merchandise from sponsor brands on race day.
Media
Many NASCAR sponsors choose to also purchase media inventory on TV, NASCAR.COM, radio, or social media to support their other points of entry.
4 Smart Strategies for Gaining Sponsorship in NASCAR
There are multiple ways for brands to provide sponsorship in NASCAR, but how are you going to secure the most lucrative sponsorships for your team or track? NASCAR is a sensory sport with fast-paced content. Everyone can agree that flat, bulky PDFs and PowerPoints aren’t getting the job done anymore.
Use these four strategies to supercharge your sponsorship or entitlement pitches, proposals, and recaps for partnership sales that take you across the finish line.
1) Focus on a Customized Experience
Ditch one-size-fits-all proposals in favor of a completely customized experience. Customization isn’t just a trend – it’s your audience’s new expectation.
Attention to detail goes a long way with brands of all sizes. 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company if it offers a personalized experience. No matter what format you deliver your proposal in, customizing the following details will show you care about the audience:
- Colors
- Fonts
- Photos
- Videos
If you’re concerned about the time it’s going to take to customize your next sponsorship proposal, there’s a better way to streamline. NASCAR industry executives rely on DIGIDECK by Sportsdigita for fully customizable presentations complete with time-saving automations.
2) Make Your Prospect the Hero of the Proposal
When you send out your proposal to a prospective sponsor, try following the StoryBranding framework. In this sales framework, your prospect is the hero of the story, not you.
The order of the StoryBrand sales journey is:
- The hero (your prospect) steps into the story.
- They have a problem that they need help solving.
- They meet a guide (you!).
- The guide gives them a plan on how to solve their problem.
- The plan calls them to take action (securing a strategic sponsorship).
When you follow this framework, your sponsorship prospect will clearly see the value you provide and how the custom assets will solve their problem.
3) Show, Don’t Tell What Sponsorship Will Look Like
It’s one thing to tell a potential sponsor about all the areas their logo will appear.
It’s another to show them.
Include visuals in your presentation that depict exactly where your prospect’s logo will be placed— whether that be the car, fire suit, media or track.
Intimidated by the amount of time it would take to photoshop your prospect’s logo onto multiple different photos? That’s just one of the many reasons racing professionals utilize DIGIDECK.
With DIGIDECK, you can use Hotspot Technology to instantly superimpose your prospect’s logo onto appropriate racetrack or race car activations in a few short clicks— saving your team hours of monotonous work that’s better used preparing for the big pitch.
4) Use Data to Personalize Your Follow-Up
- Which sponsor viewed your presentation
- When your presentation was opened
- The time spent on each individual activation, package, or subject
Put the Pedal to the Metal With Custom Sponsorship Proposals
Sponsorship is the lifeblood of NASCAR. When so much revenue is on the line, it’s vital to innovate your strategies in order to bring sales through the homestretch every race season. As you work on presenting a more customized and visually dynamic experience for your prospective sponsors, you may find yourself turning to DIGIDECK— just like 500+ top brands across the globe.
Curious to see how DIGIDECK helps the NASCAR community and brands increase revenue by up to 20% all while cutting presentation creation time down by half? Schedule a DIGIDECK test drive to learn how you can dominate sponsorship sales this year.
