• by Frank Saxe , February 12, 2003

As the NASCAR season is about to begin, The Sporting News and ExxonMobil are teaming in a 40 week advertorial, that will extend throughout the racing season and into next Fall’s NASCAR Awards. Never before has ExxonMobil entered into a partnership, which aims to further tie their brand to NASCAR. For The Sporting News, it is also the latest in a string of advertising successes tied to auto racing.

Beginning with this week’s NASCAR preview issue (Feb. 17 issue), ExxonMobil will pay for an advertorial block entitled “Did You Know?” Each contains factoids about NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series, its drivers, and technological aspects of racings. It will run adjacent to The Sporting News column “Down The Road,” which outlines the week’s upcoming events.

“We’ve never done an advertorial that involved our editorial staff before, but it just makes sense from a business sense,” says VP/Publisher Pete Spina. Financial terms of the deal aren’t being released, but Spina says it was a “great deal” for both. A one time, four-color page in the weekly costs $45,918.

It is a big jump for ExxonMobil, which bought its first ad in The Sporting News just thee months ago, for the magazine’s annual NASCAR Awards issue. “There are few non-automotive media vehicles that cover NASCAR to the extent of The Sporting News. Their coverage and the fact that the publication’s readership consists of overall sports enthusiasts who are extremely attached to NASCAR were key factors in our decision to move forward with the advertorial series,” explains Debra Emory, advertising manager for ExxonMobil Lubricants & Specialties, which is the “official” oil of NASCAR. “During the course of the NASCAR season, The Sporting News advertorial will enable us to present our benefit and performance messages combined with other interesting facts about NASCAR,” she adds.

While The Sporting News has an Internet division, and a radio network which airs on 450 stations nationwide, the ExxonMobil deal covers only its weekly magazine. Spina says they are looking at other possibilities for cross-media sales.

Three years ago, the weekly owned by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Sports Media began covering NASCAR in earnest. While other sports publications make space for the sport for the biggest racing events, The Sporting News committed to covering it 52 weeks a year. Spina says the result has been a flood of new advertising dollars from the category. Advertisers including Ford Racing, AC Delco, and Sears Craftsman can be seen in this week’s NASCAR preview issue. “We’re breaking lots of new business in that category,” says Spina. Other advertisers, like Coca Cola and UPS, have built their creative around the auto racing.

According to the Publishers’ Information Bureau, The Sporting News was up 17% in ad pages in 2002, while its revenues climbed 39%. Its circulation has also been building, growing 40% in the last year and a half. Its current rate base is 700,000.

To win NASCAR dollars, Spina has frequently left his comfy offices on Park Avenue and replaced his suits with blue jeans as he has visited racetracks around the country. “This sport is different than most. It has team owners and sponsors, and those sponsors go to these races to support the dollars investment that they’re company is making.” That has put the magazine’s salespeople in the pits along side its advertisers. It is a very long way from a long lunch at Della Famina. “We’ve made these relationships over the last two years just by being visible and accessible,” says Spina.

Beyond the racing category, The Sporting News is pacing well ahead in 2003. It has already broken ten big-name advertisers, including Sears, Hewlett Packard, Mazda, Suburu, Wrigley, Wolverine, and Keebler. Says Spina, “We’ve started off a great year.”