Commentary

NASCAR Knows Its Product Placement

Quick Quiz: What's one of the oldest continuing product placement activities on TV, where it is a dominant part of the TV experience? "Survivor," you say? "American Idol," perhaps?

Wrong. One of the most enduring product placement efforts has been with Nascar. Nascar races have been around since the 1950s, and sponsors' names on cars have been around almost since the sport's inception. While other sports have on-field signage from brands that are tangential to the action, sponsors' names are integrally placed in the action--right on the hood.

While you would think media and marketing knowledge among drivers and owners would end there, you'd be dead wrong. Seemingly, drivers and teams' owners know a much greater value--the amount of time their cars actually are seen on TV, which is what really matters to Home Depot or Interstate Batteries or M&M's or Target Stores or Cheerios--all major sponsors of teams.

Most importantly, riders and owners know something even more. They know Joyce Julius & Associates Inc.

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That's the long-time company that tracks the time received by sponsors, and then translates that time into dollars. That's the money it would have cost to buy the TV commercial advertising time on that show.

"Most of the sponsors and partners you deal with are interested in what your Joyce Julius television numbers are--what your number of impressions are," Ray Evernham, owner of Evernham Motorsports, said to The New York Times in a recent teleconference with reporters. That's some pretty sophisticated media buying and planning talk--perhaps more than, say, a 19 Entertainment knows about "American Idol" and major sponsor, Cingular Wireless--or what Mark Burnett knows about General Motors and "Survivor."

It is also a double-edged sword for Nascar. For a long time, Nascar's valuable big product placement time had a major effect on TV advertising for the network airing the races. If Home Depot is on the car, which in turn is on the TV screen, why then does it need to buy expensive commercial TV time on Fox or TNT or NBC?

For some, the answer is that they don't need to. But the popularity of Nascar over the last several years has pushed team sponsors to do a bit more--to "activate," as sports marketing executives say, their sponsorship. After all, a name on a car doesn't give deeper information such as that it can help with erectile dysfunction (Viagra) or help clean your clothes in cold water (Tide Coldwater). Nascar drivers know what to do--as does Lance Armstrong when he zips up his Discovery Channel bicycling shirt just before crossing the finish line in the Tour de France--as do prospective rock stars on "Rock Star: INXS" when loading up the Honda Ridgeline truck to meet up with Dave Navarro.

Nascar drivers have known a lot longer than other performers in the age of product placement and integration. They need to win--and be seen by TV cameras.

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