Tracks: Do you know your Fan Cost Index?

And, are you marketing it? As a numbers geek through and through, I love looking at costs, return on investment, growth…really any number I can get my hands on. One of my favorite geeky reports to look at each year is the Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index for professional sports. Why? It points out a critical disparity in the cost difference between most dirt race tracks and professional sports venues. And guess what that creates? You guessed it: An enormous marketing opportunity for local race tracks, events and series’.  The TMR “Fan Cost Index” represents the cost for a family of four to attend an MLB or NFL game. The TMR staff compiles costs for all venues in that sport using the price of four average weighted non-premium tickets combined with four sodas, four hot dogs, two beers and two souvenir caps, plus a parking spot. In 2018, the NFL’s average Fan Cost Index increased .7 percent to $536.04 for a family of four. In the MLB, it rose 2.4% to $230.64. In the NFL, the ticket cost is the bulk of that $536.04. FYI: the average beer price is $8.17, soft drinks are $4.71 and a hot dog is $5.23. They’re squeezing every last dime out of those ticket holders because they’re likely only attending one game per year and willing to splurge on that experience. In the MLB, the average ticket price is much lower at about one third of what the NFL charges. Beer is also $5.98, soft drinks are $4.65 and a hot dog is $5.01, all on average across the 32 MLB ballparks. Think about that and compare it to a local...

Make It Easy for Marketing Partners to Say ‘Yes’

There’s a group of racers that still believe that sponsorship is just a logo and a check. Some tracks still think a billboard does the trick, too. Since you’re taking the time to read this newsletter, you’ve likely already qualified yourself out of those groups. Welcome!  So, you’re one of the racers who are as motivated to find marketing partners as they are to perform well on the track. You’re ready to match up your offerings – your tangible assets and your audience – to a company’s goals, whether those are customer-focused, business-to-business or internal. Instead of talking about sponsorship mentality, I wanted to give you some ideas about where you, the motivated and educated sponsorship seeker, might get hung up in the process: making it easy for sponsors to say ‘yes’ to your offer. Have you ever wanted to buy something and gone to the business with the full intent to make a purchase, only to walk out with nothing in hand? Ask yourself, why? When you’re buying a gallon of milk or a pack of zip ties, you might not have a hard time purchasing a different brand than your preferred, or choosing a different color. You might pay a little more than usual, or have to make a different size work. But you still make a purchase. But, let’s say you’re buying a car. Or a computer. Or a couch. When you’re spending a decent sum of money on a purchase you don’t make often and that has utility in your life, the buying process becomes more complicated. How do you find the right product? Can...

Helping Marketing Partners Achieve Goals Starts with Knowing What They Are.

When you’re pitching a sponsor or creating a proposal for a potential marketing partner, you can exponentially increase the odds of moving forward in the process if you know what that company’s goals are and how you can help achieve them. But how do you get that information? All businesses want to increase their bottom line. That’s the obvious. Most companies want to do that by selling more products or services. But pitching on the ‘I can expose your product to more eyeballs’ line is way too general for most companies to take seriously. They might want to sell more of their products or services via social media, which often has a lower cost of customer acquisition, or they might want to sell more of their products to their existing customers, or find new customers, or sell higher-priced products, etc. The more specific you can get in solving a problem, need or desire, the more chance you have at the decision-maker finding a fit with your solution. (Bonus: the pricing matters less when you’re providing a clear solution to an expensive or difficult problem.) What other problems might companies want to solve? Saving money on products or services they utilize adds as much to their bottom line as selling more products. If you can help them do that, you’re providing value. Providing access to a marketplace – say, getting their product on the shelves of an auto parts store chain or having them picked up in a catalog – can provide direct value. Brand-building activities like a positive role in the community, access to an influencer’s network, emphasizing product use or...

Race Track Marketing: Think Mindset, Not Demographics

When I worked in the advertising agency business, one of the first things we would do when starting a marketing, advertising or social media campaign was try to determine our ‘ideal customer’. In fact, if you and I have ever worked together – on race track marketing or otherwise – I’ve probably walked you through an exercise to help determine who your ideal client or customer is. Whether you’re selling sponsorship, in which case your marketing partner is your client, or selling event tickets you have to be able to address the customer’s needs, wants or problems in order to offer them a solution, i.e. your product or service. In order to do that, you need to know who you’re marketing to. That is your ideal customer.  Traditionally, that ideal customer profile is created around a set of demographics which might include age, gender, location, income level, race, religion, marital status, etc. This is a set of facts that we used to employ to figure out what type of person is most likely to buy Widget X or hire Service Provider Y. For example, for an expensive laundry detergent we might traditionally have targeted moms within the ages of 38-45 who had a household income of more than $100,000 because they were the most likely to be able to spend the extra money on clothing care. If you want to think about it in terms of racing, how many times have you heard that our short track racing fan base is aging? Or that we’re a blue-collar sport? Or that a family of four has to be able to afford the concession bill if they’re...

How to Find Time for Sponsorship

When working with clients, answering questions in our free sponsorship success group, fielding emails or talking to racers at events, one of the biggest barriers teams feel in finding sponsorship is: “I don’t have enough time.” It’s a legit concern, but it’s a claim that we make probably every day. Think about the conversations you’re having over the holiday season. When someone mentions what they’re up to or their goals for the next year, we’ve all said we don’t have time for things that we legitimately want to do. It might be finding sponsors for the 2017 season. It might be starting a side business or working out or cooking home-cooked meals or taking the kids to a trampoline park. (<- That’s what you do with children, right? ‘Trampolines’ seems accurate.) We’ve never been – or felt – busier. There’s never enough time. But here’s the hard truth: if you don’t have time to find sponsorship, you don’t have time to have marketing partners because you don’t have time to serve them.  Sad, but true. So, let’s not be that person. Let’s find the time to recognize partners that would be a good fit, connect with them, show them the value and then activate that partnership. Let’s find the time to invest in building our marketing programs, so we can take our racing to the next level. Let’s find the time to pursue wins off the track, just like we do on the track. Which leads me to my tips on how to ‘find’ or ‘make’ time, both now, during the busiest time of the year, and in the future: 1. Put it on your schedule. ...

The Truth About All of Those Stickers

Ever see a truck driving down the highway with a back windshield full of decals? From K&N to Monster Energy, he’s got all his adrenaline-related needs covered. Like this:  Now, how many times have you thought to yourself: how did that guy get so many sponsors??! NO? So why do we do the same with other race cars? I have talked to so, so many racers who are discouraged when they look around the pits and see other race cars with tons of decals – specifically manufacturers decals – on them. They assume that those manufacturers are giving cash or product to their competition, even though they may have pitched them on a partnership and been turned down or offered a discount. But the truth is: many racers treat their race cars like they treat their F150’s – as a set of wheels to decorate. Many race cars sport decals for businesses, ideas or personalities purely because they like or support that entity.  For example, anyone spot Trump ads on race cars this season? We did! And the only one that I know of that got paid for that advertisement was the Bruce Williams/Roger Crockett outfit at the 2015 Knoxville Nationals. (You can read a full breakdown of that partnership here.) They also sport decals for businesses that might give them a discount on products they buy, or in-kind product sponsorship and/or services. And don’t get me wrong: there’s value in all of that. But don’t get the impression that everyone who has a decal on their car is getting paid cold, hard cash for the privilege of exposure to...