Monday, April 6, 2009

A NASCAR Marketing Failure

The Aggie and I went to Texas Motor Speedway for the weekend, an event that I'll write more about later.

There were preliminary races on Friday (with a Pat Green concert), a 300 lap race on Saturday, and a 500 lap race on Sunday.

There were display/merchandising/advertising/driver trailers peddling stuff all around the track. Organizations like Jack Daniels, Nationwide Insurance, Jeff Gordon, The U.S. Army, Kasey Kahne, Red Bull, Dale Earnhardt Jr., The U.S. Border Patrol (who sponsored a car and driver), Sprint/Nextel, Tony Stewart, The U.S. National Guard, OfficeMax, Kyle Busch, and enough food vendors to fatten up Darfur.

Halfway through the Sunday race, The Aggie decided she wanted to go look at the souvenir stands.
There appeared to be more than 100,000 spectators watching the Sunday race. Organizations had paid a fortune to have a presence outside the track. 100,000 drunk people with money to spend, email addresses to harvest, mailing lists to sign up for, and good will to promote were about to come pouring out of the racetrack. It was marketing heaven.

Guess which three organizations were closing down and packing their trailers before the race was over?

9 comments:

Lisa said...

Ok, I'll give it a try just to see the correct answers, I'll say The Army, The Border Patrol, and The National Guard. I would hope they would not have had to pay for their presence there but knowing our government they probably paid twice!

Dr Ralph said...

Actually, assuming the answer is (as Flee points out) The Army, The Border Patrol, and The National Guard - I rather take comfort in the fact the recruiters left when they did.

Do you really want them reduced to sorting through the least of the NASCAR drunks staggering around to fill the ranks of our defense forces?

Sew daze said...

Viagra, Trojan and Enzyte

When there is only 4 hours to go after an 8 hour race, all of the above products have gone past their expiration date.

Did you sit on Smilin Bob's lap?

Let me know if I win.

The Whited Sepulchre said...

Dang it,Flee, you got it right on the first guess. How did you know? What were you clues? Or did you get lucky?

Dr. Ralph,
If that's what keeps them from going into the Postal Service, the Texas Department of Transportation, or the city of Fort Worth Code Compliance division (all of these are a looong story), the answer to your question is "yes".

Fem,
Smilin' Bob? Smilin' Bob? There's a Bob who is Smilin' ????

Lisa said...

I just went through the list and those jumped out at me. My husband worked for the VA for six months, he ran a Canteen, and I have a sister who was in the Air Force and still works as a civilian for the Army so it was an easy question to answer. I hope this doesn't disqualify me!

Sew daze said...

Oh I am sorry....Side show Bob is more your style.

The Whited Sepulchre said...

Fembuttx,
I am Bobless. Totally lacking for a frame of reference for any Bob.

Sew daze said...

How about Bob Hope...Did you channel any energy from the great beyond??

Dr Ralph said...

Fembuttx -- WS obviously doesn't watch enough cable/satellite TV, or he'd know all about Smilin' Bob.