The Smallest, Fastest Ad on TV

One of the hottest advertising properties these days is advertising space on a NASCAR race car. A quick look at the cars that will line up for the Daytona 500 this weekend proves the point.

Given the soaring popularity of NASCAR over the last ten years or so, it’s no surprise that companies are lining up to promote their brands with a decal or sticker on the body of one of the brightly decorated stock cars that whip around in circles a few hundred times every weekend.

The association is obvious for some companies. Bud, Pepsi, Valvoline … all of these brands are long time NASCAR sponsors, drawing on its mass appeal to drive sales for their mass marketed brands. Even Viagra sponsors a car.

So here’s my question – how much did the company pay for the small red ad in front of the tire on this car (pictured below):

When the car flies past the camera, can you even seen this ad? I can't even see it in this still picture.

I wonder what the phone call between the brand manager who bought the ad and their boss would sound like.

“Yes, we can get our ad on the car…no, not the hood….no, not the roof…..yeah it’s sort of near the tire….you can see it clearly when the car is just sitting in the pits and the camera zooms in on the tire guy….”

Here’s how I look at sponsorship marketing:

• If you have the cash and it makes sense, go ahead and plaster your brand identity on an event/concept/race car, etc
• If you don’t have the cash, don’t settle for the equivalent of buying the ad by the tire. Be a big fish in a smaller pond – as an added bonus you might find that the smaller pond is also more narrowly targeted.