Accelerating growth, organically

How NASCAR extends the brand off the track to drive deeper customer relationships

Combine one of the most loyal fan base around with the fastest-growing sport for more than a decade and it’s easy to see that NASCAR had little problem with brand strength. The opportunity was to find new channels through which to leverage that strength and create even deeper customer connections.

While fans love the teams and race series, their passion for motorsports doesn’t end at the track. Aligning NASCAR with automotive aftermarket products that the everyday fan used at home represented a fantastic opportunity to create an even more personal connection, and capitalize on an area for strategic growth.

NASCAR brought Tenet Partners on board to get a better understanding of its fan base – including demographics and their buying patterns and habits. Our research also helped uncover ways to extend the brand through a network of strategically chosen partners. NASCAR was able to leverage this insightful analytics to influence discussions with licensees and sponsors to generate maximum revenue. Withstanding the test of time, the program we developed 14 years ago, continues to build awareness for the sport through alliances with leaders in the automotive industry, including global brands such as Mobil, WIX, Exide, Moog, Raybestos and Goodyear.

As of late 2013, NASCAR reported that about 23.4 percent of Fortune 500 brands, or 117 total, are involved as a sponsor of NASCAR’s sanctioning body, teams or tracks, or as a licensee or media partner, up from 20 percent last year.

The success of the program led to more customer engagement opportunities including the sponsorship of an automotive training program through the NASCAR Technical Institute; a weekly TV show on SPEED called “NASCAR Performance”; and a national radio show called “NASCAR Performance Live” on MRN and SIRIUS XM Radio.