What's the most valuable element of Ask.com's NASCAR deal?

[Pat Coyle]

Sports Business Journal - Just six months into its first-ever NASCAR sponsorship, Ask has seen double-digit growth among NASCAR fans in usage, according to a Brand Image Monitor study from January to March that was commissioned by the search engine. Ask’s only marketing change this year has been its entry to NASCAR as a team, league and track sponsor, and a major ad buyer on Fox and NASCAR.com.

Now halfway into the year, Oakland-based Ask is evaluating the rest of 2009 and 2010. Its deal to sponsor Bobby Labonte’s No. 96 Ford at Hall of Fame Racing and its official status deal with NASCAR are for 2009 only. Most of Ask’s sponsorship and activation spending of about $10 million, according to industry analysts, was against the first half of the year.

The deal with Hall of Fame Racing cost a little under $4 million for the primary position in 18 races, sources said. While that’s far cheaper than the $20 million or more many sponsors spend on the top-tier teams, Hall of Fame Racing offered a bargain as a bottom-rung team that has struggled to compete. (More from SBJ)

The article does not mention how much money was spent on NASCAR.COM, but we're wondering if the Website activation isn't the most valuable part of this deal.

If you were head of marketing for ASK.com, and you were considering a further investment in NASCAR, where would you place your bets? Would you invest in sponsoring a race team? Buy in- race TV spots? Track sponsorships? Or NASCAR digital media like NASCAR.com? Which channel would get the highest share of your budget and why?).
Share your thoughts here

[Rusty Speidel]

Since it's a search engine, I would think that maximizing the USAGE of the engine would be a primary concern. So I would continue to push the search capabilities on NASCAR.com, keep it on the hood of the car, and yes, continue the ads on racing and sports broadcasts. Radce fans are loyal to their official sponsors. The brands get real value from that association. Plus, with double-digit growth from the current strategy, it seems like a good mix!

[Ron Bower]

In addition to their search tool bar on NASCAR’s page, why not add advertising along the side with a banner on select pages. A simple means of doing this would be with easily answered questions.

Let’s say a user goes to their driver’s, Bobby Labonte’s, page to review his season and past driving record. A banner on the side of the page, sponsored by Ask.com could ask a trivia question where the answer is revealed by clicking on the banner.

For example: Who sponsors the Bobby Labonte car?

The question is then linked to Ask.com and the results for the question. This would in turn get search traffic to the site and users would be more likely to use it for any searches they have right then instead of going to Google, Yahoo! and MSN.

Does NASCAR/FOX have in-race trivia similar to the Aflac trivia question in baseball? If not, there could be an Ask.com style trivia question:

“Today’s Ask.com question: Who were the Top-5 finishes in the 1997 Daytona 500? Go to Ask.com and search ‘Ask NASCAR’ for your answer.”

You could assume that these searches following the question were a direct result of the in-race trivia question/sponsorship.

The banner/question combination would also better quantify Ask.com’s ROI because they would be able to track the results from the search traffic and clicks from banners on NASCAR's site.

[Thomas Finnelly]

Race fans only make a true connection with sponsors that get behind teams. ASK did exactly the right thing by getting behind a struggling team. Fans love a new team sponsor that takes a risk and gets behind the underdog and builds them up.

You can supplement your sponsorship with in race banners, spotlights and commercials-but the core needs to be sponsoring a team in the right way.

Everyone hates sponsors like Pepsi and Bud that just come in and try to associate with the most popular driver or the new chosen one NASCAR hyped driver with the highest Q factor-but this does not help build the sport up-race fans are much more sophisticated and will always back the sponsors that share the risk with the team, build it up and share in the joy and pain.

Ask did it perfectly with their team sponsorship...

[Kensel Tracy]

I think the key would be to look a social media leading everything back to NASCAR .com. First of all I am already on the car and in the races but the key now is to activate the sponsorship. This can be done at NASCAR.com. First of all I can change messages depending on the URL's that visit the site. I would build that in so that I could have different messages depending who is on the site. The site has high profile and could have a valuation of between $.005 cents per impression to $.04 cents an impression depending on how the ads are presented on the site. ( banner, Skycaper). I can measure the effectiveness of the ads as well and the ability to lead to a qualified buying decision. I would also ask for some form of activation or contest, WIN A DAY with Bobby or something like that to get people to interact with my product. I would develop a sample or coupon program with my product and I would focus in on using social media like Twitter, Facebook, and other social media products to lead people to my site. I may also want to build an interactive profile like " send best wishes to Bobbie" or tell Bobbie how to drive the next race. Product association and sponsorships are only good if they are activated and acted upon. Another branding strategy with no activation is not effective especially in a cluttered environment like NASCAR. Kensel Tracy Colterman Marketing Group Sponsorship Valuation Specialists

[Kris]

Great discussion. This is a little tactical perhaps, but I would love to see ASK use their search data to provide NASCAR-related "trending topics" @ nascar.com (a la Twitter, Goog). Anything that ASK can do to use their search technology to uniquely add value to the NASCAR' fans online experience (i.e. present them with data in an easier, more logical way) is a high value, highly measurable interaction as far as I'm concerned. With that said, I don't think you can discount the value (although perhaps more difficult to measure) of the broader branding benefits that the team deal and b'cast achieve. Very important to the authenticity of involvement. Fans are getting much more sophisticated and can see through sponsors that aren't passionate about adding real value to the experience/sport. Does an search box add short term traffic? Perhaps. Does a search box alone add experiential value leading to longer term brand awareness and search loyalty? Probably not IMO.

[Gary P.]

Pat
I am all about the direct connection and quality interaction with the fan/consumer at field level. Making one direct connection with a consumer at an event is worth 100M eyeballs on logo.
We've been providing a service that allows sponsors to do just that, with great success. Our system connects a fan/consumer with a brand intimately with something as simple as a digital photo. The stats don't lie. We know that 50-92% of people WILL come back to a website to get that digital photo and more than half of those people will share it and interact with the sponsor's site on a deeper level.
If ASK.com wants measurable value with their sponsorship, they have leverage their involvement and include a direct interaction with NASCAR fans at field level at each and every event.
Sports teams that use the ePixome! system at games know that win or lose, the fan is left with an enhanced experience. So translate that to the ASK.com car at a race- it may not win, show or place, but those thousands of fans at the event that are left with an overall enhanced experience thanks to ASK.com are more likely to connect with the brand and that turns in to measurable marketing.

[Alfred Snow]

Ask.com has thus far done a pretty good job with their partnership. The race team is good and would build some connection and loyalty from fans. I think the multimedia approach through the races, online at NASCAR.com and via TV with the ask.com lower thirds with the trivia question have worked well thus far. I would have to say the TV aspect may be the best element thus far.

How I would take this a step further...On site activation. I do not think a large footprint mobile marketing unit is needed, but definately something to capture data/emails. Maybe some interactive kiosks and a stump the search engine game. You need to get people to touch/experience the brand.

Onsite I would also activate on the mobile front. Maybe sign up at their exhibit/display and get a free mobile APP for their search engine. Utilize sponsor time on the large "Sprint Vision" screens to play a mobile app game where you answer trivia questions via the ASK.com search and text to win prizes.

Also do not event get me started on the multitude of ideas/opportunities to partner with the other NASCAR sponsors. I will give away all of my sponsorhsip secrets.