It's a most wonderful time of the year! The 1998 Daytona 500 is in the record books and, finally, Dale Earnhardt has won after his twentieth try. (For you NASCAR novices, this is roughly the equivalent of John Elway winning the Super Bowl). What a great way for NASCAR to start off its 50th anniversary season in this storybook fashion.
You must realize that these two happenings will give motorsports a huge shot of momentum [as if it needs it] to kick off the 1998 motorsports marketing season. Think about it: two of the best-recognized names, NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt; and if you didn't know whom Dale Earnhardt was [very hard to believe] you will before this year is through. Why? Well, with the millions of dollars that NASCAR has already committed to promoting their 50th anniversary and the highly-publicized fact that Earnhardt has won everything a man could win in NASCAR but the Daytona 500, with him finally winning Daytona this year in such fine fashion there will be a media circus the whole year long.
This year people who never paid attention to racing will be touched by it, like it or not, just by the pure amount of coverage it will get through the year. Which means there will be a great opportunity for dealers to take advantage of and ride the coattails of this huge media blitz that will take place.
There have been a number of fabulous articles written in this magazine over the past few issues about the significant positive impact that motorsports marketing can have on your automobile business. If you have been contemplating an association with motorsports, this is the year and now is the time. I know that some of you have tried racing sponsorships in the past with marginal, if not negligible return. I would bet that in the majority of those instances, you simply put your name on a car and sat back and waited for droves of racing fans to come in your door. That's not going to cut it. GET INVOLVED! Not necessarily you personally, but I guarantee that there are racing enthusiasts in your dealership. Get them to run the program. If you follow the lessons in the previous issues of this magazine, you can't lose!
In the past, some people have had a negative impression of racing and the people who participate in it. Well those days are over. Today's racer is a different person. You would be surprised by how many of today's racers are highly-educated businessmen and women [yes, women]. Women play an enormous part in the racing game, helping their husbands run the teams and, of more direct interest to you, women are huge fans of the sport. Today nearly 50% of all spectators at the racetrack ARE WOMEN - yes, women. Today's statistics show that women enter into or have a strong influence in nearly 80% of all car-buying decisions. When the car needs to come in for service, who usually brings it in? That's right, she does.
Have you realized the impact racing can make on your business if you market it properly to all of your customers, male and female?
For all of you who have already seen the potential of motorsports marketing and are capitalizing on the male portion, great! But make sure you don't forget the real decision-makers, the LADIES! What we used to think was a male southern-dominated sport is now pretty much spread evenly throughout the country and the two sexes. What we viewed in the past as a male-dominated sport we now find the gap closing rapidly to include the ladies. Racing is big business and the savvy dealer who recognizes this is already way ahead of the competition. Ladies and Gentlemen, let's GO RACING!