NASCAR TV Exposure at Mid-Year

No driver has been mentioned more often on television, interviewed more frequently, or collected more exposure value for their sponsors than Jimmie Johnson during the first half of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc. — which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast over the last 28 seasons — Johnson's sponsors as a group appeared for 13 hours, 10 minutes, 46 seconds (13:10:46) during live and replayed telecasts of the season's first 18 points races. When also factoring in verbal mentions (82) of his sponsors, $45.3 million of in-broadcast exposure value was amassed by the 43 brands monitored in association with Johnson.

Joyce Julius calculates television exposure value by comparing the in-broadcast visual and verbal exposure to the estimated cost of a national commercial during the telecast and applying Joyce Julius Recognition Grading — which takes into account such factors as size and placement of the image on screen, as well as brand clutter and integration of the brand into the activity.

Despite a fifth-place ranking in driver mentions during the telecasts, Dale Earnhardt Jr. trailed Johnson only slightly in sponsor exposure value at mid-year with a total of $44.9 million.

Social Media Results

@LowesRacing (0:14:55) and @CocaColaRacing (0:07:17) were the top sponsors in the Twitter battle.

Hash tags were also in abundance with 33 in all. #Daytona 500, #Farmers5 and #NASCAR all exceeded one hour of on-screen time.