NASCAR dives deeper into collegiate activation

NASCAR continues to dip into the college sports market as a marketing strategy to raise the level of awareness of NASCAR among college youth via collegiate activation.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Recognizing that it’s percent of 18-49 year old viewers of each race telecast falls well short of what Formula 1 has done in America, NASCAR has to try something.

Whereas F1 averages around 40% of its viewers in the all-important 18-49 age group, NASCAR is below 20% as its fanbase ages out.

Something has to be done to get more young people interested in NASCAR, and it started by engaging students from one college and now two. How many more in the future?

The league announced this week that it has agreed to a sponsorship deal with the University of South Carolina and extended its deal with the University of Alabama.

Last year, NASCAR secured its first official partnership with a college athletics program (Alabama). Obviously, the sport wanted to expand in that area in 2023.

The press release from Learfield reads:

LEARFIELD, a media and technology services leader in intercollegiate athletics, and NASCAR today announced that after establishing its first-ever official partnership with a college athletics program in 2022, America’s No. 1 motorsport will return for a second year as an official partner of University of Alabama Athletics while also becoming a proud partner of University of South Carolina Athletics for the first time.

The expanded two-year agreement will continue to offer NASCAR access to use of athletic intellectual property, in-venue and experiential activations, social and digital media engagement, and first-party data across both athletic departments.

While NASCAR focused its first-year activations on Alabama football and men’s basketball, the sanctioning body is diversifying the sports mix in year two to include Alabama baseball and softball in addition to football. Its activations at South Carolina will include football, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and baseball.

Specific sponsorship assets will include:

Radio spots in each broadcast of Alabama football, baseball and softball as well as South Carolina football, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and baseball.
Full-page program ads for South Carolina women’s/men’s basketball and baseball games.
Rights to display/activate onsite in Gamecock Village and the University of Alabama fan zones.
In-venue LED board inventory and the “NASCAR Drive Summary” videoboard feature at Alabama football games.
Title sponsorship of “Crimson Drive,” Crimson Tide Sports Network’s weekly show hosted on Facebook Live covering in-season sports.
Title sponsorship includes logo recognition, live reads and commercial spots.
Digital impressions and first party data across LEARFIELD’s Fan365 platform.

The holistic approach spanning sports in all three seasons enables NASCAR to promote ticket sales and tune-in for individual races in the region – including spring and fall races at Talladega Superspeedway (Alabama) and Darlington Raceway (South Carolina) – as well as other tentpole events like the Busch Light Clash at The Coliseum, The DAYTONA 500, and The Chicago Street Race, while continuing to build overall brand awareness.

Quotes from NASCAR and LEARFIELD

“We saw great results in the first year of our unprecedented partnership with LEARFIELD and the University of Alabama, and we’re eager to add the University of South Carolina into our partner portfolio this year,” said Patrick Morris, managing director of brand, creative and media at NASCAR. “Both athletics programs offer the benefit of large, passionate fanbases in key regions for NASCAR that also resonate on a national level. It gives us an incredible opportunity to engage and educate potential new NASCAR fans who have already shown an affinity for attending live sports while also reminding our existing fans who may be in the stands on these campuses or following these programs online about major events and special offers coming up in NASCAR.”

“We are excited to see the relationship between NASCAR and University of Alabama Athletics continue into year two and expand to include additional sports,” said Jim Carabin, vice president and general manager of LEARFIELD’s Crimson Tide Sports Marketing. “Year one was a success for all involved, and we look forward to the continued evolution of this partnership.”

“We couldn’t be happier to bring together NASCAR and University of South Carolina Athletics in a relationship that will span multiple sports,” said Nick Kistler, general manager of LEARFIELD’s Gamecock Sports Properties. “Gamecock sporting events and NASCAR races at Darlington Raceway are pillar events for sports fans in South Carolina, making this a perfect collaboration on all sides.”