I’ve been spending time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a racing blogger this year (my 3rd year). I had a chance to interview Paul Schmidt, the director of account services at Blue C Advertising, an advertising and PR firm in California.
He was there to support one of their clients who were sponsoring a few drivers in the 500. They had organized a contest for their client as a way to build traffic and name recognition for their client. At the time, the contest had yielded 2,500 new “likes” on their Facebook page, and nearly as many members in their text club.
Sports marketing is a different animal from regular marketing, in that you’re selling a product that — unless you’re working directly for a league or team — you have to center around a particular event or other organization. In Paul’s case, they had to promote a very specialized niche product to the audience most likely to appreciate what the company, racing fans.
While there are media outlets and TV shows about street racing, this is a way to use a marquis event like the Indy 500 to create a special event and celebratory feeling about the product. Combine that with a special promotion as a way to launch a new product, and you can see how interesting (and difficult) sports marketing/advertising can be.
