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NASCAR wheeling after women fans |
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Written by Barry Wilner, asap
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Tuesday, 24 April 2007 |
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By NASCAR standards, the numbers are staggering.
No, we’re not talking about Jimmie Johnson’s rate of Nextel Cup victories, or the instances of Mark Martin being praised for his performances as a part-time driver.
The number that’s really drawing NASCAR’s attention is this: More than 40 percent of fans are women.
And that number is growing.
No pro sport is better at reaching out to its fan base — and no fan base is more loyal than in stock car racing. From Harlequin novels to designer shoes to “driver associations” — fan clubs, essentially — NASCAR and its marketing partners wisely are catering to the women who not only come to the track, but who are the main consumers in most households.
“We do very well with female audience in terms of a broad cross-section in the sports category,” says NASCAR managing director of brand and consumer marketing Jim Obermeyer. “We are 60 percent male, 40 percent female as a total target audience. We have about 30 million female fans in the U.S. and it’s been growing steadily over the years. About a third have become fans in the past five years.
“Among females, two-thirds are telling us they are becoming more and more involved through driver associations, as well as NASCAR being a fine family sport.”
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HEY HANDSOME
Driver associations can range from a devotion to multiple champions such as Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart to a more superficial element: good looks.
And at least one company has seized on that. Allstate Insurance has built an advertising campaign around Kasey Kahne, a better-than-average driver who is anything but average when it comes to looks.
The comical spots show Kahne being semi-stalked by several female fans, with the insurance tie-in coming as the women — distracted by his boyish charms — bash their cars into stationary objects.
“The passion for the driver is what is the priority of the fan — always. So we went down that route and ... we stumbled upon using these female fans as representing the ‘everywoman.’ They are not too young or too old. These women who clearly have that passion for Kasey Kahne and will somehow do anything they can to meet their driver.”
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FACE-TO-FACE
Because it is easier in auto racing than most sports to actually meet the participants — many drivers appear at their apparel rigs before races; there are planned autograph sessions at and away from the track; and every driver is exceedingly sponsor-conscious — women fans have found NASCAR particularly appealing.
Astutely, those sponsors have targeted them.
Unilever, which sponsors the Ultimate Chargers team in the Busch series, has nine brands — including Ragu pasta sauce, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Wisk laundry detergent, Lawry’s seasoning, Klondike ice-cream and Shedd’s Spread Country Crock — on the car driven by Kahne.
At one event, a contest was staged in which fans at a campgrounds were asked to build a display using Hellmann’s products. The grand prize? A meeting with Kahne. (A vast majority of the contestants were females, as were all the winners.)
“Exposing our sport outside the hardcore sports venues has been a critical measure of our success,” Obermeyer says, and the sponsors second that notion.
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UNDER THE HOOD, UNDER THE COLLAR
Then there’s the Harlequin connection. Yes, as in the romance novels.
“Just being a female fan in the sport and having a favorite driver and to be able to cheer someone on, that is really the connection a lot of us have,” says Michelle Renaud, assistant manager of public relations for Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
The company has put together a series of romance novels with NASCAR themes. “On the Edge” weaves a yarn about a woman who hires an unknown to drive the car she owns (and naturally, a romance develops). The cover of “A NASCAR Holiday” reads: “There’s snow on the track, but these drivers are just warming up!” And “Speed Dating” centers on a woman who stumbles into a fling with fictional driver Dylan Hargreave (with a cameo appearance by real-life NASCAR driver Carl Edwards).
“The relationship is between two brands-loyal fans. They love their sports and books, so it’s an opportunity to bring them together. ... NASCAR is an adventure and I think we bring the two things together with a high level of authenticity in our books.”
This year, Harlequin will have more than 1 million NASCAR-licensed novels in print.
Soon to come is the NASCAR designer shoe line, which debuts next month at Southeast department store chain Belk, and will also be available online at www.zappos.com and www.nascar.com. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Genius Fashion, Inc. says its shoes — which range in price from $69-$250 — offer “distinctive hints of the racing culture, such as tire treads on the soles of the shoe, and small checkered flags on some designs.”
“They can be a part of NASCAR without being one of the boys,” creator Shannon Hanna said in a company release.
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GIFTS FOR HER
All these choices for the female NASCAR fan aren’t just a benefit to the women — Renaud says it’s not unusual for men to buy NASCAR merchandise as gifts.
Men are often seen at the “Girls Only Trailer” of Motorsports Authentics — a line of apparel designed for women. But generally, Motorsports Authentics products, from clothing to memorabilia to dye-cast replica cars, are being bought by women.
“It speaks to women in a unique way, and not in a feminist way but as fans and people,” says Ruth Crowley, president of Motorsports Authentics. “I make a point of being a student of the business and I watched fans and studied who likes racing, and I could see there were so many women who were big fans of the drivers and the sport. I believed they not being served adequately (in merchandising).
“We knew if this was different, we were very confident in the power of the female customer.”
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asap contributor Barry Wilner is an AP sports writer. | Only registered users can write comments.
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