Tim Clark, EVP & Chief Brand Officer at NASCAR, joined a panel at the Autosport Business Exchange in New York where they discussed the constant effort to grow and expand the sport's audience.
With the rise of Formula 1's U.S. fandom, IndyCar's new partnership with FOX, and NASCAR's $7.7 billion media rights deal, there's a lot to be excited about. Clark said how a 'rising tide lifts all ships' but noted that 'we can't out F1' Formula 1 itself.
NASCAR is still chasing eyeballs beyond the diehard audience, and that has been a difficult task. But he doesn't believe NASCAR suffers from a brand awareness problem, as everyone knows of the sport and it has no problem breaking into the mainstream when something truly notable happens (like Tyler Reddick's Daytona 500 win for Michael Jordan or Ross Chastain's Martinsville wall-ride).
But how do you get people to tune in every week? In Clark's view, it's about "being true to who we are," which they've become more comfortable doing in recent years, but also doing a better job of telling the stories that define the sport.
"Brand perception problem"
Werner Brell, Jonathan Gibson and Tim Clark
Photo by: Bryan Bedder / Getty Images
"...NASCAR is a unique property. And having that conversation in New York City is very true, right? I say this all the time. NASCAR doesn't have a brand awareness problem. I've never in my life introduced myself and said I work at NASCAR and got a quizzical look in response. But I can generally tell by the facial expression how people feel about that. And so while it may not have a brand awareness problem, it may have a brand perception problem. And I think that's up to us to be better storytellers.
"I think what guys like Jimmie [Johnson] and Brad [Keselowski] and our drivers do on Saturday or Friday or Sunday is exceptional. But it makes people curious to want to know what they do on Tuesday or Wednesday. And we have to better tell that story and the supporting cast around it to make people understand everything that happens to manifest what you see on the track."
Johnson, a seven-time Cup Series champion and co-owner at Legacy Motor Club, was part of that same panel and agreed with Clark's assessment.
"I'm really passionate about in the storytelling," said Johnson. "We know when we get a fan or maybe a casual fan or somebody new to motorsports to the track, the visceral experience that they have, you have them for life. And so it's not an awareness problem. I think the products are incredible. But as I was talking about earlier with teenage daughters and watching how short their attention span is, you've got a quick moment to grab someone's attention. How do you grab their attention and then convert? I'm strongly developing the opinion around storytelling. And, of course, when you're at the track, there are various layers of experiences that, you know, need to resonate to an age demographic to make it work. But, you know, those first couple of steps, I think, are really important."
Clark went on to say how '90% of fans have never even seen the inside of a hauler or other aspects of the garage that those on the other side of the fence take for granted.
"They don't understand what an engineer is doing. You hear that someone had a tire failure and you're like, well, was that a bad tire? Well, no, there's tolerances for tire pressure. And outside of those tolerances, there's speed, but there's also risk. You have to tell those stories. And sometimes we're a little bit too close to it to understand that those types of stories are unique. But I think we continue to see success when you show these things that are a little bit unique to the sport and behind the scenes. That's what people want to see."
Engaging people on social media
Chase Briscoe celebrates with the fans, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Photo by: David Jensen / Getty Images
For the longest time, the pathway to NASCAR fandom was usually family tradition as children and grandchildren of diehard NASCAR fans became fans themselves. But the world has changed and social media has become perhaps the most critical path in engaging new and potential fans.
"There was a mentality of creating video content and thinking, I'm going to put this same video on Twitter, and I'm going to put it on Facebook, and I'm going to put it on Instagram and YouTube, and that is not the way to succeed," said Clark of NASCAR's social media strategy. "You know, there is an art and a science to a platform like YouTube and maybe one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, media platform on the planet. And Jimmie has heard this rant from me before. I talk about YouTube more than I talk about any single part of our business. I think if we are going to continue to feed the content that our core fans want from us, but also to storytell to fans ... I have a 15-year-old that is not aware that there's another media platform on the planet but YouTube. And we have to be able to serve those fans. That's the way that we're going to grow. So it's a huge part of what we think about on a day-to-day basis."
Read Also:
Jimmie Johnson on the NASCAR business world: "It's a war"
Red Bull called Christian Horner to thank him for F1 engine project after maiden win
Autosport Business Exchange New York Examines the Forces Driving Racing’s Next Era of Growth in America