CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is bringing its "Nascar, Your Car" promotion to auto aftermarket retailers for the second straight year.
Complete with sweepstakes prizes for consumers and participating stores, Nascar is cross-promoting its licensed products with merchandising partners Union 76, RV-maker Featherlite, Arctic Cat all-terrain vehicles, filter-maker Wix and brake-maker Raybestos. Nascar has licensed performance-related products like batteries, shocks, brakes and motor oil since 1996, but the promotion, which started on June 1 and runs through Sept. 30 at such retailers as O'Reilly Auto, Pep Boys and Napa Auto Parts, began last year.
Nascar measured the success of the promotion's first year not by dollar sales but by units, according to Odis Lloyd, Nascar's after market director. Last year, the promotion ran in 55,000 locations. "It gave us great exposure," he
said. "It allows us to pull together multiple manufacturers and retailers, something unprecedented in the aftermarket. It gives retailers, licensees and sponsors the opportunity to share in a promotion at a fraction of the cost of doing it themselves. We take care of all media. We're able to use our marketing power to get the message out."
Media props supporting the promotion include the Fox Sports Net's "Nascar Tech" Sunday pre-race programming, the Nascar Tech, a 300,000-circulation quarterly. magazine, Nascar's Web site and MRN radio broadcasts of races.
"We customize point-of-purchase material," Lloyd said; "If Napa carries different products than O'Reilly, [our literature] will only list products they carry, so it feels like their promotion even though it's a national promotion."
New licensees this year include engine and transmission maker Jasper and Lincoln Electric welders. The only other difference is the sweepstakes prizes.
"Last year, we gave away general items like backpacks, and the grand prize was a car," Lloyd said. "Licensees have told us they'd like to do more with a racing theme, which is the thing Nascar can deliver. Any other company can provide [prizes such as] apparel. Now we incorporate the racing element and are able to involve corporate partners like Featherlite and Arctic Cat."
This year, Nascar will give away two "fantastic fan" grand prizes, including airfare to a race, accommodations in a Featherlite RV, pit and garage passes, ride in a pace car, access to the winner's circle and grandstand tickets, as well as an Arctic Cat all-terrain vehicle. The salespeople at participating retail sites will also have the chance to win prizes.
No specific racing personalities are used in the promotion. "It's about using interest in Nascar from a consumer standpoint, as well as trade standpoint, to drive sales," said national sales manager Terrence Lawshe. "We want to harness the overall power of Nascar."
Nascar also recently broke ground in North Carolina on its $12 million, l40,000-sq.-ft. Nascar Technical Institute, which is designed to attract technicians, particularly those lured to the computer business in recent years, back to the automotives industry. The institute, built to accommodate 1,600 students, will open in the spring of 2002.
"When you look at the aftermarket and the amount of people leaving vs. those coming in, you quickly realize there's going to be a shortage. We need to address that," Lloyd said. "Once you learn about [the aftermarket], it's as technical as anything out there. Most cars today have computers in some fashion. Nascar wants to play a role in getting the message out."
Upon completing the 54-week program, students will be eligible to become certified technicians. The institute will eventually add management classes.
