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| NASCAR Day Car Wash for Kids was one of three events to help raise money and awareness for children in need. Photo courtesy of Aspire Commuunications |
Organization: NASCAR Foundation
Agency: Aspire Communications
Timeframe: Aug. 2010 - Present
As NASCAR goes into full racing mode each summer, the popular American sport grabs a big chunk of media attention. The road to media coverage for the NASCAR Foundation, the sport’s charitable giving arm, is not always so smoothly paved.
In August 2010 the NASCAR Foundation began analyzing its long-term growth and marketing strategy. The organization felt that a shift in its media approach was necessary—it had been ambitious but too vast for its small communications team to handle.
The NASCAR Foundation formed a new brand initiative in September 2010 called NASCAR Unites. The program would create an opportunity for the NASCAR community—its drivers, teams, fans, tracks and sponsors—to unite to help children lead happier, healthier lives through philanthropic programs.
To support this mission and help raise funds and volunteer hours for the cause, Aspire Communications was tapped to execute a media relations strategy around two events—a NASCAR Unites kickoff press event at Richmond International Raceway and the NASCAR Day Car Wash for Kids—and to spread awareness of the inaugural Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award.
A combined five-person team from Aspire Communications and the NASCAR Foundation set the following PR objectives:
• Generate more than 500 million total media impressions in support of the foundation;
• Raise $1 million; and
• Generate 1 million volunteer hours for children in its first year.
The team had at its disposal five years worth of data on fan and industry-wide opinions in NASCAR’s race markets. It also conducted interviews with NASCAR Foundation executive directors, who felt that volunteerism was just as important as fundraising.
SCATTERSHOT MESSAGING
“The racing industry is very convoluted in terms of messaging to the wide range of stakeholders, and it can be hard to break through the clutter,” says Crystal Emerick, president of Aspire Communications. A multi-faceted PR strategy was designed to position NASCAR as the most charitable sport in the nation, says Sandy Marshall, executive director, NASCAR Foundation.
On April 29, 2011, after six months of planning, NASCAR Unites officially launched at Richmond International Raceway. The launch included the following tactics:
• Media outlets were given customized boxes featuring the NASCAR Unites wristband and press materials, and were encouraged to wear the wristband, volunteer and “unite” for children. Boxes were mailed to bloggers and media not in attendance during race weekend.
• The PR strategy included aggressive pitching to motor-sports media in addition to non-motor-sports media that included philanthropy publications. To reach broadcast media, Emerick phoned journalists to explain the goals of NASCAR Unites, and why it was good story. Sometimes it took three or four calls to get a response, but Emerick was persistent.
• Journalists were offered on-site one-on-one interviews with key spokespersons such as NASCAR president Mike Helton and former NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace.
• Distributed a multimedia news release over PR Newswire and to motor-sports media, which included a PSA, press release and photographs. A video of former NASCAR champ Rusty Wallace making a heartfelt call to action proved to be a real attention-getter. Its embeddable format enabled outlets and bloggers to easily use the video as a multimedia resource. The press material messaging focused on how fans could immediately participate by plugging in their ZIP code on nascar.com/unites to assess volunteer opportunities in their area, or by making a $5 donation to receive the NASCAR Unites wristband.
• The team also collected and amplified viral messaging from media, fans, crew members, drivers on Twitter and Facebook around the “I unite for…” phrase.
• More than 500 NASCAR Unites wristbands were provided to fans, drivers, owners and crew members in support of the cause.
WASHING MACHINE
Three weeks after the kickoff of NASCAR Unites, the team launched the inaugural NASCAR Day Car Wash for Kids (see image), which brought together the motor-sports communities to wash cars for children’s causes on NASCAR Day, May 20. Car washes at more than 30 locations promoted volunteerism and raised funds for the NASCAR Foundation, and for local children’s charities.
To assist volunteers at each location, Aspire created a comprehensive electronic press kit, which included a press release template, talking points, fact sheet and social media messaging. Extensive media outreach, a press release distributed to motor-sports media and local markets, as well as a radio media tour by Rusty Wallace resulted in more than 41 million media impressions.
AWARD-WINNING HUMANITARIANISM
Starting in June 2011, efforts shifted to the inaugural Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award, which recognizes the outstanding charitable and volunteer efforts of NASCAR fans, and includes a $100,000 donation from the NASCAR Foundation to the children’s charity of the recipient’s choice. Aspire was responsible for creating enthusiasm among local media and driving entries. A second radio media tour was conducted with Rusty Wallace, a press release was issued via PR Newswire and aggressive pitching drove awareness of the award.
MEASUREMENT & MONITORING
CisionPoint was used for print and online placement monitoring; Metro Monitor for TV hits; and PR Newswire for data related to the multimedia news release. Aspire also updated key stakeholders biweekly to keep everyone involved informed of coverage, rather than waiting for the end of the campaign.
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For Emerick, the most challenging of the aspect of the campaign was pitching three programs within a six-week period.
“When we were outlining media prospects for each event, we tried to cherry-pick the outlets that best fit each individual event, which led to more work, but more one-off coverage,” says Emerick.
If she were to start again from scratch, Emerick would space out the media efforts and add another person for pitching.
Still, the results were impressive:
• Drivers Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., crew members, fans, NASCAR employees and motor-sports media successfully raised $1 million and generated 1 million volunteer hours for children by late May.
• Key media outlets covering the launch included RaceDay on SPEED, FOXSports.com, Yahoo, Associated Press, NASCAR.com, USA Today, MotorRacingNetwork.com and others.
• Data from PR Newswire and CisionPoint estimated Aspire’s media relations strategies generated 273 million impressions.
• More than 1,600 cars were washed on the NASCAR Day Car Wash for Kids, raising nearly $30,000.
• 331 entries were received for the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award, and Aspire collected more than 259 million impressions as from media relations efforts surrounding the award.
NASCAR Unites remains at the center of the NASCAR Foundation’s charitable mission. Marshall says the foundation will continue to build upon the impact made during the first year of the NASCAR Unites campaign. The organization is committed to developing more programs that will make an even bigger impact on communities in need. PRN
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CONTACT:
Crystal Emerick, [email protected]; Sandy Marshall, [email protected]; John Trybus [email protected].
Follow Bill Miltenberg: @bmiltenberg