NASCAR and the U.S. Military
U.S.
Representative Betty McCollum, a Democrat from Minnesota, last week vowed to
continue her fight to drastically slash, if not even eliminate, the portion
of the Department of Defense’s budget that is being spent on advertising
with professional sports organizations and their events. The Congress woman
said she will not give up this cause despite the fact that there seems to be
very little support from her Congressional colleagues many, of whom, agree
with Pentagon officials in the belief that these sponsorships actually
bolsters military recruitment stats.
While McCollum’s
proposed Congressional amendments references military sponsorships of all
major sporting events, her focus seems to be aimed at NASCAR racing. She
points out that the Pentagon spent a staggering amount of money during the
2010 NASCAR racing season. Currently the U.S. Army, the National Guard and
the U.S. Air Force are involved in sponsorship programs with NASCAR Sprint
Cup Racing teams...
...According to
Pentagon figures, obtained and released by McCollum’s staff members, the
National Guard spent approximately $20 million with Hendrick Motorsports,
during the 2010 season, for sponsorships on race cars driven by Dale
Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Gordon. In all fairness, it was pointed out that this
figure was considerably down from the $32.7 million spent during the
previous year. Meanwhile the Army spent $7.4 million last year which was
trimmed down from $11.6 million in 2009.
The question
remains: is there an accurate way of measuring tangible results from these
advertising campaigns? Actually there is. It’s a service provided by a
civilian company named Joyce Julius and Associates. Headquartered in Ann
Arbor-Michigan, Joyce Julius and Associates Inc is regarded as the
sports and entertainment industry leader in accurate measurement and
evaluation of sponsorships and promotional programs. They generate their
figures based on broadcast television exposure monitoring, full media
measurements and fan/consumer perception analyses. They also back that
elaborate procedure up with 27 years of experience.
Let’s just look
at one example from a race team with military themed sponsorship: Dale
Earnhardt Jr and his #88 National Guard/Amp Energy Chevrolet. The following
stats, from Joyce Julius and Associates, was compiled during the first one
third, or 12 races, from the current 2011 season:
Sponsor exposure
time: 5 hours, 36 minutes and 54 seconds.
Verbal mentions,
(during a NASCAR live and repeat broadcast): 18
Driver interviews:
8
Interview
durations: 13 minutes, 7 seconds.
Driver mentions:
1,140
Recognition Grade, (RG) exposure value: $21,835,475.
That’s just for
the first 12 NASCAR races of the current season. With Earnhardt seemingly on
his way to a starting berth in the 2011 Chase, imagine what those numbers
are going to be at the end of the season.
This level of
brand exposure calculation is also a ringing endorsement for the beliefs of
military and Congressional figures who truly believe that the taxpayers are
getting more bang for their buck with these sponsorship campaigns.
However
Congresswoman Betty McCollum apparently remains unconvinced and is reported
to be laying the ground work for her next move towards reducing Pentagon
spending in NASCAR.