My Marketing Idea for the I R L

[ChicagocrewIRL]

Ok let me know if this is stupid. I have no problems with that. Just tell me why. Or let me know if this is brilliant... again tell me why ....

I think the IRL should rent out center aisle kiosks at every major shopping mall within 100 miles of an IRL event and set up big screens with Indy Racing highlights running during mall hours. Part of the display would be static profiles of the drivers and teams. All the displays would also have an actual IRL car on display.

People shopping could stop and watch the screens of the incredible IRL action during breaks in their shopping trips. The history and drama of the Indianapolis 500 would also be leveraged by having historical footage as well showing the tradition and pedigree of Indy Racing.

If enough people see how incredible the entertainment value of the series is I think this will increase interest and knowledge. Force it down their throats I say. If need be also, make comparisons between Nextel Cup cars and Indy Cars , speeds, margin of victory, technology, etc.

I think Indy Racing has a superior product to every type of motor sport due to its diversity and history. People just need to be made aware of it.

[Jonesi]

I don't think it would gain much, and would burn through more millions a year. When you say "every major shopping mall within 100 miles", I assume you mean the big regional indoor malls with 2 or more department stores. I N Cal's Bay Area that could easily be +40. Got 40 old (but new enough looking) IRL cars? Let's assume you can get 4 cars and custom made kiosks in a transporter. That's 10 trucks, 10 drivers, a setup crew paid to live on the road from March to Sept. Oh wait the races aren't bi-weekly there's three cases of three in a row on the schedule. You won't need 2 complete teams you'll need 3. That's 120 old race cars, 30 semis, about 60 people, etc. After a while this adds up to real money.
Now we get to the problem of shopping malls. Most do about 50% of their business during holiday season, (IRL's off season). Most malls I've seen are +2/3 womens stores, so about 75% of the customers in these malls are women. Think many of them will be interested in what you're selling? Actually the big malls are are being replaced by the cheap tilt up big box strip malls (Costco, Home Depot, Staples etc.) which don't have indoor concours, and little room for displays.
Then's there's the issue of vandalism and pranks. I certainly don't condone it, but it will happen. Someone is probably going to put a prize up for whoever can first hack into the displays and put a big flashing "Bleep Tony George!" over that wonderful racing.

[Colsanders]

Ok let me know if this is stupid. I have no problems with that. Just tell me why. Or let me know if this is brilliant... again tell me why ....

I think the IRL should rent out center aisle kiosks at every major shopping mall within 100 miles of an IRL event and set up big screens with Indy Racing highlights running during mall hours. Part of the display would be static profiles of the drivers and teams. All the displays would also have an actual IRL car on display.

People shopping could stop and watch the screens of the incredible IRL action during breaks in their shopping trips. The history and drama of the Indianapolis 500 would also be leveraged by having historical footage as well showing the tradition and pedigree of Indy Racing.

If enough people see how incredible the entertainment value of the series is I think this will increase interest and knowledge. Force it down their throats I say. If need be also, make comparisons between Nextel Cup cars and Indy Cars , speeds, margin of victory, technology, etc.

I think Indy Racing has a superior product to every type of motor sport due to its diversity and history. People just need to be made aware of it.

I agree with Jonesi this may not be financially or seasonally feasible. But Tony had best do something and step out of the box....his current marketing plan is loosing market share.

[RGM Fan]

I don't think the problem is that people aren't aware of the IRL, they just don't care.

The Indy 500 is a household event that will probably draw a 100 times larger crowd and 20 times the ratings ratings of an average IRL event. They get exposure to the casual sports fan they just can't keep them.

Stick and ball guy doesn't care because racing doesn't have a stick or a ball.

Racing guy typically doesn't care because the IRL (and CART) have pretty weak feilds and run a lot of parade races.

NASCAR guy doesn't care because no one he watches is in the race and even truck series fields are stronger.

Casual sports guy doesn't care because he doesn't want to learn about the split. Causal sports guy doesn't care about the Indy 500's history because he want's to be entertained, and frankly after watching most of the IRL season so far, they haven't been entertaining at all compared to other sports and other motorsports.

The problem isn't awareness. Every kid knows about the Indy 500, the problem is the product. The best marketing strategy the IRL can do is get Kalkoven, Forsythe and Petit in a room and hammer out a unification plan and sell themselves as the American version of Formula 1, which is the only way open wheel has ever been successful. Americans care about the best of the best. They don't care about two series claiming they're brand of watered down racing is the best.

[xtlm]

I don't think the problem is that people aren't aware of the IRL, they just don't care.

People just do not know about it!

Anyone who I ask, has no Idea what I am talking about (that or champcar)
a few have head of the indy 500 though.....but those few i guess don't make the connection.
Most know all about the Nascar though.

I really am pretty much a fan (well of all motorsport) all by myself except for/with my dad somewhat...but this is another convo for another topic.

ANYWAY
this would help, but more advertising in general, better on air race time (they go to the racing sometimes within 3 minutes!, no build up), better announcers, the league sponcers go out and do some advertising, do some internet advertising with banners on popular webpages, create and promote videogames (like nascar), their is a whole wealth of stuff they could do.....how much of what i said will work....idk.

[eliostar]

I think Indy Racing has a superior product to every type of motor sport due to its diversity and history. People just need to be made aware of it.


What history? there is only so much marketing you can attempt. At some point you have to come to the realisation that people just don't want your product.
btw, Champ car also had diversity, look how they made out.

[Chris R]

I do not think it is a bad idea - but it would need to be more focused - as one of the previous posters said - it would probably be too many locations for a bunch of races...

Anyway, as an AOWR fan with a leaning toward Champcar - I think that promotion is only part of the problem. Both series have a product that is likely to only appeal to a small percentage of the population and frankly I like it that way (and I suspect many of us do). If I want my sport to be mainstream I would go NASCAR - but I like the fact that not everyone knows about AOWR - it is part of the marketing appeal....

HOWEVER, these days the sport is barely able to sustain itself - let alone prosper. What we really need is a way to allow us fans to feel that our sport is reasonably secure I think more than anything that is what CART's run did - it provided nearly 20 years of security and that alone allowed the sport to grow. If "the split" becomes a non-issue than the sport will again find some security and start to grow on its own merits.....

[Lee Roy]

I think Indy Racing has a superior product to every type of motor sport due to its diversity and history.

If Anton's Onion Gum was superior, you wouldn't have to be coming up with screwball ideas to try to hawk it in shopping malls next to the gutter-guard display.

[keysersoze]

The best marketing strategy the IRL can do is get Kalkoven, Forsythe and Petit in a room and hammer out a unification plan and sell themselves as the American version of Formula 1, which is the only way open wheel has ever been successful.

Phoenix lasted two years. Detroit about five (granted, that was a shame--it was a great track IMO). Dallas one year. F1 has world-wide appeal, yes, but it hasn't had US appeal since Long Beach, and even after that race was replaced with the CART race the event flourished, leading me to believe that it wasn't necessarily F1 everyone was flocking to see.

With whom are KK, Forsythe, and Petit supposed to unify?

Open wheel racing has been enormously successful here in the US-- but only before NASCAR gained all its momentum. Back then it was about the drivers--not ONLY about the drivers, but primarily so.

[Colsanders]

Phoenix lasted two years. Detroit about five (granted, that was a shame--it was a great track IMO). Dallas one year. F1 has world-wide appeal, yes, but it hasn't had US appeal since Long Beach, and even after that race was replaced with the CART race the event flourished, leading me to believe that it wasn't necessarily F1 everyone was flocking to see.

With whom are KK, Forsythe, and Petit supposed to unify?

Open wheel racing has been enormously successful here in the US-- but only before NASCAR gained all its momentum. Back then it was about the drivers--not ONLY about the drivers, but primarily so.

F1 was replaced by Cart at long Beach and Detroit because of money. It was much cheaper for the race promoters to have the Cart series and thus maybe make a profit. At its' peak, the CART series was viewed here in the US with nearly as much prestige as F1. The younger generation knows nothing of the IRL and have "only" heard of the Indy 500. The toy stores have no IRL (or CC) toys, the Seven Elevens have no Indycar advertisements, and there are no current, good Indycar video games. This has to be fixed or the IRL and Indy will die off with us baby-boomers.

[Colsanders]

I agree with Jonesi this may not be financially or seasonally feasible. But Tony had best do something and step out of the box....his current marketing plan is loosing market share.

I think the first thing that may be needed is to restore the Month of may at Indy to be something substantial.

Why not replace one qualifying day with an ALMS race using the infield? Follow the concept of Daytona Speedweeks. They have the Rolex 24 and all the other races which lead up to the big one, the Daytona 500. Perhaps this would encourage some of the ALMS teams and drivers to invest in an Indy program.

....step out of the box....

[RGM Fan]

Still its good to think of ideas. Even MSNBC says focusing on three women is a mistake.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18792375/

[xtlm]

Still its good to think of ideas. Even MSNBC says focusing on three women is a mistake.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18792375/

nice article

but 1 question.....why cant the Brazilians be promoted?

Fittipaldi was well known way back when.

[Lee Roy]

Fittipaldi was well known way back when.

He was also a 2 time world driving champion.

[xtlm]

He was also a 2 time world driving champion.
raul was also known too, or am i stretching my memories there....(i was only what...6 or 8 at the time).

and yes that is very true.

Castroneves won indy 2 (and almost 3) times in a row.
thats gotta mean something

[RGM Fan]

nice article

but 1 question.....why cant the Brazilians be promoted?

Fittipaldi was well known way back when.

It's not my article so I can't say why exactly, but I think it has a feeling that Americans as a rule don't care about international sport. JPM was a monster doing things in a car that had never been done before and rarely since, but most Americans didn't know his name, or initials for that matter.

The consenous in the mainstream sports media is if its not American than it doesn't matter, and I don't think they're too far gone with that. How many of you seriously knew that America got its jib handed to it by an Italian team in the America's Cup? Or that Bob Bradley was named head coach of the American World Cup team this week?

Mario and Michael Andretti were household names. I think the feeling is if they aren't American drivers then it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Thats why personally I think if and when Scott Speed returns to America it would be good for open wheel racing, even though its pretty likely he'd go to CC over the IRL because of the focus on road racing. I'm of the mind thats what good for one series is good for the other.

[Old3Fan]

And the answer is for the IRL and CC to get back together. That would be a series of 26-28 cars with maybe 24-25 races a season (if they are smart) and the field would have more driver/team recognition and less
backmarkers/fillers. When these guys were together they were at least at par with Nascar. Since the split and having to compete with Nascar who race practically every weekend with literally hundereds of hours of TV time each month they continue to lose viewers and fans in the seats especially every year. The month of may used to fill the stands practically every day they were running. On qual day they had at best 10,000 fans in the seats. Granted on race day the stands will probably be full BUT IT AIN'T LIKE IT USED TO BE AND THAT IS BECAUSE OF THE SPLIT. Until TG and KK and his group get back together the Indy 500 will continue to decrease in importance.

[Mark in Oshawa]

And the answer is for the IRL and CC to get back together. That would be a series of 26-28 cars with maybe 24-25 races a season (if they are smart) and the field would have more driver/team recognition and less
backmarkers/fillers. When these guys were together they were at least at par with Nascar. Since the split and having to compete with Nascar who race practically every weekend with literally hundereds of hours of TV time each month they continue to lose viewers and fans in the seats especially every year. The month of may used to fill the stands practically every day they were running. On qual day they had at best 10,000 fans in the seats. Granted on race day the stands will probably be full BUT IT AIN'T LIKE IT USED TO BE AND THAT IS BECAUSE OF THE SPLIT. Until TG and KK and his group get back together the Indy 500 will continue to decrease in importance.

Don't talk sense to the kids, they think they have all the answers.

Lee Roy had it dead on. IF it was such a great product, we wouldn't need wacky marketing schemes.....THat said, OW racing is a better product than the idiots running it on both sides have served it. IT is a better product than many think if we had one healthy series....

[Colsanders]

Don't talk sense to the kids, they think they have all the answers.

Lee Roy had it dead on. IF it was such a great product, we wouldn't need wacky marketing schemes.....THat said, OW racing is a better product than the idiots running it on both sides have served it. IT is a better product than many think if we had one healthy series....

Many "great" products never get off the ground because of little or no marketing. A renewed series should have marketing professionals and series policies that help promote the series AND draw sponsors. Example: participating teams would receive marketing funds based to run advertisements that promote the team and the series. Creative ad partnerships should be encouraged. A few years ago, Honda and Fedex ran some TV spots with Gil De Ferran. Some of these even ran at random times - not just to race viewers.

It is a shame that a few egos who believe themselves to be larger than the sport itself, will probably never bring the sport back to its' former luster in the US.

[Scheckterfan54]

AOWR needs to realize that champcar and IRL shouldnt be competing against each other. Each series has their own fan base and those fans are not going to switch their allegience becuase of an advertisement. Two things need to happen for AOWR's return to prominence. Number 1) TG and KK need to be dropped off on a desserted island, and can only return once they have hammered out a unification deal. Number 2) We all need to realize that Nascar has taken over as the most popular motorsport in america. Once unified, the series needs to do the same thing that brought Nascar to prominence. Advertise to kids, so they grow up with the sport, and in 10 years, those children are able to buy tickets and decide that they are more interested in open wheel then the tintops. And while those children are growning up, they would ask their parents for trips to a race, and most importantly, buy toys that the series can produce. Those toys are just another advertisement to kids that are around when they are played with.That series should also advertise to the already large fanbase of nascar that open wheel cars are much faster, more exciting, and just as stock as the "stock cars" in nascar.