A Lot Goes Into Changing Series Sponsors

By Ron Lemasters, Jr.
NSSN Correspondent

Think about how big a NASCAR speedway truly is. Hundreds of acres of track, grandstands, campgrounds, parking lots and the like, even small tracks like Martinsville or Bristol are relatively huge places.
Now that you’ve considered that, try to recall just how many NASCAR Nextel Cup and NASCAR Busch Series banners, signs and logos appear in all that space — and how they got there.
Each individual logo, banner or sign has to be painted, stripped or placed just so to satisfy contractual obligations, marketing necessity and even aesthetics.

WINDS OF CHANGE: After 26 seasons, Anheuser-Busch ended its sponsorship of NASCAR's No. 2 series. (Rusty Burroughs/HHP Photo)

That’s at least part of what Roger Neale at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is responsible for doing, and he has a job in front of him before this May’s event at the flagship Speedway Motorsports, Inc. facility. Tracks that appear before Lowe’s on the schedule are in the process of completing or have already completed the facelift.
All the series logos must be changed to the NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide series logos before fans even arrive at the track. For Lowe’s, that’s in May; for other tracks, like Daytona, Las Vegas and California, it’s already been done.
While it is a substantial undertaking, Neale said it’s not as hard as it was in 2004, when long-time backer Winston left and Nextel came on board.
“We have logged each location where sponsor banners or signs are posted,” Neale said. “That lets us determine how to proceed. If it’s something that has to be taken down, we have contractors on retainer that will do that for us, and likewise, we have a painting crew that will take care of the areas that need to be repainted, like the walls and so on.”
While it is a huge undertaking, it has happened recently, so that cuts down on some of the guesswork.
“We have to do a complete perimeter check of the locations, and then we evaluate whether we’ll do that in-house or contract it out, leaving the appropriate lead times,” Neale said.
The last time it happened was between 2003 and 2004 when Winston left and Nextel came in. Neale said that changeover took “a matter of a few weeks” to implement.
Dean Kessel, director of NASCAR marketing for Sprint, said the announcement of the brand change in the sponsorship was made with an eye toward allowing enough time for the tracks, licensees and others concerned to make the changes.
“You have to almost back into it,” Kessel said of the changeover. “When the two companies merged, the conversation started internally, and one of the questions was, ‘What is our consumer-facing brand going to be?’
“Once the decision was made, it was a fait accompli, in a way, and we started to change our assets. We announced it in July at Daytona, which gave us the time to start the process for getting everything ready for the following year.”
Kessel said that the changeover from 2004 was still fresh enough in everyone’s minds that the list of changes was manageable.
“I have one person who is dedicated to our track relationships, Chad Willis, and he was on the phone making it happen,” Kessel said. “He has a great team, and we knew from four years ago that we had a very complete list of assets that needed to be changed. We were able to reference that, pull it out and we were ready to go.”
The main things that concerned the speedways were the signage and associated collateral pieces like pennant rope, banners and even tickets.
“All the collateral pieces…this had a huge trickle-down effect,” Kessel said. “We had to consider the smallest items, like printing the series mark on the tickets for the following year to signage at every track to merchandise…it has a lot of implications. It was important for us to get out in front of it so all the licensees, all the vendors, people we do business with across a number of platforms, were able to start the process as well.”
Neale ticked off his list. “Billboards have to come down, and there are decisions to be made on whether to hard-paint or cover with vinyl,” he said. That determination is made by taking into account where the signage or logo is around the track.
“It depends on location. There are some areas on the back side [of the speedway] and facing Morehead Road that don’t lend themselves to hard-coat [painting]. Those areas would be changed with banners. The walls [of the speedway] are hard-paint, coordinated through graphic changes and PMS colors.”
Before you get the idea that every Nextel logo is simply replaced with a Sprint logo, Kessel said that different logos need to go in different places.
“There are multiple logos…the Sprint corporate logo and the series logo,” he said. “Those need to be matched up.”
In terms of cost, Neale did not give an estimate, saying only that much of the cost is borne by the sponsor.
He also said that the time frame for Lowe’s Motor Speedway to complete the changeover is “at least six to eight weeks.”
One thing he won’t have to worry about is training because the crews that will work on Lowe’s will have already made the changes at several tracks.
“We have outside sources that are set up to do the majority of the East Coast tracks, and they’re set up to do SMI tracks, independents or ISC tracks. Really, they get their practice on Daytona.”
The change is internal as well, Kessel said, referring to the company’s mobile marketing platform.
“We’ll have a new look at the Sprint Experience,” Kessel said. “You’ll see a little bit of a color change, too, to a lot more black. There’s still a lot of yellow, but there will be more black this year.”
All the collateral pieces — from schedule cards to give-away items to lanyards and on down the list — have to be remade using the updated logos.
Kessel reported that so far the change has gone smoothly.
“It’s really more making sure nothing slips through the cracks.”