Nextel Revs NASCAR Sponsorship for Daytona 500
Sprint Nextel is gunning its event-marketing engines for the Daytona 500 this weekend.
As title sponsor of the NASCAR Nextel Cup series, the telecom has high stakes in establishing a strong presence at the Daytona 500, the highest-profile race in the series.
Sprint Nextel brings a souped-up version of its Nextel Experience tour vehicle to Daytona and wraps up its “Dash to Daytona” sweepstakes with a trip for its top winner to the race. Sprint Nextel also starts selling its “FanView” gadget this weekend, after a year of testing the audio-video device by renting it to fans at the track.
Sprint Nextel unveils its remodeled Nextel Experience exhibit tomorrow with Fan Appreciation Day activities. The revamped 10,000-square-foot attraction has a new state-of-the-art theater running NASCAR-related programming narrated by retired NASCAR champ Rusty Wallace. An All-Star Challenge stage hosts musical performances and driver appearances; the attraction always has live music or a DJ playing.
Fans also can play with six race simulators and try out Sprint Nextel phone and mobile broadband gear.
For the Feb. 16 Fan Appreciation Day, Sprint Nextel will host celeb and athlete appearances every hour and give away several prizes, including 25 pairs of front-stage tickets to a pre-race concert, “The Nextel Tribute to America,” starring Kelly Clarkson.
Sprint Nextel has hosted Nextel Experience since 2004. The exhibit will appear at the remaining 36 NASCAR Nextel Cup races this year. JHE Production Group, Harrisburg, NC, designed and manages the exhibit.
Meanwhile, the grand-prize winner of the Dash to Daytona sweepstakes gets a trip to the race, including a VIP tour of the track and a meeting with driver Tony Stewart. The online sweeps ran from late November through mid-January.
Street teams, on foot and on scooters, will cruise high-traffic areas to give away Sprint Nextel-branded premiums. Print, radio and outdoor ads support the brand’s title sponsorship. Sports-marketing shop Octagon, Norwalk, CT, is lead agency on Sprint Nextel’s NASCAR sponsorship, and coordinates Daytona 500 activities among a handful of agencies.
Sprint Nextel also uses the Daytona 500 to bow its FanView device, a hand-held scanner with video and audio feeds from inside the cars during the race. FanView users choose from a live Nextel Vision video feed or in-car cameras from as many as seven drivers. Fans also can access real-time data and statistics on FanView, which sells for $370 to $415, at retail stores and trackside. Purchasers pay a $10 activation fee to access content feeds throughout the race weekend.
Sprint Nextel also continues to rent FanView for $50 per day, $70 per weekend. The company has been renting the device for a year, gathering feedback from fans who have used the device to keep tabs on up to 43 drivers at a time.
“The fan response to FanView has been overwhelming,” said Dean Kessel, Sprint Nextel’s director of NASCAR Nextel Cup Series marketing, in a statement. “Fans tell us they love being their own sports producer. They can select what they would like to watch and listen to as they’re sitting in the stands.”
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