Unilever has launched a corporate blog starring its NASCAR team, the Ultimate Chargers, and nine “ultimate” Unilever brands.
The race team is sponsored by the nine brands, all of which target moms. The new blog serves as a platform for those brands’ promotions, including two current sweepstakes for Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Klondike ice cream bars.
The Hellmann’s Get Your Face in the Race sweepstakes will put the winner’s face on the hood of the Ultimate Chargers’ car for an April 2008 race at Texas Motor Speedway; the winner also gets a trip to the race. Ten first-prize winners will receive an Ultimate Chargers leather jacket; second prize (for 50 winners) is a Hellmann’s racing headset radio. Another 300 winners get a Hellmann’s racing hat.
To enter, fans answer a simple question (“How many members are there in a NASCAR pit crew?”) and complete a questionnaire about how often they buy and how they cook with Hellmann’s. Entrants are automatically registered to receive future promotional offers from Hellmann’s and Unilever’s other brands. The sweeps runs through yearend.
Meanwhile, the Klondike Ultimate Race and Family Vacation sweepstakes offers a grand-prize family trip to the 2008 Daytona 500 in February. Fifty first-prize winners get a Klondike leather jacket; 500 winners receive a Klondike-branded flag signed by driver Kasey Kahne. Codes on packs of the ice cream bars drive consumers to the site to enter the sweeps, which runs through Oct. 31.
The No. 9 Ultimate Chargers Dodge runs 23 races this year in the NASCAR Busch Series, driven by Kahne and two teammates, Scott Riggs and Elliott Sadler.
The other Unilever brands that sponsor the team are Country Crock, Lawrys, Lipton, Ragu, Slim-Fast, Wish-Bone and Wisk.
The blog launch comes on the heels of a February contest at Daytona International Speedway, where Hellmann’s is a racetrack sponsor. The Hellmann’s Happy Camper contest invited fans who were staying in the Daytona campground to build a display using Hellmann’s products; the winners got to meet Kahne. Most of the entrants—and all four winners—were women.
The Ultimate Chargers have a growing target audience: Women account for 40% of all NASCAR fans, and are the fastest-growing demographic for the sport, a Unilever spokesperson said.
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