Darr Hawthorne has over 20 years of experience
in the entertainment business and television commercial industry
as a marketing representative, executive producer, commercial
producer, and film editor. As a producer and editor he won many
national and international advertising awards.
Darr acquired his addiction to drag racing
in 1964 when he toured to the U.S. Nationals with Wild Bill
Shrewsberry and Jack Chrisman. He also worked on Division 7
Sportsman crews in the 1970s & early '80s. He's been a freelance
motorsports journalist covering NHRA, nostalgia drags, NASCAR,
and IRL. He's been a Touring Professional Spectator, and is
currently helping his son build a '64 Chevy II Funny Car.
He will contribute his thoughts to DRO
as the mood strikes him. He is from California, after all.
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Is POWERade getting its money's worth from NHRA Drag Racing?
Photo by Zak Hawthorne
Drag racing is my first love, but the advertising business is where
I spend most of my business day. Since it we are now half way through
the 2002 drag racing season, I thought I'd look at the sponsorship side
of our sport.
Does anybody remember back to the fall of 2001? Many pundits predicted
the end of NHRA Drag Racing just because the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
was forced to choose between NHRA and NASCAR and NASCAR won! There was
hand wringing and worry on the level of the recent drop in the U.S.
stock market, but in what turned out to be a smart marketing opportunity,
the NHRA found Coca-Cola Company's POWERade brand as a replacement for
Big Tobacco.
The purchase of the NHRA title sponsorship was a bargain for this virtually
unknown Coca-Cola brand. POWERade was ready to re-launch a weak performing
brand after reformulating its flavors and packaging. Wanting to reinforce
the Power in the name of their product, what better way than "power
sports" like drag racing, motocross, hockey, soccer, triathlons,
and the Olympics.
Retail distributors were threatening to drop the least successful of
the top three sports drinks to open up shelf space. Since Gatorade had
a virtual lock and was estimated at 75 to 80 percent share of the market,
that meant either All Sport or POWERade's position in the supermarket
was in jeopardy.
Gatorade is the original sports drink, but POWERade has been eating
into Gatorade's market share since coming out with "radical"
new "extreme" flavors. With the huge push behind a product
that the public now really likes, POWERade has emerged as a growing
national brand.
 This
is a real success story; POWERade's NHRA drag racing series sponsorship
is in the first year of a five-year contract. According to the latest
Second Quarter 2002 Reports for the Coca-Cola Corporation, the POWERade
brand sales are up 20 percent.
POWERade doesn't advertise and promote the way that the RJR/Winston
brand did for so many years, but that is not grounds for concern. POWERade
has brought a new "legitimacy" to drag racing (if that was
possible), removing the awful stigma of mean and nasty "big tobacco."
The POWERade "Wave" spot recently won the prestigious 2002
Association of Independent Commercial Producers Award for Visual Effects
among very stiff competition. Even the ad agency picked by Coke was
a smart decision - it's the same one NIKE uses for much of its unique
advertising.
Don't worry because POWERade isn't using drag racing directly in all
of their on-air advertising. It doesn't mean that the brand is not fully
supporting drag racing. Recent POWERade TV spots utilizing John Force
as a humorous "spokesracer" and Tony Schumacher's powerful
dragster have moved to reinforce the brand's strong association with
NHRA Drag Racing. The POWERade brand wants to establish their proud
association with "grass roots drag racing."
At the Sonoma race I spoke with Ben Reiling, sports marketing spokesman
for Coca-Cola. He said, "There is no better linkage between the
brand POWERade, the passions that our consumers have and a sport, than
what we have here in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. Getting on
the starting line is a phenomenal experience. We are trying to bring
the sport to more of the fans out there and give them that accessibility.
Our role is to work with NHRA and the teams to build the sport. If we
are doing that job, we'll also see results of getting more market share,
more shelf space, and more consumers for POWERade."
Every time a drag racer chugs a bottle of POWERade after winning a
round of competition and wipes his brow with the official POWERade towel,
positive "WINNER" impressions are freely shown to the sport
drink consumer. Now a "winner's" beverage is associated with
drag racing.
Drag Racing is a powerful marketing partner!
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