The motorsport season in the US has wrapped up for another year, with Nascar as the leading series on social media. In this month’s analysis, we compare the two biggest US four-wheel motorsports, Nascar and Indycar, and how fans engaged with posts from the series, teams, and drivers on social media from 1st January to 17th November 2021.
Compared to last year, total fans (down one per cent), posts (down seven per cent), engagement (down 30 per cent), and value (down 24 per cent) are all trending down for Nascar. In contrast, IndyCar has seen an increase in total fans (17 per cent) and fan engagement (59 per cent) even as post volume and value generated have slightly decreased (three per cent each) from 2020.
One of the key factors in the drops for Nascar in 2021 was the retirement of Jimmie Johnson from the series. In 2020, Johnson accounted for 10 per cent of Nascar’s total followers (4.2 million) and just over two per cent of total fan engagement and value generated for brands. Those followers got a dose of IndyCar racing this season, with Johnson starting 12 races for the competing series.
Though Johnson posted 12 per cent more in 2021, he generated only half the engagement and sponsorship value AAV as he did in 2020, leading to the question: are his fans 'racing' fans or 'Nascar' fans? Clearly there is carryover, but the brand loyalty for the series could be a bright spot at a time when fan engagement with the series is down from the previous year.
Sponsorship value
Of the brands promoted by each series, Chevrolet is the only one to feature in the top ten brands in Nascar and IndyCar. Honda, the top brand by sponsorship value AAV in IndyCar, would rank just eighth by AAV among brands promoted in Nascar.
Among the Nascar brands, each one of these is either a series sponsor, a car manufacturer, a race naming rights sponsor, or the lead sponsor of one or more cars. While those types of sponsors also top the IndyCar list, two racing equipment suppliers, Alpinestars and Sparco, make the top tnen in IndyCar, likely paying minimal partnership agreements compared to non-endemic major race sponsors such as Gainbridge.
However, these equipment suppliers have the lowest average promotion quality of any of the top ten brands in either series, both under 11 per cent compared to 25 per cent average across the two series. This is mainly due to the limited deliberate promotion these brands get, benefitting mainly from incidental logo exposure on the equipment. In contrast, Gainbridge, the Indy500 presenting sponsor, has the highest average promotion quality (36 per cent) among the top ten brands in either series and over half of the posts about Gainbridge are deliberate, tagging or mentioning the brand in the post.
When it comes to deliberate promotion of sponsors in Nascar, Toyota, Xfinity, and Coca-Cola were the top brands included in posts by drivers, teams, and the series. #TeamToyota led the pack with over 5,500 posts, #XfinitySeries received nearly 1,000, and, for Coca-Cola, #CocaCola600 and #CokeZeroSugar400 each received around 700 posts. Together, these three brands received nearly US$1.4 million AAV from posts including these tags and branded naming rights. Over in IndyCar, the top three branded tags were #FirestoneGP, #TeamChevy, and #Honda200, totaling just over US$200,000 AAV for these three brands.
While Nascar may have trended down this season, it still has 76 per cent more fans than Indycar, and over three times more fan engagement and sponsorship value AAV generated for brands. These brands benefit from deliberate promotion, such as naming rights and direct partnerships with the drivers, teams, and series, as well as logo exposure. However, the quality of logo promotion for all brands was very low, averaging around 11 per cent in both series, due to the sheer volume of logos as well as the nature of the sport (fast moving cars make for blurry images).
Check back next month for a recap of the Formula One season.
Want specific details of how your motorsports partnerships are performing? Get in touch: [email protected]