The Danica Racing League already has most all it needs.
But, maybe ABC could have an all Danica channel for the races, to focus on just her on-track activity, along with hubby Paul, crazy TJ in turn 4, Bev, Brooke and whoever else we can find, in a split-screen to watch them, watching the race. Maybe show the last few laps of the 2008 Motegi race, in a continuous loop, on commericials. I think Todd Harris could host this channel, with his insightful commentary.
Then those of us that actually want to watch the race, can tune in on the regular broadcast station, and not be bothered.
Like the man said, he's looking for some good ideas and while it's easy to make fun of anything...
"it takes some gray matter" to come up with good ideas.
(gray matter is your brain, if you didn't know).
Well, as he mentioned the current most popular attention getters in Indy Racing are Danica, Helio, Graham, and Marco.
Now, I'm not a marketing guy, but if I were I'd look into ways of promoting Graham and Marco more so, but especially Helio right now. Strike while the iron is hot. Helio is still fresh in the media's eye from his stint on network tv.
Now would be the time to take advantage of of his current status.
Have the drivers do safe driving commercials. Have the drivers talk about how they use safety restraints in racing and in their personnal cars when driving.
Also have them do safety ads about not speeding. Remind people what can happen when not going at a safe speed (Roth and Danica recently).
It would get their names and faces out there with a good messege. I have thought by now someone would have done these be it NASCAR or Indycar. It only makes sense that the people who depend on safe driving the most would be wanting to pass that on to their fans as a reminder.
Use this as opposed to I am Indy as a way to promote the series.
I know its probably on its way for the 2010 car, but multiple engine suppliers.
ALMS and Grand-Am use engines to their advantage. Theres a billion porsche/pontiac/audi/mazda commercials and sponsorships on during sports car races.
Maybe even return to production-based engines?
The 3.5L Ethanol Honda and the ChampCar former 2.65L Turbo Cosworth have little resemblance to anything on the public roads.
It would be a key difference from NASCAR where theircars are labeled "Chevy" and "Toyota" but there is really no Chevy or Toyota parts anywhere on the engine or the car itself.
Maybe get another tire manufacturer involved too.
The past few years in F1 with Bridgestone vs Michelin was very excitign and drew a lot of sponsorship and media attention from the two tire companies. Different tires will encourage different strategies and more passing.
I guess the only problem to watch out for is the tire companies making the tires too soft in order to gain speed in exchange for durability (see 2005 US Grand Prix)
Lastly, chassis manufacturers. There is less to promote here since the fan cannot relate to a company they never heard of outside of racing, but different chassis have different strengths and weaknesses on various tracks and could promote more action in the races and in the championship.
One last thing, THEY NEED NEW ANNOUNCERS FOR THE RACE!@#(*$&@#*&*$!#%@#(*&
I know its probably on its way for the 2010 car, but multiple engine suppliers.
ALMS and Grand-Am use engines to their advantage. Theres a billion porsche/pontiac/audi/mazda commercials and sponsorships on during sports car races.
Maybe even return to production-based engines?
The 3.5L Ethanol Honda and the ChampCar former 2.65L Turbo Cosworth have little resemblance to anything on the public roads.
It would be a key difference from NASCAR where theircars are labeled "Chevy" and "Toyota" but there is really no Chevy or Toyota parts anywhere on the engine or the car itself.
Maybe get another tire manufacturer involved too.
The past few years in F1 with Bridgestone vs Michelin was very excitign and drew a lot of sponsorship and media attention from the two tire companies. Different tires will encourage different strategies and more passing.
I guess the only problem to watch out for is the tire companies making the tires too soft in order to gain speed in exchange for durability (see 2005 US Grand Prix)
Lastly, chassis manufacturers. There is less to promote here since the fan cannot relate to a company they never heard of outside of racing, but different chassis have different strengths and weaknesses on various tracks and could promote more action in the races and in the championship.
One last thing, THEY NEED NEW ANNOUNCERS FOR THE RACE!@#(*$&@#*&*$!#%@#(*&
Call me stupid but...
If you're looking for continued front page headlines, taking on a new formula or changing tire manufacturers, engine manufacturers, chassis manufacturers will get only a single day spotlight, and chances are on page 8.
After reading many of the posts here, and having no tallant for marketing myself, I've seen what I think are good ideas, but I'm getting the impression/realization that having someone like Danica, who does keep the series in the headlines and the public eye, day after day, week after week, is a goose that's laying a golden egg, because nothing else, as creative and as good as they are, like it or not, comes close.
The Danica Racing League already has most all it needs.
But, maybe ABC could have an all Danica channel for the races, to focus on just her on-track activity, along with hubby Paul, crazy TJ in turn 4, Bev, Brooke and whoever else we can find, in a split-screen to watch them, watching the race. Maybe show the last few laps of the 2008 Motegi race, in a continuous loop, on commericials. I think Todd Harris could host this channel, with his insightful commentary.
Then those of us that actually want to watch the race, can tune in on the regular broadcast station, and not be bothered.
Like the man said, he's looking for some good ideas and while it's easy to make fun of anything...
Sarcastic, but not without merit. No one can deny, that since 2005, IRL broadcasts have been a bit "Danica-centric". More than anything, this series needs to do a complete 180 in it's coverage and focus on winners and champions. Make the championship mean something again and maybe the champions will quit leaving. As long as the series continues to orbit around a perrenial midpacker, nothing else they do will amount to a hill of beans.
You can polish a turd all you want but it's just a shiny turd.
Changes need to be made to get back on track. 12 years of split will take many years to repair.
1) Get a new car. If a lot of folks here don't like the car, then the car must really be ugly. Love or hate the current F1 car, they are pretty slick racers. Got to see Schumacher's 2003 F1 Ferrari at a Taiwan trade show. What a spectacular machine.
2) Promote the entire series, not just 1 race. Drop I am Indy. Nascar isn't I am Daytona and they are successful because of the strength of the entire series.
3) Get off the 1.5 mile tracks. 2+ mile ovals or 1 mile ovals only.
4) Run IMS twice. Just like Daytona, run 2 races. First the big one Indy500, then a second one of 400 mile length. The mystic of IMS is gone. F1 raced there, Nascar races there, now motogp? If I500 is the biggest race, then do it again, just call it xxx400.
5) Run an all star race. 2 10 lap races on a small oval and a final 50 lap race.
Some of this the IRL may be doing already but if not, here's a couple of my ideas:
The IRL should have a marketing department that gets their drivers on any TV talk show, sports talk radio show or any other media outlet that will let them come on and and tell a story about Indy Car Racing. Invite shows like Espn's Mike and Mike to Indianapolis and make drivers accessible to them for interviews etc. (I believe Mike & Mike is doing Indy later this year).
Convince the network to promote (or buy the time if you have to) IRL race broadcasts during other non-racing sports events. Create TV spots that are memorable and make people want to tune into a race and see what Indy racing is all about, (that will mean hiring a good ad agency). Use humor - compare Indy to Nascar without using Nascar by name. Show the strengths of Indy Car racing and why it's different. Show the drivers as fun, approachable and highly skilled.
Develop a fan zone type of display that is transportable (like an 18-wheel trailer) which can travel the country and go to malls and car shows and other sporting events close to cities where the IRL races. Use it as a tool to promote what the sport is all about - either a couple of weeks before a race or the week of a race. Make it cool, interactive and have discounted tickets available for sale at the trailer. Make it kid friendly and encourage families to participate.
Invite every news media and sports reporting entity in the US/world to every IRL event and treat them like royalty. Get the media whatever marketing materials they might need to make covering the sport easier. Make sure they have access to video and audio clips on a regular basis. Make sure the teams have access to whatever materials the league has so they can use it to court sponsors. Set-up a segment of the marketing department that can help teams find and pitch to potential sponsors. Make the end of year championship payoff richer. Drivers and teams will stick around if the money in Indy Car is great and the best way to do that is to bump up the end of year prize fund.
As long as TG has given me a blank check, I think it would be a great idea to offer some kind of incentive or driver development program every year which awards a fully sponsored Indy Lights ride for the "best up and coming America Open wheel racer in the Country". Have the motorsports press and fans vote all year to award the ride to a deserving driver from midgets, sprints, Atlantics or any other US open wheel racing series. Maybe even take it a step further and create a reality TV show where the 4 or 5 runner up drivers have a chance to compete for an additional full time ride in Indy Lights. Get big name drivers from the past to do a guest spot on each show and coach the drivers. Vision Racing could certainly create an Indy Lights Team, and it would be a great way to develop US drivers who don't have the money but have the talent. Sell the TV rights to help pay for the production costs.
Talk to the Discovery and TLC Channels about producing a TV show based on the Indy Car series. Look at what American Chopper did for OCC's brand. Make it very easy for one of those two networks to film at races and in team garages throughout the course of the year. I'm sure there's a team and sponsor available that would love the publicity and would even help with funding.
I could ramble on with more ideas but that's probably enough. I think the point is they have to get the drivers names and faces out to the public as often as possible, they're going to have to explain how this form of racing is unique and they're going to have to spend a lot of money to do it.
Adopt a college's engineering program. Seriously. Partner every team with a top universities engineering program and start internships for a couple of students to join the team for the year and give an engineering class on campus a specific job for the year (build better suspension pieces, come up with new mirror's etc.). Then make sure the local media for each of the universities has access to those programs so they can update the readers, do news stories, get local people from across the country involved and give the local media a reason to talk to them.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, since I like ALMS, too), ALMS has already started to fill the "anti-NASCAR" niche by playing up technology and driver skill as opposed to wrestling promos and staged fistfights, so that approach might be closed to IndyCar. Continued cooperation with ALMS can't hurt either series, though, if you ask me.
One thing that's essential, though, to keep things interesting, is multiple chassis and engine manufacturers. Don't overplay the tie-ins to passenger car makers, though...for the love of God, keep those flatulent "production based" 4.0L NA V8s from 1997-1999 under the rock they crawled back under. Racing technology should breed street technology, not the other way around! A little badge-engineering ala Chevy-Ilmor and Ford-Cosworth should be enough to catch the attention of people who are attracted to shiny objects and familiar logos without boring the hell out of people that actually like race cars for what they are. Bring back the 2.65L turbo formula, and for variety's sake, come up with a normally aspirated equivalency, and...why not...even a stockblock equivalency like the one that produced the Buick timebombs and the Penske-Ilmor-Mercedes monster.
Make the races longer and dump some of these cookie-cutter 1.5 mile tracks. Bring back the "triple crown." If Pocono and Michigan won't play, find two venues that will. Put up some big money for anyone who can sweep the three 500-milers, and better yet, have it cumulate from year to year if no one wins it.
Homestead is a terrible place to start the season. No one shows up and it adds insult to the injury that is the obnoxiously long offseason (which, obviously, needs to be cut down). If a different date doesn't improve fan turnout, drop it...the fewer ISC tracks on the calendar the better.
I'm not usually one for gimmickry, but let's face it, it's a long way down before you get to NASCAR territory when it comes to carnival-style huckstering. So let's see some track promoters besides Eddie Gossage throwing money around to get one-time rides together for drivers from other series. As crazy as the Junior idea Gossage floated might sound, you can bet a lot of NASCAR fans would follow Junior into an Indy Car race, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them liked what they saw and kept watching even without Junior...no one ever said you can't like both series. I know, because I used to like both equally until NASCAR turned into a caricature of itself, and I can't be the only one.
The ultimate goal is to get more folks in seats and eyeballs watching the TV. People need to be interested in the races beyond Indianapolis and you need stars people care about.
A reality show seems to be the best bang for your buck. Get a mix of the most talented drivers and marketable/entertaining drivers you can who aren't ride buyers, throw them all in a house, and have them do short races (15-25 minutes) in various identical cars with identical setups (Midgets, karts, sprints, street/road course races, etc) at the end of each show, culminating in a live hour-length race at Indianapolis during May in Indy Lights caliber cars.
There would be teams coached by various famous names and some current IndyCar drivers (Team Danica, Team Unser, etc). Other famous drivers/folks would stop by. Start with about 24 drivers and whittle it down to about 12 by the end by having a running points system and having the lowest placed driver getting kicked off after a few races. The points would determine starting positions for the final Indianapolis race. I'd film most of it during the off-season at empty tracks.
Winner gets an Indy Lights ride for the rest of the season and a guaranteed IndyCar series ride with a good team the following season.
If it was well-produced (pay the $$ to get the Mayweather/DeLaHoya 24/7 people to produce it), I guarantee it would outdraw most of the actual races, and a lot of those people would start watching the series. Besides the champion being a new star, hopefully some of the others would build up enough of a name to get their own sponsorships and break into the series.
The Danica Racing League already has most all it needs.
But, maybe ABC could have an all Danica channel for the races, to focus on just her on-track activity, along with hubby Paul, crazy TJ in turn 4, Bev, Brooke and whoever else we can find, in a split-screen to watch them, watching the race. Maybe show the last few laps of the 2008 Motegi race, in a continuous loop, on commericials. I think Todd Harris could host this channel, with his insightful commentary.
Then those of us that actually want to watch the race, can tune in on the regular broadcast station, and not be bothered.
Like the man said, he's looking for some good ideas and while it's easy to make fun of anything...
Sarcastic, but not without merit. No one can deny, that since 2005, IRL broadcasts have been a bit "Danica-centric". More than anything, this series needs to do a complete 180 in it's coverage and focus on winners and champions. Make the championship mean something again and maybe the champions will quit leaving. As long as the series continues to orbit around a perrenial midpacker, nothing else they do will amount to a hill of beans.
Okay, then you need to come up with some ideas that will grab the attention of the press.
So far, Danica is the best selling tool they have, bar none and there is no argument to that I'm starting to see.
If you can figure out a way that will bring, say Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti, or anyone else into a mass media spotlight that carries the same amount of attention as Danica, lets hear it!
Some of us are missing the point that no one (other than us) give a rip about new cars and motors and all the rest of the stuff that WE like........ Showing someone a new motor and chassis does very little for someone who could have cared less about the old motor and chassis!
Until there are about 25 million more fans and lots of new sponsors the car and the rest are REALLY HARD TO PAY FOR!
The Danica Racing League already has most all it needs.
But, maybe ABC could have an all Danica channel for the races, to focus on just her on-track activity, along with hubby Paul, crazy TJ in turn 4, Bev, Brooke and whoever else we can find, in a split-screen to watch them, watching the race. Maybe show the last few laps of the 2008 Motegi race, in a continuous loop, on commericials. I think Todd Harris could host this channel, with his insightful commentary.
Then those of us that actually want to watch the race, can tune in on the regular broadcast station, and not be bothered.
Like the man said, he's looking for some good ideas and while it's easy to make fun of anything...
Sarcastic, but not without merit. No one can deny, that since 2005, IRL broadcasts have been a bit "Danica-centric". More than anything, this series needs to do a complete 180 in it's coverage and focus on winners and champions. Make the championship mean something again and maybe the champions will quit leaving. As long as the series continues to orbit around a perrenial midpacker, nothing else they do will amount to a hill of beans.
Okay, then you need to come up with some ideas that will grab the attention of the press.
So far, Danica is the best selling tool they have, bar none and there is no argument to that I'm starting to see.
If you can figure out a way that will bring, say Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti, or anyone else into a mass media spotlight that carries the same amount of attention as Danica, lets hear it!
That would mean we have two irons in the fire.
That's the whole problem, Marco certainly doesn't deserve the spotlight any more than DP does. Even less so, (she's a better driver than he is). Rahal shows promise but the jury is still out on him. The guys out there racing their hineys off, winning week after week, that's where the focus ought to be. Right now, Danica is a gimmick. We don't need Andretti and Rahal turned into gimmicks too just because of their last names. When their track performance comes to bear, then promote them. Otherwise, it's all hat and no cattle.
Ebay is already an ICS partner....... so start an auction to win an evening with an ICS star. Get all the drivers to do it, let the owners get involved if they want to. All it is for those being auctioned is a chance to donate some time and get a big tax write off when the proceeds are donated to charity. Make it a big dinner party the night before the awards banquet etc. You can get Ebay some extra exposure by promoting it and giving an "auction top 10" during the races and drive more fans to ebay.
The ICS is supposed to be the most fan friendly series around right? Not just different, better.
