Rookie & The Vet: What NASCAR can teach us about Sponsorships

Rich: Foreign m.

Nick Lawson: Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Inches podcast, a podcast that looks at sports sponsorship, event sponsorship and how digital is affecting the industry. I'm your co host Nick Lawson, co founder of a company called Squad. We're helping sports teams and events connect fans sponsors digitally through digital activations. As always with me here, but with one more addition to his title, uh,

Rich: a bigger business card.

Nick Lawson: I know it's. I can't even imagine what your business card is now. Um, but he is the VP of corporate partnerships for the Oakley Group, Acushare Arena, AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds and new uh, announcement last week the NBA G League Coachella Valley Lakers to add that to that mix. So Rich, congrats on getting that new team kind of in your arena portfolio to be able to sell and um, activate there in the stadium.

Rich: Yeah, no, we're uh, we're very excited to uh, welcome uh, uh, the Lakers organization to uh, Acrisure arena and the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Um, and um, yeah, I mean you talk about just an iconic brand, uh, in the Lakers so associated with Southern California, um, you know, opportunity to show again what can be done in minor leagues with uh, with the G League. And it's funny because we were on a call today talking about starting to roll out our, our um, sponsorship packages. We've already kind of pre. Sold a little bit of this and, and such, so it's not coming as any big surprise. But the, the thing that we talked about with the Lakers is um, the fact that we're not going to talk about the Coachella Valley Lakers as being an affiliate are going to be an extension. And I think that that's really what it's, it's all about. You know, when you, when you say affiliate, it's like, oh, okay, you're in this other league and it's a minor league and. But when you talk about an extension, you know, we want to really tap into the whole Laker Persona, mystique, um, brand equity, the whole deal. So we are very excited for this. Uh, you know, the fact, I love the fact that we're, we're keeping the name the Lakers and uh, the you know, as I said, the brand equity that goes with that, we're keeping the colors, uh, everything, uh, just pretty much exactly the same. But uh, we've got a uh, pretty short Runway. We just announced this, uh, this couple of weeks ago. And uh, we start play this coming fall right around uh, end of October, first of November. So we're going to be hitting it super hard with uh, sponsorship packages, upsells, things like that. We'll probably uh, use this as a, as a uh, podcast topic here in the future about rolling out this new product and the lessons that we're learning. The one thing that I will share initially is we're definitely taking, as we do with all of our partnerships, a less is more approach to this one. Um, we're not going to have dozens and dozens of partners. Uh, right now, uh, it's under 15 partners total that we feel will get us to where we need to be on the revenue side and uh, you know, keep it uh, special, uh, and unique and give our partners plenty of visibility. So, but anyway, yep, we uh, we got a new team in town, Coachella Valley Lakers, and we're very excited for it.

Nick Lawson: No, I'm really excited to dive into kind of that episode of bringing a new team. Right, uh, to, to town and what goes into that and your strategy on that. But, um, we have a different topic today about um, a different uh, sort of trip that you took recently, Rich. Let's go check out. And I know one of the, one of the key things, and if you're a longtime listener or even a short term listener, you've heard us do this, is I love looking at different sports, um, or even different entities that sell sponsorship and look at how they're doing it and then see, hey, what are some things that we can bring back to our teams? Just because obviously that's kind of the big piece there is. They're going to be doing something that you never thought of but could totally fit within your system. So, um, today's topic, uh, Rich went and visited a NASCAR race, um, which is obviously, uh, a very specific, very. Some, you know, pretty different from most of the, the teams that probably listen in here, um, towards their experience. But uh, today's topic is what NASCAR still understands about sponsorship and the other. What other sports can, uh, kind of learn from that. So Rich, you headed to a NASCAR race? I've only been to one NASCAR race in, in, in Arizona, in Phoenix. Um, so I have had that experience. I will also say that Rich used to be the uh, flag person at the Port Portland International Raceway, which you have to be trained at. So Rich, you are a sports racing or I guess a racing fan, uh, in general as well.

Rich: Yeah, yeah, I, uh, yeah, that was fun. I missed those days, uh, doing on track, uh, flagging and communication for Portland, uh, International Raceway. Got to go as high as IndyCar, uh, doing that. So that was a lot of fun. But yeah, I've always enjoyed, uh, enjoyed racing. Um, I got it from my dad, uh, who um, as we said, uh, unfortunately he's no longer with us. But uh, I remember somebody at the memorial service said that when it came to my dad, if it had an engine, whether it was a car, a boat, a plane or whatever, uh, he was into it, he loved it. So uh, this was my second, uh, NASCAR Ah, race. First one in person in about 20 years. So it had been a while. Um, but uh, to your earlier point, when, when I watch a race or you know, like being next to Coachella here, I'm always looking at how things are done, um, and saying, you know, what can I learn? Is there something that I can take from my uh, experience here at Texas ah, Motor Speedway a week or so ago and apply and learn. So I think that we uh, can all agree that maybe uh, NASCAR is not quite as mainstream as it was, say 20, 25, 30 years ago. Um, you know, I still recognize a lot of the names, but probably not as many as I did before as far as the drivers. Um, interesting too to see some of the evolution in the brands that are sponsoring nascar. But I still think that there's some things that NASCAR does better than almost any sport, uh, when it comes to sponsorships in terms of the sponsor visibility, uh, the integration into the competition, uh, certainly the fan accessibility and um, you know, what I'll call the fan acceptance of sponsors, uh, uh, of nascar. Uh, probably it's right up there along with uh, soccer in terms of accepting sponsor, uh, logos on the cars, on the kits, things like that. So I think that um, we want to take a look today at some of the stuff that I observed and some of the learning takeaways from, from uh, being just a fan in the stands at uh, at the uh, the race over there at Texas Motor Speedway. The. It was called the Worth 400 W U R T H presented by Liquimoly. So uh, there you go. I mean just the fact that every single race has a sponsor brand on it is uh, is pretty interesting. But so let's talk about, let's just dive into some of the things that, that observed and, and um, you know, talk a little bit about what uh, what other teams and leagues can, can still learn from uh, from NASCAR in terms of sponsorship.

Nick Lawson: Yeah, and I guess before we dive into that, because when I went to my first NASCAR race, and I'm sure there's some listeners who've never been, I had no idea, like I guess the structure of what goes on, uh, at A race or on a race day? Rich, can you kind of just go through of like, obviously traditional sports, we have a game, right, and it's played. But can you just kind of go through on a race day? What does that typically look like?

Rich: Well, it's not just a race day. It's a race weekend. Yeah, I mean, they're doing, uh, they're doing races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Um, because of my travel schedule, I was only able to attend the. The main, uh, cup race on Sunday. But, um, you know, I mean, it's. It's a huge event. Uh, you know, there's. There's different sponsors for. For each race. Um, obviously, the Sunday, the main race is the. The main event. But, you know, the things that. That. The first thing that strikes you when you go to a NASCAR race, and this is probably no surprise that anybody who's ever observed auto racing in general, is there are sponsor logos absolutely everywhere. Uh, you know, there's. There's logos on the cars, there's logos on the uniforms, there's logos on the haulers, there's logos on the fan zones, there's logos on the hospitality tents, the merchandise, the driver introductions. Um, and then, you know, the, the track itself, there's. There's enormous, um, entitlement, uh, spaces and. And signage all on the back stretch and signage on the walls and things like that. And I, I think the thing, you know, one of the main things that is. Was true then and is still true now about NASCAR is that nascar, I think, probably understands sponsorship integration into the whole race experience, uh, better than almost any, uh, sport in America. Um, it's. It's. It's accepted by the fans. It's about, um, the fact that NASCAR does not hide sponsorship. It celebrates its sponsors. Um, and a note here that I made was most sports, it's almost sometimes like they're trying to protect fans from advertising and protect fans from sponsors. Nascar, who we baby. It is part of the culture, it's part of the identity. Um, and they really, really do it well and they're not ashamed about it.

Nick Lawson: Yeah, that was one of the big things. When I went to the Phoenix race, which would have been 2019, it was right before the pandemic was one, how long it was. But number two, how many sponsors are involved, um, and how ingrained in the culture it is. Um, and, you know, again, from race day to on the actual car to, you know, going into the. Oh, uh, I forget what they call it, but where they're kind of working on the car, if you have access to be able to kind of go see that, um, part of it, it. There's sponsorship everywhere. But to your point, Rich, it doesn't feel. It doesn't feel branded. Uh, if that's, if that's a way, if that's a way to put it.

Rich: It's, It's.

Nick Lawson: It's authentically integrated kind of into the experience.

Rich: I was just going to use the word authentic. Uh, the sponsor presence at a NASCAR race feels very authentic. It doesn't interrupt the fan experience. It is part of the fan experience, and it's done in a way. And sure, a lot of this is historical. I mean, this is kind of the way it's always been. Um, the fact that a lot of times when they're talking about the cars, it's not even the driver. It's. It's the M and M's car, it's the Budweiser car. You know, something like that. Um, and it's also the fact that the fan loyalty and the fan passion. We've talked about this a lot before. It's about tying in with that fan passion. The fan passion for NASCAR is so high that fans willingly and enthusiastically wear sponsored merch. Uh, they want to be identified with that car and the sponsor of that car. And you compare that to other sports with, with jersey patches, sleeve patches, um, you know, a lot of, uh, branding on the field surfaces, certainly these days with, with college sports and the growth of, of, uh, jersey patches and stuff like that. NASCAR has made the sponsors part of the overall culture and experience of the race. And the fans accept it. They go right along with it. We'll talk a little bit about, you know, okay, how do we take this and do it in, uh, other sports and other events? But I think that that was personal observation number one, was just how authentic that sponsor presence, uh, feels when you're standing there watching a NASCAR race.

Nick Lawson: Yeah, beyond that kind of culture, uh, which is amazing for brand partners that is just built into it, what else kind of stood out, uh, on. On your end as you were kind of going through the NASCAR race?

Rich: Well, the, the other thing, and I just sort of touched on it, there is just, is just the acceptance of the fans of the sponsorship. I think a lot of it is rooted in kind of the, the loyalty culture that goes along with sports. Um, I think that NASCAR fans and there's other sports. I think hockey is one of them. I think soccer is one of these sports that they really understand and see that the sponsor helps support the sport that they love and that their willingness to accept that branding is such that, you know, as I said, they're willing to tolerate, not just tolerate ads, but embrace ads, embrace the sponsors and sometimes the characters, or, excuse me, the brands almost become characters in, you know, in how the sponsorship is present, is presented, you know, just in terms of, you know, the branding on the driver's suit and the branding on the car itself and how a lot of these, um, brands become really, not just visible but because, because of their visibility and because of the fan support for sponsors. It builds that trust factor that I think so many sports and event sponsors are really, really looking to tap into. And I talked about passion. Uh, you know, the trust and the passion are just off the charts with, with NASCAR fans.

Nick Lawson: Yep. How do you think, I mean, why do you think that's the case so much in NASCAR compared to other sports? Obviously, I mean, what comes to my mind is you had to get a car sponsored in order to build it back from my understanding of stock car racing. So it kind of was a part of the sport of you actually had to have a brand say, I trust in this driver to kind of get that return and partner. But why do you think that's the case to where not only uh, the branding is authentic, but also the fans just embrace it as much as they do?

Rich: Well, yeah, it kind of goes back to what I just said about, about fans of NASCAR and other certain sports are more willing to, to accept and, and feel that the, that the sponsor helps make the event and make the sport possible. I, I think that that's where you get into the difference between just an ad placement versus we're here to support the team. Um, and we talk a lot about the use of logos and intellectual property. Right. Um, and how important it is and how much lift it can give to ah, a sponsor brand, uh, to align themselves with the team or in this case the driver, the car. Um, you know, it's, it's super, super beneficial to the sponsor to have that kind of brand loyalty and brand alignment. So I think that it's very synergistic between the fan, the driver because certain fans also support certain drivers. They, they like their personalities. I always liked, uh, Tony Stewart. I thought Tony Stewart was a lot of fun. He's, he was a hard charger. He was a little bit combative, kind of a bad boy in some ways. But you know, when, when Tony Stewart was driving the Home Depot car. Yeah, man, that was, uh, those were good times. Um, so I think it's that synergy between the fan and their passion for the sport, their passion and allegiance for particular drivers, and then the driver having that connection with the sponsor. It's kind of this big circle of life, if you will. Um, that, that just kind of feeds off of each other. And I don't want to say it's 100 unique to NASCAR, but it's certainly super strong for NASCAR.

Nick Lawson: And you talked a little bit about kind of activation and engagement there. What kind of stood out on the track just as far as the activations that you kind of saw?

Rich: Uh, well, so, I mean it was a lot of things. As I said, it all starts when you come in through the gates and you start to see all the branding and you know, this brand welcomes you to Texas Motor Speedway and this brand welcomes you to the garage area. You know, and then before the concert or excuse me, before the race even begins, they're doing this full blown concert out there on the, on the start finish line that's got sponsors involved with it. They got a sponsor at the uh, at the, the winner's circle. They got the sponsors. You know, at the start finish line. The, the sponsors are, are integrated into, into the facility, into the, the cars. By the way, if you haven't noticed lately, used to be that the, the biggest graphic on the side of the car was the car number and then the sponsor kind of got the, the fender and the hood, things like that. Who knew? The sponsor brand now is the biggest thing that you see on the car. The number still big, but again it just sort of demonstrates how more and more, um, you know, the, the sponsors integration, um, and what I guess you would call identity alignment. You know, the sponsor is the car, the brand is the car. Um, it's that tapping into that culture, but also, you know, it's, it is literally a rolling billboard, uh, going around the track. So that's, that's one of the first things that you notice is, is that, you know, it's, it's that passionate audience. Yeah, I mean the NASCAR audience is probably not as big as it used to be. It's probably not. I mean, look at what's going on in Formula One now. I would argue that that Formula One certainly globally now has more partners and, and therefore, you know, more fans. Or maybe it's the other way around. More fans and therefore more partners, um, than, than NASCAR does. But it's just how engaged the audience is with what they're seeing that they're sitting there literally watching whatever it was 32, I think there were 32 or 34 cars in that race, you're sitting there watching 32 or 34 brands go whizzing by you, uh, for, for whatever it was two and a half hours. Um, and, and the way that, that, as I say, the way that the fans accept it, the way that the fans engage with it, um, you know, it's, it's a great example of a, a brand that is chasing and connecting with a passionate fan community slash consumer community, rather than just raw impressions.

Nick Lawson: Yep. No one. It's intriguing too, because probably not the direct connection there. And again, this comes back to the passionate fan base, but we have jersey partners, uh, in the NBA, in the NHL, uh, in, in other sports. Um, the logos on the cars are almost the jersey partners. Um, what's interesting and what stuck out to me when I went to nascar and obviously anybody who's in sponsorship is over sensitive to seeing brand logos and analyzing it. I mean, we can't go into sports games without saying, oh, there's that logo. That's interesting how they did that. But you had, you know, whatever it might be, 50, 20 unique brands, um, all on the racetrack, right. Rather than you go to an NBA game, you have two jersey patch partners, uh, and that's it. So it's, it's intriguing how, how many logos get onto the action, right? Or like onto the track where you're watching, you're getting different angles, you're seeing them compared to other sports where you're probably only going to see two or three depending on if it's, you know, side of jersey patch plus, you know, front of jersey kit and sponsor or in football, uh, on that end.

Rich: So I, I jotted down before we started here, kind of four things that I think that teams, arenas and live event operators can learn from this, from my NASCAR experience. And part of this too also goes back to what we just discussed a couple of weeks ago with regards to Coachella and Stagecoach. Um, so, you know, how, how can you, what, what do you take away from, from a league like NASCAR or an event like Coachella or Stagecoach? I think the first one is that teams, arenas and, and live events need to stop treating sponsorship like it's a necessary evil. Okay. I think that fans understand the revenue realities. I think that sponsors can help enhance the experience. But though it's, it's how you do that, it is. The second thing, what I wanted that I jotted down here was that you need to create sponsor experiences, not just logo slap. Um, and again, whether that's NASCAR with the whole, you know, fan zone thing going on or that's Coachella with certain brands creating, you know, actionable, shareable, um, engagement experiences that your fans slash consumers will, you know, not only seek out, but they'll actively share within their social networks. So, you know, okay, so how do you do that? It's the interactive zones, it's sampling, it's um, photo moments that become social postings. It's the hospitality, it's the demonstrations. It's all that stuff that. And you can't get much further away from Coachella than NASCAR Nation, let me tell you. Okay, uh, those, those two, uh, your, your influencers at, at uh, two weekends of Coachella probably aren't co. Mingling a whole heck of a lot with, with uh, NASCAR Nation. But I think that the, the basics are the same in terms of how sponsors are integrated into the content, integrated into the experience in such a way that it feels very authentic that fans slash consumers will actually lean into it, share it and amplify it. Um, which these days, as we talked about a few weeks ago with Coachella, Yeah, you've got 125,000 people who are actually attending, but the impressions are in the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of impressions because of the way that the consumer fan is engaging with the content. Engaging, including sponsor content, um, and then amplifying that through their social posts and things like that. So I think lessons one and two are kind of linked together. First one is stop treating sponsorship like a necessary evil. And the second one is as part of not treating sponsorship like a necessary evil, create sponsor experiences, not just logos.

Nick Lawson: And I think that's, that's the fun flywheel. You can make an argument that the reason why there are such die hard, um, NASCAR fans is because that experience doesn't feel like it's, you know, the sponsor experience doesn't feel like it's interrupting race day, which makes race day even better. Right. And that's where, as you know, as we kind of think through this in a couple episodes, we dove in. It's almost like, hey, what are the results of us bringing the sponsor into the story, into the game day story? Not just doing logo slap, actually thinking through how as a fan really going to interact with this brand in a meaningful way, you actually increase probably the fandom, but definitely the experience that comes through and that's creates this flywheel to be able to not only obviously bring more value to your sponsors, but also bring more value to your game day, which then increases number of visitors, which then increases number of eyeballs, which then increases number of Sponsor dollars, all of those pieces. So love those two pieces of. I think NASCAR and racing, um, is the quintessential, hey, we do this a very specific way. Instead of just throwing up interruptions, uh, to the fan, we do it in a very specific way and it actually creates probably a more loyal and a better fan. Um, plus, I mean, look, I don't watch NASCAR regularly, but going to my first NASCAR race, I got into it because the experience was so unique and so different and, and to your point, Rich, it was very much not, you know, sponsorship in your face, interrupting you. It was, oh, wow, this sponsor sponsors this. That's a really cool way to do that. That's a really cool integration way to do that as well.

Rich: So the third lesson that I jotted down and this kind of again flows out of the first two. I think that you should be looking for ways that you can build traditions. Whether that's a pre game, pre event tradition or even an in game, uh, uh, tradition around sponsors. And that can be, for example, you know, there's, there's um, in game or in race features, there's signature fan moments, there's um, you know, certain traditions, like, like that pre race concert, uh, you know, the flyover, the national anthem, all that kind of stuff can become part of a sponsor owned moment, uh, before, during or even after your game or your event. So take that idea and say, okay, what's, what's a recurring fan ritual? Is there something at our game that the fan doesn't feel like they've really attended game until this happens? Whether that's, gentlemen, start your engines at a, at a race, whether that's a particular pump up song, um, that, that you play, you know, at, at the start of the fourth quarter or, or you know, in between periods at a hockey game. Something like that. What, what are the traditions that you already have? What are some things that you could possibly create that become part of the fan experience and become part of the fan ritual? And how can you very naturally and unobtrusively integrate the sponsor into that? I'm going to give you an example of, uh, something that we do with Coachella Valley Firebirds games. At every game, every home game during the third period, during the media timeout, it's usually the second media timeout, we do a fan sing along of John Denver's Take Me Home Country Roads. Okay. And the cool thing about it is the fans are singing along while the, the play resumes. They have to turn the music off, but the fans still sing.

Nick Lawson: Yep.

Rich: Okay. Um, so which is really, really cool because the fans are getting into it. To introduce that song. Our mascot, Fuego, has a big, oversized smartphone, a big, oversized iPhone. Okay? We took that and branded it with our telecom partner, which is Verizon. So it's now putting Verizon in a very, very. And we're not, you know, we're not necessarily blasting it out. Hey, it's time for the Verizon Take Me Home Country Road. Sing along. No, it's just that everybody is looking at the mascot. Everybody's looking at the mascot on the screen. He's got his huge, um, iPhone, and he's pretending to launch the song on his playlist, and there's Verizon right there on his phone. So there you go. We now have a. Every game tradition that's become part of an engaging fan ritual, and we have very naturally integrated Verizon into a piece of that where it makes sense. Okay? So I think that that's something that. That you can look at. It's got to be, um. It's got to be organic. It's got to be natural. It has to be a fit. But you probably have those at every single game, every single event, every single race. Find ways to not necessarily reinvent the wheel, but take stuff that you're already doing. And as part of that is my fourth lesson, My fourth takeaway is let the sponsors have some personality. I think that fans, if all it is is just a corporate sign up there, that's one thing. But I think that a lot of times in NASCAR and other events, lean into fun, lean into humor, become memorable. Don't just talk about putting the logo up there. It's like. I say, it's. It's like having this big, enormous, uh, iPhone branded with Verizon. You know, it's. It's a prop, but it's a prop that has a very fun, um, uh, payoff, if you will, in terms of what the fans are about to experience doing this. Sing along. So the fourth lesson. And again, it flows out of number three. Number three being build some traditions, uh, and features around your sponsors is let the sponsors have some. Some personality, have some fun with this, and become memorable, uh, and engaging along the way.

Nick Lawson: You know, the. The fun thing about all four of those is they're kind of the creative side of the partnership of saying, hey, how are we going to activate this? And not necessarily on the measurement side, which is obviously needed. We need to have some measurement. But I think to your point, Rich, the way you stand out is you find those traditions, you Let the sponsor have that personality that fits their brand, and then you have it be an authentic part of your game day. Um, you mix all of those. You then have kind of the magic, right? And the thing that's not interrupting. And then, of course, figure out how to make that flow authentically into a measurement, right? Whether it's, I mean, the measurement could just be walking into the stadium and seeing that moment, right, with Verizon and saying, look, Verizon's going to be top of mind because it's a very key moment, uh, for, for those fans. Um, but I think that's the fun thing is, is in partnerships, I feel like we've gotten a lot of just overall logo slap awareness and then we kind of shifted a little bit straight to transaction of just, hey, now I'm just going to do this enter to win sweepstakes that I'm giving away a jersey. And there's not, to your point, there's not a lot of that personality.

Rich: It's.

Nick Lawson: How can you, throughout the entire process, match those two, right, to be able to have that outcome where fans are really going to remember. And I think to your point, NASCAR does that very well. They've almost have that built into their culture. How can you then, as a team, pull that into your culture to say, hey, how should we activate this in a way that's going to be meaningful but also measurable and it's going to be a little bit different?

Rich: Well, I think, you know, uh, it kind of sort of head towards final thoughts here. I think that what NASCAR has proved and still proves is that sponsorship can still feel authentic, can still feel, uh, as, as part of the, the event, the game, the sport. And I think that fans can and will embrace the brands that genuinely, genuinely support their, their sport passion. It's got to be genuine, though. It's. It can't be loyal or, excuse me, it can't be fake, can't be disloyalty. It's, it's. It's got to be part of the energy and part of the atmosphere that you're, that you're integrating the sponsor brand into. Um, but you have to look at it from through the lens of is this, can there be sponsor integration that actually helps enhance the experience? It can't just be slapping a logo. Um, but is there a way that you can do this? So that. And part of the benefit here too, is that it will, if you're doing it in a very, um, integrated, authentic way, you don't have to add more, more logo positions. You don't have to over commercialize it. You can do more with less. You can take a well positioned, very authentic, um, very genuine sponsor integration into something that's going on and within your game or your event or your sport. And that's going to probably get you just as much if not more benefit result than if you've got 50 million logos slapped all over your, your arena.

Nick Lawson: Yep. And that's, I mean that, that's the. In the intriguing thing on partnerships that I have conversations with brands a lot and teams is you don't need to have presence pregame during game and post game. If you nail it in the media timeout of the second quarter. Right.

Rich: Yeah.

Nick Lawson: If you nail that, fans are going to remember and it's going to be engaging enough for them to hopefully go take an action. You don't need to have full presence at every moment. Right. Um, you can be very specific and intentional on how you're doing it. Um, to where you don't need that full coverage as well.

Rich: Yep. Bottom line, um, for me it was a great experience. Um, here was the interesting thing too. So I was at this race with my wife and my wife is not a hardcore auto fan by any means. She's not a race fan. She was doing this more as a favor to me, uh, than anything else. She told me afterwards. You know, that was really a lot of fun. That was really cool. Um, you know, along the way, um, you know she found herself rooting for certain drivers and certain cars. She liked the kind of the underdog, uh, uh, drivers. Uh, um. So you know, we were there, full disclosure, we were um, uh there as guests of 20 um, 311 racing, which is Michael Jordan and, and Denny Hamlin's race team. So you know we were, we were um, uh, checking out Bubba Wallace's car and some of the other cars and everything else. Funny that the, the car that my wife and the driver that keep, she kind of glommed onto was one of their team drivers who doesn't even drive full time. A ah, kid named Corey Hyen. And uh, he's uh, he's driving for uh, 2311 racing. He's kind of more of a development driver. Um, this kid's only I believe about 23 years old, something like that. So he's pretty young but he was doing pretty good. And, and my wife was like really rooting for him. So I think it just goes to show you, you know how um, you know how you can, you can take somebody that's maybe not a fan of the sport and still show them how much fun it is, how the sponsors integrate it into it, um, and do it in a way that's very genuine and honest and, and, and organic. She had a great time. I don't know that she's, you know, wanting to go back to, you know, another race next weekend kind of a thing. But, uh, we, we had a ball. I mean, and, and uh, the 2311 racing folks were very, very nice. We got to go in the garage, check, uh, out the hauler, and, uh, walk on the track and walk through the pits and all that. So we had a ball. But, uh, again, you know, it's part of the, the whole NASCAR experience as you're, as you're. And as I mentioned earlier, the level of fan accessibility that NASCAR gives is, Is off the charts in terms of letting you go places and see things and, and interact with, uh, with the drivers and with the cars and with the whole experience.

Nick Lawson: Well, and what. I'll. What. I'll wrap this up, but a shout out to all of our listeners. Go to a. Go to. I guess, go to a race. Right. I think a lot of racing culture is like this as well. Uh, I definitely know some of the Portland International Raceway races I've been to has a lot of this, but definitely go to a NASCAR race, um, make that trip and have that experience because I, you know, sometimes it's hard to. To quite describe, but then once you get there, you fully see this and see these pieces integrated in, um, so one, it's just great to get out into a new sport and, and as a sponsorship professional say, oh, this is how they do things. That's awesome.

Rich: And along those lines, I'm a big fan of. You know what? There's. There's a million sports that you can watch on. On streaming now. Uh, go. Go. It's like taking a different. Every once in a while. We've talked about taking a different route home from work. If you're driving home and you go a different route, you wind up in some industrial park someplace. And, you know, using that as a way to prospect sometimes if you're not into racing, watch a race or go to a race. If you're not into women's sports, go to a women's basketball game, go to a. Go to a track meet, go to, you know, go. Go check out different things or watch them on TV streaming. However it is that you do it, I think, I think that we can learn a lot by watching getting out of our comfort zone, seeing how other teams and other sports I'M a huge, huge believer when I look for, um, opportunities for my hockey partners and soon to be my basketball partners. There's great ideas coming out of baseball and football and soccer and auto racing and everything else. Um, so, yeah, part of it, to your point, is, you know, get out of your comfort zone a little bit. Check out some, some other sports and other teams and other leagues and, and keep your eyes open and say, hey, what can. What's my takeaway from this? What can I learn from it?

Nick Lawson: Yeah. And I'll say that especially if you're in what I'll call a sponsorship rut, if you're at a place where you're just like, man, I just cannot come up with some ideas. Turn on, uh, I mean, turn on. Professional cornhole. Watch that, you know, watch that NASCAR race, right? Like, turn these things on. It's a great way to kind of get the brain flowing, but there's nothing better than actually, if you can, if it's in your city or area, you're traveling somewhere where it's an area, go check out, right? Go check out that game, go check out that event. Go see how they're doing, sponsorship. It's going to help you get flowing those ideas. But, uh, you know, particularly toward nascar, if you haven't been to a NASCAR race, go check one out. I think you're going to really see all the things we're talking about here, and it's really going to kind of get some of these ideas flowing. And again, as you mentioned, Rich, it is. It is something that NASCAR has understood from my. Again, for my limited viewership on the sport, they have understood that from day one of, hey, we might not be the most watched, but we are going to have a core fan that's going to be insanely, insanely devoted. How do we create more of those? And that is something we definitely can carry over to kind of our teams

Rich: as we get this going. So, yeah, there you go. And the other thing is, if you're going to go to a NASCAR race, do yourself a favor, take some earplugs. It does get. I was, uh, in some sunscreen.

Nick Lawson: Sunscreen. I was. The NASCAR race I went to, um, we did some work with, um, uh, mrn, um, Motor Racing Network. And they told me to bring earplugs. And I said, hey, why would I bring earplugs? We're sitting in this box and then the roar comes. And I was like, oh, yeah, these. This is very, very, very loud. This is not anything that I expected.

Rich: One of my greatest Auto racing experiences. My son and I, oh, it's been about three years ago now. We went to the winter nationals at Pomona, uh, nhr, uh, drag, nhra drag races. And I mean, I knew it was going to be loud. What I didn't expect was how you feel that noise. Not just hear that noise. I mean we were, we were close to the start, finish or, excuse me, the start, uh, starting line. And um, the first time two Top Fuel dragsters took off, you felt it as much as you heard it. It was amazing. I mean, just uh, incredible. So, and I get it, you know, auto racing is not for everybody. But uh, yeah, do yourself a favor and check out a car race or, or, or some different, uh, some different sport that you're not used to and broaden your horizons a bit. Little. Little bit.

Nick Lawson: Yeah, no, uh, especially, especially the racing side. I will. I mean there's some, there's some sports where I'm like, yeah, you probably get that experience or understand that watching go to a track and see that experience. It will really, really push you towards. Oh, wow, they do it this way. This is, this seems like a lot of work, but I can see the results of it. Right. I can see how that's paying off

Rich: in the long run.

Nick Lawson: So, um, awesome. Well, really appreciate you diving into that, Rich. If anybody wants to get a hold of you with best way to do that.

Rich: Well, uh, if you're on LinkedIn, you can find me on LinkedIn as well. My name again is Rich Franklin, Vice President of Corporate Partnerships for the Oakview Group, Acrisure Arena, Coachella Valley Firebirds hockey team, and now Coachella Valley Lakers basketball team. So, uh, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or if you'd like to send me an email. My email address is rfranklin@oakviewgroup.com and I'm Nick Lawson.

Nick Lawson: You're probably seeing this on LinkedIn, so connect to me. Nick Lawson, CEO at Ah Squad. As always, we'll shoot this out to our listeners. Please send us your topics, your questions, your concerns, anything you're seeing in sponsorship. We love diving into those. Um, Rich, I actually have a topic that came up on a meeting, um, for, for next week, uh, which I think you're gonna have really, really good expertise on, um, just about building management when you don't own your own building, how to sell sponsorship in that. So a little bit of sneak, sneak peek towards next week. But send us your topics. Right, uh, send us your topics. We love diving into those. But thanks so much everybody for tuning in this week. And remember, keep pushing those limits within sports partnerships.