Leading a Marketing Transformation in a Time of Crisis, Essay Example

Digital Rights and Social Media: Two ways NASCAR can resolve these problems and make a recommendation on the preferred outcome: NASCAR’s top priority is In its digital rights and social media presence. In the present marketing and advertising climate, social media and online presence is vital to the success of a brand, especially in sports. Since NASCAR sold its digital rights to Turner Sports, they were not able to successfully engage with their fanbase through social media and online platforms. As explained int the article, NASCAR sold their digital rights back in 2000, when digital meant something completely different than what it means today. In order to resolve these problems, NASCAR can negotiate to have ownership of digital rights. NASCAR can also hire research teams and marketing teams to discover methods to engage online within the realms of their contract with Turner Sports.

Summary:

• NASCAR’s owner, John France embarked on a complete marketing transformation in 2011 because attendance had fallen by 22% and TV viewership had fallen by 30%
• Marketing sponsors were leaving the sport
• US economic concerns were originally cited as the issue, however by 2011, the market had picked up yet NASCAR was still losing viewers
• France wanted a widespread, fundamental change in the entire industry
• France hired a marketing firm to research the weak and strong points of the industry and found that customers had disengaged
• Project EVOLVE (the marketing research on the communication audit) took a deeper look into the issues
• Project EVOLVE found four key areas in which the industry was severely lacking:

1. Internet marketing and social networking
2. Improving the customer experience on race days
3. Improving the star power of its drivers
4. Considering the “Next-generation” fan