Admit it, you like watching a good face punching. We all do. Monster Energy thinks we like it as much as we like NASCAR.
Monster is the new entitlement sponsor of NASCAR’s premier racing series, now known as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, and it’s bringing its own brand of entertainment to the races beginning this year. That includes the possibility of freestyle motocross, gymkhana, off-road demos, and yes, even mixed martial arts fights in the pre-race show.
“We built our brand on doing things people think are cool,” says Mitch Covington, Monster Energy’s vice president of sports marketing. “That won’t change here.” Americans, evidently, think caged combat is as cool as a three-car-wide, 200-mph territorial dispute. And because Monster brings with it MMA athletes such as Conor McGregor and Dominick Cruz—respected face pummelers, both—there’s likely to be action of all sorts at NASCAR events this year. It’s a match that could only be made in, well, America. God bless us.
Mitch Covington
A rear-naked choke or arm bar are far cries from prior title sponsors’ sideshows, which once included longtime sponsor R.J. Reynolds handing out cigarettes (relax, they checked IDs). NASCAR can use the boost. With both event attendance and TV ratings down in recent years, NASCAR, on some level, is searching for a new identity. “For us this is about giving NASCAR customers a lifestyle experience, not selling a product,” says Covington. Monster plans to capitalize on the sponsorship with display rigs at events that transform into fan-friendly entertainment facilities for hosting attendees, Monster’s sponsored athletes, and, of course, the Monster girls.
NASCAR, for its part, admits that a change won’t hurt. “This is a bit of a throwback to NASCAR’s maverick outlaw roots. It’s not vanilla,” says Steve Phelps, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief global sales and marketing officer. “Monster has been given permission to be edgy and disruptive.”
Though Phelps insists that the Monster partnership will help NASCAR serve all its fans, appealing to a younger audience can’t be a bad thing. “There’s a perception out there that we’re just old and white,” says Phelps. He points out that the spectator base is more diverse than many think, but that it’s not enough. “We attract more millennials and Hispanics by a factor of five or six than Major League Soccer,” he says. The search for a new sponsor spanned 18 months and involved more than 200 worldwide companies before NASCAR settled on Monster. According to Phelps: “There are brands that would have paid us more, but they lacked the right fit.”
Money, Money, Money, Money
Neither Monster Energy nor NASCAR will reveal the terms of their new deal except to say that it is a multiyear commitment. William Chipps, a senior content editor at IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago-based analytics firm that tracks corporate sponsorships, estimates the deal to be worth $20 million annually plus an activation commitment (spent on pre-race shows, athletes, etc.). Monster will retain its twofold sponsorship of the Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Fusion driven by Kurt Busch, contributing both to the team and the driver. Estimates put that sponsorship at $15 million to $20 million annually, making the cost to support a single car and driver through the season comparable to the cost of branding the entire series.
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