Nascar parks Daytona 500 ads online before the race

Nascar, the second-highest rating sport on television, is breaking marketing, and cookie, moulds.

by Helen Leggatt

To build stronger loyalty amongst already fiercely loyal fans and sponsors, Nascar will run all its marketers’ ads online on the morning of the Daytona 500 on Nascar.com. Airing ads online isn’t anything unusual for big sporting events, but they are usually placed online by the network afterwards or marketers’ place them on their own websites prior to the big day.

"We figured there is a lot of traffic on the morning of the race," said Andrew Giangola, Nascar'sdirector of business communications. "Our sponsors pushed for it. They see it as value-added. Viewers can download commercials."

Race day advertisers, including Toyota, Coca-Cola, Office Depot and Gillette, are estimated to be paying around half a million dollars for a 30-second commercial.

The ad spots will also be put on Nascar.com owner Turner Broadcasting’s website, www.veryfunnyads.com, where last year’s ads were placed after the race.

In another sporting first for both Nascar and Kraft, a special cookie will be made with the number 16, for driver Greg Biffle, imprinted onto its Oreos.