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Marketing Sherpa - December 14, 2006
Mall Networks Helps NASCAR Rev Up Loyalty Program
During September and October 2005, NASCAR used a plethora of special offers to build a list of 900,000 members for their new RacePoints rewards program. Before this point, the stockcar racing league had never - ever - kept a customer database.
But NASCAR couldn't afford to rest on their laurels - they had to add value to the program for their customers (to avoid indifference) and the company (think cash flow). "It has been critical for us to develop many different ways for fans to earn points, and not just one or two ways," says Thorp Foster, President NASCAR RacePoints.
Foster and his team have forged a handful of partnerships over the last year designed to add value with five key goals:
- To diversify the RacePoints online shopping environment to give rewards enthusiasts as many angles to accrue points as possible.
- To use affinity tactics such as a RacePoints credit card to encourage a deeper sense of community among the program's participants.
- To reach out offline to extend awareness.
- To open a significant extra revenue source by providing leads from the program to other retailers.
- To show sponsors the value they can attain from RacePoints.
Partnership #1 Creating the RacePoints online mall
Foster collaborated with Mall Networks CEO David Andre last winter in a partnership that would create the RacePoints online mall. The mall offers members the ability to earn points by purchasing from 300 brand-name retailers.
Points can be earned only through the mall. In other words, a RacePoints member cannot take his or her account into the retailer's proprietary site and earn points. Registered members can normally earn anywhere from one to four points per dollar spent and can redeem them via the RacePoints Web site or by calling a toll-free number.
Because of their pre-existing relationships with the retailers, Andre and his team took care of the back-end setup for the mall. Meanwhile, Foster and his staff managed the creative elements of the Web design in order to best suit the NASCAR brand.
When the mall was finished, two dozen product categories (from Apparel to Travel) were set up on the left-hand margin of the RacePoints mall. In addition, six highlighted retailers appear in the center of the page and a handful of other featured advertisers are set off to the left.
The leads generated at the site are funneled into the Mall Networks system, kicking back a commission to NASCAR for every sales conversion they drive. "People are starting to understand that the intersection of community and commerce really is about loyalty," Andre says. "If you are loyal to a community and you add shopping to that, the loyalty should [spill over]."
It took Foster and Andre only five weeks to get the RacePoints mall up and rolling. Foster says NASCAR is exceedingly happy with the commissions generated and the upward trajectory of their members base.
"RacePoints became a far-more robust and experiential loyalty program," he says. "And while we are not making the increases in RacePoints membership a public number, the growth has been significant."
Partnership #2 Credit cards, signup tents
Before the racing season began, NASCAR agreed with Bank of America to expand an existing cobranded credit card deal to include the RacePoints program, letting members purchase and rack up points. Previously, members could only use Web site accounts to build points.
To spread the word of the added value, the companies ran 10 to 12 events tents/stands at the Nextel Cup's 36 races, which are attended by 100,000 fans each. Bank of America has a long history of handling events marketing setup, so they ran the brunt of the logistics behind the campaign. Sign-up workers informed the race patrons about the benefits of the credit card and the RacePoints program.
The upgraded Bank of America relationship gave NASCAR card users a significantly higher number of options. They went from being offered around 20 gift certificate capabilities to more than 500 race-related rewards.
Partnership #3 Pizza boxes
To reach their broad fan demographic, NASCAR penned an agreement with 19 Fortune 1000 sponsors - with one of the most prominent deals being Domino's.
To promote RacePoints, 20 million pizza boxes included a flier announcing the opportunity to receive 100 RacePoints for orders over $20. Customers were required to mail in a proof-of-purchase receipt form to pick up the points. "The box top is more of a combination of an awareness and direct response marketing mechanism," Foster says.
The promotion was advertised at the RacePoints mall site and in Domino's TV commercials. At least two other of the 19 sponsors, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and DirecTV, also incorporated RacePoints into their TV ads. "We run the RacePoints platform and create the currency, and our official sponsors decide exactly how they want to use the currency as promotional incentive," Foster says.
The Domino's relationship will continue into next season due to the payoff that NASCAR has seen with the boxtop program. Sponsors are seeing a growing response over their controlled groups in test campaigns.
"RacePoints is helping these sponsors improve their return on investment in NASCAR," he says. "We've been able to convince sponsors of the value and efficacy of the program. We've been getting on their marketing calendars."
Note: David Andre spoke at November’s ad:tech in New York. For more information about future shows, visit www.ad-tech.com
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