Meat&Poultry - August 2012 - 26

NASCAR

thanks in large part to the growing role of social media. Unlike the Smithfield-NASCAR campaign in the early 2000s, social networking, including Facebook and Twitter, is delivering an unprecedented amount of exposure in the 2012 season. “The social media piece takes everything we’re doing and brings it to a new level,” Gitkin says. For Smithfield, that also includes a grassroots campaign and a series of in-store communications related to the racing partnership. The arrangement is a marketing bull’s eye, Gitkin says. “If you look at the demographics of NASCAR fans and the demographics of our target consumers who buy Eckrich Smoked Sausage and who buy deli meat, there is a very nice overlap,” he says. “These are the same people; the same parts of the country; the same income; the same hobbies and habits.” Cargill Beef’s marketing department agrees. “The beef user demographic and NASCAR fan demographic match up,” says Fred Sousa, assistant vice president of Cargill Beef Marketing. “Most NASCAR fans are 30-49 year olds, and according to our research, 41 percent of NASCAR fans are medium- to heavy- beef eaters.” Another statistic that bodes well for sponsors is that 71 percent of NASCAR fans say they will buy products from the sponsors of their favorite

cars. “Fans are always asking, ‘Where can I buy your beef?’” Shaw says. Communicating with these fans using social media is a huge part of Cargill’s current marketing efforts. Three days prior to the Nationwide Series race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina in May, the company solicited “best burger” recipes from consumers via social media. More than 350 recipes were sent in, which were then narrowed down to the top four. Prior to the race, the president of Darlington Raceway, Miss Sprint Cup (who boasts thousands of followers on Twitter) and a NASCAR radio personality cooked the top burger recipes at the track and then voted on a champion, all while tweeting about the event and promoting it on Facebook. Stenhouse and the No. 6 Mustang took sixth place at Darlington Raceway, and the winning burger recipe is now the signature burger at the track.
Source: Scarborough Research (USA+ Release 1, 2011)

Citing spikes in corn prices and oil costs, Jim Schloss, then vice president of sales and marketing with Smithfield Foods, said at the time: “We have to cut out a number of programs and NASCAR is one of those.” “The difference this time around is that we are really [focusing] on each market where we are having the races,” Gitkin says. For Eckrich, there are three races (the fi rst two were at Kentucky Speedway followed by the Brickyard 500 in Indianapolis – the fi nal race will be at Michigan Motor Speedway) that are the focal points of that brand’s NASCAR campaign.

Revved up
Smithfield’s last NASCAR sponsorship was winding down when Morrell’s Gitkin fi rst joined the company, about four years ago. In the fall of 2008, market conditions and the general state of the economy put the brakes on a four-year sponsorship of Team Rensi Motorsports’ No. 25 car.

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