Even people who are not fans of auto racing have flipped on the TV at some point and gotten a glimpse of a stock-car race — and probably noticed a Valvoline or Kendall logo whizzing past. If you happen to catch a race today, you might just as easily see a McDonald's or Burger King logo on the hoods or doors of those cars circling the track. You would also see record numbers of fans filling the stands — wearing hats, jackets or sweatshirts emblazoned not only with the name and team number of a race-car driver but also with the name of the restaurant company sponsoring that driver.

Each year, NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) — the sanctioning body in the sport of stock-car racing, equivalent to the NFL in football or the NBA in basketball — holds the Winston Cup series. The Brickyard 400, for example, is the annual Winston Cup race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; the Daytona 500 is another event on the Winston Cup schedule. In addition, NASCAR oversees racing in the Northeast and the Eastern United States and in the West.

The seven restaurants that sponsored cars in the NASCAR Winston Cup series in 1995 earned nearly $25 million in free television exposure to a reported 91 million fans in return for their seven-figure investments. The participating companies — Burger King Corporation; Hardee's Food Systems, Inc.; Hooters of America; Little Caesars Enterprises Inc.; McDonald's; The Olive Garden; and Taco Bell, Inc. — may have hit on a promotional "vehicle" other restaurant companies should investigate.

And the crowd goes wild

Major business stories in Forbes, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Business Week have focused on the phenomenal success of the NASCAR Winston Cup and pointed out the reasons companies choose to sponsor racing teams. The primary reasons, according to these articles, are marketing "basics": psychographics (the sport's popularity and excitement), demographics and the impressive loyalty of the fans to the sponsors.

More than 150 million Americans are car-racing fans and attend major races, watch races on television and support their favorite drivers at local tracks. Sponsors of stock-car racing believe that if you put a race car down in an empty field, it will probably draw a crowd. That has certainly proved to be true for McDonald's. According to David Paro, McDonald's director of U.S. sports alliances, between 850 and 2,500 people may show up when the McDonald's show car and driver Bill Elliott put in an appearance.

That is reason enough for McDonald's to have three show cars on tour (one with an added video-game simulator), a show car for Ford and two for Reese's (Bill Elliott's associate sponsor). And while the cars' schedule is managed by outside vendors who charge approximately $1,200 for an appearance, McDonald's helps subsidize show-car promotions for McDonald's operators, who are charged just $750 for a day's event.

Hooters, based in Atlanta, has 192 locations around the world and "keeps a show car on the road all the time," according to national marketing director Mike McNeil, who also says the company measures incremental sales week to week as the result of appearances and has found that sales increase during an appearance.

Measuring how often a brand's colors or logos appear during televised races is the responsibility of Joyce Julius & Associates, creator of The Sponsors Report. Each week the Report tabulates the television visibility each sponsor receives at a race. The company analyzes the "clear, in-focus time" a logo is on screen and counts the number of mentions, then compares that exposure to the cost of purchased advertising time on the specific broadcast.

According to the Report's Eric Wright, the seven Winston Cup teams sponsored by restaurant chains — out of more than 35 teams — received the following equivalent TV advertising value in 1995: McDonald's, $14.894 million; Hardee's, $2.8 million; Burger King, $2.688 million; Little Caesars, $2.238 million; Hooters, $1.376 million; Olive Garden, $810,000; and Taco Bell, $164,000-for a total of $24.89 million.

Revving up brand loyalty

The fact that hundreds of thousands of fans congregate at each race, that millions follow the racing action on television and that so much free air time was earned last season isn't what gets the chain marketing types so excited. The biggest draw for restaurant chains who get into Winston Cup racing is the phenomenal brand loyalty fans show to the companies that sponsor the teams.

Performance Research of Newport, Rhode Island, reports that, according to a syndicated 1994 study called "Race Stat," 70 percent of all NASCAR fans say they consciously support racing sponsors. When given a choice, they choose a sponsor's products over a nonsponsor's 65 percent of the time.

Stock-car sponsorship is a proven call to action. Ardy Arani of Championship Group in Atlanta explains in a Forbes cover story, "When you see Joe Montana holding a candy bar, you know he's been paid to do a commercial. [But] when you see Bill Elliott [in his car with the golden arches on the hood], you know McDonald's has paid for him to race. So you better go to McDonald's, or Elliott might not race."

Every single chain spokesperson comments on the fan loyalty to sponsoring brands. Calling it "a perfect marriage," Bill Bittorf, manager of USA marketing for Burger King, says "The return in terms of brand loyalty is significantly higher than the investment."

That intense loyalty usually delivers straight to the bottom line. Burger King compares same-store sales for the previous year to measure the increases a show-car appearance or driver autograph session produces. Little Caesars compares sales for the same time year on year and week to week.

McDonald's also tracks the sales results in local-store markets (LSMs). "[Our team driver] Bill Elliott packs the place," says Paro. "One franchisee in Phoenix did a fabulous job in promoting the show car and driver appearance. He got 2,000 customers and a boost in sales."

Fans aren't just good ol' boys

As Business Week put it, the fans who follow the sport and congregate for promotions are "not jes' good ol' boys" — 40 percent are women, 46 percent hold college degrees and just as many households report income of more than $75,000 as under $15,000. The sport of stock-car racing boasts exactly the demographics family restaurants seek: 64 percent are married, 54 percent are aged 25 to 44, and 43 percent live in households with incomes of more than $40,000.

"The demographics for Winston Cup are so close to ours, people think you made it up," says Kim Miller, spokeswoman for Burger King. In fact, Burger King decided to sponsor driver Joe Nemechek and his team because the franchisees in the Southeast saw how closely matched their customer base was to that of NASCAR's draw.

The personality and values of the drivers are critical to the success of the team from the marketing and promotional standpoint. Both McDonald's and Burger King cherish the family values of drivers Elliott and Nemechek. Says McDonald's: "After three years as an official sponsor of NASCAR, we found that the drivers are what the fans cheer — they're the focal point of their passion for the sport."

When the company's research suggested moving away from the three-driver McDonald's All Star Race Team to focus on one driver, the perfect choice seemed to be Bill Elliott, whom fans had gotten to know as one of the All Stars. "His popularity and past success as a winner were important," Paro says. "He has a tremendous fan base; he exudes family values. He represents all that McDonald's stands for." Don't wait for the flag to drop Finding a team to sponsor is not always a matter of researching the teams to find the best fit. Sometimes you just have to respond quickly when an opportunity presents itself.

Mike McNeil tells the story of how Hooters took advantage of just such an opportunity when the fastest car to qualify for the Winston Cup race in Atlanta in March 1991 was entered unsponsored. "A light bulb went off in [Hooters owner] Bob Brooks' head, and he said, 'I have 30 or 40 stores I could promote here.' So for $25,000 for the one race, we put the Hooters logo on Alan Kulwicki's car. It just so happened that ABC picked up on the story and showed us applying the decals right before the race, and then there was a 17-lap caution period, and the cameras followed the Hooters car going around and around the track. We ended up with several hundreds of thousands of dollars of free TV exposure from the one race — and we were hooked."

Full-throttle promoting

Whether the sponsor is a big or little guy, all of the teams capitalize on merchandise sales — hats, shirts, jackets, model cars. "They're a big sales opportunity," says Hooters' McNeil. Burger King offers NASCAR premiums for sale at restaurants. McDonald's gets a percentage of all the Bill Elliott memorabilia sold at the tracks and elsewhere, which is an undoubtedly substantial sum, given that seven-time Winston Cup Champion Dale Earnhardt made more than $25 million from sales of his merchandise in 1995 and fans voted Bill Elliott "Most Popular Winston Cup Driver" 11 out of the past 13 years, surpassing Richard Petty as the all-time most popular driver.

Hooters' Len Gough says, "We plan on building merchandising and promotional strategies around this team to drive sales. We want our customers to see the Hooters car, meet Rick Mast [the company's new driver] and watch the races at Hooters."

All of the companies that sponsor Winston Cup teams also use the connection for internal marketing and morale building. "We emphasize the similarities between putting a successful race team on the track and delivering exceptional sales and service," says Burger King's Bittorf. "It generates excitement when Joe Nemechek talks about his view of the sport at our restaurant-manager meetings."

When Bill Elliott makes an appearance for McDonald's, he usually arrives 15 minutes early so he can sign autographs and shake hands with the unit's staff members. "We had him come in for the McDonald's convention, and we did a day at the races for the 3,000 employees at the home office," reports Paro. "He's part of the McDonald's family."

When the team does well, the impact is felt throughout the organization. "When John Andretti was leading the race at Daytona, my phone was ringing off the hook with excited franchisees," says Tim Burke, who handles sports marketing for Little Caesars.

There's even some friendly rivalry. Burger King announced its 1996 sponsorship with the press-release comment, "We look forward to beating McDonald's to the finish line."

But whether their drivers come in first or 14th, it seems this is one promotional race that none of the stock-car sponsors can lose.

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