Despite eight-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup manufacturers titles, Chevrolet has to justify its’ racing program more than ever.
In a year where the reorganization of General Motors culminated in a new stock offering there was no room for marketing programs which didn’t produce. Throughout the GM bankruptcy Chevrolet continued to be involved with professional motorsports, but, it had to prove to the big bosses that there was some payback. Chevrolet executives proved that racing is good business for General Motors. Recently James “Jim” Campbell vice president of General Motors Performance Vehicles and Motorsports visited the Texas Motor Speedway and gave Auto123.com a glimpse of how Chevrolet uses NASCAR, among other motorsports, to make business sense. Rather than waiting for customers to walk in a dealer’s door, Chevrolet brought the shiny new wheels to the customers, not just for a look see, but also for a ride and drive as well as entertaining guests with appearance by top Sprint Cup drivers. “We did focus our resources; NASCAR was a key part of our focus,” Campbell told Auto123.com. “I am really pleased that we kept focused on that racing platform. We were able to drive exposure of our new products to fans and customers but also prospective customers. That’s important. “In many cases we had ride and drive activities preceding the race. Giving people a chance to drive (the new cars). We’ve been successful converting those interactions to sales. That’s why the platform is important to us. We stuck with it (motorsports) and it paid off.” Chevrolet also turned to social media to publicize its’ programs and that too was considered a success by Terry Dolan the Chevy Racing Manager. “One of the things that helps us with monitoring is the social media world. When you look at Facebook, which is a key outreach with a lot of posting activity and a pulse of fans: what’s on their minds and what they are thinking. It gives us a chance to interact with them in cool and untraditional ways,” Dolan told Auto123.com. As an example Dolan explained the company “built an ad with a lot of past Chevy drivers over the years as a fun way to allow the customers to engage.” The fans could elect to integrate their Facebook photo into the champions’ collage and be part of the ad. “Now they are playing an interactive role with our marketing. When they did that there was an electronic message sent to them from Jimmie Johnson thanking them for their participation and being part of team Chevy.” “The online world of marketing gives you new tools as a barometer to get read on how fans are connecting to on-track achievement,” he added. Thanks to new ways to measure returns on investment Chevrolet will be back in 2011. “What we found with motorsports - we are very productive in three areas improving the image of the brand, product interaction with customers and prospective customers and driving technology learnings - from racing to our products - wherever possible. “Clearly we look at things at what is the size of the audience that attends and watch TV Racing will continue to be a priority at Chevrolet. It was in 2010 and will be in 2011.” General Motors Racing Activity in Canada in 2011: Cadillac CTSV Coupe SCCA in Toronto July 9 Corvette ALMS Mosport July 24 th Grand-Am Montreal August 20th NASCAR Nationwide Series August 21rst
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |