The Mojo Sports team and our client Spot (
http://www.findmespot.com/) spent the past weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS). Spot was the primary sponsor for the Robby Gordon Motorsports team and Robby's #7 Toyota Camry.
Our weekend was dedicated to working with Robby and his team drive awareness for Spot. Spot has a great product whose target market nicely fits with the demographics of the NASCAR fan. Robby clearly sees the larger opportunity with Spot, and is very interested in seeing the product succeed. Robby was personally very involved in helping shape the Bristol opportunity for Spot and took an active role in making sure we received all the proper attention and "assets" necessary for a longer term marketing program.
The challenge for Mojo and Spot was the very short runway we had to prepare our activation programs (less than a week!). Whenever we're faced with limited time and/or resources, we narrow our focus and make sure we do a few things really well. This weekend was no exception, and we decided to focus our efforts in a few key areas -- PR, online activities, social networking, and a few well placed ads. Spot has a small but effective marketing team, and we're able to partner with them and their advertising and PR agencies in quickly developing an integrated and focused plan.
One of the appealing things about Robby is his fan base and appeal across a variety of motorsports segments. He's not only a good NASCAR driver, but an excellent off road driver and the current leader in the SCORE Desert Racing Series (SCORE produces the infamous Baja 500 and Baja 1000 races among others. Check out http://www.score-international.com/). Robby has a very cool fan site called PlanetRobby(http://www.planetrobby.com/), and we were able to work with them and RobbyGordon.com (http://www.robbygordon.com/) to leverage our social media activities including Twitter, Facebook, various blogs and other tools.
The proliferation and adoption of social networking is really changing the landscape for how companies and brands communicate, and this weekend was a proof point for how social networking can really help create and drive impressions, awareness and familiarity.
So in addition to being Twittering fools all weekend long, on Saturday night we took one of Robby's golf carts out into the campground surrounding the Speedway. It was CRAZY. RV's, camp fires, mechanical bulls, and line dancing under a disco ball over a gravel dance floor greeted us as we made our journey through the land of the NASCAR fan. If any of you have been to a NASCAR race, you know how passionate and committed the NASCAR fans are -- and let me tell you, the fans at Bristol are some of the best.
We woke up early Sunday morning and made our way to BMS, hoping to arrive before the other 160,000 folks. We had a full day of activities ahead of us -- meeting with the owners of the track (SMI), attending an autograph session with Robby at his merchandise hauler, going to the driver's meeting where Tom Colby was introduced as one of the VIPs, then heading down to the start/finish line for driver introductions, national anthem and "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"
Robby had a good race and finished in the top half of the sheet. Although I know he wants to improve, being a single car team owner and driver is tough sledding in NASCAR and Robby should be proud of his results. We're proud of our association with Robby Gordon and Spot, and look forward to more cool and successful activation programs.
That's all for now. Back at ya later.
Mojo
For Robby Gordon and his #7 Jim Beam Toyotoa team, it was a chance to get his brand new car dialed in while entertaining some important sponsors and their guests. It's safe to say that Robby's car isn't perfect, and while he'd like to be higher on sheets from both practices, the rounds served their purpose as the team was able to make a number of adjustments and changes to the car. Even though Robby doesn't run the Nationwide race, it was all business for him and his team as they continued talking car set up and race strategy. Although I think Robby would like a few more laps in the car before the race, he's ready to go.
Jim Beam does a good job entertaining guests at Texas Motor Speedway. They have the touring RV pulled up behind a private grandstand area between turns 3 and 4, and have some great food, drinks and music going for their VIP race fans. The view from the Jim Beam Party Deck is hard to beat, and will make for a great spot to watch Robby and his competition on Sunday.
Last night Robby took some of his team to the Dallas Stars game at the American Airlines center in Dallas. Robby booked a suite for his team to relax and unwind after a hard day's work at the track. You've really got to admire Robby for looking after his crew so well. It's good to see a team leader, owner, driver, whoever, making sure that his team stay in good spirits and motivation.
It's super windy and a bit cool this morning in Dallas. It'll be interesting to see how the teams fare if these conditions hold through the day. I'll be tweeting (you can follow me on Twitter @mojomorris) from the track and will post some videos and pics later today or tomorrow of the day's events.
