Good news for Jeff Gordon fans; bad news for those of you who don't care for all the sponsor mentions in NASCAR. The marketing firm of Joyce Julius & Associates found that Gordon has put his sponsors onscreen more than any other driver over the first few weeks, but that overall sponsor mentions and exposure have dropped by a surprising 25 percent since this time a year ago.
Gordon's sponsors have appeared onscreen for one hour, 50 minutes and 16 seconds during the first three races, and when including Gordon's verbal mentions, he's generated almost $7.6 million in value for those sponsors. Second is Carl Edwards at 1:47:28; he's generated $7.1 million.
Overall, though, sponsor mentions are down, though it's possible that since we're dealing with a small sample size, that will even out over time. As Joyce Julius noted, verbal mentions are down 47 percent and hood exposure is down 22 percent. One possible cause: the shortened postrace shows. Postrace coverage has fallen to less than ten minutes in recent weeks, and that doesn't give drivers much time to mention how much their FedEx/Lowe's/Home Depot Ford/Chevy/Dodge ran this week.
Some other stats: among the top 10 drivers in exposure, Edwards has made the most sponsor mentions with 34; Kyle Busch is second with 22 and nobody else is out of the teens. Edwards also leads the pack with seven interviews; Trevor Bayne is second at six. Gordon has garnered 453 mentions, with Tony Stewart second at 436.
So what does this mean to you, the viewer? Well, if this trend continues, look for drivers to talk even more about their sponsors in interviews. Heck, they might even start naming their kids after their sponsors. Oh, wait, we're already there.
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