NASCAR: Five Things To Like About Race Format Changes
By Mike Hutton
A New Sponsor For A New Era = A New Format
If nothing else, this announcement clearly validates that Monster Energy is calling the shots, as any title sponsor should expect to be able to do.  It was inevitable given the demographics of the company’s target customer — someone who is younger, one who isn’t as brand loyal as legacy fans are and one who is as much a fan of the X-Games as they are traditional stick-and-ball sports.
The sport needs to attract new fans.  New fans are younger fans.  The industry hopes to capture them so that they become tomorrow’s legacy fans.  To do that, you need to give them something to identify with, and Monster does that.  It is a product these millennials consume and I’m sure the folks at Monster have plenty of marketing data that supports the investment they’re making.  The R.J. Reynolds tobacco company did the very same thing years ago and look at what branding did in that instance.
Let’s hope that Monster Energy captures the opportunity available to them and markets NASCAR in convenience stores, at other sporting events in which they’re involved and through other cross-promotions.  It’s as much about selling NASCAR as it is an energy drink.