Ask.com has the answer for Bobby Labonte, Hall of Fame sponsorship search
Getting a sponsor new to the sport to commit during these economic times can be a tough sell, but Internet search engine Ask.com has decided to see if NASCAR can help its business.
Ask.com has signed on as the “official search engine of NASCAR” as well as the primary sponsor of the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing entry driven by Bobby Labonte.
“When everybody else hunkers down, we want to be stepping it up,” Ask.com Chief Executive Officer Jim Safka said. “It makes us much more visible, being one of the very few companies that is putting new money into the sport.
“I think the fans will notice that and appreciate that.”
Ask.com will sponsor the Labonte car in 18 of the first 21 races and the option for a total of 29 races during the season. The company is looking to increase its market share against rivals Google, Yahoo, etc.
“We love the choice of Bobby Labonte because our search engine has got to be associated with speed, and we needed somebody who has got a chance to win in any given race,” Safka said. “He’s a former champion and has a large, established fan base.”
Safka and other Ask.com executives visited the NASCAR finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway last year. He said the company was looking for a platform for a national campaign, and it will activate at the track and will spend money on television advertising.
“It became very clear that NASCAR is an extraordinary opportunity to connect with an audience,” Safka said. “I began thinking of it like a marketing distribution channel. I just can’t think of any other distribution channel as big as NASCAR.
“People are very emotionally connected to the sport. It’s such a lifestyle that my feeling became that if we could get into the sport and do it properly and do it with real authenticity, we’d have a good chance of winning over some of the fans to try our product.”
Because NASCAR has a deep history and a plethora of race statistics, Safka hopes that NASCAR fans will use the portal to find answers to NASCAR trivia.
“NASCAR is our primary marketing platform for 2009,” Safka said. “After looking at everything, we chose NASCAR. … As we looked at this sport, we really fell in love with it. We didn’t go in expecting for that to happen. We’re really going to embrace it in an authentic way.”
