Atlanta Motor Speedway turns to agency to boost attendance

By Michael Smith - Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

Thursday, July 17, 2008

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Atlanta Motor Speedway has retained Blue Sky Agency, an Atlanta-based advertising firm, to launch a brand campaign to increase attendance.

Many tracks that host NASCAR Sprint Cup races have reported flat or declining attendance the past few years, and AMS has seen a double-figure drop across all of its events in the past three to four years, according to Ed Clark, the speedway’s president. Those tracks don’t release specific attendance numbers.

The decline is usually blamed on the expense of gas because NASCAR depends on fans to travel long distances, many in gas-guzzling RVs and campers. Part of the new marketing plan likely will involve shrinking the radius around Atlanta to which AMS markets, Clark said.

AMS is the site for two Sprint Cup events, as well as NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Nationwide Series events in March and October.

This likely will be the last season Atlanta’s fall race will be in October.

Clark said the track has been working with NASCAR to move into the Labor Day weekend slot previously occupied by Auto Club Speedway, which would move to a date later in the season. The schedule realignment wouldn’t take effect until 2009 at the earliest.

“Our target goals are to increase attendance and increase revenue, which pretty much go together,” Clark said. “But we also want to build our brand as we’re promoting the next race. In a city with a lot of major events, how do we stay visible when there’s not a race in town? How do we keep our brand out there?”

Agency relationships are not new among speedways. AMS previously worked with the Tombras Group, (of Knoxville, Tenn.), which also represents Bristol Motor Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and other tracks owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc., Clark said.

Rival International Speedway Corp. tracks have maintained agency relationships, as well. Daytona used Taylor for its 50th running of the Daytona 500 campaign. Several others work with New York-based Deutsch for ad buying and planning.

But by going with Blue Sky, an agency that did not previously count any speedways among its clients, Clark hopes that his speedway’s new messaging will stem the tide of sagging attendance at the track of about 102,000 permanent seats. Blue Sky was hired by the Atlanta Braves for similar reasons and put together a brand campaign that’s credited for reversing a seven-year ticket sales decline.

“We’ve recognized that the speedway doesn’t have the reputation that it deserves,” said Rob Farinella, Blue Sky’s founder and president.

The new messaging likely will come through traditional advertising means, such as radio, TV, print, direct mail and outdoor, and possibly some nontraditional means. Blue Sky plans to do a fan intercept and tracking study as well as an e-mail survey to current and past ticket buyers.

The study will be similar to the proprietary audience segmentation model Blue Sky created for the Braves in 2005. Attendance has increased each year since. The segmentation model breaks down fans into groups of avid, casual, families, entertainment seekers and corporate.

Blue Sky considers itself more of a full-service ad agency than a sports marketing shop, but it counts the Atlanta Thrashers, Hawks and Braves as clients. Those successes in town had AMS curious.

“What we’ve recognized is that the track is fast, it’s one of the drivers’ favorites, but those things have been underleveraged,” Farinella said. “So we’re looking at how it’s positioned, how it’s presented, and creating a personality for it.”

Michael Smith is a reporter with SportsBusiness Journal.