Camping World executive happy with Truck sponsorship
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers compete at Michigan International Speedway earlier this month.
// David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
LOUDON, N.H. – Camping World is happy with its first year of sponsorship of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the company’s director of motorsports said Friday.
“We definitely are [happy with it],” said Camping World’s Kurt Hunt prior to the Camping World East Series race Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “The vital signs are good there. The TV numbers, at a time when the numbers [of other series] aren’t as strong as people would like them to be, are strong there. The truck count is strong and we’re seeing first-time winners.”
On reports that his company wants to get out of the series sponsorship, Hunt said they “certainly are untrue.”
Camping World hasn’t necessarily had the presence that former sponsor Craftsman had at the track and Camping World representatives have not been out front and center at many events. Hunt said there will be a major promotion soon that will be announced for the late summer and fall.
“Everybody activates differently,” Hunt said. “You activate through what’s going to really drive your business. I don’t think you activate based on other people’s expectations of how you go about it.
“Media is very big for us. Speed is an incredible partner to these series and an incredible friend to this sport. We chose to do a lot of our activation through Speed, through SIRIUS radio, through ESPN radio. What you see on the ground right now is not what other people do, but that’s something that we’ll inevitably grow into.”
Camping World also is sponsoring the Nationwide Series race today at New Hampshire.
“One of the things that probably helped fuel some rumors was the fact that we were getting away from sponsoring on-track with individual teams and drivers,” said Hunt, whose team ended its sponsorship of Kevin Harvick Inc. when it assumed the truck series entitlement. “That’s a tremendous duplication and an unnecessary duplication. We’re not as out there. There were races where sometimes we had two or three cars in the same race.
“You go from being way exposed on an on-track sense to changing your program to being a series sponsor and … it’s really just a change in philosophy for us.”
Hunt said the company has not done a detailed return on investment analysis of its Truck sponsorship yet.
“It’s early to do an accounting,” Hunt said. “It’s everything we thought it would be. … It takes some time to grow into it and understand what it is your role should be.”
Hunt said that the recreational vehicle business, especially the rental and service business, has picked up lately.
“We’re seeing some pretty good signs here,” he said. “The winter was a long winter. It always is for businesses that have seasonality to them. … People who own RVs are using them. They’re not letting them sit.”
