“A letter to FOX Sports…”
Dear FOX Sports,
STOP TRYING TO MAKE “Daytona Day” A THING! IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
Sincerely,
Tucker White
*Reading a book*…*Looks at the audience* What?
Okay, I have more to say.
FOX Sports brought their “Daytona Day” ad campaign back this year to promote the 59th running of the Daytona 500. It’s as cheesy and silly as you’d expect and tries to give off an atmosphere of a party environment for NASCAR’s biggest race. You can find it on YouTube at “Happy #DaytonaDay! | The Daytona 500 on FOX” if you wish to check it out ( and if you missed it during the Super Bowl).
Here’s the problem FOX. You’re giving off the wrong mood.
A party atmosphere works if you’ve just finished a particularly hard 40-hour week at the office and need a few drinks. The type of people “Daytona Day” appeals to might tune into the Daytona 500 for a “party event,” although it’s worth noting that last year’s race was down 14 percent in ratings and 15 percent in viewership compared to 2015 despite this ad campaign (Sports Media Watch), but it won’t draw them in long term. Doing so is vital for the long-term sustainability of a sport that’s been on a downhill slide in television ratings and at track attendance for a decade now.
The way FOX should go is making every race, especially the Daytona 500, feel like a truly epic event. What I mean by that is an ad campaign that makes the hair raise off your skin and sends shivers down your spine.
The music for it shouldn’t be corny. It should be performed by an orchestra and sung by a choir.
The song should also be high energy, such as “Dies Irae” and “O Fortuna.”
And the best part is that all these classical songs are public domain. You don’t have to clear it with anyone over copyright for usage.
FOX, if you wish to have your own song for the occasion, that would also work. It should be something along the lines of one of the classical songs I listed or another high energy song, such as “Duel of the Fates.”
Or how about tap into the creative well that is YouTube. There are a number of YouTubers who make NASCAR related videos either for fun or as their living. Some of them make promos for races that are on par, or sometimes better than what FOX and NBC are producing.
You don’t believe me? Then check out this video by a user named Balto Racing.
I mean this with 100 percent sincerity when I say that this promo Balto made for the 2014 Daytona 500 is hands down the best NASCAR promo I’ve ever seen. Everything from the music and visuals just screams NASCAR with this.
Now as someone who consumes other forms of mass media when I’m not covering NASCAR, I know marketing is not an exact science and what I’m talking about is subjective. Everybody has their own likes and dislikes.
But the way we counteract that is doing the equivalent of “making your character interesting and identifiable,” and not trying to be “hip” and “KEWL!” In other words, the promos should make NASCAR races seem epic and larger than life, not the latest fad.
BOTTOM LINE: FOX, you’re going about promoting the biggest race in NASCAR wrong, but it’s an easy problem to solve.
