ANN ARBOR, MI, March 18, 2011 — Jeff Gordon, who earlier this season snapped a 66-race winless streak, has generated more on-screen time for his sponsors during television coverage of the first three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events than any other driver, while overall team sponsor exposure fell 25% compared to the same point in the season a year ago.
According to research conducted by Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc. — which has monitored every NASCAR race telecast over the last 27 seasons — Gordon’s sponsors have appeared for one hour, 50 minutes, 16 seconds (1:50:16) during live and replayed telecasts of the Daytona, Phoenix and Las Vegas events. When also factoring in verbal mentions of Gordon’s sponsors, the veteran driver has helped amass nearly $7.6 million of in-broadcast exposure value. Las Vegas winner Carl Edwards ranks second in brand on-camera time with 1:47:28, along with a driver-high 34 sponsor mentions, for a three-race total of $7.1 million.
Joyce Julius calculates television exposure value by comparing the in-broadcast visual and verbal exposure to the estimated cost of a national commercial during the telecast and applying Joyce Julius Recognition Grading — which takes into account such factors as size and placement of the image on screen, as well as brand clutter and integration of the brand into the activity.
While Gordon and Edwards have enjoyed early season success, overall in-broadcast exposure statistics for primary team sponsors in the series are down from a year ago. On average, per hour cumulative exposure time accumulated by team sponsors fell from 1:05:43 at the same point a year ago to 49:06 this season.
“This is a very small sample set, and the second race was held at a different track this year, so these results could swing over the next few races,” said Eric Wright, vice president of research and product development for Joyce Julius & Associates. “But we are also seeing a 47% decline in average verbal mentions for the team sponsors and a 22% decrease in hood exposure. These are two leading indicators and they are down right now.”
Driver Sponsor Exp. Verbal RG Exp. Driver Interview Driver
Time Mentions Value Interviews Durations Mentions
1) J. Gordon 1:50:16 18 $7,557,330 4 0:05:35 453
2) C. Edwards 1:47:28 34 7,065,910 7 0:08:01 362
3) T. Stewart 1:41:25 8 5,330,390 2 0:00:42 436
4) Ky. Busch 1:38:31 22 9,095,375 5 0:05:40 409
5) D. Earnhardt Jr. 1:23:06 0 9,634,060 2 0:01:56 290
6) T. Bayne 1:16:42 14 9,259,655 6 0:06:06 259
7) J. Montoya 1:11:53 8 3,679,550 2 0:01:16 183
8) J. Johnson 1:11:06 6 4,053,770 2 0:01:41 185
About Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc.:
Joyce Julius & Associates, Inc. is the sports and entertainment industry leader in accurate measurement and evaluation of sponsorships and promotional programs. Joyce Julius’ fully customizable, third party research is highlighted by in-broadcast television exposure monitoring, full media measurements, and fan/consumer perception analyses.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based firm has been measuring the impact of corporate sponsorships across all forms of media since 1985. These forms of media include national and regional event television broadcasts, television highlight and news programming, event radio, print media, Internet articles, along with exposure stemming from promotions and advertising, as well as event on-site elements.
