SPORTS WRAP Daytona 500 Stays In The ‘Green,’ Drives Sponsorships

Last week, Nielsen looked at the history of Daytona 500 viewership. And with the 2009 Daytona 500 in the rearview mirror, it’s clear that the some of those trends are still on track.

 

Greenville, SC and Greensboro, NC maintained their spots as the top DMAs for this year’s race, scoring 21.2 and 19.9 ratings, respectively. Dayton, OH surged to the #3 spot with an 18.0 rating.

 2009 DAYTONA 500: TOP-10 LOCAL DMA RATINGS

RANK	DMA	HH RATING	# OF HOUSEHOLDS (000s)
1	Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville	21.2	182
2	Greensboro	19.9	136
3	Dayton	18.0	87
4	Indianapolis	17.2	192
5	Knoxville	17.0	93
6	Charlotte	15.6	175
7	Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn	15.4	226
8	Nashville	15.3	155
9	Tampa-St. Pete, Sarasota	15.3	278
10	Jacksonville	15.1	102
source: The Nielsen Company 2009

At its peak (5:48pm ET), the race scored a 10.5 HH rating, with 18.1 million viewers tuning in. According to Repucom International, which provides exclusive integration of Nielsen data in measuring brand exposure in sports telecasts, those 18.1 million viewers were exposed to the following brands within the next 30 seconds: AAA, Red Bull, Red Bull Cola, Toyota, Sprint, Sunoco, 3M, Fedex, Goodyear, Taco Bell, EA Sports, Dodge, and Chevrolet.

 

As a sport tied so directly to sponsorships and the struggling auto industry, NASCAR offered a steady dose of positive exposure for American car companies. According to Repucom, Chevrolet and Ford had the most brand exposures during FOX’s telecast, combining for 419 exposures and a total of almost 30 minutes. AT&T had the third-most exposure time at almost 14 minutes. More extraordinary, those 14 minutes were an accumulation of just 36 exposures – meaning AT&T enjoyed an impressive average of 23 seconds per exposure.

2009 DAYTONA 500: TOP-10 BRAND EXPOSURES

RANK	BRAND	EXPOSURES	DURATION (seconds)
1	Chevrolet	288	909
2	Ford	131	864
3	AT&T	36	827
4	Aflac	116	811
5	UPS	40	752
6	AMP Energy Drink	109	723
7	Sprint	56	699
8	Toyota	101	648
9	Budweiser	64	610
10	DeWalt	114	504
source: Repucom International 2009