NASCAR
INPUT FROM THE NASCAR FAN COUNCIL CREATES SHIFT IN COMPANY CULTURE
The Challenge:
The company wanted a better and quicker way to listen and quantify avid fan base opinions to allow them to improve the NASCAR fan experience.
The Solution:
Develop a private online community to connect with avid NASCAR fans to collect their feedback on how to improve the NASCAR experience.
The Result:
NASCAR leveraged respondent engagement that not only helped brand value and the bottom line but also gave fans a voice; which empowered important changes to the sport itself.
Looking at heading back to the basics
Due to their brand being built on 60 years of history, NASCAR racing has the propensity to draw large crowds. But that doesn’t mean they can rest on their legacy laurels. Filling the stands and consistently bringing in the viewers, especially during times of economic downturn, can be a challenge. After seeing a drop in their attendance and TV ratings after a decade of growth, NASCAR turned to a relatively new strategy – getting back to the basics of the sport and creating a private online community to engage and connect to their core fans.
“We know that our best customers are what drive the metrics of this sport,” says Brian Moyer, Managing Director of Market and Media Research for NASCAR. “Television viewership, licensed product sales, attending a race – all of those things are driven by people that are connected to our sport, they are our ambassadors. We’re getting back to basics; back to the core fan and making sure their NASCAR needs and wants have been satisfied.”
To NASCAR, satisfaction equates to their best customers having a voice; seeing that their feedback is valued and, more importantly, has an impact. Leveraging the power of a private online community has made an incredibly positive impact to their bottom line. Since its creation in 2008, the NASCAR Fan Council has helped NASCAR conduct three times the research at a cost reduction of 80 percent.
In-depth market research may be new this decade for NASCAR but it’s packing a powerful punch
In recent years, Moyer says he and his team were looking for the “next big thing in market research” that would not only engage their consumer but also generate business results. A lofty goal since market and media research was a relatively new department this decade at NASCAR.
They didn’t need to create another community as they had communities and social networking on NASCAR.com and other related websites. What they did need was help in building a forum for their avid fans; which is when they turned to Vision Critical.
“The turnkey product and infrastructure from Vision Critical was exactly what we were looking for,” says Moyer. “We didn’t need to create another community; we needed to create a listening soundboard and do more traditional research.”
In 2008, NASCAR partnered with Vision Critical to create the NASCAR Fan Council – a private online community of 12,000 passionate NASCAR fans. On average, NASCAR engages members at least twice a month on specific topics related to all industry stakeholders [sponsors, race teams, tracks, etc]. But what sets the NASCAR Fan Council on the road to success, says Moyer, is the ability to connect individually with the participants.
We want to listen and incorporate feedback to make our fans feel included.
For Moyer and his team, the key to reaping the rewards of the NASCAR Fan Council is all in how they engage their core fans and keep participation fun. In one of their questionnaires, members are asked to name their favorite driver so when their driver wins a race, they’re sent a congratulatory email. That’s just one way NASCAR personalizes their experience with the NASCAR Fan Council. All members receive a downloadable certificate at the year-end to thank them for their participation and input.
Moyer explains, “the one thing we always do – and it’s the first question in every questionnaire for our members – is ask what’s on their mind, when it comes to NASCAR.” After members of the NASCAR Fan Council have had an opportunity to address whatever’s top of mind, they get to give their opinions on questions that influence everything from the on-track competition to business to marketing decisions. Giving fans a voice requires no additional incentive; the fans feel honored and take pride in being a part of this advisory board, which has led to extremely high response rates for most studies.
As a solution for sniffing out trends and minimizing knee-jerk responses to small samples, says Moyer, “We agreed with Vision Critical to limit our panel size at 12,000 participants.” And it’s paid off. Moyer says while the limited supply has increased demand, they never want to turn people away and, as a result, have created a wait list which is growing daily. “We actually see people blogging about the NASCAR Fan Council. They want to become a part of it.” NASCAR’s waitlist is a way to say, “We care about you and appreciate your interest”
Listening to fans and quantifying their feedback leads the evolution of NASCAR
NASCAR introduced the NASCAR Fan Council in 2008. In 2009, NASCAR’s ability to listen to and connect with its fans resulted in two important changes to the sport itself.
When fan sentiment ran high for a new restart format – in which the leaders line up side-by-side following cautions to restart the race – NASCAR picked up the Fan Council’s comments, validated them and initiated a new double-file restart rule, to overwhelmingly positive reviews.
NASCAR scored more points with fans when they listened and responded to requests for earlier and more uniform start times for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events. “In the past, we had a lot of growth over the years where we were pretty invincible,” Moyer explains. “But the game has changed in terms of where we are as a sport and we need to make sure that we are not doing things our fans will be unhappy about.”
Hey, who’s going to pay for this research?
Rarely do you hear “the business unit doesn’t have to worry about cost,” but, according to Moyer, the NASCAR Fan Council’s reliability and validity has “improved the research team to business unit relationship, which in the past would be caught up on cost and often interfered with what we wanted to learn.” Moyer adds, “The NASCAR Fan Council is extending outside of the NASCAR business and into the NASCAR industry as a whole. Listening to fans has become a key talking point within the industry.”
Overall, the NASCAR Fan Council has provided a bevy of payoffs: a significant increase in key learnings; improvements to the on-track product/rules; a major reduction in research costs; and faster turnaround times for avid fan feedback. “It really has created a shift in company culture as it relates to consumer research,” states Moyer. Not only have these benefits paid off for the company and its relationship with fans, but it has also won NASCAR and Vision Critical the prestigious Forrester Groundswell Award for listening to consumers and generating business results using social media.
Click here to read more about NASCAR, Vision Critical and the Forrester Groundswell Award.
