NHRA News: NHRA's relationship with POWERade continues to blossom (7/27/2004)

NHRA's relationship with POWERade continues to blossom

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
7/27/2004

"The NHRA has delivered for us and we want to continue to deliver for the NHRA."
– Ben Reiling

Now in its third year as title sponsor of NHRA Championship Drag Racing, Coca-Cola's POWERade brand continues to reach new heights in the marketplace, a rise Coca-Cola officials, like Ben Reiling, Senior Manager of Sports Marketing for Coca-Cola North America, attribute directly to the company's involvement in the sport of drag racing.

Reiling took a few minutes to sit down with NHRA.com's Rob Geiger and discuss the current position of the POWERade brand, Coca-Cola's ever-growing relationship with NHRA, the many positives surrounding their involvement in the sport, their ongoing efforts to help cultivate race team sponsorships and bring drag racing to a wider audience, and some exciting new developments that are on the horizon.

Why are you so positive about NHRA drag racing?
Reiling: It's impossible not to be. Everything we decided initially of why we wanted to get involved with the NHRA has been on the positive side. First and foremost is the NHRA as an entity. We're seeing it growing every year, one of the few sports to do so, and it's all showing up in the various polls conducted over the past two years. The NHRA has proven to be a great group to work with on a daily basis. They have always fulfilled our needs here at the Coca-Cola Company.

NHRA fan Taylor Rogerson, 12, enjoys the POWERade Experience.
Racers Edge Photography

As a company, we've gotten better at executing our plans for each market and each racetrack. We continue to get better at our overall relationship with the fan base out here. A direct result of that is we're seeing ticket sales increase across the board at almost every event. There's a real excitement about our sport and we're seeing the fans want to become more and more interactive. It's exactly what we were looking for when we started this deal.

The NHRA has delivered for us and we want to continue to deliver for the NHRA. We both want to see those steady, incremental gains year after year.

What are some of the key elements to success?
Reiling: The relationship with ESPN, which we think is very good, is vital. The quality of the broadcasts and how the sport comes across on TV is something we're all constantly working on because that's how we'll grow the quickest. I don't know if we'll ever truly relay the raw horsepower and adrenaline and excitement of a POWERade Drag Racing Series event through a TV set. But we do think that if we present the sport as a whole in a credible and professional manner and let people get to know our stars through our own marketing platforms we're setting up as well as what the NHRA and ESPN continue to do, it will help us all reach our objectives.

What marketing platforms are working best for POWERade?
Reiling: We started our champions program this year where we highlight Larry Dixon, Tony Pedregon, Greg Anderson, and Geno Scali in many of our marketing and promotional avenues. Now we're expanding that to each national event's champions. We think there are great stories to tell each race. I look at the female racers we have out here, the various ethnicities, the very base of every day drivers in this sport is vastly superior to any other form of motorsports, or sports in general for that matter. To me, that sort of stuff is exciting and we need to spread the word and truly differentiate our sport from others.

The other key ingredient for us is giving the POWERade brand scale, scope, and credibility in what is still a very tough marketplace. Because of this relationship with the NHRA, the POWERade brand has experienced two solid years of growth. We also have a big relationship with [NBA star] LeBron James and several other entities. As the brand recognition grows across the board it can only help our drag racing program gain credibility. We want to take the NHRA brand into as many homes and environments as possible. We feel like we're building a future fan base not only for our brand, but for the POWERade Drag Racing Series.

What is your assessment of the first two and a half years?
Reiling: I can tell you that we've seen solid, double-digit growth in all 20 markets year after year. We see it with retailers, our bottlers, school districts, and consumers. We're seeing so many of them get excited and wanting to do something with the property. Then we always follow up to see how it went for them and that's where you can see the growth. We have what we call the hurdle where you want to do better than you did the previous year in each of the following years. We saw it from 2002 to 2003, and we're seeing it again from 2003 to 2004.

The sport is definitely heading in the right direction and we have the numbers to prove it.

What's the next big hurdle you'd like to clear?

The POWERade brand is omnipresent.
Racers Edge Photography

Reiling: The next step as the title sponsor of the series that we would like to see is having more sponsors come into the sport. We had a wonderful article about the potential growth of NHRA drag racing and the value sponsors receive in the sport awhile back in Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal that has really generated a lot of interest. The more non-traditional sponsors we see coming in, the happier we'll be because I truly think that's a huge barometer of the direction of the property as a whole.

The sponsors we have out here are fantastic and I know they wouldn't mind sharing the stage with some new sponsors because it would ultimately put their products in more households and in front of new consumers. Growth helps all of us.

How does Coca-Cola and POWERade help in this area?
Reiling: Not to be arrogant, but I think there's a certain cachet to the Coca-Cola name and even to the POWERade name to some degree. We've let [NHRA president] Tom Compton and [Vice President of Marketing and Sales] Gary Darcy know we'll happily meet with any potential sponsor and let them know how positive our experiences have been with the NHRA. The efficiency, the return on investment, the willingness the NHRA has shown in every area to meet our needs, the accessibility of the stars in the sport, all these things are way beyond what we normally encounter and potential sponsors need to know that.

Every moment I have to tout this sport to anyone from a fan to a corporate executive, I take it very seriously and I hope I shape their minds into thinking this is something special for us and there's no reason at all to think it wouldn't be the same for them.

How does POWERade's sponsorship benefit NHRA fans?
Reiling: Our role with the fans as series sponsor is to deliver an exceptional entertainment experience. The first thing we need to ensure is that there is great, safe, competitive racing. Next, we need to make sure the total race day experience is good. We work with the tracks and the operators to ensure that parking, ticketing, food and beverage, signage, restrooms, seating, and accessibility to our stars is on par with what fans should rightfully expect for their money.

POWERade's "Very Real Power" machine brings select fans closer to the action then ever before.
Racers Edge Photography

Our POWERade Experience area has been working for over a year now and has been very well received. Fans can win prizes, get their pictures taken in real driver uniforms with a real Wally trophy, there are trivia games, and autograph sessions. It's been a great deal so far that has really generated some additional excitement.

Our VRP [Very Real Power] machine that carries four winners to the starting line and to the top end has been a great success. It's one of our biggest hits. I'd love to have 20 of them running non-stop all weekend but we have to respect the competitors and give them the space they need to do what they do. But these things have all opened new areas of interest for fans.

And we hear something else is in the works.
Reiling: We're very close to unveiling the POWERade Fan Nationals Funny Car simulator. Two fans will sit in Funny Car simulators, tune their cars for a certain track and certain conditions, react to the Christmas Tree, and race down the strip. There will be smoke and noise and even a little scent of nitro in the cockpit that will really make this the most realistic experience a fan can have. The cars might run a world record number if they're tuned right, or smoke the tires and turn sideways. Even the fans outside watching will see these things moving and shaking. It's quite a deal.

The POWERade Fan Nationals Funny Car simulator will have qualifying kiosks where fans will try to earn a spot in the field. Then they'll move on up to the simulators and race a regular field of fellow fans. By the end of each race, we'll have four Pro winners and now a fifth Fan Nationals winner. It's an unprecedented deal.

We won't stop here. We are constantly looking for new ways to bring this sport to the world and to make our current fans come away from every race saying they can't wait for the next national event in their area. Our growth plan is aggressive and we have no plans to slow down.

2004 News Archive
Return to the Home Page