The No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford roars through the UPS Global Headquarters, sits through an elevator ride then rips past the cubicles in an office building before sliding into an executive’s office.
“Welcome to UPS, David,” he says as David Ragan climbs from the car.
In that 30-second spot, UPS transitioned to a new driver. Fans who had laughed at years of attempts to get NASCAR champion Dale Jarrett to drive the delivery truck, and then cried when he finally did as he moved into retirement, were introduced to their younger, though less established driver.
Like everything UPS has done in NASCAR, it was a well-planned and orchestrated transition – one that the company has used to its advantage in not-so-obvious ways.
For fans, UPS is the company blazoned on the side of that No. 6 car, the one sponsoring Ragan since 2009. It’s also an official NASCAR sponsor. And works with several tracks. It’s a perfect blend of opportunity for the company, one that has helped it stay in NASCAR for 11 years and in which the company continues to find significant value.
As a team sponsor, the company dedicates manpower and resources to trackside hospitality events, a way to recognize employees and reward customers. Through Ragan, it is also a way into the growing world of social media with a 23-year-old already versed in that movement.
As the official express delivery company of NASCAR, UPS has exclusive rights to provide pick-up and delivery services for all the race teams with the garage areas at every race – and a leg up on other similar companies that might choose to foray into Cup sponsorship. It also has a prime chance to develop business-to-business relationships with other NASCAR sponsors, an area that has been picking up momentum among the sport’s backers in recent years.
Both of those areas are merely enhanced by the partnerships with various tracks on the circuit.
The company works hard to utilize all areas of the sponsorship to develop further relationships with its customers, both private and corporate. That strategy seems to be paying dividends for UPS. The company is celebrating its 11th year as an official sponsor and 10th with a team.
For UPS’ officials, sponsoring NASCAR just works. And using various types of sponsorship makes even more sense.
UPS works, as an organization, to make the most of every opportunity and every aspect of the sport. All arms of the company work in conjunction to make sure that the appropriate groups are aware of the event and prepared to utilize it.
“The way we kind of look at it – you could look at it (and) just do hospitality or just do the team relationship or just be an official partner – for us, you have to kind of look at how UPS’ business runs to know why we are involved at all levels,” says Doug Gibeaut, director of sponsorships, UPS. “It’s easy to sort of spot the official partnership piece of it with NASCAR because that allows us to both demonstrate our service through trackside services every week as well as pursue those business-to-business opportunities, so that helps us cover kind of that grouping of objectives. Then you come down to the team level, one of the things that’s really valuable about the team aspect for us is it’s not just that we’re pushing awareness of the UPS brand through the team association ... but what the team relationship allows us to do is use those racing assets to essentially drive messaging to our employees and to our customers.
“David, or Dale before him, was the brand ambassador, but they weren’t just representing racing, they were also talking about UPS to our community, to our employees, to our customers and having that kind of third party at their level with their stature address these groups, interact with them and talk about UPS and their affiliation with our company has been viewed nothing but positively.”
It also helps with the employees recognition side of the business. With approximately 408,000 employees, the company can use trackside hospitality to recognize employee achievements and goals.
Obviously, though, this is about business. UPS dedicates millions to its racing program annually. Clearly, there needs to be a benefit to it. The key to that comes not just in fan recognition and inroads in that area, but also in the business-to-business aspect of the relationship.
First, UPS – by virtue of customers who have account numbers – can get real numbers on how its many programs are working. Second, it has gained considerable ground by leveraging the business to business opportunities the sport offers. So while close to half of the company’s program is aimed at hospitality events, the overall working of UPS helps the group take advantage of all areas.
The benefits are measurable for the group. According to a pair of corporate studies, 69 percent of fans are aware of the company’s official status; 36 percent of middle-market shippers would use the company as a result of its sponsorship in NASCAR.
And then there’s that all-important business-to-business aspect of the sport – an aspect UPS has been utilizing well for years.
“I guess it’s primarily our business model,” Gibeaut said. “When we started in the sport, the official partnership in 2000, we were doing business with about 40 percent of the official partners and now we’re doing business with more than 90 percent of them and that’s obviously no accident ... For us, it has to do with our business model …
“From the very beginning, it’s been key to this program to actually entertain customers and court new ones through both the hospitality and the (business-to-business) play.”
Roush Fenway racing President Geoff Smith sees a lot of value in potential business-to-business relationships for sponsor companies like UPS.
“In NASCAR overall, there are between 600 and 800 sponsors that make up the universe of track, team and NASCAR sponsors in their three big touring series, so there’s a significant aggregate corporate market in the sport,” he says.
Along the way, UPS has also had a little fun with the advertising campaigns and has found a formula for success – with both a tried-and-true veteran and an up-and-coming driver.
Showing its versatility, UPS has found a way to let Ragan lead it into yet another area in a new way. Ragan has essentially launched the company’s social media landscape.
Once more, UPS found a way to use its program to enter new avenues – and to show the value of its NASCAR sponsorship. For the company, sponsorship within the sport has proven to be a way to continue to evolve and develop what it offers its customers year to year. And the corporation’s approach to social media matches all its other NASCAR initiatives – have a plan and do something for a reason, not just to be doing it.
“We knew (David) was actively involved with social media, we knew that was a space we wanted to get into but we wanted to do it, not just for the sake of doing it, but in a meaningful way that had an impact,” said Mark Dickens, UPS public relations manager. “... (On the UPS racing site) David has a video blog post there every week and we are actively engaged in Twitter and have gained a pretty sizeable following there because that’s the kind of access that racing fans really want and it provides a degree of intimacy with their favorite drivers that they’re not necessarily going to get from, say, a traditional media source or even attending a race. So we thought that would be a really nice way to build David’s brand, to build UPS’ involvement in social media …
“I think the strategy behind it was to do it in a meaningful way and not to do it just to do it.”
Smith agrees, saying that Ragan has proven to be valuable in more than his racing role as he adapts to a sponsor accustomed to a veteran driver.
“David is just an incredible representative,” he says. “He’s well spoken and he’s a very social communicator. People feel at ease, they like him, so he’s got kudos for the work he’s done with customers. He’s just willing to do anything and everything to make those relationships.”
