MMA clothing brand TapouT unveiled its sponsored race car at NASCAR’s Nationwide Series on Saturday. The TapouT Chevrolet placed 12th in its first ever race.
Via MMA Junkie:
In February, MMA clothing manufacturer TapouT announced it was branching out from its core audience with a multi-year partnership with racing team Kevin Harvick Inc.
“I expect NASCAR and MMA fans to be in a bit of shock – in a good way,” TapouT exec Tim “Skyskrape” Katz stated in the original announcement. “TapouT has never ventured outside of MMA like this, but seeing how the fans love both sports, I think they will be the real winners here.
Payout Perspective:
An interesting partnership considering the TapouT merger last year as well as the sponsors choice to diversify with sponsorship in another sport. Similar to MMA, NASCAR has shown the potential for long-term growth. It would be interesting to see the research performed in deciding this sponsorship. Based on TapouT’s investment in NASCAR, it tells us that MMA fans are big into NASCAR as well.
Nascar has had a pretty serious decline in interest so they are probably able to get in a lot cheaper than they could a few years ago. I really don’t get the strategy here unless they make TapouT NASCAR shirts. If so this could back fire if MMA fans see the product as being to main stream.
Of course if they can get some footage of their car on “Inside NASCAR” spots and convince SHO to run those Inside NASCAR spots during Strikeforce events they would be able to advertise during Strikeforce events with out Dana having a hissy fit.
As an avid NASCAR fan here are the points I would make note of.
First off they partnered with a great group. Kevin Harvick Incorporated is a quality team. They have cars capable of consistently running up front and that means getting TV time. Plus that #2 TapouT car is being driven by Elliott Sadler who is a good driver.
Another way to get TV time is to be popular and Kevin Harvick is a popular guy and so is Elliot Sadler. Also Kevin Harvick and Elliot Sadler are great giving interviews and there is already buzz around Elliot Sadler being in this ride. Because Elliot has been racing in the top NASCAR Sprint Cup series for years now but for the last few years found himself on teams that didn’t have good cars and he had virtually no shot of running up front. So instead of taking another poor ride in NASCAR’s top series that wouldn’t give him a shot at winning he opted to take a ride with Kevin Harvick’s team in NASCAR’s Nationwide series. Which is just one step down. Last year Elliot won a race in a Kevin Harvick owned truck in NASCAR’s truck series. So bottom line is TapouT is on a car with a good driver with a good story that will be up front contending for wins.
Another important point is that Kevin Harvick is an MMA fan. Kevin Harvick has awareness of what the TapouT brand was about before this partnership was formed. As a point of interest and showing the connection here is a YouTube video from July 3, 2010 and on that night Kevin Harvick won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AAzvm-zm14
This video is of him as soon as he gets out of the car and is giving the victory interview. He congratulates Brock Lesnar on kicking ass that night as well. Which means he was having his guys keep him updated on the radio who won the fight while he was driving.
Forgot one last thing.
In my opinion this is a great move by TapouT. NASCAR sponsorships can be a very cost effective way of advertising. Especially when your talking about a car that will consistently be running up front and getting TV time.
Also NASCAR viewers support the companies that support NASCAR and they definitely support the sponsors of their favorite teams and drivers. As an example going to a race means buying a few T-shirts of their favorite drivers. This weekend the race at Las Vegas was a sell-out of 150,000 fans. That means a lot of T-shirts are being sold at these events every week. Where better for a T-shirt company like TapouT to be sponsoring and getting brand recognition.
Good post Matt. I think this was a great move. Nascar fans and MMA fans are the most loyal fans in sports.They live and breath the brands of their sport, fighters/driver. Nascar has been on top for a while in consumer loyalty. Also it wouldnt be a bad idea for Tapout to try to get into the Nascar shirt Market. They have the distribution and the connection so there is no reason not to take a look at it. Just like Affliction has their MMA fighter line, they also have lines from boxers and rock stars. Maybe we do see a Nascar line with the modern feel that Tapout has used in MMA. I could see a “BurnOut” line in stores giving Tapout a foothold in two major sports.
No synergy here – marketing mistake even bigger brand mistake. PS Brain Smasher – “BurnOut” line…remember you are marketing here and that word doesn’t exactly mesh with the TapouT philosophy – really close to BurntOut!
What exactly is the Tapout philosophy? I have never seen any moral high ground from Tapout. After all they use half naked girls to model the shirts, used profanity on their site and sale Tapout condoms. I doubt they are going to be worried about someone misunderstanding a shirt that says BurnOut with a race car drive on it. Anyways i was just using that name as an example of them going into Nascar and doing the exact same model as they have in MMA. Both sports are comprised of fan bases that are struggling to get mainstream attention. The hardcore fan base of both sports buy every thing related to that sport in order to support it. I dont see much of a cross over appeal from each sport. So i think Tapout would have to dabble in the Nascar apparel to make the most of the partnership. From my experience, living in Nascar country, West Virginia, most racing fans are not into MMA or even know what it is. Toughman contest and WWE is a different story. But expecting this to further their MMA sales is setting themselves up for a let down. Given this is a sponsorship over a few years rather than a press release announcing a licensing deal with Nascar to create apparel. I wouldnt expect much more than a name on a racecar. Which is not the best idea.
MMA fans please understand this, NASCAR fans are the most loyal fans in sports. I personally like MMA and have already bought some Elliott Sadler TapouT stuff but you need to realize that this is the best business move the TapouT could possibly make. People who are Kevin Harvick fans, Kevin Harvick Inc fans, and Elliott Sadler fans will buy TapouT products no matter what because they support their drivers/ sponsors. I have never been to a race and not bought at least 2 or 3 shirts no matter whether it is a truck/nationwide/or sprint cup series race. This investment by TapouT will be the best decision they ever made