When people think of NASCAR, there’s a high chance their first thought is a beloved cult classic movie focused on Talladega. Working together with Old Spice and Wonder Bread, we brought to life the cult racing classic, in real life. For one iconic race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, our Stewart-Haas Racing brand, two race cars, two racers, and all SHR-owned assets transformed into the beloved favorites from the movie. We knew race fans and the general public connect back with something that brings joy, laughter, and a certain nostalgia.
For us, this program was about making a big splash, flexing our creative muscles, and connecting with NASCAR fans. Our core objectives were to:
Chase Briscoe (driver of the No. 14 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing) is a huge fan of the classic racing movie and brought the idea to SHR’s Chief Commercial Officer. Internally, a plan was mapped out on what a program could look like, and we started outreach to see if we could get all the necessary parties involved. The initial idea was brought up in March 2023, but it took months to get everyone on board and map out a plan. All parties agreed, and it was off to the races. Chase Briscoe would drive the No. 14 Old Spice Ford Mustang and Ryan Preece would race the No. 41 Wonder Bread Ford Mustang.
One of the key pieces to executing this was our driver talent. Both Ryan and Chase have fun-loving personalities that really helped bring the whole idea to life and did the program justice by playing along with the content and spoofs.
After our drivers were on board, we mapped out a comprehensive content plan from a hero video announcement to a paint scheme unveil and more. For us, moments like this are not a one-and-done. Our team won race week by mapping out an entire organic social plan to surround and support the activation.
We were lucky in the fact that Old Spice and Wonder trusted our team to create a content strategy that would resonate with fans versus creating with a very narrow focus or putting us in a box. We aligned with the two brands on the theme and the tone we wanted to evoke, and that was our filter for everything. Having their trust allowed our team to push the envelope, have some fun, and create an engaging program that ultimately drew impressions and engagements for the two brands.
Here’s a look at a few of the key pieces:
ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO
While bringing to life a film about a NASCAR driver and team, it became a matter of integrating our SHR brand into the fan favorites. We knew we had to nail the unveil. The announcement piece is most likely going to be the top-performing no matter how good everything is to follow, so it’s important to get it right and set the foundation for the story. Luckily, the film shows a car unveil, so we mocked it up shot-for-shot and adjusted the script to fit our program.
COMMERCIAL SPOOFS
Another parody piece from the movie was reading silly and exaggerated commercial lines about team sponsors. We wrote our own script and recreated a scene similar to the one in the film. This allowed us to shine a light on our corporate partnerships in a way that was memorable. NASCAR on NBC aired our commercial spoof video on the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying broadcast.
Photography, graphics, and additional photography supported the program and kept fans incredibly interested leading into the race weekend. At the track, our race team and our drivers got into character for the perfect social content.
This is our best-performing social media program, earning the following numbers with our organic social plan (numbers provided by Zoomph):
And while our social numbers were incredible, the proof of the strength of the program was how much it transcended society. Our content earned additional exposure on large earned media outlets such as NASCAR.com, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, and BroBible. NASCAR on NBC leaned into the program all week into the weekend with their social posts and even aired our commercial spoof video on the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying broadcast.
At SHR, we believe in owning moments, which means anytime we have an opportunity like this, we’re going to do it big and double down. What made this activation different though, is our ability to take on a whole persona with the team profile picture changes, our racers getting into character, etc. Additionally, having a two-car program allowed us to create more volume of content vs a one-car program. Overall, this program was 100% about delivering something entertaining and fun to fans. The whole program lent itself to having fun and making spoofs that people aren’t just familiar with but love.
