Mackey Marketing Group is taking a vastly different approach to motorsport marketing. The firm located in suburban Atlanta, Georgia has long been known as a veteran, reputable boutique firm that has specialized in motorsport marketing and promotion since its founding in 1986.
For years, the agency and the industry as a whole have relied on the tried and true overall marketing strategy provided by brand exposure, internal and “inside” sales relationships and nationally televised product publicity all intertwined within a highly commercialized and sponsor friendly arena. The overall effect resulted in a commercial powerhouse that literally created an industry and built motorsports into a global enterprise. But in recent years, the commercial “edge” that has long been a trademark of the sport’s effectiveness has seemed to dull and become what others might phrase as “dated.”
From Mackey Marketing’s perspective, motorsport marketing is a 20th century success story competing in a 21st century world. For all its dominance what worked over the past half century has not fully emerged into the more modern marketing landscape. Change, perhaps even radical change, has become a pivotal element in the agency’s reconfigured look at the strengths and benefits of motorsport marketing.
The clues are abundant. Motor racing attendance is down. Television ratings are in general decline. While not solely the sphere or responsibility of marketing, more and more “fans” seem to be disappearing to a level where the core relevance of the sport in today’s competitive market place is consistently challenged. It’s a dying sport and dying a little bit more each and every day.
So the rationale says. In response, many industry insiders continue to rely on the traditional strategies that proved successful in the past, perhaps even to suggest more of it, as the most sensible approach to meet current day challenges. But such thinking nearly guarantees the same limited positive outcome while the sport as a whole prolongs its long spiral toward insignificance.
In contrast, Mackey Marketing prefers to believe the brightest days may still be in the future, but to date, perhaps only dimly so. By challenging accepted strategies the agency sees an alternative path that opens up opportunities not yet explored and benefits not yet realized. To get there means fundamentally changing the way we see motorsports as a commercial medium.
Gone are the days of creating “exposure,” the principal building block that built the industry. Additionally, critically, re-evaluated thinking suggests a wholesale acceptance of new methods of generating benefits from participation as a motorsport sponsor. Paraphrasing the 20th century benefits as a focus on branding and top of mind awareness, the bottom line benefits can typically be defined as a “passive” engagement with race fans. In this more modern approach, the revised marketing thrust envisions far greater emphasis on “active” engagement with audiences in ways that creates more than a passing, momentary connection between fan and sponsor. While that may be the key transformation, admittedly, it’s the most challenging aspect to create. In some ways, it simply has not been done this way before.
All it takes is change.