Influences on sponsorship deals in NASCAR: indirect evidence from time on camera

Abstract

When corporate sponsors want to maximize their exposure, they often focus sponsorship dollars on events, teams and athletes that will prove to be reliable, respectable and, most important, repetitive advertising outlets. Analysing the factors that increase a broadcaster’s propensity to display a sponsor during television broadcasts is often hard to measure. Using a unique data set describing NASCAR broadcasts, we indirectly analyse what influences the value of a sponsorship contract through a proxy for driver sponsorship value: the value of time on camera (VTOC). We find that the VTOC is influenced by driver performance and their celebrity status, as measured by driver experience and inherited brand-name capital. Although the values of individual sponsorship contracts are generally not reported, the evidence herein suggests that driver performance and status likely influence the value of NASCAR sponsorship contracts.