The Spin Room

Update: The election is over, but the comments are still coming on NASCAR's new approach to controlling the content that is released in the media. Certainly been that way this week.

Originally published 11/5: It's that time of year. After a lot of money and a lot of talk, the race for President is about to be decided. Along the way, most Americans have been exposed to a whole lot of what the media calls "spin."

It is vitally important in today's political world to have a strong contingent of dedicated marketing professionals who only speak to designated points. What they address has been decided in advance and rarely reflects reality. That does not seem to be a problem.

The spin in the media at first is entertaining. It's fun to watch marketing types use catch phrases and talking points to try and influence opinion. Then, the backlash begins. Citizens without an agenda and with their own independent thoughts begin to bristle at being told what to think.

Now, with the Presidential election looming, a key issue is just how much damage the effort at spinning the truth has caused both candidates. Ultimately, each individual has their own perception of what reality is and a set of reasons for their own political views.

This year, we NASCAR fans have seen a shift to the same style of marketing from the sanctioning body. Instead of offering a realistic view of what is actually happening, the message being sent through a wide variety of media outlets is shaped and arranged in advance.

A key piece of this philosophy is to brand anyone who dares move off-message. Buzzwords like hater, complainer and the ultimate scarlet letter of being called anti-NASCAR are quickly thrown at anyone who steps out of line. From on-air personalities to amateur bloggers, anyone with media access is now under scrutiny.

NASCAR is actually constructing a "Fan and Media Engagement Center" in the Hall of Fame building that will continually scan the digital media world and work to influence conversations not in line with the talking points of the sanctioning body. Click here for the TDP post on that topic from July.

Anyone who doubts this can reflect on the published goals of NASCAR's Integrated Marketing Communications group. "The IMC will provide overall thought leadership in the communications space," said the sanctioning body's news release. Well, there is just one little problem.

In today's social media world NASCAR fans are free to voice their own views with the same level of exposure as media members, Sprint Cup Series drivers and even NASCAR executives. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook don't care who you are, they just post the content delivered by the user.

All of this has led to a very interesting dynamic that came to a head this Sunday during the race in Texas. The pre-race chatting on Twitter and Facebook quickly moved from cheering to downright surly once the race began. Following the postings to the #NASCAR hashtag on Twitter and the comments on NASCAR's Facebook page became an exercise in watching pent-up frustration boil over.

Some of the targets were familiar ones. Mysterious caution flags for debris where none was shown on TV. The dominance of Jimmie Johnson in a sport where cars are supposedly equal. The lack of passing when the cars were racing at speed. The frequency of TV commercials shown under green flag conditions and, of course, NASCAR's Chase playoff format.

What is perhaps important to keep in mind is that this is the time of the NASCAR season when the focus should be on the racing. Sunday, it was once again a race that looked a lot like practice. Single cars were spaced out and once in a great while, carefully passing each other. Pit stops and two-tire calls made for the only storylines until late in the event.

The problem is that none of this makes a dent in the marketing spin. What will be sent along through channels is the final lap mini-drama of two drivers actually racing. In a nutshell, that type of basic racing action is what NASCAR fans want to see throughout the race. It is what NASCAR and the tracks promote as being at the heart of the sport. This season, nothing could be further from the truth.

This week pay attention to what you hear on NASCAR's SiriusXM radio channel. Keep an eye on what topics are raised on SPEED's daily Race Hub show. Check Jayski's media links page and scan the headlines for the reality of what you saw on Sunday. It should be an interesting exercise.

Tackling issues head-on and getting public feedback was once said to be a priority. The NASCAR Fan Council was going to change the sport and opinions from the fan base were going to be the primary influence. It seems ironic that efforts this season are to control the message, spin the reality and slap a happy face on what so far is a sport desperately in need of fundamental change.

We welcome your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderate prior to posting.

Numbers Tell The Tale

ESPN updated the weekend ratings from the Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville. Here is the info:

ESPN’s live telecast of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Sunday, Oct. 28, earned a 2.8 household coverage rating (2.4 U.S. rating), averaging 3,617,199 viewers, according to the Nielsen Company. Last year’s telecast earned a 3.6 household coverage rating, while the rating was the same as the 2010 race telecast. (via pressdog).

That puts the final TV rating down some 22% from the previous year.

Click here to view the Jayski TV ratings page for the entire 2012 Sprint Cup Series.

Texas is up next for ESPN. As we discussed here in several past columns, the Chase has handcuffed the TV coverage into a single storyline and the NASCAR fans and sports TV viewers are not buying it.

Talking about this topic does not make us bad NASCAR fans or enemies of the sport. As Mike Helton said in his Sunday interview on SPEED's Wind Tunnel, things tend to go in cycles with motorports and NASCAR is working on various changes to help the current negative cycle end.

This big dip in the TV ratings, despite the fact Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced and the small track made for good TV pictures, should certainly be a wake-up call. It's time to talk about making things better in terms of the final product delivered to TV viewers.

ESPN still has 11 on-air voices trying for air time in an event with no time-outs. Even with Tim Brewer and his Tech Garage parked, ESPN's attempts to integrate all these personalities on a short-track telecast was rough. Add-in the sponsored elements and in-program promo's and the result is short segment of coverage leading again to a commercial of at least two minutes in length.

Click here for a link to our friend Cheryl and her cawsnjaws.com website. It shows ESPN ran 31 of the 56 minutes of total commercials in the full-screen format. On this size track and with the Chase playoff in progress, there is little doubt that all commercial breaks during green flag racing need to be shown in the side-by-side format that is called ESPN Nonstop.

NASCAR will never defeat the NFL for total viewers because of the home team factor and the vast difference in the TV dynamics of the two sports. What perhaps could be done is to bring NASCAR into the current sports TV viewing culture by making substantive changes in the presentation of the Chase races on TV.

After the numbers for Martinsville, it certainly makes some sense to look at a wide variety of items to stem this tide of lost viewers. We welcome your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting. Thanks for stopping by The Daly Planet.

NASCAR In The Red Zone

The Chase for the Championship was the response of NASCAR to the competition on Sunday afternoons with the National Football League. At the time, the focus was on trying to draw attention away from the regional NFL games with a national playoff format.

The picture above is from the NFL's response to local TV stations locking viewers into two pre-selected games in their market. The NFL Red Zone is offered on both satellite and cable TV for a small monthly fee. It runs on football Sundays throughout the early and late afternoon games.

Simply put, the folks at the Red Zone watch all the games in all the markets and swing the coverage to every key moment of every single game. At first glance it's a bit overwhelming, but then reality hits. The NFL has the ultimate remote control and you are watching them use it.

When two moments are unfolding, they simply use two video boxes. When there is a need for more, as with the picture above, they simply add another. Basically, the picture-in-picture function is controlled for the viewer. During the entire time a Sunday afternoon Sprint Cup Series Chase race is running, the Red Zone is working to keep NFL fans entertained by providing out-of-market game content.

Meanwhile, NASCAR is offering a single TV telecast with some isolated cameras and in-car feeds available online. The single channel produced for viewers is interrupted by commercials roughly one-third of the entire program time while the event is in progress. By simply paying a small fee for service, the NFL solved that problem. The Red Zone has no commercial interruptions.

In a recent TDP post titled "The Art of the Spectacle," the comparison was made between the era of the non-Chase format and today's made-for-TV NASCAR playoff. When the Chase was created, it mirrored some other pro sports like PGA Golf that also tried to create an internal playoff structure in response to the NFL season.

A short time ago, NASCAR reached a new TV deal with FOX Sports. By negotiating inside an exclusive "window" of time available only to existing TV partners, both NASCAR and FOX got what they wanted. FOX landed 13 Sprint Cup Series races filling a time in the network schedule without other pro sports. NASCAR set a solid financial foundation for the future of the tracks and the sanctioning body.

What is left dangling in the wind is the Chase. ESPN has decided not to negotiate inside the exclusive period and instead wait until 2013. That network televises the final 17 Sprint Cup Series races, including the entire Chase. The current TV contract ends after the 2014 season.

With the FOX deal now in hand, it might be a very good time to address the reality of the Chase. A time period now exists where NASCAR could again ponder the season points and championship structure. Just like when the original changes happened, the entire idea would be to better serve the sport and the fans.

In today's fickle and high-tech world, there are few TV viewers who are willing to devote over three hours to a single event. Even the regional NFL games reflect the network's awareness of this with the heavy amount of cut-ins for highlights of other games. The effort to keep the attention of the sports TV viewer has never been greater.

During the Chase races, despite the reality of a full field of cars running at speed, the perception on TV is that only twelve cars really matter. It isn't a failure on the part of the TV network showing the race, it is a function of the made-for-TV format originally created to battle pro football.

Just as the NFL has innovated with the Red Zone channel to serve viewers, NASCAR needs to innovate with the part of the Sprint Cup Series season that competes with football. Perhaps the place to start is to return the individual racing weekends to prominence. Allow the races to become the star and the season points to be allocated in whatever fashion after the Victory Lane and pit road interviews.

This puts the promotion, the hype and the rivalries back in the spotlight without the horse collar of the Chase choking-off the tension and stories built up during the season with an arbitrary cut-off for contention. It lets the simmering pot of the NASCAR year continue to heat up as all the drivers now have a chance to be a star after September.

It also dismantles the star system within the multi-car teams as the best resources and manpower can now remain intact instead of being pointed toward the Chase contender or contenders within the company. The emphasis on making all the teams relevant also returns the ability of the media corps to feature them all once again.

Finally, the fans of the drivers and teams outside of the Chase are formally handed an invitation by NASCAR to depart until next February and watch the NFL for the final ten weeks of the season. TV will not and seemingly cannot find a way to update, report or feature non-Chasers even when in contention for a race win. With 12 cars in and 30 cars out, the Chase math is not hard to follow.

2013 offers NASCAR a unique window to do some research and development. It's essentially the beginning of a two-season lame duck period of the existing TV contract. With the FOX deal now done, NASCAR knows the remaining sports TV players will come calling when the time is right. The financial risk is long gone.

What's the harm in taking the temperature of the teams, networks and fans where the Chase is concerned and making some changes? This window of opportunity will not come again and certainly ESPN would like to see higher ratings in the two remaining seasons for the final ten races. An experiment that works would yield significant benefits for everyone concerned.

One thing is for sure, the NFL will be working hard again next season to sharpen its technology and delivery of live content to fans. Maybe NASCAR can seize this opportunity to use the strength of its drivers, tracks and rivalries to bring back those fans who walked away despite the best intentions of the Chase.

We invite your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.