Great Race, Fantastic Sponsor Guest Experience at the 2017 Daytona 500

Lots written lately about the decline in NASCAR’s popularity and the related impact on everything from attendance to TV revenues to sponsorship renewals. Despite all the concerns (many justified), the 2017 Daytona 500 showed that NASCAR and ISC still have what it takes to deliver a world-class event with memorable guest experiences.

Besides a great race with a surprise finish (thanks, Kurt), Daytona showed that the solution to NASCAR’s ills is the future, not the past. Demographics are changing and with them the need for different facilities, different technology and different guest experiences, all better tailored to specific audiences. Not cheap, but essential. From the remarkable $400 million Daytona Rising project to the ways sponsors are managing the event experiences of their different types of guests, change is in the air.

At Playoff Tech, we see this change first hand as we help our sponsor and agency clients deliver exceptional guest experiences at NASCAR and other major sporting events. Sponsors and their guests both love the results. For examples of some of the benefits VIP guests of leading sponsors enjoyed at this year's race week, take a look at the following compilation:

We requested our tickets for the Daytona 500 and two other Daytona Speed Weeks races using a special website set up by the major NASCAR sponsor who had invited us. We received an email confirm of our request, an email record of our approval and a tracking notice when the tickets were shipped. Could not have been easier.

Before the race, we received a welcome email with loads of info about the events, parking and site maps and a video from one of the sponsor’s drivers welcoming our group.

Everyone in our party received an email link to our own custom color-coded itinerary for the weekend’s events, listing every place we needed to be, with comments about recommended dress and locations. Amazing detail, all customized for each of us.

We received an email asking us to RSVP our attendance at a driver meeting in the sponsor’s suite.

At the track, we used the maps to go to the suite, where we checked-in on a custom iPad app by scanning the QR codes on our tickets. We even used self-check-in. We were able to substitute a new member of our group who replaced a person we had expected to have with us.

The iPad check-in app alerted our host we had checked in, and displayed a message that dinner that night had been pushed back 30 minutes. It also included a message about where one of the members of our group who checked in earlier would meet us. As our sponsor had two suites, we were also able to determine whether our friends at the other suite had arrived.

We received a text message that the driver meeting the next day was being delayed by an hour. This was the first of several schedule updates we received during the weekend. And each time I checked the link to the electronic itinerary on my smartphone, I found that the change was already reflected there.

As we were on the way to the airport to fly home, we received a thank you email with a short highlights video. We also received a separate email with a link to a survey asking about our experiences. We all said our favorite activities were the hot pass access, the garage tour and the driver meeting at the suite. You can guess how we rated the technology! After we each completed the survey on our smart phones, the link took us to an online photo gallery where we could re-visit some of the highlights of our weekend. Pretty neat!

The sponsor’s event staff were all top notch and constantly on the go. When I asked them how they managed all this, they said they use an online tool called Sponsor Locker.

To learn more, go HERE.