NASCAR is already the most sponsor-friendly sport in America. Why not partner up with sponsored tweets?
It’s unclear how much—or even if—money is changing hands, but NASCAR and Twitter each made the announcement Friday that the two organizations are joining forces to advertise with each other.
Twitter will tweak their algorithm for people who search the hashtag #NASCAR during races. Employees will curate the results for that search in real-time—including reactions from drivers and their family members.
On NASCAR’s end, they seem to be on track to make a Twitter account as fundamental to their fans’ experience as a headset and beer.
Why NASCAR, rather than a sport that’s much bigger on Twitter, such as the NBA? NASCAR’s official Twitter has half a million followers. The official NBA account has five million.
NASCAR is far better at getting its sportsmen involved. Drivers have tweeted from the racetrack, and received acclaim for doing so—in February, Brad Keselowski gained more than 100,000 followers by tweeting from his car while waiting for the flag to start up again.
The NBA, by contrast, seems actively hostile to players tweeting. Multiple NBA players and owners have been repeatedly fined tens of thousands of dollars for posting tweets their commissioner deemed unacceptable.
At least one prominent driver, Kasey Kahne, already has a prominent hashtag on his bumper.
Gentlemen, start your sponsorships
Photo via Twitter
