According to a recent study by Performance Research, an independent market research firm based in Newport, RI, Lycos and Viagra gained consumer recognition with their new presence in NASCAR sponsorship.

Lycos? first year as a primary sponsor for NASCAR driver Johnny Benson starts with high points…

The press around Lycos? last minute signing of their sponsorship agreement with driver Johnny Benson the night before the Daytona 500 race combined with Benson?s exciting unexpected strong showing towards the end of the race boosted Lycos? exposure as evidenced by the 12 percentage point awareness among NASCAR fans, ranking them first among all other first year Winston Cup sponsors. Boding well for Lycos is the fact that the study also found that Internet access among NASCAR fans has increased nearly 20 percentage points from 53% in July of 1998 to 70% in February of 2000.

Also getting a boost was Viagra who had impressive consumer awareness without even qualifying for the Daytona 500…

Viagra received 5% unaided sponsorship awareness in its first year as a Winston Cup sponsor, even though driver Jeff Fuller failed to qualify for the Daytona 500.

How important is this awareness??

Past studies have shown that given the choice between two products of equal cost, 72% of NASCAR fans would almost always or frequently choose the brand they associate with NASCAR over one that is not associated with NASCAR. Interestingly as well, when there is a price differential, a strong 46% mentioned that they would purchase a brand costing as much as ten percent more if associated with NASCAR over a less expensive brand that is not associated with NASCAR.

In fact, 43 percent of NASCAR fans were influenced enough by NASCAR sponsorships to switch from their normal brand of a grocery store item to try a different brand. Tide came up as a beneficiary of this sentiment with 20 percent of all consumers questioned switching from their normal brand to try out Tide. Among others mentioned most often were Kellogg?s, Cheerios, Coca-Cola, M&M?s and Budweiser.

The current demographics of NASCAR fans were recorded in this study as well. The typical fan was measured as male (68%), married (73%), a high school graduate (97%) with a total household income of $50,000 or more (68%).

Two- hundred (200) telephone interviews were conducted with a random nationwide sample of NASCAR TV viewers forty-eight hours after the 2000 Daytona 500 had taken place. The margin of error is no more than + 5%.