Jul 30, 2007

Nextel Cup Gets New Name

Those of us who have been watching and covering NASCAR Racing for awhile -- and for me it's been a long, long while -- remember when NASCAR's premier racing series was known as the Winston Cup. In fact, it was known as the Winston Cup for so long that some questioned if a new sponsor would ever get any equity out of the deal, since the Winston name seemed so ingrained. But Nextel did an excellent job of picking up the torch in 2004 and running with it.  Today the Nextel Cup has a ring of familiarity to it that resonates throughout the sport. But names of corporate sponsors change like shirts these days, and Sprint Nextel has decided to emphasize the Sprint name and de-emphasize the Nextel name. So NASCAR's top series will be known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series beginning January 1, 2008. So for the next few years, at least there will be some confusion between the Sprint series and the sprint car racing series, which is something else entirely.

That potential confusion aside, Sprint and NASCAR say they took extensive measures to talk with race fans throughout the logo and name-review process, which included numerous focus groups and surveys. After receiving fan feedback, the decision was clear to focus on the Sprint brand and use a similar logo and name.

"NASCAR has an incredibly loyal fan base, and we listened closely to fan feedback to help make this decision," said Tim Kelly, chief marketing officer for Sprint. "It was a long and thorough process to determine how to integrate our NASCAR sponsorship into our overall brand strategy, while still keeping the NASCAR fan at the heart of the decision."

We're wondering how many fans care one way or the other, but there is no doubt the process involved more than someone at Sprint Nextel waking up one day and deciding to ashcan Nextel and push Sprint. According to Kelly, Sprint Nextel is "evolving" Sprint Nextel's brand, and the new brand campaign focuses on the importance of speed in people's daily lives and illustrates their ability to get information where they want it, when they want it. NASCAR was built on a tradition of speed, so it was a natural tie for us, Kelly added.

The new campaign, "Sprint Ahead," launched July 1, but NASCAR and Sprint Nextel very rightly concluded that changing the name of the series in mid-season would be a mistake. The communications company was also careful to point out that it wasn't doing away with Nextel altogether, but soon it will put much of the focus on "SprintSpeed."