MONTOYA HAS ARRIVED
has appeared in a NASCAR public-service announcement. His picture is on the cover of the international version of "NASCAR 08," a new video game by EA Sports.
In advance of the Sept. 1 Nextel Cup race at the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., many heavily Latino neighborhoods in Southern California were flooded with posters reading, "Juan Pablo Montoya tiene un secreto. Lo quieres saber?" ("Juan Pablo Montoya has a secret. You want to know it?")
Those who called the advertised telephone number were greeted by a recording of Montoya touting the upcoming race and the family-oriented entertainment accompanying it.
The multipronged campaign is part of a larger effort to internationalize NASCAR's fan base, said David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California.
The sport, which grew out of the souped-up cars used by bootleggers to evade police in Southern states during Prohibition, is perceived as being "dominated by its roots in the Southeast, and not delivering the same kind of demographic that marketers clamor for these days," Carter said. "But you're starting to see their fan base far more diversified.
"Look at who's performing the national anthems before the Daytona 500. It's not just Lynyrd Skynyrd cover bands."
Mariah Carey and Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas are among the artists who sang the anthem before the race in recent years.
Andrew Giangola, NASCAR's director of business and multicultural communication, said that using the motor sport's only major Latino driver to reach out to a broader audience "is the right thing to do. We're a national sport, and we need to look like the rest of America."
Giangola added, "There's a huge opportunity when you look at where demographic growth is coming from."
Hispanics make up 14.5 percent of the nation's population, up from 12.5 percent in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation. In California, 35.2 percent of the population is Hispanic.
Nevertheless, Hispanic adults are about twice as likely to be Major League Baseball fans as they are NASCAR fans and about three times as likely to be fans of the National Football League, according to the ESPN Sports Poll, a service of TNS Sport.
Meanwhile, NASCAR's overall popularity is soaring. Viewership of the average televised Nextel Cup race rose 43 percent from 1997 to 2006, Giangola said. The sport peddles about $2 billion in licensed merchandise annually.
There are about 34.5 million NASCAR fans nationwide, according to Scarborough Research.
Against that background, Montoya is an invaluable weapon for NASCAR. He adds a dimension to videos, news releases and programs that the racing sport is issuing more often in Spanish as well as in English.
A dashing driver with movie-star looks, Montoya has won one race and placed in the top five on three occasions this year. He ranks 18th out of 66 drivers in the Nextel Cup series.
At Fontana, Montoya had engine trouble and placed 33rd.
"Where (Montoya) plays the critical role ... as we're looking to utilize drivers for Spanish-language television and radio interviews ... we had no way to do that before," said Gillian Zucker, president of the California Speedway, whose venue produced the "Juan Pablo Montoya tiene un secreto" posters.
"The sport has been a very American sport until recently," Zucker added. "But 80 percent of the teenagers in Southern California are Hispanic. ... We're looking ahead decades at a time, and we need to lay a foundation."
Other NASCAR advertising partners have jumped on the bandwagon. Sprint Nextel recently rolled out its first Spanish-language TV ad featuring Montoya and promoting the NASCAR cup races that it sponsors.
NASCAR itself tends to promote Montoya directly in subtler ways, featuring him recently in videos, photos and a daily poll segment on its official Web site, among other things.
One television executive who is paying attention is Eli Velazquez, director of network sports for the Spanish-language Telemundo. Velazquez said that Montoya's record as a proven racer has added "legitimacy" to NASCAR's promotional efforts.
"It's no secret that NASCAR is an extremely popular sport ... and is something that has a very high advertising interest," Valazquez said.
"But for us to be able to legitimately include NASCAR as part of our coverage ... it's important to have Hispanic drivers or team owners or pit crews, so our people can have a touchstone, if you will, to relate to."
With the addition of Montoya to NASCAR's lineup, "Does it mean I automatically send out a crew to these events?" Velazquez asked rhetorically. "No, it doesn't extend that far. But whereas in the past I might not have included a NASCAR race (in a sports show), now I might make more room for it."
And if Montoya wins or places in a race? "When that happens, we're all over it," Velazquez said.
Still, Juan Tornoe, founder and editor of Texas-based hispanictrending.net, a Latino marketing and advertising blog, said Montoya's background as a driver in the "elitist" sport of Formula 1 racing - with its glitzy races worldwide - prevents many working-class Hispanic sports fans from identifying with him.
"It's not just about the language, it's about the culture and connecting with the people," Tornoe said.
In addition, Montoya's Colombian nationality makes many Mexican-Americans - who make up 65 percent of the Hispanic population in the United States - lukewarm about rooting for him, Tornoe said. Mexicans are particularly nationalistic, he noted.
NASCAR's Giangola conceded that Montoya ultimately may be less popular in Southern California than in Miami, which has a large concentration of Colombian immigrants. The Homestead-Miami Speedway is planning a series of promotions around a NASCAR race there in November, including touting itself as Montoya's "home track," Giangola said.
Carter, of USC's Sports Business Institute, agreed that marketers must be aware of differences within the Latino population if they expect to target Spanish-speaking consumers effectively.
In addition, "Any time you're dependent on one athlete, you're in deep trouble," he said. "If you're too tethered to one guy, it could come back to bite you."
Montoya has raised eyebrows with his aggressive driving style, and last month he got into a shoving match with fellow NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick after their cars bumped and spun out during a race.
"My opinion is that (incident) will ultimately help him," said Zucker, of the California Speedway. "There is something very real about a person like that. These are not perfect people, they don't always behave on camera. Fans love that these drivers allow their true personalities to come through."
Telemundo's Velazquez agreed. "I think there are fans who would see him as a human being who's doing everything he can do to win."
Carter said that for NASCAR's promotional campaign to succeed, "you need the right blend: a great story to tell, a great guy as the face of that story, and a great athlete."
So far, he said, Montoya "delivers on all those counts."
© Copley News Service
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