by Kristin Swartzlander | Sep 11, 2015 | Racing Social Media
Growing up, I never thought I would be the type of girl who goes to Las Vegas to celebrate her birthday. Fast forward to 2015, and guess what? I’m still not. But, as fate would have it, that’s exactly what’s happening – I’ll be ringing in my third decade at an event I’m much more excited about than my birthday: the 43rd Annual RPM Workshops! I’m honored to share that I’ll be joining short track promoters from across the country in Vegas this November at the annual RPM Workshops for the first time as a speaker. And, it’ll be my 30th birthday! Talk about a wake-up call. And I’m hoping not just for me. I’ve been collaborating with Stewart Doty, owner of the Racing Promoter’s Monthly Newsletter and RPM Workshops, over the past few months on how to help promoters utilize social media to their best advantage. I know – firsthand from working with over 20 tracks in the last year alone – that social media can bring phenomenal results for racing promoters who use it. And use it well. That’s why, when Stewart approached me about taking the stage this year, I knew I had to do it. Here’s what Stewart published in the RPM event preview: “At all three Workshops, Kristin Swartzlander of DirtyMouth Communications will sum up the changes taking place on the Facebook platform and their impact on the way promoters commonly use the social media platform. Swartzlander who before establishing her motorsports marketing service worked with other pro sports franchises, works with race track promoters, drivers, and team owners, and racing entrepreneurs to help them learn how to use public...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Sep 3, 2015 | Racing Social Media
Community. We – okay, maybe I – talk about the power of the racing community all the time. Whether it’s helping out a pit neighbor, supporting a sponsor’s business, or raising funds or awareness for a cause that’s important to one of our members, the racing community is more like a family than any other group I’ve been a part of. For all of the ways that I see our community supporting each other, I haven’t found a place online that’s fun, positive and, frankly, ‘safe’ to talk with other teams and professionals about racing sponsorship. I’ve been looking for a community that I can bounce ideas off of, share what I’ve learned and what I’m working on, celebrate successes and ask for feedback, and haven’t found one. That’s why I’m launching the DirtyMouth Sponsorship Success Community, a FREE private Facebook group designed to help racers connect with other racers as we pursue our dream of having a successful race team. The DirtyMouth Sponsorship Success Community is designed to surround you with people who ‘get’ you. People who get your dream: a successful racing program. People who want to learn, grow, adapt and improve. People who want to share this process with others, by asking and answering questions, providing encouragement and feedback, and giving support. And, most importantly, people who want to build the sport up instead of tearing it down. Over the past few years of business, I’ve worked with a lot of racers, companies and tracks on their sponsorship programs. In fact, it’s one of the most popular topics on this blog. But the reality is that most racers can’t afford...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Aug 27, 2015 | Motorsports Marketing for Tracks, Teams and Businesses, Racing Sponsorship
Y’all know I don’t talk about news very often. I’m more about the business of racing, less about the results and gossip. And I certainly don’t talk about politics. (Both stances are less stances than insurance policies against my safety and sanity. But I digress.) But a news story out of the Knoxville Nationals caught my particular attention, and I shared it on my Twitter account. The headline reads: Donald Trump getting his message out by sponsoring a car at the Knoxville Nationals (You can click on the link to read the whole article, if you haven’t already, and it’ll open in a new window.) I thought it might be fun to break this one down, the DirtyMouth way, because whether you’re looking for racing sponsorship or want to market to race fans, there are some interesting insights in this quick relationship. So, here we go. Messaging Start with the headline: the whole point of the sponsorship is to ‘get Trump’s message out’. Not to help Roger Crockett and car owner Bruce Williams out of the goodness of his heart. Not to have a logo on a car that’ll bank $150,000 at the end of the weekend. And probably not to get nothing at all in return. Trump’s campaign team chose this marketing vehicle to get his message out – a priority for political campaigns and companies alike. So, every time you ask why a company would sponsor you over a car that wins more races, or your track over, say, a stadium that gets quite a few more fans, recognize that you might be buying into an excuse....
by Kristin Swartzlander | Aug 20, 2015 | Media and Public Relations, Racing Social Media
If you’re here, you’re probably already familiar with some of the reasons that social media can benefit your team. But, I still get tons of questions about the value of social media from drivers and team owners, tertiary team members – family, friends, crew and lurkers, marketing partners, and traditional media members who see it as fun and games at best or narcissistic and hurtful at worst. If you take a look around, social media can be all of those things: valuable, harmful, self-absorbed, and fun. But if you want to take the negative stand on it, here’s what I have to say: It’s generally more harmful to let others talk about you than to do it yourself. Detractors will argue that others will still talk about you. I agree. People will always gossip. It’s just a question of whether you want to chime in with your version of the story or not. If you go down this path one more step, here’s a kicker for you: I argue that if all you care about is controlling the gossip, you only care about what your peers think. And if all you care about is what your peers think about you, you’re in the wrong business. Because your competitors don’t pay your bills. Social media doesn’t just put your message out to your gossiping peers. It allows you to connect with fans, marketing partners, media members and other influencers. You might change the talk in the pits, for better or for worse, with social media. But that’s a side benefit in the grand scheme of bettering your racing program. At the...
by Kristin Swartzlander | Aug 14, 2015 | Racing Sponsorship
When I do a proposal review or coaching call, I’m often asked about how to explain the cost of sponsorship to a potential marketing partner through the lens of the cost of racing. “If they see how much it costs to race, they’ll realize why my sponsorship packages start at $X. They’ll see how much I need.” And I get it. You need to know how much it costs to race – or run a race track – and what your projected income will be. That’s a great starting point for determining how much marketing buy-in you need to accomplish your goals. Unfortunately, need doesn’t equate to what sponsorship is worth to a prospective partner. Think about it like this: if you walked into your local grocery store and they were charging $5,000 for carrots you would not buy carrots. Even if it was because they needed $5,000 to pay the utility bills…those carrots are likely not worth $5,000 to you. Karats are worth $5,000. (Help! PUNS!) Need doesn’t equal value. I talk about one problem with pitching sponsorship based on need in “What to Learn From Drivers Who Cry Poor“, which is this: it only works if you’re not getting enough of what you need. When you get what you need, the help goes away. Feast or famine is not healthy. The bigger problem is that when asking based on need, you’re not equating sponsorship with value. No matter what you you call it – ‘sponsorship’ or a ‘marketing partnership’ – you’re entering into a relationship in which you provide value in exchange for value. Even if the value exchange is...
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