Monster Energy taking wait-and-see approach with NASCAR sponsorship

NASCAR fans accustomed to being bombarded with the Cup Series sponsor logo and colors might be in for a surprise at Daytona International Speedway.

Conspicuously absent is any signage related to Monster Energy, the new entitlement sponsor of NASCAR’s premier division. There’s no stand selling the product or even offering a free sample to fans interested in tasting the energy drink. There’s hardly a logo to be found -- unless you walk into the merchandise tent, which has a limited selection of hats.

Even the Monster girls, the company’s prominent brand ambassadors, weren’t around on Saturday afternoon prior to the Clash, the 2017 season-opening exhibition race.

The lack of advertising was due in part to logistics, but also intentional, Mitch Covington, Monster’s vice president of sports marketing, told SB Nation in a phone interview Saturday. Instead, the company is focusing the bulk of its marketing efforts on next week’s Daytona 500 rather than the preliminary Clash race. (In addition to serving as entitlement sponsor, Sprint also sponsored the fan zone since 2005 and the exhibition race since 2013.)

But he also said Monster is now planning a wait-and-see approach to how it can maximize its sponsorship.

The company wants to avoid going “over the top and over-brand (the series),” Covington said, and would prefer to develop an understanding of the marketplace while also allowing NASCAR fans to acclimate to a new Cup Series sponsor.

“We want to go into the season and learn as we go,” Covington said. “And I think you’ll see our presence build somewhat as the races go. Some races we’ll have more presence than others. We really just want to build it out first, (rather) than go all-in for the first weekend and the Clash.

“It’s still about racing and still about NASCAR. We don’t want to come in too hot and offend the fans and be too obtrusive.”

Monster’s presence may begin to increase next week. Beginning Friday, Covington said the company is planning on several initiatives to introduce itself as the sport’s chief sponsor in the midway area located just outside Turn 4 (a Daytona spokesperson directed all questions about Monster’s activation toward the company).

But in the opening weekend, Monster has kept a rather low profile outside of its logo on the frontstretch grass and a few other places surrounding the 2.5-mile track.

“We got some loud trucks, we got a smoke show, we got several motorcycles that are going to do some fun stuff,” Covington said of next week’s plans. “We got video simulation games for young people to play on. And we’ll have a lot of Monster girls, and maybe a special guest or two.”

NASCAR’s search for Sprint’s replacement extended well beyond the timeline executives laid out; a deal with Monster wasn’t reached until Dec. 1 -- nearly two years to the day after Sprint announced it was vacating the role -- so several facets of the marriage have yet to come together.

Among the holdups, several are related to activation at tracks. There have been delays in both finalizing how signage would appear as well as the actual production, industry sources confirmed to SB Nation. The expectation is when the Cup Series begins its three-week West Coast swing on March 12, banners and the like will be more in line with what fans have grown accustomed to seeing at a NASCAR race.

“That certainly played a part in (the delay), that the deal was done so late,” Covington said. “It’s going to take us awhile to ramp up.”

Although exact terms of Monster’s deal with NASCAR weren’t disclosed, multiple sources confirmed to SB Nation that the company signed a two-year contract with a two-year option worth $20 to $25 million annually. That is significantly less than the reported $50 million Sprint was paying.

When NASCAR and Monster announced the partnership at the Wynn in Las Vegas, executives from both sides confidently said the late union would not hinder Monster’s initial activation.

“Even though it’s December and a bit late in the game, they have the activation tools, the plans and the people ... so they’re ready on day one,” NASCAR CEO and chairman Brian France said on Dec. 1. “They’re a fun brand that’s going to interact with our core fans in kind of a cool, neat way actually, and we’ve seen some of the plans, and they’ll get bigger and more robust as we go along.”