Sponsors unite to get more for less

Darren Singer has cash to spend in NASCAR. With so many teams feeling a financial pinch, it puts him in a good position to get a lot for his money.

Like other sponsors, Singer is able to leverage his dollars with other sponsors to make a significant presentation that extends far beyond the racetrack.

"It's a buyer's market out there, for sure," Singer said.

Singer is the vice president of marketing for GlaxoSmithKline, the company that makes Tums, Goody's and Nicorette. All three of those products make selected appearances during the racing season -- Tums as a sponsor on Juan Pablo Montoya's car and of a race at Martinsville, Va.; Goody's as a race sponsor; and Nicorette as a car sponsor with Jeff Gordon.

A declining economy has forced many sponsors to find ways to work together, essentially doubling their effort for half the money. In Singer's case, it means working with Montoya's full-time sponsor Target to gain a better presence inside their stores.

"It's doing great things for our business," Singer said. "And in this economy you really need to make sure that you understand exactly the return on what you are getting and our business is going through the roof at Target with Tums, and I think it is because the way we are activating in the sport it took a lot of what we did with Goody's for the last 20 years."

Simply put, Tums helped pay Target's bill with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and Montoya, and in return it got to put its name on Montoya's car for last month's race at the Talladega Superspeedway as well as getting prime locations inside all of Target's 1,600 stores. As partners, both companies can share the cost of doing business in NASCAR while helping each other promote their products.

The practice of piggybacking sponsorship was perfected 20 years ago when car owners Leo Jackson and Andy Petree got U.S. Tobacco to work with a host of convenience stores. U.S. Tobacco paid for stores to be listed as sponsors on cars driven by Harry Gant, and in return those stores would place cans of Skoal and Copenhagen at the register.

The same is being done at Yates Racing with Quaker State, Turtle Wax and Menard's working in tandem on Paul Menard's Ford.

Target also has similar deals in place for Energizer batteries and Polaroid.

As major corporations work to balance their spread sheets, some have found ways to generate revenue by selling off some of their advertising space on the car. For instance, Dupont does it with Nicorette and Pepsi on Jeff Gordon's car; and Betty Crocker does it with BB&T on Clint Bowyer's car.

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com.