One might say that a relationship between NASCAR and the Hollywood Reporter is an unlikely partnership. Well, maybe but not. Welcome to 2006 and the time that NASCAR holds enough weight that Hollywood and it’s community of studios and production companies would take a good strong look at the impact NASCAR has on entertainment, sports and Hollywood.

The August 29th edition is a special NASCAR issue. The cover and over half of the magazine are articles demonstrating the power of NASCAR through movie, TV and endless sponsorship opportunities to assist in branding products.

Great tid bids about NASCAR. Check them out as well as other industry news at www.hollywoodreporter.com

A couple of fun racing facts:
Over 1 millions dollars of tires are used at one race – each tire cost $389 each.
The California Speedway invested $10 million into the fancy new boxes, restaurants and amenities. Sound great to me.

And check this out – a TV reality racing show

I try to keep up with news and the trades, reading them obsessively every day (and, sometimes I have a week end read-athon just to keep up). Earlier this summer, I was intrigued by an article about Gas Station TV, a Detroit firm installing LCD screens with programming in test stations in Dallas. Run by a former Yahoo! Executive, the company knows that versatile, up to the minute programming is mandatory to keep interest and forestall possible aggravation at the pumps, since patrons cannot opt out of the video. Gas Station TV seems to understand that if its bad programming, it won’t be a good thing.

Over the next year, this service will be installed at 400 Murphy Oil Stations; markets after Dallas include Houston and Atlanta. Disney’s ABC is providing programming from local affiliates (weather, local interest, etc.) and major advertisers like Pepsi have jumped on the bandwagon (or is that jumped on the pump?)

My first thought is “why do I want more noise, environmental clutter, trash TV in my life?” And, what in the heck are they going to show me in my five minutes of pumping gas that I need to see? Of course there will have to be commercials, but will there also be local interest information, promos for tonight’s programming, weather? Can they keep the content time sensitive? Is it an opportunity to get good information? The emotions of gas station customers are already a bit on edge as they shell out record setting payments. Will this entertain or annoy? (PR gal KD Paine's blog voices some of these concerns very well...)

But, contrary to my expectations, early reports back from the pumps indicate that customers were thrilled to watch local news, entertainment bits, and weather. Let’s face it; it’s boring to get fill your car!

So, perhaps bits of information, digitally served from the internet, will make the time we spend there a bit more exciting. While there’s the definite possibility that just one quiet moment at the pump isn’t bad, there’s also the possibility that it’s good to be diverted, know the score of a game, know the temperature, laugh at a joke. Like all of the info-tainment surrounding us, we may not have much choice about whether we want to see it or have to see it.

I may not seem like your average NASCAR fan but maybe I am! We’ve heard that NASCAR is the fastest growing spectator sport, but did you know that the biggest demographic in that growth are women? So, maybe I do qualify as the average NASCAR fan.

There’s measurable growth in the sport, and NASCAR’s meaningful new demographics mean that it’s time to cut the hillbilly-speedway jokes. They’ve gotten old, and while the traditional supporters of NASCAR are still there, it’s obviously a sport in transition. There are lots of new fans in the audience.

More than just the audience, I think that NASCAR is one of the smartest sports-businesses out there. How did NASCAR outsmart sports-business? In the world of Tivo-ing (is that a verb now?) where commercials are skipped and millions of dollars are spent to slow the inevitable decline of traditional commercial effectiveness, NASCAR’s spots stand out.

I’d say NASCAR’s spots were among the most entertaining ads on TV; clever and very funny. If you watch a NASCAR race, you’ll recognize many of the drivers from commercials. There’s Dale Jarrett racing a big brown UPS truck, and Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield playing pranks on each other for their sponsor Nextel. These are just a few examples, and my guess is, there are more spots coming.

NASCAR drivers understand that they should support their loyal sponsors beyond the paint on the cars and the logos on their racing suits. I read in a poll of 1,000 fans last year by James Madison University's center for sports sponsorship, 85% of fans believed that Cup drivers were good role models; 36% could name the sponsors of every car in the top 30. WOW! Can you say that about ANY other sport? I can't. And, rarely does NASCAR suffer embarrassing tales of drug abuse, arrests, marital violence, and all that ugly stuff that is an accepted part of professional sports. Or, should I say, other professional sports. These NASCAR spokesmen seem to understand what’s expected of them.

It seems to me that from the sponsors’ side and the positive image side, NASCAR’s
got the grove!

As we take back our power and Tivo out the hum-dull, same old same-old, NASCAR fans like me and a lot of viewers who don’t care about auto racing will keep laughing our way through the commercial breaks. I think this means advertisers should sit up and take notice. Stop worrying about grabbing back the viewer’s control of content and timing and create quality advertising that brings the viewer back.

“The Boss Button,” I read over it twice to make sure I wasn’t misreading - a button to sneak something by your boss. This slightly off concept appeared in an article I came across which detailed the power of IPTV. IPTV, or internet protocol tv, (sometimes called streaming), is offering more content and refers to programming that can be received via the internet. During the Final Four playoffs ESPN discovered that most of their online audience viewed from work locations; the times of the game were during business hours. Because of this, ESPN installed a "boss button" on screen. Hit it once and it shot you back to your screen. Okay, so at first I was horrified, then I smiled. Then I was stuck somewhere in between.

My reaction comes because I’m both boss, and a techie entrepreneur. Although the Boss Button is clever, it has to be a huge distraction. There are lots of distractions in the workplace anyway – will iptv programming be just another distraction? Ultimately, doesn’t that ultimately translate to profitability? Although it’s great to get to watch the playoffs (or the final episode of your favorite reality competition), how does this affect business.

From the viewer/employee standpoint employers need to demonstrate that
iptv screenings in the work place do create declining results and quality of work. But maybe it’s just another thing that people do; and it doesn’t take down their contributions. Maybe, bosses just need to muster up the trust that is needed to insure that they run the business with relationship skills and keep their eye on the final results rather than the hours of iptv watching. I’m not a big proponent of the creepy internet monitoring that goes on in some companies which monitors the questionable time use of some employees who are not feeling the work mojo. It’s a vicious cycle.

I still don’t know what to make of the boss button concept. I guess we have to figure it out together, communicate and hopefully demonstrate that technology can create a better, not a diminished, work environment. After all, for all of us who are “bosses”, the focus has to be on how to run a business. And, employees must consistently produce results that serve the company and ultimately their jobs.

Like almost every issue, the best of both sides will have to come together to demonstrate that technology is creating a better, more lively work environment rather than be a distraction from the primary focus - work. Let's hope that both side are up from this calling.