As CART moves forward, it has to look beyond the 2003 season, not only in terms of ownership and competition, but also in marketing and advertising as well. CART should consider the possibilities of trying to advertise and appeal to the mostly untapped teen audience, as they truly are the pocket spenders of our generation.

Once upon a time, there was a racing series that had the extremely bright idea of attracting not just the usual race fan to a race. In a sense, it’s an ingenious idea to use one marketing platform to reach another marketing platform, which sells the core product(s). In this case the core products consist of ticket sales and TV ratings. With that said, one has to consider the various avenues at gaining the maximum value, in terms of numbers, for both products. In order to achieve those avenues, CART must ask: what makes people want to attend our events, and what makes people want to watch our event?

The most highly disappointing factor in all of this is that CART has placed itself on what most marketing principles would consider as a provider of CART maximum viewership. In this case, SPEED Channel. The reality is, if CART’s fans are truly hardcore race fans, they would be able to achieve higher viewing numbers than 200,000 households. Sure, SPEED Channel does not have quite the viewing audience that other cable outlets enjoy, but the fact is many other programs have scored much higher TV ratings, and some even reaching the “1.0 +” category. With that stated, one has to ask the question; if CART can not get high TV ratings on what is considered to be the market of which a CART fan is, then what exactly is a CART fan?

As CART and MotoRock continue to partner up with more concerts/races along with the event, CART can easily reach a new market. This would consist of the 18 to 25-year-old demographic. Not only do they buy things they see on TV, but are a very fad oriented market, by doing things they see popular and successful individuals do. If CART can become a fad, by bringing in models, and teen magazines, and hip hop artists, and other such teen oriented products.

You bring the teens to the track, and they always travel in groups of 3 or 4, put on a concert on Saturday night, advertise the night life, and you have a successful weekend, targeted towards a demographic which NASCAR, NFL, NBA and MLB has been unable to tap into. Bring in Maxim, FHM, Cosmopoliton, and other such teen magazines, allow them to advertise on the cars, but require them to bring in booths and their clients. Make CART a topic in all of the magazines as “The Hot Place to Be.” The kids read it, and do what they are told. Now how to get them to watch it on TV…

It’s apparent that there aren’t enough die hard CART fans, because if there were, CART’s SPEED Channel TV ratings would be in the area of .7 - .8. The fans have no interest in watching CART show. It is not attractive and entertaining to them. SPEED Channel is a great TV network, and do enough promotion for CART, but the results are not there. So if CART can’t get ratings on a motorsports TV network, where can they go? The answer: MTV. Not only does MTV grasp the concept of fads and trends, they also fit into CART/Motorock, and can be a fitting channel of which to show off the CART product as. The kicker is that Viacom owns CBS, which has been showing CART’s races for the past 2 years, but also owns MTV. Even better yet, MTV usually shows concerts on their Sunday programming.

So, CART negotiates with MTV/CBS by paying CBS for 8-10 of their races to be televised, and then has MTV cover the rest of the races. MTV pays for the programming, but is given title sponsorship roles, and has exclusive coverage of the concerts, and all the events during the Champ Car weekend. MTV shows the concert live on Saturday night, tape delayed on Sunday, which precedes the Champ Car race.

By bringing in Cosmopoliton, and other such teen products, MTV becomes the halo in terms of marketing and advertising, and shows off CART as one of MTV’s babies! Between the night life, the concerts, the babes, the entertainment and the races, MTV is a perfect fit for CART, and is a perfect avenue in getting to the ultimate demographic, teens!