Despite back-to-back Super Bowl spots, with Kevin Federline in 2007 and Fabio in 2006, Nationwide has decided to stay out of the game in 2008, shifting the extra dollars from its estimated $100 million annual budget to an expensive NASCAR sponsorship. Nationwide entered the Super Bowl fray for the first time in 2006 with an ad that featured Fabio and set off a media frenzy worth $7.2 million in ad value, thanks to 158 million impressions and 500 media stories, according to the company’s own in-house return-on-investment measurements. Beyond the challenge of finding a perfect-pitch creative concept, Steven Schreibman [VP-advertising and brand management at Nationwide] also said one-day event just didn’t compare with the almost yearlong opportunity of the company’s new NASCAR sponsorship. “The thing with Nascar is that it lasts 10 months out of the year,” he said. “When it kicks off with the Daytona in February, that’s like the Super Bowl of racing. For Nationwide to be a part of that is huge. This is our first time stepping up and doing a gigantic naming-rights sponsorship of a series. No one in our category is doing this,” Mr. Schreibman said. “For us it was about what was going to be the most consistent, long-term message.”(Advertising Age)(1-18-2008)
