Sim Racing’s Appealing
Connection for Companies
When the on-track action was halted for NASCAR and other motorsports series around the world last March, competitors, teams, and fans shifted to virtual competition through a realistic, sim racing platform like iRacing. Events held on iRacing like the eNASCAR Pro Invitational Series and the Firecracker 400, an event presented by eRacr.gg (eRacr), quenched the thirst of drivers and fans who were missing the action at the asphalt arenas.
Firecracker 400
Last July's Firecracker 400 was the largest independent race on the iRacing platform which drew 344 competitors in a three-week competition while bringing in a live audience of over 300,000 viewers. In fact, users watched for a collected total of over 18,600 hours during the 19 hours of broadcast time with the race telecasted on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
The Firecracker 400 proved to be a hit on social media, with the race's hashtag (#Firecracker400) reaching over 8.4 million different users during the event's three-week span. With over 1,000 individual tweets that used the event's official hashtag on the day of the race and over 3,000 tweets during the event’s three-week run, race fans and observers from over 50 unique countries caught on to the appeal and lure of sim racing.
Who & What is eRacr?
eRacr, a sim racing organization founded in 2020 by NASCAR racers Landon Cassill and Parker Kligerman, seeks to promote the most prestigious independent eNASCAR events for competitors using the iRacing platform. Sim racing events, such as the ones hosted by eRacr, provide businesses and corporations with the opportunities to market their brands on virtual stock cars similarly to the bevy of sponsored stock cars carrying the names and brands that consumers purchase and trust with their everyday lives.
Brands like Blue-Emu embraced sim racing events and capitalized on the added value of venturing into this platform. Last year, Blue-Emu sponsored the virtual stock car driven by Landon Cassill, a 12-year stock car talent with 479 combined starts in NASCAR's three major national series.
Cassill's No. 89 car not only adorned the colors of Blue-Emu but his at-home sim racing rig was adorned with Blue-Emu decals like the on-board cameras carried on real-life stock cars.
Carnomaly 500
Following last July's successful Firecracker 400, eRacr's next event, the Carnomaly 500, looks to turn things up by quite a few notches. For starters, competitors will race in virtual Car of Tomorrow (CoT) stock cars configured to their absolute maximum of 900 horsepower.
The Carnomaly 500 presented by eRacr has partnered with Carnomaly, Blue-Emu, and Valvoline, brands familiar to those with a passion for auto racing. Much like the Firecracker 400, the Carnomaly 500 has pulled in a bevy
of sim racing competitors. Trimming the field from almost 500 to 43 competitors in a three-week span, this event will provide the intrigue and excitement of on-track races that are annual staples for the sports world.
Appeal of Sim Racing
Prior to the running of the Carnomaly 500, it was quite evident that the event continued sim racing's strong appeal from last year with fans flocking to social media essentially en masse. With strong social media engagement showcasing sim racing's momentum from last year carrying over into this event, businesses seeking for unique ways to showcase their brands and initiatives to a wide audience can turn to sim racing.
Sim racing provides entertainment, gritty competition, and excitement similarly as on-track racing with drivers having more abilities to take risks that they may not consider in real life.
"We like doing things in sim racing that you couldn’t, or wouldn’t do in real life," Cassill said. "This mindset gives us a unique opportunity to find the most creative ways to drive value to our partners while creating an exciting product for the viewers and participants.”
For those seeking the adrenaline factor found in real life racing with an even wider audience, sim racing provides possibilities that would appeal to companies who've longed to become a part of the motorsports world as four-time eNASCAR champion Ray Alfalla noted.
"Sim racing is much more affordable than real-life sponsorship," Alfalla said. "It has access to a global audience with viewership that's comparable to some real-world racing series."
Moreover, as sim racing becomes more than just another choice for companies and competitors alike. Also, it can serve as a wonderous equalizer for those looking for a cost-effective way to be more than a presence, as defending eNASCAR champion Nick Ottinger observed.
'I've always felt that sim racing opens a lot of doors for partners and sponsors to get a realistic avenue for promoting their brand," Ottinger said. "eSports organizations are forming to better push brands and their goals for marketing to a lot less of a cost than it would at a big event across the world.
"There's so many marketing approaches that a company can deploy with their team/driver organization in sim racing that engages many target audiences across the world. Sim racing is a great quality and avenue any company can get into for that fact alone, and that there is no age gap between people who enjoy sim racing. So many teams and drivers are getting into the sim racing world where you have the option to stream any race you do and that adds a lot of value to engage fans/people in a new way. You have the same deliverables that are very attainable or teams and drivers to deliver on in sim racing and do much more engaging with fans."
Getting your company into Sim Racing
With eRacr's abilities to market and promote its appealing events to a variety of audiences, ExoConsulting, a business consulting group founded and operated by Aaron Studwell, Ph.D., is working with eRacr on their sponsorship development such as selling race sponsorships during the Carnomaly 500 along with "at-track" signage that will be shown during the broadcast.
As companies like ExoConsulting join the likes of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Valvoline, Carnomaly, and Blue-Emu, sim racing has become a proven commodity to market brands to wider audiences as quickly as virtual stock cars around the high banks of Daytona.
Reach out today and let’s find ways to work together.
Since 2003, ExoConsulting’s founder, Dr. Aaron Studwell, has been providing weather support to the NASCAR community, building his reputation as an effective communicator with a passion for the sport and the people in it. Marketing and Social Media Coordinator Stevie Thompson brings her insight and artistic flair to engage our client base. Together, we provide technical expertise and business insights for client success on and off track. Let’s find ways to work together.
Written by Rob Tiongson, March 3, 2021
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