NASCAR Case Study
A crisis turnaround: amid unfair media scrutiny, positioning Brian France as a bold, innovative leader and philanthropist grew positive media coverage 394% and helped sign a $20 million-per-season sponsorship.
The Objective
Turn unfair media scrutiny of NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France into positive coverage, elevating his reputation and positioning him as a bold, innovative leader while amplifying his and his wife Amy’s philanthropy through the Luke & Meadow Foundation and the NASCAR Foundation.
Strategy and Execution
Two storylines ran side by side: the leader and the philanthropist.
PR campaigns around the NASCAR Foundation and the Frances’ own Luke & Meadow Foundation, including a new foundation website. The Frances were honored guests and speakers at high-profile New York events, including the Angel Ball and the Michael J. Fox Foundation gala, and each event became a news hook tied back to their larger giving.
Positioning France as an innovator and changemaker, highlighting an $8.2 billion television deal with NBC and FOX, an exciting new playoff format, safety improvements and a diversity program that developed women and minority drivers.
Fact sheets, key messages, talking points, potential Q&A and media training before interviews and press conferences, plus interviews on France as a family man and father.
Panels alongside other sports league CEOs at conferences including CES and Milken.
Results
The takeaway: Executive reputation is built story by story. A disciplined mix of leadership news, philanthropy and preparation turned critical coverage of NASCAR’s CEO positive, and that translated into sponsorship revenue.
Coverage
Inc.Generations of success: an exclusive interview with NASCAR CEO Brian France
BloombergThis is what NASCAR learned from the NFLBloombergBrian France revs up Daytona with a $400 million renovation
USA TodayNASCAR’s Brian France and wife honored at Angel BallUSA TodayWith star drivers watching, NASCAR Foundation honors humanitarians
PeopleWatch NASCAR CEO Brian France race cars with children at a New York hospital
YahooNASCAR CEO: raising kids is harder than my jobMore Results
A year of PR, crisis communications and reputation work took Gaia’s coverage from almost entirely negative to 100% positive or neutral, and changed its search results and Wikipedia page with it.
Full-service PR, with a newsworthy, data-driven industry study every month and daily media relations, put CareScout in the Washington Post, USA Today, Business Insider, Forbes and Investopedia, and on CNN and NewsNation: 173 stories, 117 of them carrying a backlink (a clickable link from a news story to carescout.com, which lifts its Google ranking), and a 13-point rise in Domain Rating.
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