Engaging with fans and creating better experiences for them is a priority for sport brands. But how do companies reach social media natives and the always-on generation, join their conversations and positively interact with them online? In this case study, we show how NASCAR turned to HP to help it find a technology solution that allowed it to make use of the social and media data it was gathering.

1. How NASCAR
created a better fan
experience
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2. NASCAR turned to HP to help it find a tech-
nology solution that allowed it to make use
of the data it was gathering. It wanted to use
that data to appeal to a younger, always-on
audience beyond its traditional fan-base,
and deliver more value to its fans, teams and
sponsors.
NASCAR on social media
NASCAR races are broadcast in
3,790,190
Likes
Facebook
1,316,461
Followers
Twitter
51,610
Subscribers
YouTube
more than
150countries
in
20languages
The Challenge
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3. “My biggest challenge was how do we
take all this unstructured data, get it back
into the NASCAR data centres and get it
all into something that makes sense and
is organised.”
Steve Worling, Senior Director, IT, NASCAR
How do sports organisations grow their audiences? When they’re rooted in
the world of live entertainment, how do they reach the social media natives
and the always-on generation? And how do they engage with them?
As a brand, NASCAR is one of the leading motorsports organisations in the
world. It provides millions of people across the globe with white-knuckle
entertainment, sanctioning 1,200 races at 100 tracks in more than 30 U.S.
states, Canada, Mexico and Europe, which are broadcast in more than 150
countries.
Its social media channels are thriving. It has almost four million Likes on
Facebook and over one million Followers on Twitter. But what should it do
with all the structured and unstructured data it collects? How could it moni-
tor and respond to instantaneous social interactions?
NASCAR wanted to develop a way of engaging with its fans and monitoring
traditional and social media to find out what was being said about the brand
in real-time. It then wanted to turn that data into actionable insights that
could help it deliver a better experience for its fans, teams and sponsors.
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4. The Solution
NASCAR turned to HP to provide it with a seamless end-to-end solution that
was tailored to its specific needs. By partnering with HP, NASCAR was able to
leverage HP’s industry frameworks, best practices, software, hardware, and
display technology to create something ahead of the curve.
The result was the NASCAR Fan and Media Engagement Center (FMEC), located
in NASCAR Plaza in Charlotte, N.C. The 500-square-foot, glass-enclosed space
features multiple seated viewing areas and is outfitted with state-of-the-art HP
Digital Signage Displays.
Built on HP’s Interactive Media Command Center, the FMEC maximises the full
power of NASCAR’s data. It provides real-time analytics, enabling NASCAR to
drive effective brand engagement.
Appeal to a younger
always-on, socially
aware audience
Make sense of the
unstructured data
NASCAR was gathering
Expand beyond the
sport’s traditional
fan-base
“It’s not enough just to get the data - then you
have to use the data. HP has developed for us in
the Fan and Media Engagement Center the
tools to be able to look at what’s happening out
there and react to it.”
Steve Phelps, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Office, NASCAR
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5. The Outcome
The Benefits of NASCAR’s FMEC
Real-time data capture and
analysis of traditional and
social media, to help
understand fan and media
behaviour.
Transforms data into
meaningful and
actionable business
insights for the enterprise,
teams and partners.
Allows NASCAR to
actively engage with fans,
enabling it to discover
opportunities to add value
and protect the brand.
NASCAR can now use the FMEC to drive measurement and insights from a
variety of media – including television, radio, print, video, images, digital, and
social media channels. It allows NASCAR to gather both structured and un-
structured data from these sources, analyse them, and share insights with the
right stakeholders in order to collaborate and take action.
What’s more, it allows NASCAR to engage and communicate with fans and
media, using their preferred channels - all in real-time. This has allowed
NASCAR to understand its fans’ behaviours across all forms of media and to
directly engage with an always-on audience, giving it a better understanding of
fans’ relationships with the brand.
The FMEC gives NASCAR a competitive edge, enabling it to monitor sentiment
and adapt quickly to changing environments. NASCAR can now react quickly to
potential risks to the brand and, more importantly, this has given it opportuni-
ties to add value and create a better experience for its audience, teams, and
sponsors.
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6. “The Fan and Media Engagement Center
is the technology breakthrough that
allows us to stay much more connected
to our fans in ways that we could never
have dreamed about ten or fifteen years
ago.”
Brian France, Chairman and CEO, NASCAR
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7. Nobody has all the right answers on how to stay ahead of the competition
and be agile in the current market environment. In this increasingly
uncertain world, what's required is combined wisdom.
Business Value Exchange is the place where you can explore different
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Read it, be inspired and deliver even greater value as the digital leader of your business.
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Business Value Exchange Presents HP Enterprise Services Case Studies