Casey Mears drove a Nicorette paint scheme during the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Credit: Chris Stanford/Getty Images

NASCAR involved with quit-smoking campaign

On Friday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a ceremony took place in Victory Lane that could never have happened prior to 2004.

Officials of GlaxoSmithKline, in combination with Richard Petty, Kyle Petty, Casey Mears and Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, announced a program by which five smokers would use the company's line of smoking cessation aids for 12 weeks as part of the Winner's Circle quit-smoking program.

The program is pretty simple. The five smokers, who will make up Richard Petty's "Quitting Crew," are given one of three programs -- Nicorette gum, NicoDerm CQ patches or Commit lozenges -- and tasked with quitting smoking via their use. GSK also has offered the use of its online support program, Committed Quitters, which is available only to those who use the products.

Richard Petty Credit: Autostock

Over the 12 weeks, the five Quitting Crew members will record their experiences in online diaries contained at the company's Quit.com web site so as to help others who are struggling to quit smoking.

The prize? Successful quitters earn a trip to the Richard Petty Driving Experience, where they will take the day-and-a-half program.

What is so special about this program? Well, GSK is NASCAR's first quit-smoking sponsor, given the fact that until last year the series was sponsored by a cigarette manufacturer. They've jumped in with both feet on this program, with sponsorship of Mears' No. 41 Dodge Charger for at least one race, and they've committed a mobile marketing campaign to 23 races this season.

That aside, the program itself is a textbook model of successful target marketing, using NASCAR as its target. Taking a fan base that has been thoroughly inundated with tobacco advertising since 1971 and attempting to turn the tide, so to speak, is a brilliant stroke, and they're doing so with an icon of NASCAR heritage in Richard Petty.

ALSO •   More Business Features

"I am proud to be supporting the Quitting Crew, and hope I can really help make a difference as they try to quit smoking," said Petty. "In racing, a driver is only as good as the team. Any smoker who wants to quit is a lot more likely to succeed with a good team to support him or her."

Targeting aside, GSK employed its own products as the basis for the program, and the mobile marketing platform will allow the company to sample potential customers all across the country.

In short, the plan is a prime example of why NASCAR is so important to corporate America. NASCAR provides the means, the opportunity, and the motive is increased profits or market share or sales.

It is interactive as well, another key to a successful marketing campaign. The five smokers participating in the program were selected from applications taken among fans at this year's Daytona 500.

It's not like GSK is a stranger to successful marketing. The smoking-cessation market is one it largely built, beginning in 1996 when the company first took its products over the counter. Among its other products are Abreva, Aquafresh toothpaste, Sensodyne, the smoker's toothpaste, and Tums. The company is not even a stranger to racing, having participated in both Indy Cars (with football legend Walter Payton and Dale Coyne) and sprint car racing in the past.

It is interesting that the five people selected to be the Quitting Crew have a variety of smoking histories. Two of them have smoked for 55 years each, one for 32 years, one for 15 and one for 10. The smokers who have been at it the longest, both 64 years of age, began smoking at the age of nine. What better way to field-test a product than with subjects who have smoked all their lives?

Nicorette gum, the NicoDerm CQ patch and the Commit lozenge each represent a way to help people quit smoking, and each has its benefits and drawbacks because each person's habit is unique. GSK, in addition to marketing strategy, is also collecting massive amounts of data, which ties the bow on a beautifully planned, well-executed marketing strategy.