Budweiser edges Lowe's in exposure

Jimmie Johnson won the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup championship by finishing first among his peers over the course of a 36-race season.

But did his sponsor, Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, win the really important battle for exposure?

According to Joyce Julius & Associates, they did not.

That honor went to Budweiser, sponsor of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and DEI, by more than $40 million, according to the season-ending statistics released by the Michigan-based company.

This is the real battle, at least among those in the business of...well, business. Whose logo appeared on television broadcasts the most? Who "earned" the most face time throughout the season? Inquiring minds, most of which are attached to really big checkbooks, want to know.

Joyce Julius & Associates watches each of the race telecasts nearly frame-by-frame to determine the winner in its annual exposure derby, which does not include commercials, and Budweiser was the clear victor.

According to the company, value is determined by "clear in-focus time and verbal references compared to the non-discounted cost of a commercial during each respective broadcast. These comparable exposure values provide a standardized measurement for all brands appearing within the series."

Basically, it boils down to companies "earning" money based on how long you can read the logo on the car on television.

Budweiser and its driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., amassed $183.1 million in clear, focused broadcast time during the 2006 season, compared to Lowe's and Johnson's second-place total of $143.6 million.

Jeff Burton and his sponsor, Cingular Wireless, earned third spot in the annual rundown, with $116.6 million. The top three all crested the $100 million mark in value.

The top five was rounded out by Home Depot and Tony Stewart in fourth with $98.6 million, and DuPont with Jeff Gordon in fifth at $88.9 million.

No surprises there, as all five are among the most popular and most successful teams in the sport.

What might be a little surprising is the next five on the list.

Miller Lite and Kurt Busch came home sixth, with a $71.1 million number that befits a former series champion in his first season with a new team.

Michael Waltrip and NAPA Auto Parts cracked the list in seventh, however, with a whopping $68.6 million. Right behind the wise-cracking Waltrip came DLP and Tony Raines, at $67.6 million.

Waltrip, by virtue of his popularity, is not a surprise overall. The fact that the sponsor did so well is, a little bit. Waltrip suffered through a difficult season, performance-wise, and that brings another number into play: team-related and non-team-related value.

Team-related means the actual car, the pit stall, uniforms, etc. Non-team related means banners, billboards and the like.

For instance, 100 percent of Gordon's fifth-place number was team-related; there were no non-team-related mentions for the No. 24. It's the same for Johnson, or very close. Some 90.2 percent of Lowe's exposure was team-related, despite running a couple of races at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

In Waltrip's case however, just 35.2 percent of NAPA's exposure was team-related, and 64.8 percent was not. DLP did much the same, logging 37.4 percent team-related and 62.6 percent in non-team-related value.

In contrast, Earnhardt's total was 68.8 percent team-related, Burton's was 71.8 percent and Stewart's a healthy 78.4 percent.

What is so surprising, then, about the strong performance of NAPA and DLP? The fact that both sponsors were able to outdo Subway and Greg Biffle and DeWalt and Matt Kenseth comes to mind.

Biffle rang in ninth on the annual list, with Subway garnering $64.4 million in exposure, while DeWalt and Kenseth were 10th at $63.3 million.

Kenseth was by far the most consistent on either side, with 52.7 percent of his total team-related and the remaining 47.3 percent non-team-related.

This chart, released each year after the season ends, is one of those items sponsors, be they big or small, are keen on being included in, and the higher the finish means the more bang per buck.

To sponsors, especially at this level, that's Holy Writ. With budgets on the rise and marketing dollars ever harder to come by, company officials can point to Joyce Julius numbers for justification of the initial outlay of cash to the race teams.

For NAPA and DLP, the performance on the exposure chart far outstrips the teams' performance on the track, which makes the sport a valuable addition to any cross-platform marketing plan.

There are more ways to count winners than by series points; NASCAR's sponsors, always a competitive bunch, have vested interests in all of them.