Coors a NASCAR staple in past, present and future

There was a time in NASCAR, before the explosion of the global marketplace, where automotive companies and breweries were the big prizes among team owners seeking sponsorship.

Coors Brewing Company, once a regional beer with a cult following around the nation, chose NASCAR way back in 1983 as a way to open new distribution channels. If you'll notice, Coors is still in the thick of the NASCAR game, and there are no plans to stop now.

"Our customers are, in large quantities, fans of NASCAR, and it is important for us to be part of their life and lifestyle, and if NASCAR is part of their lives, we want to be there as well," said Bryce McTavish, VP of marketing, channels and sponsorships for Coors. "It also provides us with the opportunity -- and I think we are demonstrating that more so this summer than we have in the past -- to connect it literally with some of the things we are doing with our brand.

"We've been changing the paint scheme on David [Stremme's] car to highlight some of the key packages and innovations that we are going to market with that the consumers can then reach out and touch themselves."

And everyone knows that NASCAR fans reach out and touch a lot of adult beverages on a weekly basis.

It is interesting to see technological advances from a non-technology endemic sponsor like Coors, which is using NASCAR's platform to activate programs like the new Cold Activated Bottle among race fans.

"The Cold Activated Bottle [CAB] is a label that has thermochromatic ink on it and the mountains turn blue when the beer is cold," McTavish explained. "That got our system excited about the program and the new packaging as well."

Since Coors' hallmark has always been cool refreshment, the CAB makes sense and it's a neat program to activate with.

"We can reach out to our system and activate the property at retail around the packaging, so then everyone is in line, from Chip Ganassi Racing and David Stremme on the racing team all the way down through our system," McTavish said.

"We are pretty disciplined about trying to tie the technology back to the actual benefit of the product, which in Coors Light's case is cold refreshment. For example, we have the wide-mouth can that's coming out, which has a wider opening in the aluminum can and allows the beer to pour more smoothly and be more refreshing. We are going to do a paint scheme around that later this year."

Coors is in the same arena with its major competitors, and while that's a plus, McTavish said it would be the case even if the other brewing companies weren't involved. (Continued)