NASCAR perfect vehicle for Allstate to deliver message

When you hear the word "insurance," you're likely to think about a bunch of people sitting around studying probabilities and accident ratios and other intensely mundane bits of information, right?

In some cases, that might be spot-on, but don't make the mistake that Allstate is all about the actuarial tables. One of the world's largest insurers has a racy side, as evidenced by the recent Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

In addition to buying title sponsorship of one of the two biggest races in NASCAR, Allstate is the Official Insurance Partner of NASCAR and has sponsorship ties to Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

Not bad for the green-eyeshade-and-sleeve-garter crowd, huh?

The question that just begs to be asked is: What does an insurance company want with a bunch of guys who drive way too fast?

The answer is: The same thing every other consumer-driven company in the world wants from NASCAR, which is exposure and a chance to market to its masses.

"It is so much fun trying to break that mold," said Pam Hollander, director of sponsorships and promotions for Allstate of the insurance-company stereotype, "We use all of our sponsorships, not just NASCAR, as a way of shedding some light on the fact that we're an American company, we're human like everyone else and we understand the consumer insight that accidents happen."

They do indeed, and Allstate applies its marketing resources in both race-fan advertising -- featuring the ladies that dreamily follow young Kasey Kahne around -- and consumer-based spots featuring actor Dennis Haysbert (better known as Pedro Cerrano from the Major League movies).

"The use of Dennis Haysbert is different from what we do in our sports spots, and we have his voice, which is authoritative and serious, but we don't show Dennis often in those spots," Hollander said. "We do that on purpose, so that the characters that we're building, the NASCAR girls, can develop, and they become the hero of the spot and they are able to deliver the vulnerabilities of people when they get in a car and drive down the road."

Hollander was behind Allstate's entry into the sport in 2004, and the question she asked was a simple one: "How could we not have gotten in earlier?"

"If you think about a sport that's all about safe driving, it makes more sense than anything else," she said. "I like to say that others [insurance companies] have followed suit now, because all other insurance companies are realizing the opportunities that exist among the NASCAR fan base. It's really very endemic to insurance and safe driving.

"We like to show up big and come in big, so we didn't just dip our toe in it; we went in full-force. We secured the entitlement of the race, the partnership with Evernham Motorsports and the official status. It was kind of a nice trifecta."

The relationship with NASCAR has paid off, according to Hollander, but it's still a little early to tell just how much.

"Yes, it has, but I will also say it's probably too early for us. We've been in the sport for three years, and I think, with a sport this big, it takes time to really seed yourself, whether it's in the eyes of Allstate agents or even the consumer."

Hollander said there were two bodies of people the company talks to: Allstate agents and consumers.

"The Allstate agent is a very important customer to us as well," Hollander said. "If they are happy with what we're doing, they're going to support our programs and get behind them and hopefully sell more.

"We measure brand consideration and awareness and all of the lead generation. Some things work and some things don't. We continue to think of ways to tweak some of the promotions that we do. We've had tremendous success in the promotions we do on-site, at-track. The things we did at-track on July 29, in and around the Allstate 400 were phenomenal, phenomenal.

Grand time

A 20-year Allstate customer, James Denton has been a life-long racing fan. But the actor had never been to a NASCAR event, until now.

• Complete story, click here

"We have a harder time doing some of the national consumer promotions whether it's online, things like that. We're trying to figure out what works best for a company like Allstate in that area. We measure the utility of all of our advertising against what we call our brand health measures. There's still a lot of analytics behind insurance; and there's still a lot of analytics behind how we measure all of our sports spending."

New this year to Allstate's lineup at Indianapolis was the interactive Allstate Zone, a mobile display that combined the company's quest for auto safety with NASCAR's.

Besides seat belts and air bags and other safety aspects of Allstate's programs, there was a section of the display dedicated to NASCAR fans and their passion for motorcycles and RVs.

"We know NASCAR fans tend to over-index in owning motorcycles or RVs or both," Hollander said, slipping into insurance lingo. Over-index, in this case, means going in, whole-hog.

"It's been a very positive relationship with NASCAR and especially with Indianapolis," Hollander said. "Consumers see Allstate in a very forward way, not only through what we do at the race but through our national advertising. They see us throughout the entire season, with what we do with Kasey and some of the other drivers and we show up very big in July with the Brickyard."

Hollander said that Allstate likes to come in big and paint the town blue. That's what they're doing with their NASCAR properties, and the avidity of the NASCAR fan is a major reason.

"We're very focused [in sports properties]," she said. "We are a U.S. Olympic sponsor and we have a very large college football platform. We'd rather go deep than spread ourselves too thin. We'd rather have a larger footprint in the few sports that we're in.

"We activate and do things to make sure that our agents are happy and our consumers are happy. We're having a blast with it."