Who Ordered The Combo Platter?

This is how NASCAR Race Control watches a Sprint Cup Series race. This is the updated replay system that has all kinds of video sources available, including the live weather radar. Except for the radar, all of the video NASCAR watches upstairs is in High Definition. Pretty nice set-up.

Over the last few weeks we have been discussing all kinds of options that fans have to "consume" a race. That term basically means watch, listen and interact live. The sport has come a long way in terms of digital technology with the promise of even more choices next year.

This is the TNT portion of the season, so additional options exist with that tech-friendly network. TNT provides a free streaming feed with multiple audio and video options called RaceBuddy. Those same video channels are often featured on the DirecTV service called Hot Pass.

Over in radio land, both MRN and PRN race broadcasts are now streamed online for both Internet and smart phone users without charge. The SiriusXM Satellite Radio race broadcasts are also streamed, but only for subscribers who have purchased either an auto or portable receiver.

Meanwhile, over at the NASCAR.com website there are still a bevy of services available for a price. The classic Raceview has morphed into Raceview 360 with every bell and whistle available. The drawback is the video of the live racing is not included. That too should change soon, perhaps even next season.

Sprint has kept the Sprint Cup Mobile app going that offers live team and officials audio during Sprint Cup Races as well as the radio feed. Unfortunately, many older Sprint phones can no longer access that feed and without a phone upgrade, it's gone.

Over the years, many fans have developed their own unique way of watching the races while using a second screen. That is, another electronic screen or possibly even more that is active during the event. These days, the options are more plentiful than ever before.

Our question today is how do you view the Sprint Cup Series races? What video and audio options do you choose? Do you use a desktop, tablet or smart phone as a second or even a third screen? Do you listen to the audio from the TV during the race? What made you settle for the NASCAR TV "combo-platter" that you chose? We should have some interesting answers as TNT heads into Michigan.

We invite your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting. Thank you as always for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Day Two: Oh No Daddy!

Update: Leaving this up on Thursday at the first story. Waiting to see if we hear something from GoDaddy, the Deutsch New York agency or perhaps even Danica Patrick on what the future holds for these parties. Pretty good group of fan comments with various opinions on this topic. Happy to have yours. Updates will be added to this post.

The images are burned into the minds of motorsports fans nationwide. Danica Patrick and her GoDaddy girlfriends pushing sexual innuendo across the TV screen. Danica and the stripping cop, Danica taking a shower and Danica joking about keeping her "beaver" safe are just a few of the tasteless offerings.

The engineer of the economic train that ultimately brought Patrick to NASCAR is Bob Parsons, the man pictured above. The founder of GoDaddy might be the ultimate creep to many, but like most self-made billionaires he sees himself as above it all. It's just a game to him driven by sales.

Last summer Parsons finally cashed out of GoDaddy in a deal that saw a group of private equity firms pay a total of $2.5 billion for the company. Parsons stepped aside from running the day-to-day operations and Warren Adelman became the company's new chief executive. Parsons remained connected to the new group and is being called executive chairman.

Little changed immediately, but Adelman has been dropping hints that the company is planning to go in a different direction. Not in terms of changing it's basic service of registering Internet domain names, but in presenting the overall image of the company to the public. Now, that change has begun.

Tuesday the New York Times confirmed that GoDaddy has hired a prestigious advertising agency called Deutsch New York to reshape the company's image. The rebranding will begin immediately with the first new TV commercials airing later this summer in sporting events including the Summer Olympics.

Click here to read the full story from New York Times media reporter Stuart Elliott.

The chief executive at Deutsch New York is quoted as saying GoDaddy did a "terrific job generating awareness." That same chief executive, who will now be in charge of the Internet company's new TV commercials, also called the older ads disruptive.

The chief executive of Deutsch New York, called one of the most powerful people in TV advertising, is a woman named Valerie DiFebo.

Elliott asked her to comment on the current GoDaddy ad campaign:

"As a woman, is it my favorite work?' she asked rhetorically, then replied, 'No.'

On the topic of the future of the GoDaddy Girls:

They "will still have a role, but more in balance with what the brand has to offer," said DiFebo.

On the theme of the new ads for the company:

"The ads will tell more of a story about GoDaddy's technology rather than entice consumers with appeals like 'To see more skin, click here,'" she added.

While Patrick and her management team have worked to broaden her commercial appeal, GoDaddy is the foundation that funded her current Nationwide Series ride and was said to be poised to continue that funding for a full time Sprint Cup Series team.

The immediate effect of this change in GoDaddy's philosophy and advertising is that Patrick's presence on TV will be reduced dramatically in just the next few weeks as the company shifts to the new commercials and image campaign. So no more body painting, dangling bikini's or veiled threats of nudity during NASCAR races.

The sport has seen a wide variety of sponsors come and go. The big question on the table is just how long Patrick's current GoDaddy contract is at this point and whether the rumored shift to the Sprint Cup Series next season is still in the works.

It won't make much sense for GoDaddy to play in NASCAR if the driver is not actively part of the company's rebranded ad campaign. This story has a lot more to be revealed over the next few weeks. Ironically, those words sound familiar.

We invite your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.

Oh No Daddy!

The images are burned into the minds of motorsports fans nationwide. Danica Patrick and her GoDaddy girlfriends pushing sexual innuendo across the TV screen. Danica and the stripping cop, Danica taking a shower and Danica joking about keeping her "beaver" safe are just a few of the tasteless offerings.

The engineer of the economic train that ultimately brought Patrick to NASCAR is Bob Parsons, the man pictured above. The founder of GoDaddy might be the ultimate creep to many, but like most self-made billionaires he sees himself as above it all. It's just a game to him driven by sales.

Last summer Parsons finally cashed out of GoDaddy in a deal that saw a group of private equity firms pay a total of $2.5 billion for the company. Parsons stepped aside from running the day-to-day operations and Warren Adelman became the company's new chief executive. Parsons remained connected to the new group and is being called executive chairman.

Little changed immediately, but Adelman has been dropping hints that the company is planning to go in a different direction. Not in terms of changing it's basic service of registering Internet domain names, but in presenting the overall image of the company to the public. Now, that change has begun.

Tuesday the New York Times confirmed that GoDaddy has hired a prestigious advertising agency called Deutsch New York to reshape the company's image. The rebranding will begin immediately with the first new TV commercials airing later this summer in sporting events including the Summer Olympics.

Click here to read the full story from New York Times media reporter Stuart Elliott.

The chief executive at Deutsch New York is quoted as saying GoDaddy did a "terrific job generating awareness." That same chief executive, who will now be in charge of the Internet company's new TV commercials, also called the older ads disruptive.

The chief executive of Deutsch New York, called one of the most powerful people in TV advertising, is a woman named Valerie DiFebo.

Elliott asked her to comment on the current GoDaddy ad campaign:

"As a woman, is it my favorite work?' she asked rhetorically, then replied, 'No.'

On the topic of the future of the GoDaddy Girls:

They "will still have a role, but more in balance with what the brand has to offer," said DiFebo.

On the theme of the new ads for the company:

"The ads will tell more of a story about GoDaddy's technology rather than entice consumers with appeals like 'To see more skin, click here,'" she added.

While Patrick and her management team have worked to broaden her commercial appeal, GoDaddy is the foundation that funded her current Nationwide Series ride and was said to be poised to continue that funding for a full time Sprint Cup Series team.

The immediate effect of this change in GoDaddy's philosophy and advertising is that Patrick's presence on TV will be reduced dramatically in just the next few weeks as the company shifts to the new commercials and image campaign. So no more body painting, dangling bikini's or veiled threats of nudity during NASCAR races.

The sport has seen a wide variety of sponsors come and go. The big question on the table is just how long Patrick's current GoDaddy contract is at this point and whether the rumored shift to the Sprint Cup Series next season is still in the works.

It won't make much sense for GoDaddy to play in NASCAR if the driver is not actively part of the company's rebranded ad campaign. This story has a lot more to be revealed over the next few weeks. Ironically, those words sound familiar.

We invite your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.   

The NASCAR Hashtag Aftermath

There they were, sitting in a San Francisco conference room sipping hotel coffee and waiting to curate your tweets. Sunday marked the first partnership between NASCAR and social media company Twitter. The group pictured here was the Twitter task force assembled to handle the project.

Simply put, Twitter created a page where anyone searching #NASCAR on Sunday was sent. Rather than seeing a list of relevant tweets as usual, those searching were redirected to a "landing page" where the group above coordinated the content. While not exactly a social media hijacking, it certainly was a redirecting of content for a purpose. So, what was the purpose?

During the race, Twitter aired a series of seven TV commercials promoting the partnership. Each 15 second commercial spot reinforced the direct link between NASCAR and the social media company. What the ads effectively did was specifically promote the newly designated hashtag (landing) page.

"The spots that aired on Sunday seem designed to show advertisers that hashtags can potentially be a useful branding tool and not merely a pop-culture phenomenon," said Cotton Delo in Ad Age. "It's further evidence of Twitter's desire to be the platform advertisers turn to when they're looking to execute promotions around major live events such as the Super Bowl or the Oscars."

The keyword from the quote above is advertisers. During the live race, sponsored tweets appeared on the hashtag page for ticket sales to NASCAR races. Sponsored tweets are Twitter's form of advertising. So when NASCAR indicates that the organization has a partnership with Twitter, the bottom line is that NASCAR can use the social media service for various advertising purposes.

"Twitter wants to be the destination for users who wish to engage with a certain brand," writes Ryan Lawler at TechCrunch. "That's what's so brilliant about #NASCAR and what we can only assume will be future hashtag landing pages. The brands themselves don't have to actually create anything new. Because at the end of the day, there's nothing better than getting your biggest fans to promote your brand for you."

In other words, what NASCAR did was encourage teams, sponsors and others (including media members) to create content on Sunday aimed specifically at the landing page. It didn't cost NASCAR a penny to produce and the attraction of being included on the hashtag page had the tweets flying.

Ultimately, the only remaining issue on the table is whether or not money is changing hands between NASCAR and Twitter for this project. While that information is not public, this excerpt from the Ad Age article may tell the tale.

"Twitter declined to comment on how much it's charging for event (hashtag) pages," said Delo. "But precedent suggests that they'll be available to major advertising partners at the outset. Its roll-out of brand pages last year was reportedly for marketers who had committed to spend a minimum of $2 million on Twitter's suite of ad products, such as promoted tweets."

There you have it. An interesting social media project with all kinds of twists along the way. Twitter looking for revenue, NASCAR looking for exposure and fans reading "curated" content from guys in black t-shirts. At lease we hope the coffee was hot.

We invite your opinion on this topic. Coments may be moderated prior to posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Race Wrap: NASCAR On TNT From Pocono

Things were busy in the TNT production truck as the network returned to NASCAR coverage at Pocono.

Adam Alexander hosted the pre-race show with Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds. TNT made a decision not to hire a host to replace Lindsay Czarniak, who departed for ESPN SportsCenter duties after last season.

The plus side is TNT spent less money, but the downside will come when there is a rain delay or long red flag. The only person remaining in the infield is Larry McReynolds standing by his cut-a-way car. As these six races roll by we may see a TV veteran like Ralph Sheheen moved from pit road to the infield host position if something like this happens. Luckily, the weather was great and there were no long delays.

The one hour pre-race show featured a segment with Jimmie Johnson, Bill Elliott and Ned Jarrett talking about NASCAR topics. Rather than just one interviewer, there were several TNT folks involved. It took time away from Elliott and Jarrett, two personalities who are not heard from much on the TV side.

Needless to say, there was an ill-timed and pre-recorded promo for the Lizard Lick Towing TV series that airs on Turner sister network TruTV. This scripted reality show exists on the deception that any of the content or characters are real. TNT executives call it "actuality TV."

Alexander was paired again this season with Petty and Wally Dallenbach Jr. in the booth. It's a crew that likes to offer opinion, but is sometimes slow to jump on activity or incidents on the track. All three seem to sometimes be looking at the TV monitor and not "out the window."

Chris Neville returned as a pit road reporter along with veterans Ralph Sheheen, Matt Yocum and Marty Snider. TNT uses pit reporters much more than FOX and that was certainly true in this telecast. There was a little delay in explaining the early speeding penalties, but finally Sheheen went to the NASCAR hauler and got a map of the new timing lines.

TNT produces a wider race and keeps a broader perspective than FOX. The tone in the booth focuses on the race and there are few personal stories from Petty. McReynolds was actively involved throughout the telecast and continued his best role as a strategist.

A series of late cautions allowed some drama to build, but TNT strangely chose to play a dated Denny Hamlin soundbite with only seven laps to go and the race under green. Alexander should have been calling the play by play and building the drama. The final laps looked great, but lacked the excitement that Alexander should have been providing. This race ended with a thud from the announcers.

TNT also offers the RaceBuddy application online and does an extended post-race online at the NASCAR.com website. There are no side by side commercials until the Daytona race and the Wide Open coverage. There were no technical problems.

We invite your comments on the TNT coverage of the Sprint Cup Series from Pocono. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

NASCAR On TNT Returns At Pocono

Pocono is sometimes in need of a little excitement, so this year NASCAR brought in Vanilla Ice to drive the pace car. What could go wrong?

TNT returns with some familiar faces and one very interesting decision. Instead of hiring a host for the infield stage, the network chose to use Adam Alexander to host both the one hour Countdown to Green show and the live race. Previous host Lindsay Czarniak left and is a studio anchor for SportsCenter on ESPN.

Alexander will be joined in the infield by Larry McReynolds and Kyle Petty for the pre-race show. He and Petty will then move upstairs while McReynolds moves into a new Tech Garage setting. Wally Dallenback Jr. will be the third man in the TV booth as he has been from the start of the TNT run.

On pit road for the second season will be Chris Neville, best known for his sports car coverage on SPEED. Veterans Ralph Sheheen, Matt Yocum and Marty Snider round-out the pit reporter corps.

TNT brings RaceBuddy back to the Sprint Cup Series. The network will also be integrating social media into the telecasts this season. Twitter looks like it will be the emphasis. The pre-race show will have several features including one with Jimmie Johnson, Bill Elliott and Ned Jarrett talking about NASCAR issues.

We will be using the #TDP1 hashtag on Twitter to host a live stream of chat that has all kinds of media and NASCAR personalities involved. If you are not on Twitter, come on over and give it a try. We welcome your comments here and will post a full race TV review for your comments once things are done at Pocono.

As always, thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

It was 1967 when the Captain at the prison farm had just about enough of Cool Hand Luke's antics. Between eating 50 hard boiled eggs in an hour on a bet to hustling through a black-topping job to have the rest of the afternoon off, it was clear that the man pictured above was bucking the system.

After an ill-fated escape attempt, the Captain uttered the now famous movie line that has come to define a fundamental difference in understanding.

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to speak with a Twitter executive by phone. In a pleasant conversation we discussed the new #NASCAR hashtag features coming to Twitter this weekend. My questions were fundamental and his answers made a lot of sense. Click here to read the column that followed.

Thursday the new #NASCAR hashtag "landing page" was rolled out by Twitter as a preview of the weekend's new project. This page is where NASCAR and the media are pointing both users and non-users of Twitter for Sunday's race.

Click here to visit the page.

What was relayed to me was that the "landing page" would continue to carry #NASCAR fan tweets and be embellished with additional content from Twitter's own socia media producer. Thursday the stream was simply a restricted flow of tweets from NASCAR personalities, sponsors and media members.

What was also confirmed to me in the phone interview was that this new page would contain no advertising. Thursday afternoon a "promoted tweet" was featured at the very top of the page. From Ebay Motors to Dove Care for Men, there was a consistent advertising presence coordinated by Twitter as the very first item any user would see with every view.

Sprinkled throughout the #NASCAR stream during the day were seemingly random references to Twitter as a marketing tool. Each of these tweets somehow ended with the identical hashtag of #Twitter4brands. One click on that opened a coordinated Twitter marketing stream and yet another "promoted tweet." Twitter was placing the #Twitter4brands content in the new #NASCAR stream.

One of the aspects of Twitter that makes it so appealing for fans like me is the ability to use it quickly on a smart phone. In addition to my own timeline, the ability to search the #NASCAR hashtag has become the quickest way to broaden my information on the sport in a flash.

Thursday, the Twitter mobile app on my android phone redirected the #NASCAR hashtag search to the controlled stream. That was not in the original discussion and did not result in the information I desired.

Finally, the interesting point of the new and controlled #NASCAR hashtag stream was not the content that was included, but the content that was excluded. After a colorful night at the Prelude PPV telecast, there were plenty of fans talking about topics that did not include Pocono racing or the new hashtag project. 

In my phone conversation, it was made clear that fan tweets on NASCAR hot topics being discussed would be included in the new coordinated stream. Nothing could be further from what was presented.

Click here to read the latest NASCAR media release on this project. Here is an excerpt:

Twitter.com/#NASCAR showcases the best Tweets and photos from NASCAR insiders in an effort to bring the behind-the-scenes story to life for fans during race weekends. The page includes Tweets from drivers, pit crew members, families, media, NASCAR representatives and other industry constituencies like race tracks and sponsors.

Fans also have an opportunity to see their Tweets featured.

Using a combination of sophisticated algorithmic signals and Twitter's editorial curation, Twitter.com/#NASCAR features the highest quality, most engaging content about the race and NASCAR. Behind-the-scenes photos, exclusive content and innovative and original Tweets will likely have the best chance of being featured on this new live event page.

It's important to remember that individual timelines are unaffected, that Twitter still makes the raw #NASCAR search available and that users like me are getting this service for free. But that is not the issue on the table.

If this is a coordinated marketing effort by Twitter and NASCAR, then just say it. If this is a starting point for driving advertising revenue, focused product agendas and the brand marketing of the sport that's just fine. Twitter and NASCAR have the perfect right to do just that.

It just seems ironic that the one element elminated from this new content stream on Thursday was the fans. After hearing the theory and now seeing the reality, it really does seem that what we have here is a failure to communicate.

If you are a Twitter user and have an opinion on this topic, we would like to hear it. Comments may be moderate prior to posting.