Atlanta Motor Speedway Embracing Southern Roots With New Branding Campaign
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| Embracing their southern roots |
After the much ballyhooed success of Darlington Raceway’s Tradition Returns throwback weekend last year, Atlanta Motor Speedway this year is rolling out a not-too-dissimilar branding campaign entitled “Classic Southern" that plays off the SMI-owned track’s own historical roots. While the “Classic Southern" campaign from AMS does not attempt to rival the scope of the ISC-owned Darlington’s throwback extravaganza — which featured things like throwback paint schemes on cars and significant buy-in from broadcaster NBC Sports Group — it does feature some similar elements.
As part of the campaign, AMS will roll out a range of Georgia-based concessionary items in conjunction with concessionaire Levy Restaurants. These include what will be the signature item: Georgia peanut butter and jelly milkshakes; Coca-Cola wings, grits and chili; Cherry Coke pulled pork sandwiches; Brunswick stew and cornbread; Georgia peach cobbler; and boiled Georgia peanuts. AMS will also install murals on the concourse that show off the track’s history.
Track President & GM Ed Clark said, “I don’t know that I would call it throwback — it really refers to the culture and history and that southern hospitality. We’ve had more 500-mile races (than any other track in NASCAR), and that’s something we’re pretty proud of. We’re proud of our history and tradition in NASCAR."
The campaign will include a specific initiative for AMS employees to show more "southern hospitality" by doing things like having fixed signage that welcomes fans and having employees wear buttons with similar wording (“Thanks, y'all, for coming,"). The track has also shot a TV spot featuring the father-son combo of Bill and Chase Elliott entitled “One Foot In The Past, And One On The Gas."
TEMPERATURE CHECK: AMS made some waves last year when it unveiled a ticket promotion where fans can skip the race if the temperature on raceday fails to exceed 50 degrees and get full credit on a ’17 race at AMS instead. Clark said the track would "not be doing this thing if it was a 50/50 chance that the temperatures would be below 50 degrees." Clark: "I think there’s a 12% chance. So we didn’t just go off our rocker. … At least it lets people know that if something happens and you can’t get here, you don’t lose your hard-earned money. That’s what we try to do, is take some of that risk for them. We’ll find out how smart we are in February but either way we’re giving the fans assurances and backing it up. Our company is kind of willing to go out on a limb to make sure we take care of our fans." Adam Stern/Sportsbusinessdaily.com