Andy has had a number of partners through the years in Motorsports and has learned there is one important key in any form of Motorsports marketing—activation. Activation is the process of getting the partner involved on a one on one basis with the teams, fans, and series. A logo on the car is simply the icing on the cake. The real benefit and value in Motorsports marketing happens off of the actual racing surface.

The first important goal that Andy, LLC sets with its partners are what sort of interaction it wants to have at the race track. This is most often accomplished through hospitality. Hospitality can be a lot of different things to a lot of different companies, as with anything in racing, it is an open book, completely customizable to each companies objectives and goals. Quite often Andy and his company will host hospitality events for roughly 50 people per event. Each hospitality program is at a venue that is convenient if not strategic for the sponsor where the sponsor has the opportunity to entertain, promote, and negotiate with its business partners away from the board room. Remember the sticker on the car? That is key right now. Now when company A and company B are together at the hospitality event talking about a potential deal while watching the races, they have something in common, one car for them both to cheer for with their logos on it. Something to have in common and to rally around, together.

A very important tool for any company is interaction. The last time you were at a pro baseball or football game, how many players did you get to go up to and meet? How many players let you see all of their equipment, hold it, feel it, try it on for size? The answer is more than likely zero. With Motorsports, especially in sports car racing, the teams and drivers have heavy interaction with the sponsors and fans. Getting a VIP tour of the team and car is something unique to racing and the fan interaction with drivers is something that makes memories.

Grand-Am is entering it's tenth season of competition, and in that time has achieved its goal of returning stability to North American road racing. With that, it is regarded as one of the world's fastest growing motorsport organizations. Based in Daytona Beach, FL, home of it's premier race: the 24 Hours at Daytona, it is in geographical company with NASCAR HQ, Daytona Speedway, and International Speedway Corporation. Though Grand-Am offers a completely different product in the form of extremely close sports car racing seen on historic tracks, street circuits, as well as major market speedways shared with NASCAR.

If the consistent increase of attendance (up 20%) and television viewership (up 14%), isn't enough to validate the growth, and the advantage of taking part in the series. The recent purchase of Grand-Am, by NASCAR, is only going to increase, the marketing and branding prowess of the series. With this purchase taking place in the offseason before the 2009 year, this is the opportunity to take advantage of this new found partnership, and all of the benefits that come with it. Grand-Am is a viable force in the sporting world, boasting a season longer than any other major sport in the United States, and has a fairly balanced demographic in terms of age and education. Though the majority of viewers and attendees are male, a surprising 40% are female. The most popular sports car among Grand-Am fans is a Porsche, and the average fan clears $75,000 annual income.

The season opening Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona starts its broadcast on network TV (Fox). In addition to the excellent television coverage of the series, there is a real celebrity status as well. Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy star) is a regular competitor, as well as the late Paul Newman. Other stars to have their presence in Motorsports include Tom Cruise, Randy Moss (team owner), Troy Aikman (team owner), and many others. This really adds to the credibility of Motorsports and the business potential it has. Furthermore, the location of the races for sports car racing covers all of North America (USA east to west coast, Canada, and Mexico) as well as delivering a product that the every day person can relate to—Speed and cars that look like the same ones they drive on the street.

Lastly, the business to business opportunities within Motorsports are endless. Whether it is meeting another company at a hospitality event or even being able to find your own niche product for the Motorsports world, Grand-Am racing packs a powerful punch (over $1,000,000 of funds put into local economy at each event) to improve the business of anyone.