While last year’s data is useful for benchmarking, racing has already begun for some series in 2021. NASCAR’s flagship event, the Daytona 500, kicked off the season on 14 February. We tracked the drivers, teams, venue, and NASCAR accounts on social media to evaluate the impact for brands invested in the series and event. In total, there were over 5,000 posts by the 50+ entities being tracked during the period of 8 February to 17 February, 2021. 

Social Sponsorship Highlights

# of Posts: 5,840
Total Interactions (Likes, Comments, Shares): 7.9M
Total Video Views: 76.7M

% of Posts That Included Brand Promotion: 40%
Average Promotion Quality: 5.6%
Realized Sponsorship Value (AAV): $1.7M

Top Brands

As always, we start the analysis by looking at the brands involved. NASCAR’s official tire sponsor Goodyear came out on top across multiple categories, including most branded posts received and most sponsorship value received. When comparing the results in 2021 to 2020, there are some clear trends. The same 5 brands received the most branded posts, though Ford and Sunoco swapped places in 2021. Love’s Travel Shops led all brands* by average promotion quality last year, receiving nearly the exact same Avg. PQ as it did in 2021 at 41.7% in 2020. Only two of the top 5 brands from 2020 by AAV remained in the top 5 in 2021, Bass Pro Shops and Coca-Cola. Monster Energy (8th in 2021), Toyota (12th in 2021), and Sunoco (16th in 2021) all saw reduced value from the 2021 running of the Daytona 500. 

Most Branded Posts

Brand# of Branded Posts
Goodyear598
Ford591
Sunoco480
Chevrolet474
Toyota335

Highest Average Promotion Quality (PQ)*

BrandAvg. PQ
Verizon48.6%
Armor All46.6%
Love’s Travel Stops41.6%
Speedco39.2%
DeWalt36.7%

*minimum 10 branded posts, $10k AAV

Top Brands By Sponsorship Value (AAV) Received

  1. Goodyear
  2. Bass Pro Shops
  3. Coca-Cola
  4. Busch Beer
  5. Love’s Travel Shops

Top Sports Properties

Performance on the track doesn’t always translate to performance on social media. None of the top 5 drivers by finishing position made the top 5 properties by sponsorship value, though Chase Elliott’s team, Hendrick Motorsports, did. When reviewing these Top 5s below, keep in mind that top drivers typically have more followers than their teams, but the teams post more frequently than drivers. 

Most Social Interactions (Likes, Comments, Shares)

NameTotal Interactions
NASCAR3.4M
Chip Ganassi Racing626k
Hendrick Motorsports374k
Kyle Busch263k
Chase Elliott200k

Most Social Video Views

NameTotal Video Views
NASCAR61M
Chip Ganassi Racing5.7M
Michael McDowell1.2M
Team Penske1.0M
Hendrick Motorsports775k

Highest Average Promotion Quality (PQ)*

NameAvg. PQ
Roush Fenway Racing52.5%
Bubba Wallace51%
Kyle Busch47.3%
Denny Hamlin43.8%
Richard Petty Motorsports43.5%

*minimum 5 branded posts

Top Sports Properties by AAV

  1. NASCAR
  2. Hendrick Motorsports
  3. Martin Truex Jr.
  4. Joey Logano
  5. Team Penske

Want more data? Let us know how we can help: insights@hookit.com