As a business coach, I recently found myself watching the NASCAR Daytona 500 through a different set of eyes than those of my diehard fan of a husband. Even though I am not a devout follower of the sport myself, I could not help but watch now and then when they were flying around the speedway at 200 mph. I really wanted the race to end so we could move on but there is something about a spectacular crash towards the end of the race that you cannot turn away from for some reason!

However, I found myself noticing several other very interesting things while watching the race with my business coach glasses on. Branding and marketing are critical to a business owner’s success and the consistent things I noticed this weekend before, after and during the race are lessons I think all of us can learn from when it comes to our brands and marketing.

Here are some of my key takeaways from the Daytona 500:

1. The winner, Denny Hamlin, became the first NASCAR driver to sign with the Jordan brand back in 2011. Today the Jumpman logo can be found on Denny’s uniform belt, back, shoulders, racing gloves and shoes. All of these locations have prominent positioning for camera angles especially when Denny was being photographed with his arms crossed over his middle right above his uniform belt or when he was standing on the side of the car in the winner’s circle with his hands high over his head. The Jumpman logo was also prominently featured on both of his shoulders when he was being interviewed and none of that happens by chance. You can be darn sure that since the Jordan Brand has paid handsomely as a sponsor, they are going to be sure the brand was front and center as positioning is one of the key rules of great branding and marketing.

The Jordan Brand is only one of Denny’s sponsors and he has a number of other ones with FedEx being his major sponsor. This is just one example of what the car owner, Joe Gibbs Racing, does to elevate their brands and marketing.

2. Some companies pay big bucks to sponsor the cars and drivers so they want to make sure they get the exposure they are shelling the dollars out for. I watched with interest how the drivers held their refreshment bottles when they were out of the cars, always conscious to have the entire label front facing. On Friday evening we watched the winner of the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race, Austin Hill, in the winner’s circle doing what is referred to as the ‘hat dance’ where he kept changing the ball cap on his head only long enough for a quick picture to be taken!
3. I also took note as to how much media training the drivers and crew have obviously been through. My publicist insisted I go through media training, and one of the key things I was taught was to make sure to get your top two or three points of view out of your mouth right at the beginning of speaking. If there is a crisis, anywhere, you will be out of the picture so fast your head will spin. I listened to the drivers being interviewed through the good, the bad and the ugly and even if they were not happy with the outcome of the race or they had wrecked, all of them were quick to thank their sponsors for their support and their teams for keeping their cars running smoothly. Speaking well and being camera ready is another key strategy when it comes to one’s branding and marketing.
4. The other thing I noticed was what was going on inside the cars, and I do not mean just with the driver. Every inch of available space was covered with a sponsor’s brand! With the on-board cameras and the ability to talk with the drivers these days, there is a lot more focus on the inside of the cars. It has opened up a completely new market for other sponsorship opportunities and believe me, sponsoring companies and NASCAR are making use of every inch of branding and marketing space there is available.

As I confessed earlier, I am not a devout fan of racing but I have a new appreciation for the lessons we can learn as business owners. In the busy world of trying to make our brand and marketing be seen and heard, instead of living in our own box we need to raise our heads up and take notice of a whole new world of ideas and possibilities.

Therefore, I challenge you to put on your business owner glasses the next time you look at the world to be aware of and open to discovering how you can take something you have seen elsewhere to expand your creativity and elevate your branding and marketing to a new level.