When you see the Daytona 500 race by on your screen, you’ll see the artwork of a local man and a local company or two.
David Marrero finds sponsors for race cars and designs the car wraps. He says each race yields a different result for clients’ visibility, depending on a number of circumstances. When a car wins a race, gets in a crash, or features a particularly outrageous design, they can go viral on air and through social media.
For example, Marrero designed a car for Old Spice in a past race. The company wanted to feature a dry shampoo spray.
“We came with the crazy idea, why don’t we have the car have hair, all over the car, and we put the driver’s face on the whole front of the car. That sucker went viral the minute it got announced. The people at the shop who put the car wrap on, they had to cut the teeth of the driver because the grill goes there,” he said.
Marrero lets inspiration from the brand lead the way in his creativity. He says it’s a great lesson for businesses: when you have fun with your marketing, your customers will respond.
“I try to make things pop, I try to catch peoples' attentions with certain things. I try to utilize the company’s colors in doing other aspect so then they’ll say mmm, I never thought of that before, that car looks great,” he said.
Marrero returned from military service in Afghanistan and found this work was a perfect way to combine time in a sport he loved with his education in marketing and business.
“If you think outside the box and find ways to get fans engaged, and get everybody to pay attention to you, at the end of the day, more people will call and say, yeah, are you the one who did the crazy design on the car? We want in!”
Marrero says the right car designs are even more important for the on-air and online audience, given regular audiences are not allowed to attend the races.
“NASCAR fans are the most loyal to brand out of any other sport, when they see something on the car they want to look it up, they want to buy it, they want to get involved. It doesn’t matter what team it is.”
The Daytona 500 will air Sunday, Feb. 14 on WFLX FOX 29.