+ Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Each year, the Indianapolis community embraces the energy, tradition, and excitement of the Month of May. Passion and anticipation for the Indy 500, however, can overshadow the rest of the month’s events: INDYCAR Grand Prix, Practice, Qualifications, Carb Day, and Legends Day all struggle to break through, earn attention and generate attendance. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway needed to sell tickets to all events throughout May — including the Indy 500. So MKR needed to develop a strategy that leveraged interest in the 500 to build excitement for IMS’ entire Month of May calendar.

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Solution

We proposed promoting the entire Month of May as a state of mind, with numerous reasons to join the excitement — culminating in the world’s largest single-day sporting event, the Indianapolis 500. We developed a standout creative platform based on the emotional benefits of the entire month of May in Indiana — coupled with insight into motivations and unmet needs of the Race Attendee (20%) and Entertainment Seeker (80%) segments who comprise the target audience.

Outcome

The Month of May media campaign was also two-phased. Phase One’s goal was awareness and kicked off with television spots in the Super Bowl in several Indiana DMAs, as well as a corresponding social media campaign. The Indianapolis market also saw our newspaper manifesto ad the day of the Super Bowl and the following week. Television, outdoor, social, and digital continued to air in the Indianapolis market throughout the months of February and March. Phase Two’s main KPI was ticket sales. Based on IMS’s ticket sales data, we were able to plan the schedules during key sales periods. Each event, race and concert had its own specific media plan executed to reach its specific demographic and geographic target. A combination of television, radio, outdoor, social, digital (including streaming audio and connected TV), and print were utilized. MKR also worked with broadcast stations across the state of Indiana on trade, and secured over $500,000 in additional media support through trade and promotions, at a ratio of 3:1.