IHOP already had Amazon Prime Video and Thursday Night Football on its sponsorship plate, but it wanted to sweeten the proposition by targeting young families on the go. With that in mind, Amazon pointed out that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NASCAR had room in the passenger seat for another brand.
NASCAR’s new $7.7 billion rights deal with Amazon, NBC Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox kicks off for Amazon on May 25 when it airs the Coca-Cola 600 out of Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s the first of a five-race series for Amazon stretching into late June that’s seen the company nearly sell out of inventory for NASCAR on Prime Video and create a two-box commercial format for the whole season so sponsors don’t have to break into race coverage.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s four-part documentary about the Earnhardt racing family—”Earnhardt”—debuted today ahead of the first race on Prime.
From personal experience, Lenna Yamamichi, IHOP’s vp of brand creative, saw an opportunity to meet busy families on the move through streaming.
“I am a huge fantasy football fan, and 10 years ago, I used to not leave the house on Sundays, which meant the kids were at home and I couldn’t interact with them because Mommy had to sit in front of the TV,” Yamamichi said. “So now that we’re on the go, I can go to Disneyland with the family, and also have my streaming property.”
Earlier this year, Jay Johns—a six-year IHOP president, and 16-year veteran of IHOP parent company Dine Brands—announced his retirement and succession as IHOP’s leader by former Yum! Brands chief innovation officer Lawrence Kim. That made Yamamichi and her team take a look at their ad spending, where they saw that they had the back half of the upfront to spend with Amazon.
Seeing a trend at the last upfront toward streaming live sports, IHOP approached Amazon with a brief and partnered with them. Amazon came back with seven ideas, one of them being NASCAR.