As a part of its continued mission to be NASCAR’s premier racing team, Roush Fenway Racing has increased the marketing resources available to the team’s partners through the addition of six new hires and the creation of a new department focused on delivering incremental value to team sponsors.
The new personnel bring to Roush Fenway areas of expertise including brand marketing, event marketing, television production, digital engagement, NFL player representation and retail activation.
“We’re talking to our partners and fans this year about how driven our teams are to win races and championships,” said RFR president Steve Newmark. “That drive to be the best extends beyond the racetrack to the men and women in our organization who work with our world-class partners. We’ve added personnel and equipment to improve our ability to perform on the track for the 2013 race season, and in a similar way we’ve increased our resources for our partners to be able to win at retail and in the boardroom.”
Included in RFR’s new hires is marketing and industry veteran Mike Mooney, as vice president of partnership development. Mooney boasts over 20 years of strategic brand activation and creative marketing experience, most recently serving as vice president of motorsports at The Marketing Arm, Sport’s Business Journal’s “Sports Marketing Agency of the Year” in 2012. During his impressive career, the Elon University graduate has led marketing efforts for Fortune 500 companies such as Sprint Nextel, Walmart, Tylenol, Sunoco, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Daimler-Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz.
Mooney joins a staff led by SVP of business development Pete Thuresson, whose team renewed nine team partners at the close of the 2012 season – representing a 100% renewal rate for the organization during the off-season. In addition to the renewals, Roush Fenway recently announced its newest partner, World Financial Group, would be joining the fold through a primary sponsorship of Trevor Bayne for multiple races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
In addition, the business development department has brought in Garrett Hess as an account executive. Hess moves to RFR from K Sports & Entertainment in Boston where his was Sponsorship Sales Manager and an athlete liaison.
“With the introduction of the new Gen-6 cars, our race teams experienced their busiest and most productive ‘off-season’ in history,” said Thuresson. “By securing all nine of the nine partners up for renewal, adding a new partner and growing our internal team, the same can be said for our marketing staff. It’s been a whirlwind of activity across the entire organization leading up to this season.”
In addition to the new personnel is the creation of a strategic marketing department focused on delivering incremental value to team partners through ideation and execution of activation, digital and public relations channels. This team is led by industry veterans Kevin Thomas, Amber Darnell and Kevin Woods, who represent nearly 40 years of NASCAR marketing experience. A season-long marketing platform titled “Driven” has already been launched as part of the effort.
As one of its first moves, the strategic marketing department added Yasin Id-Deen as Social and Digital Marketing Manager. Id-Deen bringsa strong background in brand marketing and online engagement,and will be tasked with ramping up the team’s social and digital efforts with a goal of bolstering fan engagement, establishing continued brand identity and increasing partner value in the digital space.
The team also bolstered its talent and diversity, bringing on television production veteran Rob DiFranco and former Octagon coordinator Amanda Weis as account/pr managers in its sponsor operations department.
RFR PR
