The Daytona 500 is considered the Super Bowl of NASCAR races. So Best Buy's sponsorship of the victorious driver is a big deal, yes?
Well, sort of.
Just before midnight Monday night, Matt Kenseth of Roush Racing crossed the finished line at Daytona International Speedway to win his second Daytona 500 title.
More than 12 hours later, Best Buy issued a press release congratulating Kenseth, a driver it agreed to sponsor just last December, on his victory.
I'm not a marketing expert but 12 hours seems like an awful long time to acknowledge your driver just won the most prestigious race on NASCAR's top tier Sprint Cup circuit. Yet there's still no mention of the victory on Best Buy's home page or its news website.
To be fair, Best Buy's Facebook and Twitter accounts were ablaze with Kenseth's victory. And the retailer plans to follow up on the triumph with advertisements and possibly some store events in the weeks ahead.
But given the cost of a sponsorship, which runs easily into the millions of dollars, and the prestige of the Daytona 500, one would expect Best Buy to milk that sucker for all it's worth.
Perhaps Kenseth should hawk some iPads and smart phones out of his #17 Ford race car.
