Pocono 500 - Derrike Cope Notes

Cope, Friendly’s Finding Off-Track NASCAR Success

Family company, family sport successfully combine

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. - Working towards success on the race track as well as off, Derrike Cope and the #37 Friendly’s Chevrolet team head to the 2.5-mile, triangular-shaped Pocono (Pa.) International Raceway this week for Sunday’s Pocono 500.

Off the track, Cope and Friendly’s are carrying a good bit of success. The “Ultimate Race Fan” sweepstakes and games available at www.friendlys.com have been hugely popular among motorsports fans. For Friendly’s Ice Cream Company, which is running the promotion through its Friendly’s restaurants and Friendly’s Ice Cream products, the results are more than gratifying.

“For Friendly’s, motorsports is a marketing vehicle. For our team, motorsports is a way of life,” said Cope, a former Daytona 500 winner.

“For us to be able to race, Friendly’s needs success through our race car. So if we are going to be successful, Friendly’s has to be successful,” he said. “Anybody who looks at corporate sponsorship in motorsports any other way is just fooling himself.”

Cope teamed with Friendly’s for several NASCAR Winston Cup races this season. The company is obviously most focused on its marketing base around the northeastern U.S., mid-Atlantic states and some midwest and Florida areas. Friendly’s Ice Cream, a family restaurant company serving signature sandwiches, entrees and ice cream desserts, is sponsoring Cope’s #37 Chevrolet this week at Pocono, and has at least two other events planned for which it will be the primary sponsor. Friendly’s also sponsored Cope in the season-opening Daytona 500, May’s Richmond 400, last week’s Dover 400, and has appeared on the car in selected other early-season events.

“Friendly’s has jumped on motorsports and pursued some unique and creative marketing initiatives,” Cope said. “The ‘Ultimate Race Fan’ sweepstakes at www.friendlys.com has been pretty successful for them. They are preparing to announce a second fan promotion involving kids, and that is going to be a huge hit as well.

“This is the type of thing NASCAR racing needs - family companies marketing to families through our sport,” Cope added. “Friendly’s knows it needs to continue building its customer base, and racing needs to do the same thing. By bringing in younger customers, by exciting them and giving them something fun to do, it helps all of us.

“Marketing through NASCAR became successful because companies realized the importance of the fans. Forget the customer and you’re sunk. Friendly’s keeps the customer at the forefront all of the time, and we do that with our race team as well. That’s the key to success,” he added.

Cope is considered one of the top business minds among drivers and owners in the sport. Winner of the 1990 Daytona 500 and one of a handful of veteran drivers with multiple wins in the major leagues of stock car racing, he also has background as a television commentator and does commercials through an endorsement with Avocor. Great Barrier Reef Online and nextstudent.com have sponsored his car at times this season, and a San Francisco-based sponsor is expected to be announced in the near future.

“You have to show these companies the value. There has to be a return on investment,” Cope said. “Every time I stand in front of a board of directors or a corporate chairman, I have to keep that in the front of my mind. These people got there because they know business. If I can show them how sponsoring my race team is good for their business, they are going to jump on board, no matter what they think about racing personally. But if I can’t show them that, no matter how much they like it, they aren’t going to do it.”

For Friendly’s, Cope found the right approach.

“Friendly’s is a family-oriented company and NASCAR is a family-oriented sport. The demographics are so similar that becoming a sponsor and getting involved was just a great fit. This sponsorship fulfills a marketing objective of increasing brand awareness for Friendly’s. We believe Friendly’s and Quest Motor Racing make a formidable team,” said Peter E. Bell, Senior Director, Marketing for Friendly’s.

This year, two major promotions are planned around the races, including the one successfully up and running at www.friendlys.com, which allows race fans to win major prizes, including an all-expense paid weekend with Cope and the race team at a race later this season. A second promotion is expected to be announced within the next week.

“We want race fans to see the ‘Friendly’s’ on the side of our car and realize they are supporters of our sport,” Cope said. “If they haven’t eaten at Friendly’s lately, we want them to go inside and try it. My feeling is once they eat there, they will be back. The food is great, the service is great and it’s a place for families.

“Families is what our sport is all about. We need more family-type, family-supportive companies like Friendly’s involved in our sport, and we’re working towards doing that,” he added.

Friendly Ice Cream Corporation is a vertically integrated restaurant company serving signature sandwiches, entrees and ice cream desserts in a friendly, family environment in more than 550 company and franchised restaurants throughout the Northeast. The company also manufactures ice cream, which is distributed through more than 3,500 supermarkets and other retail locations. With a 67-year operating history, Friendly’s enjoys strong brand recognition and is currently revitalizing its restaurants and introducing new products to grow its customer base. Additional information on Friendly Ice Cream Corporation can be found on the company’s website (www.friendlys.com).

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