Attrition: <b>November 11, 2004</b>

November 11, 2004

The U.S. Army will be the exclusive military sponsor of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), the latest in a series of professional sports sponsorships the U.S. Army Accessions Command (USAAC) has signed. The Army will participate in PBR pre-event activities and get advertising exposure on all PBR properties, including its website. PBR is also throwing in tickets for some recruits. Over 100 million viewers per year tune in to watch PBR bull-riding events in English and Spanish. The organization has more than 600 athletes competing in 100 competitions.

For 2004, the Army has committed $40 million out its total advertising budget of around $212 million to sports marketing sponsorships. The Army has been a long-time sponsor of NASCAR racing and was proud to announce that it had backed winners in Top Fuel dragster racing, Pro Stock Bikes, and a weekend NASCAR Nextel Cup race (with the NASCAR win all the sweeter as they beat the Air Force and National Guard-sponsored cars). They support their sponsorship with a traveling exhibition filled with the latest Army equipment, including uniforms and weapons; the display fills four semi-trailers and covers 12,000 square feet. The Army's tab for the NASCAR sponsorship is "under $10 million."

Even the cash-strapped Marine Corps spends $3.5 million out of their $46 million advertising budget to sponsor a car in NASCAR. The Marines estimate that the NASCAR sponsorship provides the same exposure as $15 million in traditional television advertising.

NASCAR racing has around 75 million fans with 60 percent of them men. Around 11 percent of them are 18-24 years old and another 21 percent are 25-34 roughly a snapshot of America's population. NASCAR sponsors pay between $6 to $16 million a year to sponsor a car and get the rights to use the NASCAR name in promotions, create a unique logo. Sponsors use NASCAR to build brand awareness. It doesn't hurt that NASCAR has signed a six year, $2.4 billion TV deal. Doug Mohney