'Everything the Indy 500 is about': The conception and payoff of IMS' Olympic commercial
Indianapolis — What eventually became the centerpiece of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s promotion campaign for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 sat dormant on a computer for almost a year.
As society crawled out of the initial lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, IMS was set to bring fans back to the 500 in 2021 after the stands were empty for the race the previous August. IMS content producer Zach Horrall wrote a script for a promotional video welcoming spectators back and waxing poetic on the meaning of the race to Indiana.
But it soon became clear that the race wouldn’t be back to full capacity, and hyping up the idea of togetherness while allowing 40% of the usual number of fans in felt disingenuous, so the idea was shelved.
Horrall went back to the script in December 2021. This time it gained traction as the 500 was expected to be back to normal. It ended up being more than a promotion; a version became the race’s annual February television advertisement, kicking off this season’s marketing efforts.
Compared to 2019, the most recent 500 with full capacity, IMS sold 35% more tickets after kicking off its annual marketing campaign about 100 days before the race. A general admission ticket to the 500 before the day of the race costs $45.
“I think the only challenge we all really had was it’s not a ‘Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Don’t miss the Indy 500,’” IMS president Doug Boles said. “So it’s not that. It’s an emotional heartstring thing. So the only challenge we had was does this particular spot appeal to somebody that doesn’t already know what the emotional feel of the Indy 500 provides kids. It’s a little more somber. We just all had to get our heads around that this is the right time for this emotional message about how powerful the Indy 500 is.”
Depending on a variety of factors — a commercial’s length, whether it’s national or local, how many times it runs — an ad during the Olympics can cost anywhere from Hundreds of thousands of dollars into the millions. The IMS spot was on the lower end. It was 60 seconds long, but ran only in the Indianapolis market during the final weekend of the games. Boles estimated the cost of the air time was between $100,000 and $150,000.
There were also very few production costs because IMS didn’t enlist a marketing agency. Almost everything, from Horrall’s script to the overhead shots of a packed speedway came from within the organization.
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One of the few sources of outside help was narration from David Letterman. The Indiana native and part owner of Rahal Lanigan Letterman Racing recorded the script from a studio in New York while the rest of the team was in Indianapolis, able to communicate with him remotely through the studio’s microphones.
The same weekend it aired, IMS tweeted out the commercial. It picked up 52,000 views on Twitter, and 45,000 saw the two and a half minute- long cut on Youtube.
“I got emails, we got social (media) — our team could tell you,” Boles said. “People love it. Just walking around the last few days when we’ve been open. People will come up and say ‘The Back Home Again in Indiana spot is everything the Indy 500 is about. It’s perfect.’ I have not heard one person say that that was not the right spot, and our fans will tell us. If they don’t like something, they definitely tell us.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy 500: Inside the ad that welcomed fans back to IMS
