IRL Management Quiz Answer: Hot Zips

Hot Zips are zip codes that are disproportionately represented in Nielsen television ratings samples. Product managers and television promotions personnel can purchase hot zips information from Nielsen and then use it to allocate advertising and promotions expenditures to the over-represented areas.

Contrary to claims made by Al Sharpton and others, the poor and lower middle classes tend to be over-represented in Nielsen samples.

This is important information for product managers and marketers who seek to establish a mass market television audience. There are not only fewer rich than poor, but also fewer of the rich than of the poor represented in television ratings. In addition, it is well known in the broadcast industry that less wealthy individuals tend to watch more television than their wealthy counterparts.

Hot Zips also tend to be clustered in regions that are within a mile or two of major Interstate highways. This makes sense because it aids Nielsen in its data collection efforts.

Roggespierre

IndyCar - Another IMS Executive Defection

The Indianapolis Business Journal (subscription required) reports that Charlie Morgan has vacated the top broadcast position at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy Racing League. Morgan, a respected radio talent and manager in Indianapolis, will run radio operations at Emmis Communications.

We shall have more to say about this in the near future. IMS Corp CEO Jeff Belskus is said to be forming a new leadership team.

IndyCar: Versus by the Numbers

We like numbers at The Indy Idea. Numbers provide tangible data points from which we can derive a reasonably accurate assessment of IndyCar's positioning and performance in the competitive marketplace.

The size of the average IndyCar television audience is particularly instructive. Television ratings in many ways constitute a perfectly competitive market. After cable and satellite fees have been paid, the only remaining costs are opportunity costs. Watching one live program necessarily means not watching another. At any particular point in time, the only additional option is to not watch any live television program at all.

Connections, personal sales, and inflated capitalization ratios can not buy good television ratings. TV numbers can't be skewed by complimentary race tickets and compulsory participation in corporate sales outings. TV viewership therefore gives us a reasonable approximation of citizens' relative preferences based on their behavior in the marketplace. The egalitarian foundation of TV ratings strips away noise and lays bare the truths of market acceptance and rejection.


Publicly available data regarding IndyCar ratings on Versus are a mixed bag. Yes, the overall numbers are bad, but such an assessment hardly qualifies as serious analysis. More to the point, mere observation is not a useful management tool. It is clear that IRL management must devise a strategy to increase the competitiveness of IndyCar racing in the television viewership marketplace.

This is a fundamental metric in the sports entertainment sector. That IRL managers are not held accountable for achieving competitive TV ratings is beyond comprehension.

IRL management must identify sources of competitive advantage that enable some broadcast properties to thrive on Versus. What are the key variables that separate the winners and losers? If IRL managers were to seriously engage in product development - a leap, we admit, given their history of refusing to manage the product - then how might they manipulate and manage those key variables? Which metrics should be used to determine success and failure?

Roggespierre, with aid from Danton and Marat, shall examine the available numbers and explore the questions above in the coming days. We encourage those who work at 4565 West 16th Street to join us. If the knitters conclude that TV ratings do in fact fall under IRL management purview, then it could be the Montagnards here that save your heads!

Roggespierre

IndyCar IRL Management Quiz for the Citizens

Good Morning, citizens! We begin today with a question for IRL management. We encourage those who care about the future of IndyCar racing to forward this question to management and let us know whether or not you receive an answer. This could be fun!

Question: What has IRL management done this season to leverage hot zips to increase the value of the IndyCar racing product? What were the results?

The Indy Idea is curious to learn whether or not anyone at IRL management even knows about hot zips. Don't bother looking on Google - the answer isn't there. Only product managers and professionals in a few select industries would know. We ask that they keep the answer to themselves until tonight. We'll give the answer then... unless IRL management beats us to it.

Pink Lloyd to Newman Haas Lanigan?

That's the story that Autoweek buried in this report. It looks like Her Energy will stick with the promising Englishman. Lloyd finished 13th at Indianapolis, driving with the leaders all day following an early pit stop that put him a lap down.

The pink suit proved to be a successful marketing prop. We have no reason to believe that it won't return, as well.

The Chicagoland entry list indicates that veteran Oriol Servia will get his third consecutive start in the #06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing machine. But that, of course, is subject to change. With few exceptions, IndyCar seats are effectively put out to bid by the various teams. Drivers and their financiers are the bidders. Some seats are re-bid annually, some weekly, but the characteristics of the auction market are largely the same.

This is because the cost of fielding an IndyCar team is far greater than the collective enterprise value of the racing product that IndyCar teams produce. Team sponsors, therefore, are limited to those that are willing, for one reason or another, to incur expenses that are in excess of five times the fair market value of sponsorship.

This problem can be solved only by either:

1. a drastic price correction - meaning cars and engines that are at least 80% less costly to run than the current specs, or...
2. a simultaneous five-fold increase in race attendance and television viewership.

These facts are inconvenient. But the Republic shall continue to not only recognize and publicize them but also offer plausible solutions. We eagerly anticipate IRL management doing the same.

Roggespierre