With stadiums, arenas, and other sports venues filled with cardboard cutouts of fans and prerecorded crowd noise due to COVID-19, television viewership has never been so important in keeping current fans engaged as well as luring in new fans.

During a first-time practicum course in fall 2020, 30 Iowa students worked with executives from NASCAR and Fox Sports to develop promotional campaigns to increase awareness, engagement, and viewership of the sport’s 2021 opener, the Daytona 500.

At the end of the semester, the students pitched their campaigns to Matt Nordby, NASCAR senior director of broadcast and industry communications, and Erik Arneson, Fox Sports vice president of media relations. Dan Matheson, associate professor of instruction and director of the Iowa sport and recreation management program, who led the course, says the students rose to the occasion.

“The students showed a ton of creativity and included very effective and on-point research, which really resonated with Matt and Eric,” Matheson says.

Nordby, who grew up in Davenport and graduated from Iowa State University, agrees.

“I was very impressed with the professionalism in which all the presentations were delivered,” Nordby says. “They were all extremely polished; the students had done their research, and knew their projects cold. It’s important in pitch meetings that all these items are top-notch. Each group delivered on that. In terms of the ideas for promotion, these groups came up with elements that we’ve truly never seen.”

Nordby and Arneson spoke with the students over Zoom early in the semester about goals, specific media markets to focus on, and potential channels to use, among other things. They returned mid-semester to offer feedback on the students’ preliminary ideas and then at the end of the semester for the final pitches.

“This was one of the most innovative and impressive groups I’ve worked with in recent memory,” Nordby says. “You’ll often hear and see presentations that have very similar tactics. These were all distinctly different.”

Among the campaigns the students pitched was a partnership between the Daytona 500 and Dance Marathon, with a goal of tapping into an audience—college students—that NASCAR is trying to create relationships with, as well as raising money for a good cause.

Another group, inspired by a Fortnite promotion, proposed building excitement for the race through cryptic social media messaging coupled with disruptive stunts and events in select cities across the country.

“It was a brilliant mix intended to spark curiosity and keep people engaged,” Nordby says.

Hannah Conlisk, who graduated from Iowa in December 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in sport and recreation management and a minor in mass communication, says she had previously participated in practicums with the Chicago Blackhawks and Iowa Games and couldn’t turn down the chance to be part of one more before graduation.

The Chenoa, Illinois, native’s group proposed a Twitter contest in which the country would be split into five regions, each of which would be paired with a celebrity with ties to NASCAR, such as actor Patrick Dempsey and NFL star Marshawn Lynch.

“The thought was that it would invoke pride, sort of, ‘I’m from the same area as this person, and they are watching the 500,’” Conlisk says. “We also wanted to encourage people to watch more of the race instead of, boom, the gun goes off and you turn it off. We want to keep them watching the whole time.”

The group’s campaign also included ties to Fox television shows such as The Masked Singer and Hell’s Kitchen.

Students in the practicum came from the sport and recreation management program, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Tippie College of Business.

“It’s great to bring together students from all over campus for experiences like this because they learn from each other,” Matheson says. “They bring different educational experiences to each of their project teams, as opposed to groups of students who are strictly from one major and have all taken the same classes.”

Matheson says the benefits of experiential learning projects such as this can’t be overstated.

“The work that these students were tasked with is comparable to what they would be expected to do in their first or second job out of college,” Matheson says. “For them to be able to have that experience and understand what executives at the director and vice president level are looking for is incredibly valuable. They can talk about that experience in interviews and then take it with them into a job.”

Conlisk says she came away from each practicum more prepared for the future than before. She says the NASCAR practicum especially helped her hone her research and writing skills.

“Our deliverable was 20 to 30 pages long,” Conlisk says. “And you have to write it with enough detail so they can understand the idea but concise enough that they’re not wading through more than necessary.”

The practicum was especially beneficial in one particular interview as Conlisk prepared to graduate from Iowa. In January, she started as a NASCAR guest services intern at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

“I knew very little about NASCAR before this,” Conlisk says. “But I was able to go into that interview and say I’ve been researching the 2021 Daytona 500 for the last three months.”

Nordby says the students aren’t the only ones to benefit from such partnerships.

“These types of relationships are imperative for our sport,” Nordby says. “Often, students who are looking for careers in sports—or looking to be a sports journalist, et cetera—may not always consider NASCAR as an option. We are like all other industries—looking to fill the pipeline with smart, talented, and ambitious people. This avenue allows us to get our product in front of a very important demographic and hopefully breed new NASCAR fans and professionals.”

While the end of the semester was too late for NASCAR to integrate any of the students’ ideas, Nordby says it doesn’t mean they won’t use them in the future.

“If an idea fits into an existing budget, the ROI is high, and the runway exists to execute, there is definitely a chance,” Nordby says. “I really enjoyed working with Professor Matheson’s class and hope to do more of it in the future.”

Conlisk, meanwhile, says she’ll forever talk highly about the opportunities she got from her practicums at Iowa.

“It’s nice to be able to take what you’re learning in a class and put it to use in the real world,” Conlisk says. “I can go into an interview and say I’ve done this and I’ve done that. We’re getting real-life experience at 19, 20, 21 years old, so when we’re 22 and starting our first job, it’s easier to do. They’ve been some of the best college experiences I’ve had.”