HASScar Revs Up Excitement at Tom Thumb

ROSEANNE HARPER

ROWLETT, Texas — Tom Thumb's customers got a close-up look at a NASCAR race car recently, and were given free T-shirts, guacamole recipes and tickets to NASCAR races at a nearby speedway during a special retail promotion organized by Hass Avocados from Mexico.

The marketers of Hass Avocados from Mexico sponsor the car they have dubbed the HASScar. So far, it has been driven in seven NASCAR races.

Hundreds of people gathered around the car to talk to NASCAR team members. They'd been alerted by a local radio station that announced the Oct. 27 event repeatedly during the preceding week.

“We leveraged a radio ad buy and developed an exciting retailer promotion, generating a buzz on-air and on the ground,” said Chris Tully, of Garden City, N.Y.-based Preston Tully Group, which created and manages the Hass Avocados from Mexico NASCAR sponsorship and retail marketing program.

“Retailers have been very excited about the NASCAR sponsorship, and bringing the HASScar to them made good sense.”

Local radio station WBAP, in addition to announcing the HASScar visit to Tom Thumb, also had a tent set up in the retailer's parking lot. There, consumers had a chance to win NASCAR driver hero cards, autographed T-shirts and tickets to NASCAR races at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Hass Avocados from Mexico began its sponsorship of the HASScar two years ago, shortly after the U.S. Department of Agriculture had lifted restrictions on importation of the fruit. At that time, Tully, at Preston Tully Group, said, “To my knowledge, this year is the first time any fresh-produce item has been a sponsor of a NASCAR car.”