Good times flow for Kahne, who settles in as Bud pitchman
By Nate Ryan, USA TODAY

STATESVILLE, N.C. — Beer school is in session at Richard Petty Motorsports, and the most apt pupil also seems most likely to be carded.
Kasey Kahne, a nine-time Sprint Cup winner whose apple-cheeked mug barely seems aged enough to warrant a driver's license, carefully has emptied a can of his favorite adult beverage (full disclosure: the company also spends millions to make his Dodge go fast) into a pilsner glass under the watchful eye of Anheuser-Busch brewmaster Angelo Cayo, who is teaching a NASCAR team the finer points of mixing barely and hops.

"That's a little too much head," Kahne says with a disapproving frown.

"But a very nice pour!" Cayo says. "Right down the middle."

That brings a smile for Kahne, and perhaps some relief, too. A world-famous brand's reputation rides on how convincing he is as its beer-drinking spokesman following in the footsteps of the sport's dominant personality.


A year and a half into being Budweiser's face in NASCAR, Kahne hasn't become as ubiquitous as the man he replaced. In eight Sprint Cup seasons driving a cherry-red Chevrolet, Dale Earnhardt Jr., the Sprint Cup series' six-time most popular driver in fan voting, was linked inextricably with the beer giant and elevated his profile to a level where results (Earnhardt has one win in the past 109 races and is 18th in points) seem virtually moot.

Entering this weekend's Sprint All-Star Race, which he won last year along with the Coca-Cola 600 for a sweep of the events preceding Memorial Day at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Kahne also is struggling (16th in the standings with two top 10s). But if his No. 9 has been underpowered (a new motor debuts this weekend), he still has flexed muscle as a marketing vehicle.

Dan McHugh, vice president of media, sponsorship and activation for Anheuser-Busch, says 95% of wholesalers are using the driver in "point of sale" displays — the cardboard cutouts purchased by convenience stores and bars to help push product. Earnhardt was the first Budweiser-sponsored driver to top 90%.

"That's a real good indicator of his fit," McHugh says, noting NASCAR remains the largest of its sports programs and that demand from wholesalers remained "overwhelmingly strong" after Earnhardt. "His popularity and personality fits at meet and greets. Overall, he's a great beer guy."

Anheuser-Busch's move from Earnhardt's once-rebellious look to Kahne's cherubic visage coincides with a shift in strategy for the St. Louis-based company, which was acquired by Belgian brewer InBev in a $52-billion deal last July.

A longtime sports marketing leader, Anheuser-Busch has scaled back some high-profile programs — eliminating its 30-year sponsorship of Kenny Bernstein's NHRA drag-racing team and removing a prominent sign at Wrigley Field — while embracing a more grass-roots approach. McHugh says Budweiser's advertising campaigns have focused on "explaining to entry-level drinkers of 21-25 what the brand stands for" with an emphasis on quality.

David Carter, executive director of the University of Southern California's Sports Business Institute, says Kahne, 29, might offer a more cost-effective and demographically suited avenue despite the mass appeal of Earnhardt, 34, whose freewheeling style was used to market Bud more as a lifestyle than a product.

Carter says sponsors view a driver's value differently than fans because "fans look at sports as an emotional connection, and corporate America looks at sports as a selling vehicle on behalf of shareholders.

"(Kahne) might allow them to speak to another market," Carter says. "You're likely going to pay a premium to stay with a guy that popular, but yet his popularity might not resonate as much with the people you're trying to sell the product. You can't think of Dale Earnhardt Jr. endorsing a beer that requires a lime. InBev might have a product that leans heavily toward women, and maybe it's advantageous to plug in Kahne."

Kahne's heart-throb looks were used to memorable effect by Allstate with a series of award-winning commercials in which a trio of middle-aged women swooned over the driver, who wore a firesuit emblazoned with hearts.

The ads, though, also raised questions about whether he was rugged enough to be a beer spokesman. On the midway at a recent race, Kahne's merchandise trailer was hawking pink T-shirts with rainbows, roses and angels wings that were imprinted "IT'S ALL ABOUT KASEY".

McHugh says "the way Allstate utilized Kasey is something we looked hard at, but the consumer's reaction showed he fit exactly the profile of a Bud drinker" during focus-group research in which Kahne topped several available drivers.

"I wasn't sure if he had the right persona to be a representative for Bud," says Casey Dobie, 33, a pharmacist from Chesapeake, Va., who has rooted for Kahne for five years. "He has that clean-cut, young look. But I supported the brand. I like him as a driver, and it doesn't hurt that he has blue eyes, too."

Brand loyalty

Kahne says his association with a more masculine marketing campaign — which has included trips to the Super Bowl and hosting concerts with country star Dierks Bentley — has helped convey a sense of a blue-collar background that belies his Hollywood good looks. Growing up on a farm in Enumclaw, Wash., Kahne drove a tractor and baled hay ("he was always very diligent and focused about doing chores," says his mother, Tammy), and he is a longtime rider of Harley-Davidsons.

"I would say it's definitely built my fan base on the guy side," he says. "People are starting to realize, 'Oh maybe he isn't such a pretty boy. This guy is different than we thought.' I don't look like the guy riding Harleys or hanging at campfires til 4 in the morning, but that's pretty much what I am. I like to have fun hanging with friends and family."

Earnhardt needed no convincing after hanging out with Kahne at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.

"I don't know if they'll let Kasey back, he was pretty destructive," Earnhardt says with a laugh, adding Kahne has "done great" as his successor. "He's more of a Bud guy than I was at times. That's a side he has yet to let you guys see much. Kasey has an edge but has no interest bringing it to the racetrack."

Though Bud has launched a full-scale push behind Kahne — including a commercial that runs on national TV outside race broadcasts, billboards in more than 30 states and a special 16-ounce nine pack to promote his car number — McHugh says the company "uses Kasey a little differently than Dale."

Earnhardt has credited his mushrooming fame to Budweiser employing a nontraditional approach that "never really stepped out of my comfort zone. I was in my mid-20s, drinking beers, going to bars and hanging with my buddies. Those things we preached were real." In ads (and some Super Bowl commercials that ran on the Super Bowl), the third-generation driver was shown wearing James Dean-style leather jackets and backwards baseball caps without logos.

In his store stand-ups, ads and other promotions, the more understated Kahne often is seen in the Budweiser uniform he wears on Sundays.

"It's almost a kinder, gentler image," says Jade Gurss, a publicist who helped manage Earnhardt's PR for Budweiser from '99-07. "There was clearly a decision to market in a different manner. There was no possibility of recreating the Dale Jr. thing."

Kahne's merchandise has ranked among the top five sellers in NASCAR since his 2004 rookie season, and he was voted into last year's all-star race. He also concedes "we have a lot of support, but we're not Dale Jr."

In research by Joyce Julius and Associates, a firm that evaluates sponsorship exposure on TV, Budweiser ranked eighth in 2008 Sprint Cup telecasts and garnered $77 million in exposure. In 2007, Earnhardt's final season with the No. 8, Bud was third ($99.9 million) behind Lowe's ($123.8 million) and DuPont ($115.6 million), the companies adorning the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, who were 1-2 in points.

Last year, Earnhardt's sponsors Amp and National Guard amassed a combined $182 million of TV exposure, second only to the $199.2 million of Lowe's (with three-time champion Johnson).

"There's a real power with Earnhardt Jr. and his abilities for a brand," says Eric Wright, vice president of research at Joyce Julius.

In two years of polling avid NASCAR fans for the Davie-Brown Index, which measures the relevance of athletes and celebrities and their abilities to influence consumer behavior, Earnhardt ranked first in awareness and eight other attribute categories such as appeal, aspiration, trust and endorsement.

Ken Cohn, vice president for the Charlotte-based sponsorship consulting agency Millsport that compiles the DBI, says the research revealed avid fans are at least 20% more passionate about Earnhardt than any other driver.

"I'm not sure it's possible to be as popular," Cohn says. "Kasey's not going to bring Junior Nation right off the bat."

Kahne's numbers, though, are trending upward in the DBI, where he moved into the top 10 in 2008 and improved in appeal, awareness and trend-setting. In surveying the general population, Kahne scored stronger among women 18-34 in appeal, endorsement and aspiration.

"To know him is to like him," Cohn says. "He definitely looks to be captivating the female audience, and if women are making the purchasing decisions, he becomes a very interesting ambassador. It appears he's still building his brand, and Bud will help shape what it becomes."

Image-conscious

Richard Petty, a co-owner of Kahne's Charger, can appreciate the challenge of supplanting someone who's become synonymous with a sponsor. STP began backing the seven-time champion in 1972 and remained on the blue and red car after Petty retired in 1992. For the five men who drove his No. 43 as STP remained the sponsor for the next eight seasons, Petty's advice was "don't try to challenge what already has been done.

"It's hard to overcome somebody else's image," Petty says. "It takes time. Junior wasn't always the Bud man, he had to work into that.Kasey can't overcome Junior in just a few years. Even if Dale Earnhardt Sr. could get in, it's still Dale Jr.'s car for a long time."

John Andretti, who drove NASCAR for Petty from 1998-2003, says trailing an icon can be beneficial because "Richard's fans also became my fans because Richard is a brand, and that becomes part of you. Budweiser is that kind of sponsor where the brand is more powerful than you."

Kahne says he initially felt pressure of replacing Earnhardt because "of how big his name is, but I realized they weren't looking down on me for not having as many fans and saying, 'what's that going to do to our brand?' "

The soft-spoken Kahne says his own brand is "kind of laid-back.

"What Bud asks of me," he says, "is what I already am."