Among the many initiatives taking place within Penske Entertainment and its NTT IndyCar Series, courting new and younger fans remains among its greatest priorities as it prepares to launch a new championship run.
Through its “Defy Everything” marketing campaign in 2022, attempts were made to court an audience that would bring the average age of its base of followers down by a meaningful amount. Those efforts, which have yet to bear fruit, carry on into 2024 as IndyCar’s largest block of fans continues to be found among followers who are either approaching or past the age of retirement.
“Compared to other stick and ball sports, IndyCar viewers skew older, with 70% of fans over the age of 55,” the series wrote in its media summary from 2023. “The PGA remains the stick and ball league that most closely aligns with the audience age profiles of IndyCar viewers.”
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By the numbers, the 70% cited by IndyCar is broken down into two segments, with 45% of its audience being 65 or older, and the other 25% falling between the ages of 55-64. As noted, the Professional Golfers Association is closest to IndyCar, with 61% of its fans over 55 and a 21%/40% split in the 55-64/ over 65 range.
Looking inside the report to where IndyCar compares with its major rivals in racing, Formula 1’s older fans comprise a smaller segment with 53% of its audience listed as being 55 and older, with a 21%/32% break in the 55-64/over 65 measurement.
Outside of stick and ball sports, NASCAR’s Cup Series is the most similar to IndyCar’s older demographic, with 63% in the 55-plus category and 24%/39% in the 55-64/over 65 blocks.
Compared to IndyCar, F1 has 17% fewer fans who are 55-plus, and NASCAR Cup comes in at 7% less.
Just as IndyCar has the largest amount of fans at the top of the age range, it also has the fewest fans listed in its demographic measurements against F1, NASCAR, the PGA, NBA, NFL, MLS, MLB, and NHL, at the bottom.
In the 2-17 age range, IndyCar comes in at 4%. In the 18-24 demographic, it’s 1%. And from 25-34, it’s 4%, combining for a 2-34 age range figure of 9%.
Drawing back to its racing rivals, F1’s 2-34 audience is at 19% and NASCAR Cup is at 14%, a 10% improvement for F1 over IndyCar and a 5% advantage for NASCAR. Accurate breakdowns within the 2-34 range for F1 and NASCAR Cup were not available.
IndyCar’s median ages, with 35-44 at 7% and 45-54 at 13%, are also the smallest among the eight elite sports used in its benchmarking, at a combined 20%.
However, F1 (27% total for 35-54) with its 35-44 (12%) and 45-54 (15%), and NASCAR Cup (24% total) with its 35-44 (9%) and 45-54 (15%) aren’t vastly different from IndyCar in this category.
Age IndyCar/F1/NASCAR Cup
(Totals in the document range from 99-101%)
2-17 4%/7%/6%
18-24 1%/3%/3%
25-34 4%/9%/5%
35-44 7%/12%/9%
45-54 13%/15%/15%
55-64 25%/21%/24%
65+ 45%/32%/39%
Altogether, IndyCar’s position among popular North American sports in having the oldest audience, with the largest percentage of its fans being 55-plus, and having the fewest young fans, is nothing new for the series. It’s a longstanding issue to address for the sake of the series’ longevity as its aging fans, while being exceptionally committed to IndyCar, do not have as long of a runway left to follow the series as younger fans would offer.
But that wasn’t always the case. At the height of its popularity in the 1980s, the former CART IndyCar Series drew the youthful crowd it covets today. Taken from a demographics table published by the promoters of the Milwaukee Mile after the 1985 IndyCar event, the comparison to 2023 reveals how series’ audience has evolved over the last 38 years and suggests many of its fans from the 1980s have held firm in their loyalty to IndyCar over the decades.
Age 1985/2023
0-17 5%/4%
18-24 8%/1%
25-34 34%/4%
35-44 29%/7%
45+ 24%/83%
IndyCar says it will increase the marketing investment this season and continue to court new and younger fans into its family.
“I’m not going to come in on exactly how much we’re going to spend, but I would say we felt like the additional investment last year and the new initiatives bore fruit, they were positive, but not all equally,” IndyCar/Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told RACER in a January call. “We expect to build off of those initiatives and the growth and fan metrics and growth and fans and their engagement and basically, add to what was done last year.”
Although the needle hasn’t moved on solving its age imbalance, last season’s expenditures in larger and wider digital campaigns through social media gave the series a significant boost to its metrics. Across five platforms, IndyCar produced a year-to-year rise in new followers (28%) and engagements (152%) on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok. As a whole, 253,000 new followers were added.
It’s no surprise to learn that IndyCar is going all-in on its promotional spending with digital and, as Miles says, the series will continue to make use of external support for the endeavor.
“We have outside advice on social and digital platforms and on social and digital marketing,” he said. “We did last year and we will continue to be placing IndyCar content on a paid basis as well as earned-free basis nationally, and that’s obviously aimed young. In addition to that, we think the unscripted ‘100 Days To Indy’ series (on The CW which returns for a second season) last year helped in getting us in front of new and younger fans.”
Miles also confirmed that the series will veer away from using catchphrases such as the “Defy Everything” campaign, which was widely mocked in private by its teams and drivers.
“The approach is not to have a slogan like we’ve had in the last few years,” he said. “But in terms of youth, any advertising and promotion we do will be digital, and that in and of itself denotes aiming young. We started out last year thinking digital and linear advertising. After two races, we cut the linear and put it all in digital and you’re familiar with our digital metric increases.
“So we’re going to try to do it in a way that really helps the relevant promoters make their events more successful and sell more tickets, as well as tune-in. So it’s a little bit less targeted with the IndyCar brand as the only objective, and more about IndyCar brand plus trying to help the promoters continue to grow their attendance.”
Of interest in the other demographics chronicled by IndyCar from 2023, its TV audience is 61% male/39% female. For education, 89% identify as having attended or completed four years of college, and 79% earn $40,000 per year or more. By race, 86% are listed as White, 7% are Black, and 7% as Other.