Product Placement Central®

Hardee’s® Finds Brand Integration Traction With SLOTCAR Webisode

Written by Publisher on February 25, 2009

Hardee’s restaurant chain has signed on as the premier sponsor of the original Web video series, SLOTCAR. The no-holds-barred videos, produced by Animax/Unplugged, launched recently and parodies one of America’s largest and favorite sports – stock car auto racing.

“We produce each webisode only a week out from the launch date, so we are able to keep the content fresh and topical,” said Tim Jones, COO of Animax. “If something big happens in a race on Saturday, you’re going to see it spoofed on the next SLOTCAR webisode. Expect to see highlight packages, driver bios, controversial stories, rumors, speculation and good old nonstop action.”

The humorous SLOTCAR videos are 1-2 minutes in length and follow the same format as the sport it satires. SLOTCAR plans a 38 episode branded entertainment series where new webisodes will be released to coincide with key dates on the 2009 racing schedule.

CKE was looking to reach a core audience of “hungry young males,” aged 18-34, through advertising that would cut through the clutter.  Animax saw a strong overlap between CKE’s demographic and NASCAR’s 75 Million fans, 32% of which are 18-34.  CKE’s properties (Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.) are featured within the videos (on the cars, racetrack, chyron, etc.)

This no-holds-barred 38 episode satire follows the same format as the 38 race NASCAR season it parodies. Highlight packages, bio pieces, controversial stories, rumors, speculation and good old nonstop action.  The series chronicles a fictitious race season called The SLOTCAR Cup, with the series culminating in a season finale that will crown a victor.  Along the way, SLOTCAR features real drivers, as well as Animax’s own character drivers poking fun at each other, themselves, and NASCAR itself. 

COO Jones confirmed that the SLOTCAR initial audience results included 650 MySpace friends in the first 4 days and grabbed 350,000 views in the first 2 weeks on YouTube, Funny or Die, and Streetfire.net.  And, it was the #1 Featured Video in YouTube Sports Category and the #1 Most Watched Web Series on Funny or Die.  

Jones added, “SLOTCAR has been a huge success and we’re projecting over 9M views for the series.  There is already a great deal of buzz in the market, with hundreds of comments & subscribers on distribution sites like Funny or Die and YouTube.”