Ambush Marketing, Boxing, MLB, MLS, Minor League Baseball, Mixed Martial Arts

Wood vs. Flesh…Which is More Valuable In The Minors?

PR Move of the Day:  The independent minor leagues always have the ability to push the envelope in promotions, and can often be the trial space for many more refined promotions that will make it to major events with major sponsors and major dollars.  Every once in a while the promotions will go to far, as happened this year with the KC T-Bones Michael Vick Jail Night, and sometimes they will be so out of the box they hit on many more opportunities that were never thought of before.  Such was the case this week when the Indy League Calgary Vipers traded pitch John Odom to the Lardeo Broncos for ten custom maple bats.  The viral nature of sports these days, as well as all baseball shows on XM and other online spots, created a boon for the bat makers, a celebrity out of Odom and gave the league and the teams some great national exposure.  Intended or not, a sponsor…the batmaker…got a huge ROI for product, which has gotten more national exposure recently with the battle between aluminum and wood bats heating up.  Nice way for all to benefit.

Some other good reads on the branding side…the issue of brand controlling content continues to get more exposure, as highlighted by a good piece this week in Ad Week on the effort leagues and teams are placing on generating and controlling message online…conversely, the Huffington Post had a compelling piece on the issue in a broader scale last week, looking at reasons why media outlets owning teams and controlling content is going to be a big issue going forward…more info. on the Premier League growth was featured today on sports business.com, looking at all the revenue sources that have fueled success…with MMA making its first prime time MMA debut on CBS Saturday night, USA Today has a cover story on the sport and the added competition in the marketplace…finally, on the non-sports but fund rebranding story side, check out the Wall Street Journal piece on the rebirth of Hydrox to challenge Oreo in the cookie space…could make for another good minor league promo to find the better chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookie…