Crisis Management

Beware Sponges Filled With Cash…And Other Lessons…

March 16, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Last year the brand of choice to fill displaced inventory on television and in stadia around the country was Spongetech. Their giant signs were splashed acroos all of MLB, their patches showed up on the NFL’s “Hard Knocks” show on Bengals jerseys, they appeared along the dasher boards at Madison Square Garden. Spongetech, and their pre-soaped sponges, appeared to be the cure-all for every team salesperson.  They helped balance budgets and create some buzz and all appeared grand.

“Lombardi Mania” Coming To A Theater, A Screen or a TV Near You Soon…Not Soon Enough

March 12, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

For a while I have been involved with the upcoming dramatic play Lombardi, which producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser will bring to Broadway in November.  The play is based on the best-selling book “When Pride Still Mattered” by Pultizer Prize-winning author David Maraniss, and is going to be a very intriguing mix of dramatic theater and the story of an amazing and engaging personality.  However Lombardi the play will not be alone.  HBO is working on a documentary on the career of the legendary coach and leader, and this week, a movie project was revived, now with ESPN involved, that will debut in 2012 starring Robert De Niro as Lombardi.  All three projects will have a different take…the film will concentrate more on the players and the glory fo the game, the documentary will recount the facts of his life through the eyes of those who knew him and the play will really tell a larger story about the ups and downs of a mercurial figure who overcame some early setbacks to be a success.

Sports As The Unifier…Again.

March 6, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

Maybe in another life, 40 years ago, a political pundit like James Carville and a Super Bowl winning coach like Brian Billick would not have a lot in common.  However these days, through the world of satellite radio, digital TV and social media, they now only can share ideas but can share the same stage. Carville, who engineered many a political campaign both in the U.S. and abroad, including President Clinton’s White House run of course,  and Billick, who now is doing his work behind a microphone after an uber successful NFL and college coaching career, shared some quality time and thoughts this week in Orlando, Florida as guest speakers at the Global Options Executive Forum, a two day summit for the leaders of the risk management field. And although some may have scratched their heads in seeing how these two and others could relate their experiences to those from industries ranging from the transportation to the insurances industries, there was common thread…the love of what athletics can do as a unifier for people in good times and bad.  Carville talked glowingly of what the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints meant for the downtrodden and oft-beaten people of his current home, and how the team has become the true shining symbol for what can be accomplished and overcome with hard work and attention to detail.  Billick talked endlessly and fluidly about the leadership principals and the amount of risk involved in the coaching world, and how that work can apply to top level business management. Carville equated the way political races are won and lost to the way recruiting takes place in both the business and sports world, showing time and time again how successful leadership has its clear threads that run from top to bottom regardless of the industry, and how the value of team always has to come through.  is much of it rhetoric and is it overblown a bit, these sports analogies?  Perhaps.  Howver one thing again came clear.  The ability for the brand and business of sports to unify a people, be a rallying point for a coproration, or help different and competing peoples to find a common bond is still very clear and extremely relevant, especially in the most challenging of times. It is a language that people can speak together whether that language of sport is soccer or football, baseball or curling.  It can unify and rally, inspire and heal, enrage and fuel debate.  Sport gives the common ground and marks a starting point for conversations and speeches, even in some of what may be seen as the most rudimentary or complex of industries, and that showed true again this week.   That common ground, especially played out across the vast real time media platforms that we have today, is why brands use sports as the way to help tell th story, and why billions continue to watch, play and enjoy the games from the grassroots to the professional. Was that true 100 years ago?  Maybe.  But today as the world shrinks and we all have the ability to “know” one another a little more, it is truer more than ever.

The Professionalism of The Business of Colleges…Latest Example

February 23, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

In the movie “The American President,” Andrew Sheppard (played by Michael Douglas) is approached by a chubby young man with a tartan vest and a bow tie at a state dinner trying to pester the President for a minute to lobby for college football.  Sheppard brushes him off since he has to go on to meet the Prime Minister of France in another part of the room, and the movie continues on.  The snippet of the “football lobbyist,” chubby, folksy, is what many people think of what college athletics is…but it is much more of what college athletics maybe was and is no longer.  It is now big business on every level, with great branding and marketing opportunities from small town Division III schools to the largest Universities and schools are now bringing in leaders in business to show the way to profitability.

Woods Takes The Next Step, But The Biggest Brand Question For Golf Remains Unanswered…

February 20, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Friday Tiger Woods spoke…he controlled the message, he got his points out, he was serious and he addressed all the groups he needed to address in a statement. Another stage in the comeback is complete for him.  He did not have the long, drawn out presser with reporters, especially those who cover him in his sport, in the room and he avoided distractions and forced the media to cover just what he and his brand needed them to cover. he was true to what he has always done in the better of times, he controlled the message and the access.  Just as he would drive reporters to his website for comments and news, now he drove them to another ballroom in Ponte Vedra to listen while pool reporters asked a few questions to him and to his assembled group.

Looking Back At The Luge Tragedy…

February 18, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

The subject of crisis management and brand damage, both long and short, arose again last Friday as the world looked to Vancouver and the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  By now everyone knows of the tragedy, the issues of blame, the decision for networks to show or not show the footage and for how long, and all the issues of nationalism that came about. Still it bears looking back after a few days as to how the tragedy was handled  and what the effects will now be as the focus has shifted from luge and into other key TV sports like figure skating and hockey.

A Cause Worthwhile…Athletes, Pols Step Up To Battle Childhood Obesity

February 16, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Big time sports and entertainment events draw big time advertising dollars. We all are more than familiar with the amount of sponsorship spent on Super Bowl, Olympic and NBA All-Star ads these past few weeks, and the payoff in exposure brands got with the largest TV audience of all-time for the Colts and the Saints last  Sunday. One of the biggest categories that support those events is snack foods.  People loved watching those Doritos commercials, and loved chowing down on bowls of the stuff as they were watching the game. The tailgate, the junk food, are all very much a rite of passage surrounding the great American sporting event.

Can Vancouver The Brand Be The Biggest Olympic Winner?

February 7, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

There has been much talk about Lindsey Vonn’s suggestive Sports Illustrated cover, Stephen Colbert’s great sponsor play, “The Flying Tomato” worrying about snow, Heather Mitts being a klutz and the Jamaican Bobsledders missing the cut, but can Vancouver the city and the region be the biggest winner in this year’s Winter Olympics? The coming events have not had the hype or hysteria that others Olympics have had, probably because of the lack of big name American stars and less promotional dollars, as well as the fact that this will be the first Olympics since the crash of the financial markets. The Winter Olympics are also never the huge casual fan draw that the Summer Games are, but they are still the first Games in North America since Salt Lake City, and may be the last ones for some time to come.  So can a city known for its beauty and with a well established resort as a host (Whistler) find a way to push itself into the consciousness of the American sports fan, the global sports fan, and with that the branding and event world with a successful games? Could the region be a great example as to how established areas, in addition to emerging ones like Sochi for 2014, use the Games to grow and thus justify all the cost spent competing to host a global competition?

Be It Snow or “Sol,” Niche Sports Continue To Struggle To Build Brand

February 4, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Even as we move to some of the most lucrative, buzz-filled and highly anticpated events of the year in the next few weeks…Super Bowl, Daytona 500, Vancouver Olympics, NBA All-Star Game…the struggles for second tier and niche sports continue.  This past week, the Los Angeles Sol, arguably WPS’ most successful franchise in year one, folded despite leading the league in attendance.  Then a story in Wednesday’s New York Times pointed out the financial struggles of one of the world’s biggest niche sports…The Iditarod…which has now lost a great deal of its sponsorship and its television contract. While not seemingly linked, both losses show that especially in challenging times, the need to over deliver on brand value is bigger than ever, and the idea that even the most loyal investors will continue to put dollars into an event on an emotional or passionate buy are long gone.  The Sol’s problems are endemic of any start-up league or brand. Despite a solid product and a significant one year investment, the parent company did not see brand growth in the future and decided to cut its losses without finding a buyer in the marketplace.  The troubling thing is that the team is perhaps in the most marketable area, in a soccer-specific stadium and with marketable stars.  Like the recent demise of the Houston Comets and Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA, both franchises that seemingly had all the outer appearances of success, ownership made the bold decision to cut losees and move on.  What does this say for the future of WPS?  Chalking the loss up to churn would be OK if it wasn’t in the second largest media market in the country.  The question will be answered over the course of this summer, when soccer mania heats up with the men’s World Cup.  Seeing if WPS gets some of the halo effect with brands is going to be very important to see if the league grows, or if it sets, just like it’s Sol.

Why Embracing The Blogosphere Works…

February 2, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

On Sunday, I was part of a group that helped pull together an event to expose the new analytic products Bloomberg Sports and MLB.com are developing and will soon introduce to the consumer market for fantasy baseball, as well as  a more fun, indepth way at looking at the sport of baseball .  While the products, one for the fan and one for professional teams, are compelling on their own, what was even more compelling was the interest in the over 50 bloggers that attended the Sunday afternoon event, further proof that brands that find ways to work with the bloggers who have achieved success and built credibility will find a solid pipeline for legitimate, timely and in-depth coverage.

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