NBDL

Is The UFL A Brand Compliment For The NFL?

March 29, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

There were  some good things that happened in the UFL’s first season.  They proved they could deliver a credible product, gave some coaches and players a chance to showcase their skills and they survived a season full of empty stadiums, inopportune dates, shifting cities, small sponsor support and well produced but negligible eyeballs on TV.

D-League “Hoax” Gone Bad Not Bad For Publicity…

December 11, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Into the “seemed like a good idea at time” file this week goes the D-League’s Utah Flash, who staged an elaborate and well attended hoax, luring thousands of fans to their game against Dakota with the thought they were going to see NBA legend Michael Jordan take on former Jazz nemesis Bryon Russell in a halftime exhibition that would recreate Jordan’s jumper over Russell in the NBA Finals, one of the greatest shots in NBA history. In retrospect, the idea was all about what makes minor league sports great…a larger than life promotion that lures fans to entertain them regardless of the outcome on the floor. It is something that D-League commish Dan Reed does better and better with his clubs each year and has helped slowly grow the D-League into an effective promotional tool in smaller markets for professional hoops. The challenge had a large price tag for the event ($100,000 offered up to Jordan) a solid viral campaign that had Jordan sightings all about town and all over radio and the digital space, a boastful owner in Brandt Andersen and a willing foil in Russell to go along with it. The only problem with the stunt was that there was never a big inkling of what was actually going on until the fake Jordan showed up on the court to a chorus of boos and disappointed fans, which cost Andersen some money in refunded tickets and Reed some issues with the public. Still to call the stunt a “fiasco” is unfair and untrue. It brought attention to the franchise, it was meant to be fun and lighthearted (and could have been a fun fake promo, although not to the tune of 7,000 fans probably), it showed how well digital media can drive rumors and innuendo and it had willing participants. Is it a problem that no one in the media caught on, (although Steve Luhm’s piece in the Salt Lake Tribune Sunday was full of innuenedo and disclaimer which left more than enough open that it was a stunt) or check with Jordan’s folks (or even the Bobcats, where he is a part owner) to see if it was true? No. Should the team have teased a bit more to lead people to believe it was a hoax? Probably. Still it was not Disco Demolition Night, it was not some of the poor taste promotions that ask people to show up to mimic celebrity criminals and at the end of the day the owner fixed a wrong by offering refunds. Was the intent exactly what the minors are supposed to be? Absolutely. Maybe it needed a bit of tweaking and a tad more honesty, but one has to give the franchise credit for pulling it off and understanding that sport is supposed to be fun, and at the D-league level all about promotion.

Book Publicity: Selling The Sizzle Not The Steak…Or Say It Ain’t So Joe…

January 28, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Doubleday Publishing pulled a perfect storm of sorts with book publicity this week…they hit a quiet week (Super Bowl bye) with no  New York team in the Super Bowl to launch a baseball book about a former manager in the  hottest of hot stove time…Joe Torre and Tom Verducci’s work about Torre’s Yankees years.  And as the case with any mass media work, from print to big screen, the publicists pick the juciest pieces to feed the tabloids, which will drive the advance of the book through the  roof.  Now the question is, in a co-authored book, what is real and what is hype?  Richard Sandomir in the New York Times does a great job of breaking down the book battle and its layout and reasons, and how Doubleday played the media and the fans for some great advance success.  In this challenged economy, moving hardcover books is a huge mountain to climb, and in publishing the saying for sports books is the smaller the ball the bigger the sale.  However Doubleday picked their spot, lopped in all the buzzwords needed to spice a cold New York sports winter devoid of many compelling stories, and launched a campaign that will help drive interest in the book, baseball the Yankees, the Dodgers and all the casual interest the sport will need.  Will it help the Yanks move suites in the new stadium or will it get the Dodgers some added ink in LA?  Certainly can’t hurt.  One thing is for sure, by picking the right strategic time to release and orchastrating the quotes with the topic, Doubleday has created enough drama to get the writers to justify the advance and get the Yanks top of mind in a quiet  January.

A’s New Partnerships A Sign of “Money Ball” On The Business Side…

January 11, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

A few years ago Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball took baseball fans inside the different views that Oakland Athletics’ General Manager Billy Beane had about the salary situation in baseball, and how it could positively and negatively effect a team and on field success.  While the reviews were generally positive, and Lewis’ writing stellar as usual, many in the marketing community felt that the onfield persona of building stars and then watching them leave would hurt brand value for the team.  That of course was before the current financial crunch, where now the goal is always to do more with less, create more experiential value for fans and partners and find new ways to engage and grow the fan base.  Along those lines, the A’s continue to look to find new ways to expand their brand in a challenged marketplace…one where their stadium is not great and the Giants across the Bay remain king, despite the A’s increased success on the field under Beane’s guidance.  So this week the A’s announced a partnership with the Japanese League team the Rakuten Eagles, to train, share information and explore other ideas to share and learn.  For the A’s this is a very smart move as the ever-growing Asian community in the Bay Area may take another look at them with a stronger Japanese tie.  Also as baseball grows globally, having ties to a fan base BEFORE they arrive in this country will also help, and by finding a growing brand in Japan…not the established Yomiuri Giants but a team looking for opportunities…the A’s have a nice upside.  Like their partnerships with the Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League and the San Jose Earthquakes, this may only help and not damage the brand.  Now have partships like this been tried before, like the Yankees and Manchester United?  Yes and they didn’t do well.  But the reason was you were talking about two mega-brands steeped in tradition and ways of doing business.  Here you have hungry brands looking to grow, and in baseball, the growing world marketplace for the game plays directly into what a hungry brand like the A’s is trying to do.  Good lesson with hopefully more MLB/non-American partnerships to come.    

The New Superstars Competition…Kobe vs. Joey Gathright Jumping Over Cars?

April 21, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As both the Lakers make their playoff run and the Royals continue their surprising start, we take a look at the glories of YouTube past and present to see the potential for a new kind of one on one competition, ala ABC’s legendary series “The Superstars.” (although it may be just a virtual one but one that could afford some unique branding oppts).  It is car jumping, as we have seen recently with the Lakers star Kobe Bryant  ”jumping” over a speeding car online last week. While the authentic YouTube stunt of Royals outfielder Joey Gathright  has been documented since 2002, when the athletic outfielder became one of the first internet legends by jumping over a stationary car, Bryant’s stunt, real or virtual obviously drew more attention.  So the next level of “challenge” occurred Friday on ESPN, with Gathright challenging Bryant to an offseason car jump.  Nice move by the young outfielder looking to make his own stake, a smart move to issue the challenge whether it plays out or not…hopefully there will be a Bryant response and some trash talk after the Lakers season ends that could play out in a nice branding opportunity as well as some new media hijinx in the summer, so long as no one actually tries the competition this time.    

Nets Carbon Neutral Night Very Enlightening…And Other Hoops Hits…

April 3, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

PR Move of the Day:  The New Jersey Nets may have had a blow to their playoff hopes Tuesday night with the loss to the Sixers, but they keep beating the brand awareness race by pulling off the first-ever (I guess) Carbon Neutral Night against the Sixers.  The Newark Star Ledger did a nice piece explaining the environmentally conscious efforts of the team, with a nice entree into the project by future arena sponsor Barclay’s Bank.  The very creative effort reminded the world about the unique partnership, gave some great added value, and of course had some solid environmental messages for fans and business partners alike .  Nice trend setter.  And speaking of trendsetters, Nets CEO Brett Yormark and Florida Panthers COO Michael Yormark had a nice piece on CNBC this week, which can also be seen here.  Also on the “green” kick, check out First Call, which has a celebrity mix on the going green movement away from sports.
Other hoops notes included long-time friend Donald Hunt’s efforts to get Wilt Chamberlain on a postage stamp , while Coke made some interesting news switching star LeBron James from their Powerade brand to Vitamin Water.  VW’s use of “organic” integration (see Dwight Howard’s dunk practice video) and unique athlete promotion (the Knicks’ David Lee’s “Next hairdo” competition)  will certainly be tested with the highly visible James on the Glaceau team now, but the opportunity to take integration to a new level now has a solid NBA platform. On the hoops abroad list, be sure and check out the UK start-up Basketball 24/7, a real strong attempt to raise the profile of the game in England both in an Olympic year and with the NBA coming back in October.   Lastly, this time of year also has its share of positive call-up stories, and yesterday’s piece in the Miami Herald shows how the Heat/D-League relationship has worked for both the NBA and the D-League.

Making News and Information Easy To Find Online…And Some Super Bowl Pieces of Note…

February 1, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

A great deal of time in finding the best practices for this site has been spent scouring news, agency, brand team and league sites and other source materials over the last few months, and it has been great identifying some solid and useful best practices for the industry.  Many times we find items of note that build very quickly to a bigger trend and have even more potential value.  However sometimes the really good stories get lost because they are just too hard to find amongst the volumes of information, and that’s a shame.  If we can’t find the great stuff and we are looking for it, we wonder how hard it is for the casual fan or business partner to find the good news out there, especially for emerging brands, niche sports, mid major colleges and the like.  The good folks at si.com have done everyone a huge favor by moving the team pages for my si.com to the home page.  There you can now click on any team, any college and find on their home page some great media links for each team or brand (hopefully the smaller schools are assisting SI in providing links for this great service).  Those links are such a  simple communications touch point for every organization, and give those coming to find information a great slice of life of what is going on. So here are some brief observations to be considered:

Quietly and Steadily NBA Winning The PR Race

January 25, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As the NHL and the NBA move toward their All-Star showcases (we will do the NHL wrapup next week) we wanted to look at the NBA PR push over the last few weeks that is hitting on all areas “away from the game”…player development, new media, international growth, charity activation, athlete features, product marketing and integration…at a critical time as brands and fans look for even more ROI.  Now it’s not to say that market-by-market there are not bumps in the road, but in the macro, from Portland’s resurgence marketing their young players to the Nets pushing their brand activations and fan friendly programs, to Boston’s resurgence at the box office and on the court, the concerted and more cohesive efforts of the teams in lock step with the league PR and marketing staffs is moving more  smoothly and productively than ever, and unlike the NHL (Outdoor Game), the NFL (the Super Bowl) and NASCAR (Daytona’s 50th) they are doing it without a landmark event to build to.  Here are some key recent examples: 

Now Pitching…From Toronto to Minnesota to LA…Good Examples of Some Solid Strikes…

December 18, 2007 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Many in PR lament that the art of pitching stories, or having a jaded and overworked media accept and then follow through on the story lines, is a thing of the past.  However the pitching of stories will hopefully remain a key, if not the key component, in  publicity.  Especially with business partners looking for more and more ROI, pitching those great human interest stories and working in the business partners or the events are probably more critical now than ever.  So with that we set out across the web on Sunday to find some unique pitches and receptions on some mass media sites.  here are some good examples of successful pitches worth reading:  Rachel Blount of the Minneapolis Star Tribune had a great feature on the life of former collegiate hockey player Maggie Souba, now playing professionally in Russia, a great slice of life to show the adjustments athletes have to make in sports away from the limelight.  In the LA Times, Kurt Streeter had a very strong piece about the University of Tennessee’s star Kandace Parker and the skills she posseses that make her “the one” to resurrect the LA Sparks and the WNBA...great hook for women’s hoops in LA as well as exposing a rising athlete to an audience that may not know about her just yet.  Then the Toronto Globe and Mail had a great piece on the Raptors Jamario Moon, his well traveled route through Europe and the D-League and finally to the NBA...another great story that shows the route athletes sometimes have to take to achieve their goals.  All three didn’t fall out of the sky, they were the work of solid publicity campaigns, smart editors and dogged writers who could capture the storytelling aspect for the reader, and expose these stories to a wider audience.  All examples of how the proper pitch can work.

Davis Cup and D-League Make Positive Pushes To Get Noticed

November 30, 2007 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

PR Move of the Day:  The push by the USTA to build momentum going into this weekend’s Davis Cup final in Portland against Russia has been really strong.  The Davis Cup, once mentioned in the same breath as its more famous brethren…Stanley, Nextel, World and Ryder…has fallen even below the daily cup of coffee in the complex world of sports, especially in the United States.  Part of the reason is the difficult format (which the USTA has lobbied hard to adjust) and part is the lack of U.S. success in recent years.  However, the event itself is still one of the great in-person extravaganzas to witness and the USTA PR team (led by Chris Widmaier and Tim Curry) has done a solid job in getting mainstream coverage this week.  Major features on personable captain Patrick McEnroe in USA Today, as well as solid pieces on the team on ESPN.com, SI.com, the Boston Globe and Newsday have led the pack, along with a great Oregonian piece on the financial windfall the area will recieve with the three day event.  One journalist mentioned the other day it was a shame that no one cared about Davis Cup outside of Portland, but making the event a great PR success regionally and with the tennis press, and then having a solid national press overlay is critical to building a great plan…looking forward to seeing the post-Davis Cup rollout if the team wins this weekend as well.