Olympics

L.A. Doesn’t Dodge The Chance To Build It’s Global Brand

March 14, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The Los Angeles Dodgers, despite the messy divorce and internal politics going on with the McCourt breakup, remain one of the world’s premier sports brands.  The front office, led by Dennis Mannion on the business side, continues to cultivate new avenues to grow the brand of the team, not just its players, into a community that is tremendously diverse and is extremely fickle in it’s dpending of dicretionary income.  In addition, the Dodgers have a World Champion to compete with in hoops (the Lakers), and a highly competitive and success neighbor in the American League (the Angels), with one of the most forward thinking owners in baseball (Arthuro Moreno).  So what is a team to do?  Go East.  Below is our recent Huffington Post piece on the Dodgers trip to Taiwan, and its reasons, especially in a croweded marketplace. ..

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.

Hockey Gets Another Shot…

March 2, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Thirty years ago we had the Miracle on Ice, and the sports world waited as Jim Craig, the triumphant U.S. goaltender, prepped for his NHL debut with the Atlanta Flames a week later. Coke made Craig the branding darling of the Olympics, and thousands of kids rushed out to buy hockey sticks across the country to try and relive the win of the Russians.  However at that time the NHL was suffering from a lack of aggressive leadership and branding at the top…coverage was not great outside of home markets, there was no social or online experience to expand the moment, and only a percentage of the great young Americans went on to have productive NHL careers, many of whom didn’t gel for a few years and were not ready for the bright lights of the top level of professional hockey at that point.  It was a great moment which has lived on, but a moment in the history of the star-crossed sport of hockey in the U.S.

How To Keep The Olympic Athlete Fire Burning? Partner Winter and Summer Together…

February 28, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Over the next few days and weeks the debate as to who the biggest marketing “winners” from the Olympics will be played out…Shaun White, Apollo Ohno, Lindsay Vonn, Julia Mancuso, even Shani Davis…will all appear on the watch list, make the TV rounds etc etc. with all the requestite experts chiming in.  Then spring comes and we are on to baseball, soccer, NASCAR…the faces we see, hear and relate to every year and find a strong allegiance to.   The Olympians, despite their powerful platform and their inspiring stories, seem to get tucked away until the next cycle. Is there a way to find a link to keep that cycle going, thus keeping these great stories engaged and top of mind even if their biggest stage is still four years away in Sochi?  For one idea, we can look to Michael Phelps. Many thought it strange that Subway, and even in some NBC promos, linked Phelps to the goings-on in Vancouver.  However he is a transcendant athlete, away from his season and exposure point, and is link to the games raised the tide and perhaps got the Vancouver Games a little more buss going in.  Prior to the Games, USA Wrestling, obviously in their transition time between Beijing and London, found ways to cross-promote with the USA Women’s Hockey Team, using some of their marketing and branding muscle to get the team some additional exposure while they were a bit dormant.  So with the Winter and Summer Games in two year cycles, why can’t a winter sport find a summer sport to work with and share marketing and star building power during the complete four year cycle?  Could swimming work with spped skating to cross promote athletes?  How about Beach Volleyball working with skiers? BMX and snowboarding?  The athletes have a common ground.  they understand the rigors of training and get the Olympic lure.  The Federations struggle when they are not front and center during the games to find ways to promote their athletes.  Why not partner to work together on platforms and for brands that would give great return for summer and winter?

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.

The Mascot Fills A Bigger Branding Role…

February 17, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

So it’s the middle of winter and you have no idea who your players are…or you are having a terrible season and the trade deadline looms and you need to keep your brand fresh and identifiable.  What to do?  The mascot. Now more than ever, with brands looking for more ROI, fans looking for personal engagement and athletes time limited, the value of having a fun, interesting and marketable mascot is higher than ever.  Ben Hill’s blog on milb.com points out dozens of minor league teams that trotted out nascot’s for Valentine’s Promotions or other teams that have unveiled new or updated mascots during the last few weeks to keep their brand top of mind with consumers.  The New Jersey Nets worked not a player, but their mascot, into a Super Bowl commercial, while NHL teams are trotting out mascots while their players are away or off during the Olympic break.  Now that it is so important to engage the entire family, older alumni may not always work as a compelling interraction, and the ability to have mascots in multiple places works as a fund rasier and a brand awareness tool.  It is true that many major market or more established brands (the Knicks, the Rangers, the Cowboys, the Dodgers) have never embraced the mascot theme, instead relying on the power of their brand and all the pieces around it to drive interest.  However for those really needing relevance, the investment in picking the right looking mascot and then marketing him, her or it appropriately, has become as valuable as any other brand campaign and one that is not taken lightly.

Who Will Win The Battle of The Busiest Weekend On The Sports Calendar?

February 11, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It is a good thing the NFL moved the Pro Bowl to the week prior to the Super Bowl this year.  The game got much-needed attention and a record crowd, and won’t have to deal with being an after-thought on perhaps the busiest big event weekend on the sports calendar.  Yes a week after the Super Bowl became the most watched television event of all-time, three major events…the opening of the Winter Olympics, the Daytona 500 and the NBA All-Star Game, will all battle for eyeballs, sponsor return and casual sports fans within 72 hours. Who will win?  The battle has already begun.

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.

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