Gillette, KFC Continue To Use Gaming And Star Power To Brand With Young Consumers

October 30, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Two brands that continue to find ways to activate with a young audience by combining gaming with star power are Gillette and KFC.  Media Post continues to follow Gillette’s EA Sports Champions of Gaming contest, the “largest multisport on line gaming tournament” (a great new category spin) where XBox Live players compete on a series of games online against each other to determine who is the Gillette Grand Champion of Gaming” in each of the games.  The finals in Orlando will take the online experience from virtual to real, pitting the champion against the athlete featured in the game…Tiger Woods for example…in an online head to head competition.  It is a great way to tie in Gillette celebrity endorsers with the avid gamer, two worlds which don’t normally intersect.  A similar play, although in the entertainment space, is being offered up by KFC as they look to grab that young male demo.  Their involvement involves a cash payoff with the game of Guitar Hero, looking for gamers who can match skills with professional guitarists and earning a cash payoff.  Both brands need the consumer space of gamers to grow, and by speaking to a direct activation that is both online and real, with the heros or stars of the genre or sport, is a great way to mesh both worlds and score big branding points.

Making A Vote Count…The Best Minor League Promotions List for 2008

September 18, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

We have often mentioned minor league baseball in the U.S. as having some of the most innovative promotions that have really engaged fans and activated with partners in addition to being just fun.  The best source for those promotions is milb.com, and now blogger Ben Hill has come up with the list of the best and is conducting online voting to select the best from the group, as chosen by the fans.  The list goes into solid detail on the hows and the whys and the results, and is a great template for all sports, leagues and brands to determine best in class, often something that is done in advertising but is rarely done in sports PR and even marketing. 

Chinese Takeout…what’s on tap after the media focus shifts…

September 4, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The question about every post-Olympics push is what opportunities are left to capitalize on when the world leaves the host country.  While the Leverage Agency continues to sell the naming rights for The Birds Nest and the Water Cube, marketers and local hosts look for the potential boon in tourism and historic significgtance in Beijing to keep interest alive.  The Wall Street Journal took a look at the branding and tourism opportunities the Chinese government is pushing, while Mark Hyman in Business Week took a look at another group of athletes who this week are beginning to capitalize on their athletic prowess in Beijing…the paralympians (whose competition now begins on the heels of the regular Olympics). The quest for both groups to lure eyeballs and sponsor dollars is very similar, as both the tourism group and the Paralympians are following closely in the footsteps of megahit without the draw of the world’s media and attention.  Whether either group can seize opportunity on the coattails of the Olympics remains to be seen, and if they are successful could be a great model for post-Olympic success in 2010 and beyond.  The stories remain grand, but will the public and the media still want to hear them in comparison to the glory of Michael Phelps or Usian Bolt?

Spinning The Trade: Manny To LA…

August 2, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The 24/7 news cycle now, especially around major dates on the team sports calendar (the drafts, trade deadlines etc.), continues to explode the feeding frenzy for news and up to the second information, factual or not.  However even with all the access to information and creation of rumor, in team sports the simple fact remains that a trade is not a trade until both sides, the leagues and all parties involved, agree.  Rumors are great on those crucial days for brand awareness and buzz, and they build interest, but until the pros consumate the deal that is all they are.  After the deadlines pass, we move on as fans and those involved in the business, trying to put the best face on whatever side we are on, or speculate on what was best that did not happen.  However in baseball this past week, with a good core of marketable stars moving to major markets, the spin cycle on both sides of the moves has been interesting to watch.  First on the brand side, the dollar investment that goes into changing campaign and brand elements for teams like the Detroit Tigers (moving Pudge Rodriguez to the Yanks) and the Boston Red Sox (moving Manny Ramirez) is very high.  Even ESPN had to kill a series of Manny commericials that had yet to be aired, and the changing out of highlight films to community events to promotional campaigns means a great deal of extra work and clear communication to partners.  The move of Ramirez, clearly wanting out of Boston, to a major market like LA, where the team has taken some heat over ownership’s perceived lack of financial committment to go get more stars to win, is a great example of two big markets spinning against each other.  Veteran writer Charlie Pierce had a great piece on slate.com that goes into details about how the Sox uniformly explained the benefit of moving Ramirez, and how local media came out in a pack against the Red Sox star, while Saturday’s LA Times goes into great detail on all the pomp and circumstance the Dodgers rolled out for Ramirez as a conquering hero, especially in a market where the Dodgers are trying to court the Hispanic fan. Ironically the spin master for the Dodgers, Dr. Charles Sternberg, was brought in from the Red Sox to help reshape the team image, so it will be interesting to see where both sides net out.  The bottom line in cases like this is that good effective communication can make the upside a little sweeter and take a little of the sting out of a bitter side, especially in the first news cycle.  Both sides in this case appear to have done a good job…the Sox have uniformly positioned this trade as building team unity, while the Dodgers have shown they are willing to take chances to win now.  Who gets the better of this in the end is very simple…it is a results-based business.  If the Dodgers move on to success and the Red Sox falter, the spin will go one way.  If Ramirez crushes team unity in LA, the Dodgers have a mess. Either way, both sides played the spin game correctly to start.   

Go West, Young Team…NJIT Joins…The Great West?

July 11, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The struggle for schools in big markets to try and generate income through TV exposure, ticket sales and marketing can be very daunting.  Established schools like Seton Hall and St. John’s in New York, or Loyola in Chicago or St. Joe’s in Philly often struggle to find ways to fill larger buildings and gain marketshare outside of that one amazing year.  So along comes one of the top science schools in the country, New Jersey Institute of Techonology, looking to capitalize on the Division I play to grow interest and dollars for the Highlanders.  The school has a good endowment, solid enrollment and an arena…The Prudential Center in Newark, nearby.  What the school doesn’t have is ancillary marketing dollars, great internal facilities and any kind of extended athletic success to build on.  So the Highlanders spend last season breaking the NCAA record for losses in a season (0-29), lose a coach and play a vagabond indpendent schedule that makes no sense and little money.  The answer is to join like-minded universities in a league that has the coveted automatic bid.  However the only league NJIT can get into?  The Great West Conference, which the school announced yesterday with the caveat that its better than not being in.  That may be true as it will help with scheduling games and a chance for the NCAA’s, but the idea of the closest “rival” being almost 2,000 miles away and the travel that will go into playing in the league will not sell tickets, garner sponsorship or alumni support.  It is great to root for the underdog, but in this case joining this league as opposed to none makes little sense and can actually set an institute of higher learnng back even further in trying to gain exposure and equity in their brand.  If you can’t afford to make the spend for staff, infrastructure and marketing dollars, just being “in for the sake of being in” can be a foolish spend.  Also along the lines of spending wildly for the college end game is a piece in the Shreveport Times on the cost colleges are spending on practice facilities, and Bob Hertzel’s piece in the Times West Virginian on TV driving collegiate sports.  Both pieces that NJIT, in the Great West, will have to fight with little ammo.

Tracking Awareness For Brand Success In The Concrete Jungle…

May 30, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

PR Move of the Day:  With the landscape always crowded in a major market like New York, finding a spot for niche sports to break through and grab recognition is always very challenging, and we have documented a series of successes and some failures since we started the blog in November.  The latest success surfaced in the last few days, as the Reebok Track and Field Championships looked for  angles to not just promote athletes but also drive interest in event attendance in a sport that has faded from the lexicon, even with the Olympics on the horizon.  The promoters took a world class story with both political and athletic overtones, the presence of Chinese Olympian Liu Xiang, and put him on a perfect weather day on top of the Empire State Building for a presser that combined all the elements of the city, the Olympics and the political issues and the event this weekend.  The move gave journalists, the event and the sponsors much more than a tired press event.  The result built good will for all involved and created an unmistakable photo op for NYC Tourism in addition to the event…Rich Deitsch’s piece on si.com probably summed up the success of the event best.  Great non traditional exposure, great way to spin the tried and true and take it to another level.   

Bucs Score A Hit With Community Responsibility From Top To Bottom…

May 12, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With business partners and fans constantly looking for more return in the investment they are making when partnering with a team or buying a ticket, teams are starting to make players more aware of their repsonsibility, and giving them credit for investing in community responsibility, earlier and earlier.  The NBA and the NFL have done rookie orientation for years and the NBA took it a step further with their D-League work this year.  However we came across a piece from the Pittsburgh Pirates that showed the organization’s community investment on all levels, with a program called “The Pirates Community Commitment Program.”  The parent organization is taking the time to invest in making sure all their athletes and staff, regardless of where they are in the minor league chain, take the time to do community events and be socially conscious.  Managing from the top down for the Pirates is key, and acknowledging the events the athletes take on, from the low minors through the majors, can probably bring in an overall sponsor for the program to gain even added value.  It is a program that all of baseball, and probably hockey and many NCAA leagues, can look closely at and incorporate.

Dealing With The Crisis of Olympic Proportions…As Well As With Formula One…

April 8, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The growing controversy around the Olympic Torch Relay through Europe, as well as the growing negative sentiment with regard to the Beijing Olympics themselves, seems to be reaching crisis stage as evidenced by front page stories in most of the top 25 newspapers in the United States today (and will grow even more as the relay makes its only stop in the United States…in San Francisco…very soon).  Although crisis with regard to Olympic participation effected both the Moscow Olympics (solid book about those gilted Olympians called Boycott:  Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympics is now out and very relevant by the way) and the Los Angeles Olympics, the convergence of an American election year and the way the media can now cover and report such crisis where politics and sports overlap may be unprecendted.  The best piece of “expert” advice on the PR side was featured in today’s Toronto Star by industry experts Howard Rubenstein and Ari Fleischer, who offered their views to the IOC on next steps.  Ironically, while Rubenstein likened the IOC’s problems to the Berlin Olympics where Hitler got to showcase Nazi Germany for the world, Fleischer went the other way, showing that sponsors and television partners will have the opportunity to voice the opinion of the public by supporting the athletes outside of the political problems that will continue to fester. Although there really isn’t a “correct” answer to this situation right now as the IOC worksg to find stability in a very fluid crisis, it will be interesting to monitor the issue and see how brands react or capitalize on the debate.

Strangers In Strange Lands…Sox in Japan, Lower Seeds Move On, And No Olympic Shots From Tiananmen Square

March 22, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

This morning there are lots of unique slices of life that again show how sports captures the moment, lifts the spirit and creates such contrasts with everyday life. Let’s start in the Far East, where the Red Sox and A’s have headed to open the MLB season. This morning (Saturday) on Yahoo Sports Jeff Passan has a great story on the cultural differences and similarities the Sox experienced during the first exhibition game earlier. What makes the story significant is not just the facts themselves…it is the fact that it again shows with the 24/7 world we are living in that pieces like this, filed in real time, gives us access to events where we would have had to wait a day to read about or experience online before the new media boom. It’s great to have the instant update, and even those in Philly who may have gotten the early editions of today’s Inquirer may have missed Bob Ford’s great column on Villanova’s late night win, but they can get it on philly.com. Speaking of instant, some instant heros came out of yesterday’s upset-laded Friday…some of the good reading includes Joe Henderson’s column in the Tampa Tribune on Upset City, Mark McGuire’s Albany Times Union column on Siena’s big win, and Ben Bolch’s feature in the LA Times on UNLV walk-on Rene Rougeau, all great pieces about capturing the moments of the first round. Another first round business story worth reading is Darren Rovell’s Friday blog on the average cost per player of Duke’s win…will be interesting to see how universities are able to merchandise the upset-laden Friday as things move on.

Billy Ball A Good Yanks Move…and Athletes On International Branding And Social Change…

March 16, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

PR Move of The Day:  Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News “got it” Friday in his column on the Yankees letting Billy Crystal bat in a game for his 60th birthday. The move got the sport some great exposure that it still needs, created buzz, and did nothing to hurt the integrity of the game. Will there be knockoffs around the minors and maybe in other sports going forward? Maybe. But it didn’t hurt the purity of the game and was a good March story for a few days.