Can Selling Hope or Hype Keep The Big Apple’s Winter Franchises Bright?

April 12, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

It’s another dark spring in New York.  Save for the Devils, there is no postseason at Madison Square Garden, the Izod Center or Nassau Coliseum, so the attentions and the dollars of the casual sports fan can shift fully to baseball, and maybe a bit to soccer as spring fully arrives.  Now the lack of postseason for the Knicks, Nets and Islanders, and now again for the Rangers, is always a cause for concern.  However as Don Nelson, now the winningest coach in NBA history, said once, you sell two things in pro sports…winning or hope…and for another year, the world’s largest media market will look to again sell hope…and a good amount of hype.  Will it work again?

Does Losing Net a Value For Butler?

April 6, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

A week or so ago Darren Rovell had a blog post on what, if any, value the New Jersey Nets had lost by “winning.” By passing the Philadephia 76ers with their tenth win, was there any actual value from going from the worst ever to just another losing team.  The answer according to the collectable market was no, but on the PR side, there is a bit of a value in being the extreme, whether that is best or worst.  Certainly the Nets have orchastrated more ccoverage through all their losing than if they were just mediocre, and ironically now that they have passed the 76ers and have reached 11 wins, all that gallows humor has disappeared.  Part of it is that baseball has arrived and the Final Four has pulled eyeballs, but part of it is definately that there is no interest in mediocrity, no matter how compelling the story.  people love the best, and they have an interest in the worst.

The Nets Keep Making Chicken Salad…

January 29, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

You only worry about the things you can control. That should be the slogan for the Nets this year.  Their sales and marketing staff cannot worry about the injuries, the fired coach, the record losing streak, they just have to find a way to keep a brand relevant in a year of transition and uncertainty.   New owner, a Russian billionaire, new city and arena, first maybe Newark and then maybe, finally Brooklyn. To date, four wins…three of which have been on a full moon (I looked it up). Yet with all that, an argument can be made that the casual fan in the New York area may have more exposure to the Nets than all the other teams playing this winter in the area combined. In the last few weeks, the Nets marketing plans for a 4-40 team were featured in the New York Times, ESPN Magazine ran a contest to let a fan draw up a play and run it during a game, their dancers have been on countless morning shows and on and on and on.

If Ya Gonna Be Bad, Be The Worst…

November 19, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Sports is always a game of extremes…those who excel get the spoils, those who don’t get…well…nothing. However even worse than losing is mediocrity. In sports fans gravitate to the winner but can also tolerate the loser, and those who lose the most always have a sort of macabre curiosity. We never remember the 8-8 New York Jets…we remember the 0-14 Tampa Bay Bucs or the New Orleans ‘Aints. The 9-72 Philadelphia 76ers have reunions, the 41-41 Milwaukee Bucks don’t. The 1962 Mets are as celebrated as the ‘86 World Champions, but last years Mets are well, forgettable. So along those lines again come the New Jersey Nets, now 0-11 heading into their Saturday matchup with the Knicks. Always looking for a chance to get publicity, the Nets staged a whole series of promotions…featured in USA Today, AP, on radio and TV…going into their loss Tuesday night to Indiana. Even the New York Times, which does not staff the team regularly for games, gave the team and their 0-10 promotion sizable space, with all the detail going into the why of the event. So is the celebration of losing acceptable as a promotion? It certainly is not across the river, where the Knicks and their one win are not staging ticket and fan promotions, nor would it ever be for the Yankees, even in the darkest of days. Same for the Giants. Those three brands in particular still view themselves as gold standards not to be trifled with, and subsequently the acceptance or acknowledgment of losing as anything positive would never come into the mix. Is that denial and stickiness to brand effective in today’s challenged times? It depends and it does have some merit. People paying elite prices and brands looking for prime exposure, no matter how the onfield product is doing, do not want to be part of the sideshow. However that elite group in these tough times is dwindling and more and more elite brands will look to unique promotions or giveaways, once never considered, as acceptable to fill distressed inventory and satisfy ROI. There is also the way the promotion is presented. The Nets used it for a rally cry, not a way to cheapen the franchise value. Now if they approach the record of 0-17 and start throwing parties that’s another thing entirely. However to get some buzz in what would have been a dismal November weeknight, as well as move some tickets and get a few more fans to appreciate the fact that they are appreciated even in trying times, tells people that the team from a business standpoint continues to try and give some value. Losing is a brutal business, and rest assured continued losing won’t garner celebrations or sales. However for one night and for one shot at promotion, the Nets again proved that we love our extremes, and if you are gonna be bad, you might as well be the worst.

A Devil of a Branding Problem…

October 12, 2009 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

There is arguably no team in the NHL that has produced a higher quality on ice product over the last 15 years than the New Jersey Devils. The level of play and professionalism in the business of hockey that the team has displayed is arguably second to none not just in hockey for that matter, but in all of team sports.

Football Hall Asks The Fans…

September 26, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

There is always a cloud of mystery and debate when any Hall of Fame announces its annual induction class especially since like any ballot that involves humans voting, there is always an amount of emotion vs. logic factored in. For the most part, the balloting is a closed system. Once you are asked to vote you usually stay on the list for life, regardless of whether you have a stake in the game or for that matter, follow that closely in some cases. Given the state of newspapers these days, the Baseball Writers of America have even voiced concern that there may not be a good enough cross section of voters in the coming years to adequately have a vote. Regardless of the Hall, the vote is almost always without inpout of those who visit and spend dollars every day following the sport…the fan. However this week, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in part of their aggressive plan to add branding partners and become more diverse, announced a partnership with Van Heusen and JC Penney to collect the fans say in the voting for the next class. Now the “fans choice” won’t count for this year, but it will be acknowledged and could make a nice addition to the debate for when the new class is announced. The promotion is also a great move for the Hall, which is finding ways to make its brand “live” beyond the walls of Canton, Ohio for the football enthusiast, both with a retail promotion and a massive media and digital buy throughout the season. By using some elite bloggers to weigh in throughout the course of the season, the promotion will also be kept fresh and can stir debate not just for popular choice players, but for those on the fringe or those who can be a quirky choice for the fan in local markets. And by being the first of the “Halls” to ask the fan, the Pro Football Hall can keep themselves relevant to the casual fan year round, and could start a trend that makes the voting a little more interesting to discuss and debate the selection process.

Nets Give A Glimpse Into The Global Future Of North American Sports…

September 24, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

While some view the announced potential sale of the New Jersey Nets on Wednesday to be more vanity for billionaire Mikhail D. Prokhorov and buyout for developer and owner Bruce Ratner, the window of opportunities for others could be much bigger, both on the team side and on the investor side into the future and if the deal goes through.

Liverpool Again Shows Value Of Premium Real Estate….

September 17, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It is perhaps the last clean piece of real estate on the sports landscape…the jerseys of the four professional teams in North America. A practice which is well accepted globally, brand advertising on the front of jerseys, still is off limits in the States with the NHL, NFL, MLB and the NBA as well as in the college ranks. Even minor league baseball and hockey have stayed away from jersey branding to date. Yet with Liverpool’s record announcement of jersey branding this week, following Manchester United’s deal with AON earlier this year, can the pro leagues here hold off much longer? The test marketing has been there now…MLS has integrated jersey sponsorship into their branding campaigns effectively, the WNBA has taken on the issue with success, the upcoming UFL season will have helmet sponsorship, and now the NFL with practice jersey signage (the value Spongetech received for being on the front of the Bengals jersey for the HBO series “Hard Knocks” in the preseason was a good testament to tasteful and effective) and the NBA (with the Nets being first in the signage pool) has followed suit. With so many teams now effectively using alternative jerseys, throwback jerseys, commemorative patches, and other new licensed product, can jersey signage be far away in the States? One thing the leagues have done, even in these challenged times, is still build a demand for that space by not letting be sold to the first bidder. The leagues are also best at protecting marks and doing the long term planning for their on-field and on-court look, so any decision will be carefully placed and effectively marketed and messaged to the consumer. Perhaps the first move will come as part of a media package when the next major TV and digital rights deal is negotiated by one of the four leagues. Perhaps it will be a mega brand which will try a buy-in all at once for an entire league, hence keeping the uniformity (no pun intended). Maybe it will be the start of a patch program which has been done effectively in tennis and golf for years. One thing is for certain, when teams look at the amount of money Liverpool pulled in for their sponsorship, the discussion has had to have been rekindled again. As brands cut back in hospitality, they need to find creative ways to support their programs through effective exposure, and at some point the virgin jersey space will become the next big option.

Nets Continue To Bounce The Promotional Ball During The Offseason…

August 15, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Many times we have said that minor league baseball does the best job of staying relevant with fans and finding ways to build brand even in the offseason, especially since they have such a transient problem with players. On the professional side, perhaps no team does a better job with staying relevant in a very crowded space than the New Jersey Nets, who again this week, in the dog days of August and with players scattered to all parts of the globe, not only found great exposure points but also took a potentially negative story and turned it into a very positive one. The story in point involved an innovative ticket promotion that saw fans have the opportunity to get reversable jerseys, Nets on one side, top NBA players on the other, with a partial season ticket plan. As it was posted on the teams site, Deadspin took the Nets to task for “faking” a team promotion by selling the reversable jerseies. However in the real marketing world, teams are marketing their opponents and their experience more than their players more and more, as a way to pull in casual fans in the hope that you can convert them to fulltime supporters of your brand. Not uncommon at all, only the Nets have taken it to a bit more of a “physical” play by putting opponents jerseys in the hands of casual fans. The innovation actually spurred some tremendous coverage, including CNBC, the New York Daily News and Associated Press along with some debate, which in the middle of a ticket and brand selling season with really one top marketable star right now (Devin Harris) is what a brand could want. Is there risk in driving fans away from the team with the promotion? Little. Is there upside if one of the Nets players on the reversable emerges? Yes. Will it sell tickets? Yes. Great play, great way to turn what was an initial negative into a positive and an innovative way again to keep the team brand fresh and relevant in mid-summer.

Nets Continue To Beat The Moving Drum

June 15, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The patriarch of one of America’s legendary families, Joe Kennedy, always preached to his famous sons “You Are Who You Say You Are,” and that creedo is a good example of how today’s brands can best pitch and stay on message. Remembering “who you are” and “what you do” and making sure everyone in the company is in line with that vision is the best way to effectively and consistently communicate. A great example of that consistent messaging, and the placing of a steady stream of information around that message, is being done by the New Jersey Nets as they battle every obstacle in their planned move to Brooklyn in the future. Despite the delays, the economy, and now the added pressure by New Jersey officials, Nets brass has remained steadfast and unwavering in their positioning on the Brooklyn move, and constantly find ways to keep the brand relevant and consistently messaged toward the goal of the move to Brooklyn. This week’s Sports Business Journal has a great piece on the “Brooklyn Brand” the Nets are building, which was preceded by pieces in the New York Daily News and Newsday, all without a shovel yet in the ground and the skeptical media continuing to wait to be shown that the move will actually happen. Every sponsor brought in, every community event created, is tied to that one goal of moving to Brooklyn, all well messaged and very believable for the day when that move does happen. In a skeptical time when it is not popular to always stay on message and be consistent, the Nets have been a model of straightforward, single minded focus on their goal.

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