Sports Marketing and Public Relations -- Sports Management Marketing -- Sports Event Marketing » Dick Ebersol

Hockey Gets Another Shot…

Joe Favorito — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:54:44 +0000

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.

So we fast forward to now…a time when the NHL has looked at and been successful at, virtually every digital initiative possible to grow its audience. It has built the Winter Classic as the greatest of regular season sporting events, and has a host of young international stars who can help the sport finally reach a new audience. Sunday night’s terrif rating for US-Canada, and the storybook ending to the game, exposed millions of casual fans to the game, many of whom did not know Sidney Crosby from Sidney Greenstreet or Ryan Miller from Miller Beer before the games began. Even with the success, the spectre of not shutting down the NHL for two weeks for Sochi 2014 still is out there, so not just the NHL, but hockey as a sport, is again at a crossroads for growth. Where will it go? Will it go anywhere or will hockey just get the halo effect of success that Lindsay Vonn or Claudia Mancuso will get, before we move on to something else to capture our spirit and imagination?

Well hockey has perhaps the biggest advantage and is posied for a larger, extended glow than any other winter star can ever have here in North America. It has a real season that is going on…with fans and television and radio and hours of media coverage already going on. Theyhave brands that are tied to teams that can help boost the Olympic reminder with local audiences, and smart marketing and sales teams which can package that moment of Olympic success…not just for the Canadians but really for all who participated in the tournament…and re-sell it not just to their die-hards but to an audience which loves the rings and what they have stood for for the last few weeks. Yes the focus for the NHL clunbs has to now be on the playoffs and the Stanley Cup, but those selling the game, from the Federations to the minors to the grassroots to the NHL teams, need to take every advantage to extend that brand window and make sure that every possible person in the market get a chance to somehow…in person, digitally, virtually…take part in the after-effect of Vancouver. The NHL has made a business like no other sport of parading their Stanley Cup to far outposts with their athletes during the offseason, and they should do the same with every piece of the Olympic experience with those who participated. Perhaps there is a feeling that if they glean off the Olympic experience too much they will have to push back on whatever plans are in place for not shutting down for Sochi. However for a sport that needs a build right now, the short term assistance and ability to expand brand and participation has to be taken advantage of. Sochi is four years away, teams and the sport need the boost now, or some may never get to 2014. Thirty years ago a very unique window was opened for hockey. Some got through before it closed, but it did indeed close and those at the top have struggled to slowly, steadily reopen it and set the sport up for a higher level of exposure and success. The window, for better or worse is again open. Hopefully this time it will not close for the great game.

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

Joe Favorito — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:21:42 +0000

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.

Perhaps no one does a better long-term rollout of coverage than NASCAR does going into Daytona. For weeks, their PR team has been cranking out new activation stories, new coverage angles (Jimmie Johnson 24/7 on HBO) and getting more ancillary attention (will Danica race this weekend and why ois she on CSI Thursday?) to make the brand as relevant as possible going into what really is their biggest window, depsite being at the start of the season. In contrast, the NBA has pushed out their promotional platforms…a week-long caravan of community service projects started in Philly and will culminate Saturday in Dallas, while new sponsor additions and renewals were announced Wednesday and not saved until this coming weekend. Then you have what has been a late but very wide push by all involved in Vancouver to gain exposure with the casual fan, hopefully to also lure viewers starting with Friday’s opening ceremony, from Lindsay Vonn’s “suggestive” SI cover to all the Shaun White appearances you can take and then some.

So who will win, and which brands will benefit? Perhaps the audience is wide enough to allow all to win, and even find some space for the Harlem Globetrotters to gran attention during their annual New York swing. The Olympic ceremonies will draw the casual and female follower,Daytona will pull its usual solid numbers and then the All-Star Game, on TNT and the only one of the three not on broadcast TV, will have its core and enough casual fans (albeit on valentine’s day night) to be an effective weekend long marketing platform for the NBA and their players. The biggest question will be which events will a cash and staff strapped media staff, and will a rise of blog and indy coverage help each one of the events with buzz and eyeballs. If last weekend was all about the traditional win of broadcast TV, will this weekend be all about tweets and blogs and cable? Could be, and if so, will provide an interesting yang of spin to the NFL’s big Super Bowl broadcast win last week. Regardless, it will be interesting to watch as all three vye for attention and then try and claim their right prize through facts and spin. let the games…and the race…begin.

An Olympic Sized Communication Issue…

Joe Favorito — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:43:40 +0000

The best organizations have well thought out and effective communications plans, often times built around the most simple of ideas. Knowing how to effectively communicate messages internally, building consensus amongst key leadership, speaking with one voice, knowing your constituents and addressing their needs, or at least acknowledging their needs, and then making sure that media are communicated to in an effective and consistent manner are all hallmarks of effective internal and external communications, whether you are a large public corporation or a small business or not-for- profit. That basic checklist makes all feel at least listened to and engaged, and makes those “on the inside” feel like they are part of the process. That checklist also helps in challenging times, and usually gives senior leadership a chance to see issues coming or find ways to address upcoming issues more effectively than when operations happen in a vacuum. With those thoughts in mind, it is very troubling to see the problems that the United States Olympic Committee has gone through recently, with many of the problems stemming from a lack of effective internal and external communication. This is not about Chicago 2016’s failed Olympic bid either. The 2016 group actually had a good communications plan to get their messaging out to the people and the media, and few ever questioned who the leadership was or what they were trying to accomplish. Bid head Pat Ryan was available and presented the best possible picture the group had for the Olympics. Why Chicago wasn’t selected is another issue that has less to do with how the message was communicated than what the message was. However the USOC problems, which have now led to the potential dismissal of senior leaders Larry Probst (who received a vote of confidence from the USOC board Friday) and Stephanie Streeter, seem to be more about communication in the decision making process than anything else. The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Hersh detailed the issues the USOC has dealt with in a piece this week. In the past, the USOC had effective communicators like Daryl Seibel and Mike Moran making sure that messages were conveyed and taking the temperature of those both internally and externally to make sure that leadership could help address and make informed decisions. However recently, many media have wriitten about the inaccessability of top leadership throughout a critical period, and the lack of communication to the USOC constituents, the National Governing Bodies which run the individual sports. This lack of effective internal and external communication has brought the USOC to where it is today…with an external perception of crisis and an internal perception of chaos and call for change. Now could all of this been avoided if there was more basic contact internally, and with a regular flow of media contact externally? Unsure, but one thing is for sure. When building consensus in times of crisis, the easiest way to do it is to make sure there is always a free flow of information up and down the chain of command all the time. Without that free flow, leadership can be viewed as being out of touch with the day to day, which leads to loss of confidence and can slow down the decision process. Also without free flow, senior leadership can often miss key messages or problems amongst the rank and file, and those little problems are often the ones which can end up causing major distractions and become large scale issues for leadership, especially in challenging times. So what will happen with the USOC going forward? An organization which such a wealth of experience and positives amongst its rank and file now has the opportunity to re-trench, re-position and re-define itself with new leadership at a time when people want to see its heros Olympic-sized again. With the right leadership, people who are effective internal and external communicators as well as smart businesspeople, the USOC could end up being in a better position for the new world of sports and entertainment than it has ever been before so long as leadership learns the lessons of its recent missteps and communicates them effectively.

Some other good reads…Time has a good piece on what Crocs can do to redfine its brand…the New York Times had a wonderful story on Cleveland coach/educator Ted Ginn…and Yahoo’s Michael Silver has a good profile on the Denver Broncos Brian Dawkins, who has resurrected his career to lead one of the NFL’s biggest surprises thus far.