“Lombardi Mania” Coming To A Theater, A Screen or a TV Near You Soon…Not Soon Enough

March 12, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

For a while I have been involved with the upcoming dramatic play Lombardi, which producers Tony Ponturo and Fran Kirmser will bring to Broadway in November.  The play is based on the best-selling book “When Pride Still Mattered” by Pultizer Prize-winning author David Maraniss, and is going to be a very intriguing mix of dramatic theater and the story of an amazing and engaging personality.  However Lombardi the play will not be alone.  HBO is working on a documentary on the career of the legendary coach and leader, and this week, a movie project was revived, now with ESPN involved, that will debut in 2012 starring Robert De Niro as Lombardi.  All three projects will have a different take…the film will concentrate more on the players and the glory fo the game, the documentary will recount the facts of his life through the eyes of those who knew him and the play will really tell a larger story about the ups and downs of a mercurial figure who overcame some early setbacks to be a success.

The House of Mouse Raises It’s Sports Brand…

February 27, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Slowly, steadily, the good folks at Disney and ESPN have turned one of the brand’s more quizzical efforts into a mecca, not for characters, but for the character built through sport.

Maybe Not A Homer, But McGwire Plan Hit Its Points…

January 14, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It was a long time in coming and caused many people a great deal of angst over the years, but Mark McGwire’s long-awaited and often doubted announcement that he used steroids was actually well orchastrated this week, and was effectively communicated on a number of levels.  While many will look back as to the quality of answers and what the future will be in terms of acceptance and media interraction between the press and the soon-to-be-St. Louis Cardinals coach, the fact remains that the major issue was addressed, addressed well in a strong setting, and the stage is set for McGuire not to be as major a distraction as he could have been without the admission when spring training starts.  Some of the key points in the strategy worth noting.

Charity Trailblazer? Bloom Forgoes Gold For A Wish of a Lifetime…

November 12, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The last year has seen more athletes embrace issues for social change and cause marketing as part of their platform than perhaps any other period. Is it because smart business minded athletes and the representatives see what is going on at the fan level with the economy and have more of a sense to give back? Maybe. Is it because there are causes that athletes have always felt compelled to embrace because of a personal connection and now have more vehicles to do so? Could be. Is it because brands and leagues have made a much bigger outward push to tie to social responsibility that hospitality and other areas for ROI? Also possible. In the end, it doesn’t really matter which is the cause…the effect is a positive impact directly on the lives of millions in a time where that impact needs to be felt most. The impressive thing about the public outreach by those of influence in sports is the breadth and depth of the programs, from cancer awareness to childhood obesity and single parenting issues.

However even with all the engagement, every once in a while a new imitative jumps forward. Case in point was Wednesday’s announcement that winter Olympian Jeremy Bloom was retiring. Bloom, who created a bit of a controversy during a two sport career when he petitioned the NCAA for football eligibility after being ruled ineligible because of monies received from skiing endorsements, announced that he would not look to qualify for the Vancouver Games at a point when he was skiing and training the hardest in his life. Instead he has chosen to devote more time to the philanthropic passion he has developed in Denver. Working with kids or education? Not exactly. The charity Bloom has developed and will implement is Wish of a Lifetime, a group which works with the elderly to improve the quality of their lives and grant wishes, Make a Wish Style, to seniors. It is a clear departure from the way many athletes have looked at philanthropy. Yes, many devote time and effort to causes that effect adults, especially with poverty or health-related issues. However few have embraced the passionate support of seniors, a group which is growing both in need and numbers as the American population matures at the fastest rate ever. Is it a version of “The Bucket List” as one person pointed out? Perhaps. However what it really is is the attempt by a world class athlete to identify with a cause that he or she sees as maybe not the trendiest but as the place or the niche where he can make the most difference since that area is underserved. In many ways it is not much different that the efforts someone like former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo started with Malaria awareness in Africa. At the time little was known or addressed amongst the population in the Western World about Malaria, but today, largely through Mutombo’s work, the issue of Malaria awareness is a very high priority.

Marveling At A New Opportunity For ESPN…

September 1, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It was only a few years ago that Marvel Entertainment caused an uproar amongst baseball traditionalists by trying to put spider webs on the bases at MLB games as part of their promotion for the first “Spiderman” movie. The backlash caused MLB and Marvel to scale down the promotion and saved the “sanctity of white bases” for the time. Flash forward to today’s more challenged times, where outfield signage and in game promotions dominate as a way to gain more ROI for partners, and MLB is now one of the leaders in finding ways to integrate unique content and promotions into their games and production, albeit still not on the bases.

The Twitter Distraction…

August 6, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The folks at Twitter should all be sending flowers and thank you’s to everyone at sports leagues and media companies today, as no one did more to grow the Twitter brand and create watercooler talk this side of Ashton Kutcher than the media yesterday. First it was the NFL teams and their great debate over where and how blogging and twitter postings can be done by players and the media…good piece by Bob Kravitz in USA Today on the issue…and then the day long debate over ESPN’s new policy (great summary by SBJ’s John Ourand) and the responses by Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports etc… What it comes down to is the same issue that has been debated in various forms for years…message control. If you are an NFL team you want to be able to have as much control over the message being given to the public as possible…if you are a brand or a media company you want to make sure that those on your payroll are being able to grow your brand by using the best means possible to the company. At the end of the day those are where the money is made for the brand and that’s where you want fans to go for credible information. The 24/7 world we live in today creates many more distractions than ever before, deciding what is a credible source with the right information is the challenge whether it is politics, civil defense, healthcare or sports and entertainment media. What is even more interesting with regard to social media is the Wired Magazine piece on the Marines banning social media platforms, showing that the space can effectively create confusion and the spread of misinformation in life and death situations. Now is the Twitter in sports debate any different from when the crisis for teams was sports radio, or college newspapers, or tabloids? No. In the end policies for credible coverage using these media will be set, and we will move on to the next issue. It remains more concerning that journalistic standards,,,and jobs…continue to disappear as media entities struggle to find profit centers that mix social media with the traditional. End of the day social media alone still does not generate a business…but it does create buzz and lots of distractions, both good and bad.

Can Soccer Take Advantage Of Its Big Kick?

June 26, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Within a 24 hour period this week, the brand value sport of professional soccer in the United States took a huge jump. First came the coups of ESPN scooping up the Premier League from virtually bankrupt Setanta Sports, followed by the US’ stunning 2-0 win over Spain in the Confederations Cup, followed closely by Steve Nash’s second annual grassroots soccer fundraiser in a New York park, along with the Sports Business Journal piece that WPS is doing better than expected. From the grassroots to the professional, all seems to be going well. Now is there a way for some brand, or a series of brands, to take the good news, tie it in a package and use it as the latest, and strongest, all-encompassing boost for a sport that was already well positioned going into the recession (because of their structure and cost cutting measures) but now has a variety of platforms that are highly visible to attach to? We shall see. Of course Confederations Cup final against Brazil still remains, but the continued interest of Nash (who will be part of the ownership group for MLS Vancouver) as an ambassador with both the world class pros he brought to New York and with his NBA friends, plus a steady women’s product gives the sport another boost while others are struggling. However for brands who have held back on investment waiting for the economy to turn or the right opportunity to invest in, maybe this weeks series of events for soccer will get them a well placed kick for new activation and partnerships.

Does Yanks Move Help Or Damage An Elite Brand?

April 29, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The story of the week will be the Yankees taking an about face to lower ticket prices, and Darren Rovell in his blog on Tuesday took a detailed look at some of the reasons. On another level, the rule of thumb many times is to hold the line and never lower or discount in season, as it hurts the long time brand value where people will now look to bargain for something elite that they could never get a lower price for before. Mercedes, Nordstrom’s etc. rarely lower prices, as you know with those high quality brands you pay the price for high quality service. Even in sports for all their oncourt issues, the Knicks front row and rows behind the bench at Madison Square Garden remain the priciest seats in sports. Now although some may argue this was just a slight PR spin and that the Yanks knew all along that they had minimums to hit and just adjusted prices closer to those minimums, that may not necessarily be true. The view of empty seats around home plate in what is an endless season can damage brand and become more the longer term story than the lowering of prices. Even Tuesday night, most stories still were spinning that the prices remain too high for the average family, and more discounting is needed. Then there is the issue of all those who paid full price and how refunding or additional tickets will have to be handled with them. For those elite seatholders, the higher price was never a real issue, so now angering them with “discounts” around them will also have to be handled. Now there is some value to public perception of reacting to the economy and fan demand to lower ticket prices, and the Yanks will get some due for that. The bigger question is will this “discounting” just make the Yanks another team and less of an elite brand? In this marketplace, especially in a new facility, getting people in to sample product and determine value is tantamount. The Yanks tried to hold the line and did the research to see what the public will bear, so hopefully the brand will hold, team performance will rise, and the lower ticket for the elite seats fills those voids. Short term damage slightly abated, and longterm if any to be determined.

NIT Still Remains Added Value As A Brand And To Schools…

April 2, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As the Final Four plays out this weekend in Detroit, the nation’s oldest college hoops tournament, the NIT, will have already wrapped up with a semi-final and final in New York. While it seems there is little need or interest in the third or fourth college tournaments now being played…one of which may have a “winner”, Oregon State, that may not even have a .500 season…the NIT still retains value for those schools that do not make it to the field of 65. Case in point is the profile in the San Diego Union Tribune on the value San Diego State got by making it to the NIT Final four this year. The school got much needed national exposure in prime time on ESPN, got to feature itself in an arena and a geographic area (New York’s Madison Square Garden) that it doesn’t normally get to do, and was able to provide much needed experience for its younger players. All those aspects are also true for Penn State and Baylor, two other schools not used to the hoops limelight, and eventhough the NIT does not draw the huge Garden crowds it used to when it was the number one event, it still provides solid and entertaining play for those schools that miss the Dance. The history of young squads gaining experience and then improving in the NCAA the next year is very detailed, and if the NCAA does not increase in size, an extended NIT run, with ESPN and MSG tied in, is not a bad second prize, and can even provide some added, affordable TV time and partnerships for select brands. It’s not the Big Dance, but for some, it remains a quality and worthwhile show.

Polo The New Frontier?

January 6, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As we lose sports teams and large brands worry about the best way to get ROI, some potential opportunities always arise.  One of the more unique ones was pointed out in a detailed Reuters piece, which showed the value brands are getting and continue to get in Argentina…with the sport of polo.   Now it is obviously not a traditional play, especially in most areas of North America, but one would wonder if perhaps the economy downturn for the right brands could find a niche for polo in the right areas, with the right TV and digital component and with brands looking to attract the polo crowd and educate themselves on the tradition of a very traditional sport. The story points out the value brands get with associating with an elite niche sport that is carefully placed and marketed correctly to the right audience.  As the PBR makes its annual play into New York this week and shows how well it can activate and bring in the casual fan in the major market (again going up against the Giants playoffs for the second year in a row), one wonders if maybe with the right backing polo could make itself into a viable tour globally.  Out of every downturn comes opportunity, and who knows, but maybe pro polo could be one for certain brand activation.

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