The State of Rutgers Gets Some Great Guerilla Exposure

September 18, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Saturday Rutgers will take on Florida International University in Piscataway, New Jersey but despite the result, the two biggest gains in popularity for the school may have been made away from any court or playing field this past week. First, on Tuesday night’s Jay Leno Show on NBC, award winning documentarian Michael Moore sported a Rutgers hat for his time on stage with Jay. Then later in the week, urban designer Mark Ecko announced that he was creating a line of Rutgers-themed apparel in honor of his alma mater. Moore has been wearing the Rutgers caps as a tribute to Scarlet Knights grad Ann Sparanese, who started the letter writing campaign to save his first book “Stupid White Men,” which criticized President Bush, while the limited edition Ecko line pays homage to the designer’s time spent in New Brunswick on the Rutgers campus (he is an alumnus) and will be sold online at Shopecko.com.

Taking Advantage of The Quietest Day In Sports…

July 17, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The summer is traditionally slower for the sports industry, even in an Olympic year, but the day always the quietest (especially given Tuesday’s marathon All-Star game) is the Wednesday after the All-Star game.  The day usually offers up a chance for sports in their offseason to grab some headlines or those currently competing to update current plans with the media.  Some of the groups that took advantage of the quiet day included tennis (Venus Williams on Leno), the New Jersey Nets (making GM Rod Thorn available to spell out their plan going forward), Red Bull New York (who got great space in the dailies with Claudio Reyna’s retirement announcement)  and the NFL Network (which did a conference call with Steve Bornstein and new lead announcer Bob Papa).  All got more exposure than they would have gotten on even a slightly crowded day, and were great examples of advance planning.  Good strategic moves by all.