Can the Pac 10 Make An Eastern Impact?

July 29, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

This spring and summer, perhaps more than any other offseason, the Pac 10 Conference and its schools have made headlines that have transcended game coverage across the nation.  Whether it was the continued controversies surround USC, the expansion and shift of schools, television contracts, Bowl alliances, coaching shifts, the Pac 10 has grabbed its share of headlines.  The latest came this week, when Commissioner Larry Scott announced the latest national plans to grow the face of the conference, completed with a rebranding plan and vision and plans for a larger east coast presence for the conference (designed by Ed O’Hara and his team at SME), which because of its geography, continually lags behind overall exposure in the winter to conferences like the Big East, Big 10 and ACC in the mind not just of sports fans but of marketers and sales folks on Madison Avenue.

SME Shows How To Build A Brand…

May 21, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

In the day to day struggle of making ends meet and achieving ROI, companies can lose focus as to what their core message and mission is.  The ability to grab little pieces of a financial or sales pie, or to satusfy a business partners immediate as opposed to ling term needs, can get a company offtrack, and sometimes that simple distraction or change in vision can prove very costly for the long term.  The lack of consistency of message and branding and mission can really determine what competive companies are successful in their space, and what companies can fall by the wayside.  Now it is true in today’s challenged economy that one does have to be flexible and answer to many, many masters from time to time.  Creativity is key. However flexibility does not have to mean being inconsistent with messaging or look and feel.

The Sports Branding World Continues To Shrink…

November 18, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With every passing week the global transparency of sports events continues to grow. Whether it is high school hoops stars looking to build their brand and their game going to Israel, Emirates Airways using the Breeder’s Cup in Los Angeles as a prime global marketing tool or more Chinese brands signing endorsements to promote brands never seen before in the United States, the sports and entertainment world continues to contract in distance and expand in potential opportunities.

Johnnies Give A Seat To Tweet…A Move That Could Set The Pace…

August 28, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It is sometimes the simplest of moves that make the most sense and can set the pace for others. This week, St. John’s University decided that they would have a designated, unbiased person have a credentialed spot for all their hoops games and be credentialed as a “Twitter” member of the media. His name is Peter Robert Casey, and he is a credible, well thought young person who both understands the media and has a passion for the game, and he has built a rather large twitter following, So St. John’s whose fall in the New York market from the college that was on par with all pro teams in terms of exposure to less than a blip on the radar these days, will give Casey a seat to tweet what he likes and when he likes throughout the course of the game, in pregame media sessions and postgame. Unlike other media members this will be his sole assignment…he wont be filing stories or covering other things (although he has that option)…and he wont be paid for his service. It gets St. John’s a little buzz, maybe draws some additional casual eyeballs their way in a crowded marketplace and helps get them some additional exposure. It is not unlike the Islanders, who had open space in their pressbox, creating a blogger area a few years ago, which paved the way for other teams to slowly welcome the bloggers into their space and led to former PR Director Chris Botta creating his t highly popular blog Islanders Point Blank. So whats the downside to St. John’s or other schools to credential an active twitter “correspondent.” Like the blogging space, credibility and traffic is a small concern. The person or persons should have legitimate media skills and be treated and act like a professional. They should also have a solid following and not be looking to use this opportunity as their chance just to build some personal gain only. End of the day it is simple, no cost with a good upside for any team or brand looking to grow its base. It can be no different than the radio stations doing live updates from games or the beat writers now filing blogs on the fly. One of the ironies of course is that it is a Big East school making this move, which is counter to the schools of the SEC trying to restrict media coverage and usage as has been reported lately (good summary on Sports Business Daily on the SEC’s moves). Now of course Twittering is different than posting live video and infringing on media rights, and St. John’s search for coverage is different from what Florida or Georgia still receives, but it is a smart move by the Johnnies.

NASCAR Plays The Education Card To Build More Bandwidth…

April 5, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

We have often talked about the new ways NASCAR has derived in a down economy to reach the consumer and work with their partners. This week brought another series of innovations, the biggest of which is a new education module tied into science to reach students who love invention and innovation, but may never have gotten near a track, a driver or any of the brands around the sport. The Science of Speed , an online teaching component available free to all teachers, marries NASCAR’s racing and engineering experience with simple experiments and programs for science teachers to apply in their curriculum to students. The programs are multi-level, adaptable and really give the casual follower another reason to watch and identify with the brand. Combine that with NASCAR’s rollout of a Prilosec campaign based around barbeque (another smart marriage of food and a heartburn medication) and an announcement that Libby’s signed Kim Burton…the wife of driver Jeff Burton…for a series of promotions onsite, and you have a week where the brand has hit emerging fans (children and teachers), die hard fans (the barbeque eatin, brand buying) and the female audience (the casual and the diehard) in one fell swoop. Most importantly, all these activation programs take NASACAR TO the constituent in a time where constituents may not be looking for them. Great outreach with not just short term, but long term brandbuilding components.

Sports As A Social Unifier…And Disappointment When Politics Enter The Field…

February 18, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

One of the great lessons sports teaches is that many times political and social boundries can be overcome through play on the athletic field. baseball gave us Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier, and last year in an Olympic tuneup, four nations who have few political ties as a group…Chinese Taipei, China, Japan and Korea…met in baseball and opened the door for future positive relations. So it was very disappointing to see events unfold this week at a women’s tennis tournament in Dubai, when Israel’s Shahar Peer was denied a visa to compete in the event. Harvey Araton’s column in the New York Times went into great detail about the incident and the long-range ramifiactions the political move could have on sports in the region, especially for tennis and golf. Even more evidence of the damage was the withdrawl of the Wall Street Journal as a sponsor of the event, and it will be interesting to see if any players of note take a further stand in support as the week unfolds. Tennis players have been usually apolitical and the Tour has followed the dollar into some interesting regions of the world in recent years, so while a stand by players would be surprising, it could have the effect of unifying a sport which is sometimes viewed as fractured. In addressing the issue, Tour CEO Larry Scott took a strong and cautious approach, which was the prudent thing to do. A knee-jerk move to cancel the event outright could have turned the promoters into winners in a politically charged region, and could have cost players travel and prize money, as well as putting some sponsor deals in jeopardy. By playing through, the sport has taken a high road position and can let those behind the scenes see what the prudent road will be going forward. The biggest brand damage in the long run may not be to the one tournament, but could be in drawing high quality events…from rugby to golf to basketball…into the Emirates going forward. The other interesting area to follow will be on Emirates companies looking to grow their brand abroad, and whether a backlash against those events that may partner with such companies (such as horse racing) will face a public outcry. In a time when most of the world is hoping for social change, the denial of an athlete to ply her trade because of nationality is disappointing, and shows that there are still ways to go to have true unity in sports across the board. Kudos to the WTA for their stance thus far, with the hope that they follow through on the issue an deliver a penalty for the event that is worthwhile and sends the right message for all sports.

Making A Raquet With A Branding Campaign…Tennis, NHRA and Lacrosse

June 20, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With The Championships, Wimbledon, the third leg of tennis’ Grand Slam almost upon us, the WTA Tour made not just a loud branding statement, but a loud financial branding statement with their announcement of a $15 Million multi-year international branding campaign designed to re-introduce the casual sports fand to the stars of women’s tennis. It is the latest in a series of very bold moves by the WTA to find ways to set themselves apart and bring in the casual fan, and the sponsor dollar, that is very necessary in returning the sport to even its heyday of the late 1990’s. The move by CEO Larry Scott makes a great deal of sense…it shows the players, their title sponsor (Sony Ericsson) and other second tier sports that the WTA is putting serious dollars into brand building. Now are the dollars serious enough to make a dent? Some of that will have to be proven by the PR commitment and effort the Tour makes to put its top stars in highly visible and aggressive and unique PR campaigns, and in individual sports (the Tour learned this with a very public tiff with Maria Sharapova in Rome earlier this year) the player schedule and outside comittments can sometimes make that difficult. The biggest way for this to succeed, much in the way NASCAR has its success, is to make sure that all parties…athletes, agents, tournaments, staff…are ALL pulling in the same direction and with a level of cooperation. The game is good, now the stories have to be told better.