Tie Traditional Sport to Gen-X: Give em skateboards…

June 27, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

The traditional major team sports continue to fight the battle as to how they can continue to engage a younger audience that is growing up less with stick and ball and more with thrill-seeking individual sports these days.  As the X-Games and Gravity Games rise in popularity for their generation, baseball, hoops and football have to find ways to keep those young people engaged in some way, if not always playing then coming to games or following casually.  A recent piece in Fast Company provided a nice little look into one way to provide Gen-X’ers with a little incentive to follow team sports…a branded skateboard giveaway.

Majoring In The Minors: Lake County Joins The LeBron Fun…

June 24, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

So with the first day of summer comes a new rite of passage in select NBA cities…the beg LeBron sweepstakes.  Mayor’s, celebrities, fans, websites, media from sea to shining sea have come up with ploy after ploy to gain attention as LeBron James decides where to next ply his trade.  The recruitment James missed by forgoing college is now in full swing, with the stakes for some franchises who have cast aside previous seasons to build cap space now hanging in the balance, not to mention the dollars and equity of thousands of season ticketholders who have cast their lot and bet of James coming to save franchises in L.A., New York, Chicago, Cleveland and points in between. The recruiting has run from mainstream to viral, and will cost organizations a good chunk of change with the hopes of bringing an ROI to pass along to their partners and fans.

Breast Cancer Awareness: A Cause Marketing Platform Second To None…

May 10, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and around Major League baseball the pink bats rose across the diamonds as a symbol of awareness and a call to action in the fight against Breast Cancer.  The pink ribbons, bats, jerseys and balls in support of Breast Cancer Awareness have symbolically gripped sports more effectively than perhaps any other charity over time.  But why?  It is a question that privately many charities, especially those that raise money for deadly diseases that affect males, ask.  Other than the great emotional ties that we all have to the women of our lives, why do all the pink ribbons and bats resonate so well and raise so much money so effectively?  Is it just the emotional tie?  Is it that the color pink, not normally associated with the macho world of sports, makes such a cut through the clutter that it stands out above all other events and programs?  Is it because breast cancer has been so public and so pervasive that it is the charity we choose to support, both publicly and privately?

Pro Guides Getting More On The Stick For Media…

April 29, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 3 Comments 

The legendary journalist Jimmy Breslin once said the beauty of holding and reading a newspaper is that you never know what surprises are in store when you turn the page.  That of course was well before the Kindle and IPad infused world we are now in, where data and all forms of media can literally change in the blink of an eye, with no worry of turning the page.  Newspapers and information sources become outdated in many cases as soon as they are printed, or the next news cycle begins, and technology is giving us the ability to continue to streamline our information process.

The Mascot Fills A Bigger Branding Role…

February 17, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

So it’s the middle of winter and you have no idea who your players are…or you are having a terrible season and the trade deadline looms and you need to keep your brand fresh and identifiable.  What to do?  The mascot. Now more than ever, with brands looking for more ROI, fans looking for personal engagement and athletes time limited, the value of having a fun, interesting and marketable mascot is higher than ever.  Ben Hill’s blog on milb.com points out dozens of minor league teams that trotted out nascot’s for Valentine’s Promotions or other teams that have unveiled new or updated mascots during the last few weeks to keep their brand top of mind with consumers.  The New Jersey Nets worked not a player, but their mascot, into a Super Bowl commercial, while NHL teams are trotting out mascots while their players are away or off during the Olympic break.  Now that it is so important to engage the entire family, older alumni may not always work as a compelling interraction, and the ability to have mascots in multiple places works as a fund rasier and a brand awareness tool.  It is true that many major market or more established brands (the Knicks, the Rangers, the Cowboys, the Dodgers) have never embraced the mascot theme, instead relying on the power of their brand and all the pieces around it to drive interest.  However for those really needing relevance, the investment in picking the right looking mascot and then marketing him, her or it appropriately, has become as valuable as any other brand campaign and one that is not taken lightly.

Why Embracing The Blogosphere Works…

February 2, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

On Sunday, I was part of a group that helped pull together an event to expose the new analytic products Bloomberg Sports and MLB.com are developing and will soon introduce to the consumer market for fantasy baseball, as well as  a more fun, indepth way at looking at the sport of baseball .  While the products, one for the fan and one for professional teams, are compelling on their own, what was even more compelling was the interest in the over 50 bloggers that attended the Sunday afternoon event, further proof that brands that find ways to work with the bloggers who have achieved success and built credibility will find a solid pipeline for legitimate, timely and in-depth coverage.

Why Baseball Fan Fests Work…

January 24, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As we head toward pitchers and catchers reporting in less than a month, we are seeing the seeds of baseball pop up in the most remote locations, where spring seems lightyears away.  In Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee…talk of baseball, and ticket selling and autographs are all on the minds of the die hard and the casual fan these next few weeks. Why?  Yes its because baseball remains the casual summer sport that many people in North America still mark time by.  However more importantly is because teams, especially those  in cold weather climates, have launched their annual winter caravans and fan experiential events, days and sometimes weeks of activity that brings players, coaches and the brand back top of mind at a critical time of year.  The Fan Fest is not just a baseball-specific idea.  Other sports in some markets take advantage of the offseason in similar ways, but the overall “festival” plan in the dead of winter is one of the practices that baseball does best.  It is a real re-invigoration of the brand…and an opportunity to give fans affordable access to the players, the coaches and everything about the brand…regardless of where the team ended up the previous season.  It also gives the team the ability to answer questions, hype to players, and really connect with those who will buy the tickets and the merch when the season starts.  Some teams like the White Sox for example, have even implemented new and social media into the process, hosting fan fest “tweet ups” and special discounts and giveaways for those who have signed up, and can get to a particular area at a moment’s notice.  The Detroit Tigers, who have done one of the best jobs of any team with their annual Tiger Fest, use the weekend as a chance to pull in and explain the brand to potential sponsors of all sizes, and have even created blogger-specific events to gauge opinion and feedback.  In many markets the Fan Fest has become a great offseason revenue source, while in others it is a work in progress.  The Fan Fest idea is not universally in place in baseball…the Mets and Yankees for example do not do fan fests because of the crowded marketplace, the anticipated lack of a sizable venue and the fact that the sport gets mega-coverage almost every day in the media (although the Yankees did have tremendous success with events when they were re-establishing themselves in the late ’80’s and early ’90’s and needed to move tickets)…but it is a growing one.  Minor league teams in some markets do scaled down versions as well.

The Business of Baseball Never Sleeps…

December 16, 2009 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Maybe it’s because the World Baseball Classic pushed the World Series into November. Maybe its because the winter meetings came at a time this year when the rest of the sports world was Tiger-crazy and not much else was going on. Maybe its because baseball is doing as good a job of strategically stretching out its news over a longer period this year. Whatever the reason, the amount of information that is ongoing for the business of baseball seems endless, and for those involved in the branding of America’s pastime, its probably a good thing. Whether you are following the business of minor league baseball and the great things that so many teams do to stay relevant with offseason promotions, or are part of all the hot stove action going on, or are taking interest in the potential Hall of Fame candidates announced, or even getting ready to purchase tickets for the Sunday Night opener on ESPN, there is no shortage of daily information, news and notes for the baseball fan, ardent or casual. While virtually every other sport on the planet takes an offseason, baseball finds ways to stay relevant. Even on the competition front, as baseball finishes in North America games are starting in the Caribbean, and in 2010, in Australia with a new pro league. Is it overkill? Does it lose relevance? Strangely not. More importantly if you are involved in the branding business of baseball, the sport finds ways to stay top of mind, giving the brands that are involved on some level incentive to stay fresh and informed. While some may decide the actual season is too long, the fact remains that as a business and as an entertainment property, there may be no sport that feeds the sould of its core fan more than baseball, and in these challenged times, that’s a good thing for ROI.

The Coaching Network An Untapped Activation Model For Brands?

December 8, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

They have always been the iconic role models that have shaped thousands of lives, from little league to the highest level of competition. They are dedicated and driven, mercurial and emotional, volunteers and mercenaries, teachers and mentors. They are coaches. Yet for all the time, effort and value they put in, these men and women usually never get the recognition or capitalize on their success as much as the athlete. Sure there are the superstars…Lombardi, Parcells, Torre, Bryant, Jackson…that have crossed over into the mainstream, as much as for their personality as for their onfield success. However as a group, probably because the very nature of coaching is selflessness and the field is so transient, coaches have rarely united as a brand to drive revenue and interest in the profession.

Yankees Take A Leadership Position With Hope Week…

July 20, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Sometimes being the premier brand in a city, let alone a country, can lead to complacency. Even in a down economy, the demand as a destination and a brand to be associated with still conveys great opportunity with little effort. On another side, the relevance of brand can also lead to a guarded stance with regard to creating partner opportunities…one which does not allow the brand to do the “extras” for attention or brand growth that others need to be successful. Also, being a brand in demand can put those involved on such a high pedestal that the downside of not being all inclusive in projects, leaving out a partner or not being able to assist all involved, can bring more negative than the positive of assisting most. So with all that in mind, the Yankees deserved some credit for creating their first-ever HOPE Week. All week the team and staff will be in the city doing community service events, all tied in with various goodwill around the city. Now some may say that this is what a premier brand is supposed to do to give back to the community, and it is true that teams do community events year-round. However for the Yankees to make a concerted effort to use the power of their brand, especially without a corporate push, to touch so many charities within one week, a great followup to all the work MLB did in St. Louis around the All-Star break, is a great move. The positioning of the events, between Sunday’s Old Timers Day and this coming weekend’s Hall of Fame induction, and during a time of year when media are looking for events (no NBA, NFL, NHL or college, and minimal NASCAR and just off the British Open) also makes great sense. A solid, well positioned week-long event for a team and its players which sometimes do not get their due for all they can do off the field.

Next Page »