Looking Back At The Luge Tragedy…

February 18, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

The subject of crisis management and brand damage, both long and short, arose again last Friday as the world looked to Vancouver and the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  By now everyone knows of the tragedy, the issues of blame, the decision for networks to show or not show the footage and for how long, and all the issues of nationalism that came about. Still it bears looking back after a few days as to how the tragedy was handled  and what the effects will now be as the focus has shifted from luge and into other key TV sports like figure skating and hockey.

Racing Back To The Top…

February 14, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

As one looks for continued signs of resurgence in sports marketing…record viewership for the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympic Opening ceremonies, more global sponsors building activation platforms, increased and more diverse ad spending dollars being but forth from ‘09…perhaps one should look to racing as a bell weather.  Yes it is true that “The Great American Race,” the Daytona 500, will just beginning NASCAR’s season this weekend, and that the aggressive new launch of IRL is still a few weeks away, but there are continued positive signs which are showing that racing, one of the the industries hit hardest in the recession the last few years, may be returning to form in terms of viewership, attention and brand awareness. NASCAR has started awareness campaigns in theaters across the country, designed to promote the personalities of the sport, has enhanced their digital presence and begun a more intense program to get their faces out to the widest possible audience going into the season.

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

February 11, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

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.

NASCAR Goes To The Big Screen(s)…

January 31, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As we near Daytona and the start of NASCAR 2010, it is good to see the brand is again looking for more ways to engage the brand, the consumer and grow relevance among the casual fan.  The latest offering is a program launching in  thiusands of movie screens across North America, the first of a series of “short” videos that will promote ties to brands, drive personalities of the drivers and hopefully grow interest among those who may not be yet on the NASCAR bandwagon and now may tune in or log on to catch more of the excitement.   Now it is not unusual for brands, or even sports brands, to reach out to engage the movie goer.  The New York Liberty for example, used the screens of Cablevision’s Clearview Cinemas to promote ticket availability and awareness, and the Women’s World Cup had a similar program to drive awareness.   NASCAR’s IMAX experience, as well as others shot in large screen format, have also tried to draw feans of cinema to a unique aspect of sport.  What is different here is that the videos are more of a long-term awareness push rather than a call to action for just a race, or a ticket buying experience or a tune-in.  It gives the brands featured, each worked carefully into the short, great ROI with a new audience, and also offers great opprtunity to use the shorts virally as well.  In a time when brands need that ROI and NASCAR, like all sports, is battling for the casual fan and the discretionary dollar, the reach to theaters looks like a very clean, snart approach and if it works will be copied. Start  your engines fans.

Racing Looks To Find New Fans…Pinewood Derby Anyone?

January 26, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

We are coming up fast on Daytona for NASCAR’s start,  the IRL is looking to rebrand and re-emerge after unification with IZOD as a title sponsor, even Forumula One is looking to find its place again. So as the economic times start to recede and sponsor dollars are becoming a tad looser again, what can racing do to find audiences to grow and keep adding fans for life.  One idea is for one of the circuits to embrace a time-honored tradition between thousands of boys and their dads with the Boy and Cub Scouts of America: brand the Pinewood Derby. For those who don’t know, Pinewood Derby is a mid-winter troop by troop competition in which dads and sons take a wooden block of five ounces and fashion it into a mini-soap box car to cpmpete against other troop members on a downhill track.  Pinewood Derby bonds fathers and sons, instills interest in science and design, gives kids an interest in racing away from a video screen and is just plain fun.  Virtually every troop in the United States has the race, and generations of scouts have enjoyed the practice over the years.  Yet, no one in racing has thought to find ways to honor design (especially now in the digital age), and add on some branding to enhance the car design. It probably is not a stretch that hosts of drivers, technicians and even sponsors who have gone through scouting can connect with Pinewood Derby as well.  To have one of the major circuits latch on and find ways to promote scouting through a Pinewood Derby promotion could be a cheap, affordable longlasting promotion at a time when racing is not top-of-mind, but could provide a great lead-in to the upcoming season.  Does it answer all the questions as to where racing can go to increase its viewership and demo?  No.  But it is a great grassroots tie to a group that has a strong  affinity for brands that support it (the scouts) and has very little downside or large cost associated with it.  Start your engines (or at least your blocks of wood).

Can Jimmie Johnson and NASCAR win New York?

November 26, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Jimmie Johnson was in one of the few races this week that he has yet to win. The race to make his brand, and in a larger part the brand of NASCAR, relevant to the casual sports fan and the discretionary spender in the world’s largest marketplace, the New York tri-state area.

Military Speaks Right To The Sports Core And Get Results…

October 15, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The ability of brands to show ROI is sometimes very tricky, as so many different aspects go into monitoring consumer trends and buying habits. Yes it is a very intricate science and buying habits can be tracked, but the actual last second decision as to whether to choose product A or product B that can be driven by just one ad, or one activation program or even one key spend is still very hard to justify. Unless you are the military in the United States. There are very few brands that spend more on activation in sport outside of the United States Armed Forces, with the goal being both public awareness…hearts and minds…and recruitment. From boxing to college football, NASCAR to the NFL, the call to action and awareness for the military is pervasive and very detailed. Its messaging is clear and its goal is simple. So when it was announced this week the every branch of the military exceeded their recruitment goals for the year for the first time in decades, it should come as no surprise that there was a strong tie to their detailed marketing plan on how to reach that core young audience…advertising and activation around sports. Did the unemployment rate and the economy have something to do with it? Of course. But there is no doubt that the military knows its market, was able to concentrate their messaging to that market, and was able to show a direct ROI on their spend. A success all around. Now what will be the result of this sports branding success? In all likelihood budgets will be cut, as there is less of a need over a cycle to keep hitting those high numbers of recruits, since the military cycle for a new recruit is more than one year and the churn from year to year with today’s active military is lower than in peace time. Now that is obviously not good for properties who welcomed those spending dollars, but it does speak well to the premise that if you know your want to reach a young acticve crowd and spend efficiently, there are few activation platforms better than sports. If you want to know for sure, just ask the men and women in uniform.

Squeezing Til The Sponge Is Dry…

October 14, 2009 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

In the 1970’s and into the 1980’s big tobacco fueled some of the most successful sports branding opportunities in history. Whether it was Phillip Morris’ support of Virginia Slims tennis or NASCAR’s Marlboro Cup, the cigarette brands created some of the most large scale and effective activation platforms in sports history. Then came all the legislation against smoking and the tobacco brands, and for the better in terms of health and social consciousness, all the spending stopped from those brands. So sports moved on, using the lessons learned in many of those activation platforms to bring in new brands who would spend, maybe not at the large numbers of tobacco, but who would continue to grow business and fill the gap. Banks and financial institutions, insurance, and technology, filled gaps with new money and new ways to reach the consumer.

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.

More Examples of The Value Of Being Green…NASCAR and Wilson…

July 31, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Two brands which most people don’t usually think of as being “green,” NASCAR and Wilson, recently continued the trend in being more enviro-conscious in their branding, production and presentation, once again proving that if you can be “green” and “first” in a category you can get your brand a nice pat on the back and some good exposure, as well as being environmentally friendly. First Wilson recently became the first brand to introduce to the North American sporting goods marketplace by bringing the first eco-certified basketball (it is black and green) to the marketplace. Do we need a “green” basketball? Will it make a bigger dent in the carbon footprint in terms of overall production? Maybe. But by branding it first and making a distinction in color, the sporting good company got some bang for the time it spent in development and marketing. Second was the interesting announcement by the always looking to be innovative folks at NASCAR to announce the largest solar energy project at a sports facility, for the track in Pocono, Pa. A sport that revolves around large amount of fossil fuels seems like a disconnect for being green, but the ability to be “first” “largest” and “effective” gets the message out, positions the sport correctly to a legion of fans that remain very brand loyal and again sets NASCAR up as a leader in a field that has suffered in the current economy and can use leaders for alternative energy sources. Will it make those folks driving RV’s a little more conservative when they fill up? Probably not. But it may make the facilities business see new options for sponsorship, community programs and ways to be more cost and enrgy conscious than they are today. Good timing and positioning on both by two brands who are not necessarily associated with always being green.

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