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.

More Expensive Real Estate Up For Grabs For Brands? NFL and WNBA…

April 23, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The continued quest for landing valuable real estate in the sports space got another nice pop this week, when Microsoft’s Bing became the latest brand to make its way to a WNBA uniform, landing a partnership with the Seattle Storm.  The jersey signage, especially for MLS and the WNBA, has been a boon to sponsorship, and last year patches made it on to the front of NFL and NBA practice jerseys as well, bringing some brands additional incremental value and teams some added revenue. While the four major team sports still are backing off from jersey signage which is common elsewhere, it is starting to seem more like an inevitability that the integration occurs, the question is porobably where, when and at what price.  Would it start with minor league baseball and hockey, like it already has for the UFL and the D-League?  And who would be the first to test the licensing waters?  All to be seen, but certainly the backlash from the WNBA and MLS has been minimal (although it is true neither has invested the millions in brand development that the four major leagues have over an extended period of time).

The Immediate Hope Of A Good Draft…And How It’s Used…

June 27, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With the NHL and NBA Drafts happening withing 24 hours of each other, it was interesting to see all the subtleties and action that athletes and their agents, along with eams, quickly pulled together. A nice composite of the goings on before, during and then right after the draft was put together by Goodwin Sports Management in their Rookie Chronicles segments, which followed their three guys…Terence Williams, Patty Mills and DeMar DeRozan…as they got ready and then had their names called on Thursday night. The best thing was the unique perspectives from each athlete and how they got ready and then went through what really was a life changing experience that few can appreciate. The immediate Twitter reaction, and their response to questions, also showed the impact active players can make for a brand with fans in a 24/7 news cycle. The Knicks also offered up their picks and coach Mike D’Antoni for a chat with season subs, also a nice touch for a fan base that craves access and is being given a chance to connect for the top dollar the team demands. On the NHL side, the draft in Montreal took on a multilingual feel, with a number of teams, from Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo to Chicago’s Scotty Bowman speaking in French to the Canadian crowd as they made the picks for their teams, a nice touch to give the teams a bit more diversity and personality on draft day. However the best play probably came from the Islanders, who on one of the few sunny getaway days in June, managed to amass 10,000 fans at Nassau Coliseum for a draft party as they took the league’s number one pick and immediately built goodwill for a long-suffering and oft-ignored fan base. They not only made the popular choice in John Tavares, they had him messaged correctly and gave the fans all that they wanted to hear and experience in the draft…hope for the future. Well played out on the Island, across both leagues and into the digital space.

The Interesting Approach of Brand Ty Lawson…

June 24, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As the NBA Draft approaches Thursday, it will be interesting to see the branding winners and missteps taken, and how quickly in this digital age teams will look to immediately activate with their picks…will guys be twittering new fans from the podium, who will be the first to stream and text messages back home and will any team look to Twitter their pick before it is announced, as happened in the NFL Draft? Speed and immediacy, whether they can be monetized or not at this point, will be interesting, as well as how well athletes today understand perceived brand value vs. real brand value. Tuesday’s Washington Post gave a great glimpse inside the workings of North Carolina’s Ty Lawson as he prepped both on and off the court for this Thursday’s coming out. The piece had great access into Lawson and the team around him that is prepped to strike once his name is called, and how they can roll out the new branded Lawson to the Carolina faithful, and to the faithful of his new team. It is a very smart message to try and show potential fans, the media, teams and brands that Lawson is ready for the marketing and playing tasks ahead. however one thing that misses from the article, and is critical to be factored in…are the plans of the team he is selected by. Are they ready to work with Team Lawson on his brand roll out…does it conflict with anything they are planning for their elite customers or partners? Are both sides ready to work together to maximize the opportunity each has created? It sounds simple, but often times it is not. The best partnerships are when teams and athletes start from day one to pull for a common goal…brandwise, community wise, activation wise, access wise and most importantly playing wise. For every LeBron James brand, there are countless others that tried to build upon failed on court or on field focus, and although some athletes can succeed as marketing brands based on just performance, the opposite, brand success with limited on field success, is the rarest of the rare. The Lawson prep story shows smarts by his team…hopefully he lands with the right team that can take advantage of his smarts both on and off the court.

Majoring In The Minors…Hudson Valley Goes To The Ladies…

June 23, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Ladies Day has long been a baseball tradition…women arriving at the ballpark get discounts and promotions tailored to them, and MLB has gone to great lengths in promoting and raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness. However the Hudson valley Renegades, again showing the advantage the minors have to be effective and creative, will take Ladies Day one step further in July, banning men (those off the playing field anyway) from the stands for the first five innings of their July 7 game.</a> The salute to women, will allow women in while keeping the men outside until the fifth inning, effectively showing that the Rens’ female fan base is both important and recognized by the organization. The night will of course have the usual fun promotions and music that the minors always have, but it sends a smart message to those decision makers in the household…we appreciate all you do in bringing the kids here and to the games, and lets have some fun just with you. Not a huge departure from the ordinary, but it should make for a fun night, a good promotion, some additional brand extensions and some good old fashioned PR which will probably be copied by others along the way.

PGA of America, WNBA Promotion A Hole In One…

June 24, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

PR Move of the Day:  One of the issues that the WNBA has always had to battle was playing indoors during those great summer months, and then finding ways to engage the casual fan who would love hoops but just didn’t want to spend time indoors.  The usual promotions are hit or miss, and although the league has done a solid job in building a core of stars recently, the issue of pulling in the casual fan with a little something extra remained.  Today the league partnered with the PGA of America to come up with a very strong way to address the issue, stepping outside of the basketball framework to deliver on a solid promotion.  By providing free lessons with the top club pros (part of the PGA of America), the WNBA gives casual fans a great reason to come to a game and get something they could never have gotten before in the WNBA environment…help with America’s big leasure time activity…the game of golf.  Given commissioner Donna Orender’s golf roots, the connection is a natural, and announcing it the week of the women’s US Open makes even more sense.  Another great element that fits is that it gives the core WNBA fan a little extra as well…logic says if you are interested in women’s hoops, your affinity for other sports is probably high, and now you have the chance to try yet another activity you may have never tried before.  The PGA of America, as the club pros, makes more sense from a branding standpoint than the LPGA as well, so there is little battle for star power.  The “star power” is on the WNBA court, the athletic activity of the day is learning golf.  Well hit, well placed, well timed…maybe tennis can be next.   

Finding A Way To Have Fun…Zach Feinstein Tries To Get Drafted…and “Big Poppy” Night in Lancaster

May 7, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It seems fitting that the day after the Lakers Kobe Bryant grabs a much-deserved NBA MVP award in what has been a fantastic run for the NBA this year, that we find the story of someone who found a loophole to try and have some fun and build a little name for himself heading into the NBA Draft.  Far from the Kevin Love’s and the O.J. Mayo’s is Zach Feinstein, who like any entreprenurial college student, took the time to do his research, build his case and find a way to carve himself a little brand niche out of literally nothing by applying (and being accepted to the eligible list) for the 2008 NBA Draft.  Zach has built a website  , is enlisting support through his “stats,” video and the fast moving digital space, to see if a team will give him a shot.  Problem is Zach has never played basketball at any level, and is actually a junior majoring in applied mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis.  Zach’s pitch is offbeat enough to get him some exposure and smart enough to make a little bit of a mockery of the Draft application system, which will surely have safeguards to prevent listing names of those who just go through the process in the future.  Still for someone looking to grab his five to 15 minutes of fame, Zach deserves some credit for getting exposure and building a small brand where many haven’t been able to succeed with legitimate athletes and products.  Nice lighthearted try.