Why The Yanks Win With Hope Week…

August 21, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

Yes they are the defending World Champions and as so have a responsibilty to give back to their fans year-round.  And from expansive foundations run by Mariano rivera, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Joe Girardi and many others, the New York Yankees do find ways to give back all year round, just like many teams on every level in every market. However what sets Hope Week apart for the Yankees is the expansive connections each and every member of the organization makes with so many different organizations during the busiest part of the season.  The plan, which ranges from visits to having various groups and organizations come to Yankee Stadium, takes every part of the organization and exposes the brand to a wide variety of stories that will have a cumulatiive ripple effect way beyond the initial meetings.  It is Community Relations and outreach to the max, and as a result garnered exposure not just locally but nationally, with a full-length feature on the Today Show on Friday.

The Value Of Voices…

July 12, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 3 Comments 

Sunday sports lost one of its touchstones, as legendary public address announced Bob Sheppard passed away at age 99.  Sheppard, a gentleman, was the sound of the Yankees, the Giants, St. John’s, and was an instructor at St. John’s for many years. Like the passing of the great Ernie Harwell earloer this year and the Phillies Harry Kalas last year, another connection to the traditional brand of baseball has been silenced.  Now while many may belittle the value of a PR announcer or a broadcaster to a franchise in a google-happy and always screaming world, the value of these men when the team they worked for is viewed as a public trust as much as a brand, is indisputable.

Asking Forgiveness Not Permission: The Dallas Braden Tee’s

July 6, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 2 Comments 

As baseball heads into the All-Star break, teams with distressed inventory continue to find innovative ways to rally fans and generate buzz, whether or not they are doing well on the field.  Case in point   is this week, where the Oakland A’s are looking to create some buzz and fan support around the visiting World Champion New York Yankees making their one trip to the Bay Area. Yes the Yanks are always a draw, but there remain distressed tickets to be had and a team to be supported after the Yanks leave town.  The solution?  Create and sell t-shirts for fans re-addressing pitcher Dallas Braden’s dust up with Alex Rodriguez earlier this season, when Rodriguez crossed the mound on his way back to the dugout at Yankee Stadium, and Braden took offense publicly at the move.

Albert, Andy and Joe Appeal To Their Family Side

June 19, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The Dove brand of products has done a phenomenal job of rallying the everyday woman over the years and showing that self confidence can be more than appealing in a world where ultra cool, ultra hop and ultra thin are what people strive for, misguided or not. Whether using “regular” women from varied backgrounds or celebrity spokespeople, Dove was able to engage with the demo and show that highlighting inner beauty is as cool as outward beauty.  Recently the brand has moved on to their next stage of engagement, working with baseball to highlight the lives of key players with both diverse and interesting family backgrounds.  The campaign, called “Journey to Comfort,” follows Dove’s “Manthem” Super Bowl campaign and uses three highly visible and family focused personalities, Andy Petitte, Joe Girardi, and Albert Pujols, to tell their stories of family values and their lives away from the ballparks.

Bubblewrap’s Stunt Gives Jeter Some Protection…

May 7, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Promoting Bubblewrap, the airfilled plastic that protects millions of items each year, is certainly not an easy task.  It is kind of like finding a way for the media to do a positive story about brown paper bags or toilet paper…everyone uses them, they serve their function, but there is usually nothing newsworthy about them.  However the folks at the Saddle Brook, New Jersey company went the old fashioned way this week to get some ink…with a very timely PR stunt.  What did they do? They jumped on the Sports Illustrated jinx, took an off day for the Yankees and seized the opportunity of the team’s trip to Boston this weekend to come up with a way to get some ink.

A Cause Worthwhile…Athletes, Pols Step Up To Battle Childhood Obesity

February 16, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Big time sports and entertainment events draw big time advertising dollars. We all are more than familiar with the amount of sponsorship spent on Super Bowl, Olympic and NBA All-Star ads these past few weeks, and the payoff in exposure brands got with the largest TV audience of all-time for the Colts and the Saints last  Sunday. One of the biggest categories that support those events is snack foods.  People loved watching those Doritos commercials, and loved chowing down on bowls of the stuff as they were watching the game. The tailgate, the junk food, are all very much a rite of passage surrounding the great American sporting event.

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 “Owner As Brand” Fades Into The Twilight…

November 27, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The passing this week of the beloved Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin was the latest in a series of instances recently that seem to show us that one of the great storylines of American team sports, the iconic “owner” that we loved or hated and sometimes followed with as much or more passion than the players themselves, is fading into the distance of corporate America. Yes, we still have Jerry Jones with the Cowboys and a community and business leader like Mike Ilitch with the Tigers and Red Wings, but these days a single owner as the personality of his or her franchise seems to be more a hindrance than a help when teams’ cost of doing business or connecting to a community is in play. In addition to Pollin’s passing (his legacy is well detailed in many pieces this week in the Washington Post, including Thomas Boswell’s great read), we have the fading health of the Yankees George Steinbrenner, the recently disclosed illness of the Seahawks and Tralblazers owner Paul Allen, Lakers owner Jerry Buss taking a back seat in running his franchise, and the disfunctional issues with the Raiders and owner Al Davis. Then pile on the public divorce cases of the Padres John Moores and the Dodgers Frank McCourt, both effecting those franchises bottom lines, and there is a very good case that the individual leader has gone the way of the dinosaur. Now in today’s all access media market the argument can probably be made that there is less of a need to have the owner as the organization front man or woman. Fans want access more to the players who they are spending the money on, and probably are less interested in the billionaire owners footing the bills for the talent. Still the owner as the brand and the face of a franchise, more as promoter and pillar of the community than as rich playboy, was what drew many to sport in the first place. The Maras and the Rooney’s of the NFL, a man like Sonny Werblin with the Knicks and the Rangers, Lamar Hunt taking his oil money to help start the AFL, the Yawkeys of Boston…all became touchpoints as sport became big business and their faces and reputations rose and fell in the community with the fortunes of their team or teams. Now these men certainly did not act alone, and the most successful always assembled the right business teams to run said franchises on the day to day. However the team brands and their individual personal “brands” were one in the same. Steinbrenner’s Yankees took on the personality of their owner, both good and bad. Maybe today’s high demand world of everchanging loyalties and interests may not lend itself to such individuals as much as in the past, especially as the battle for the discretionary dollar, but the personality of the owner was part of the mystique of the team brand and was part of the passion that drove the business of sport. Yes its easier to be lukewarm about corporate ownership and maybe it puts more focus on the athletes. However knowing the owner always made it more fun and a little more intriguing, and that personality involved with the imprint of the franchise got sport to be the business it is today. It is probably an era lost, but one which should be reflected on positively as another icon passed this week.

Brand Agassi Has Tremendous Value For A Different Generation

November 9, 2009 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

He came of age with the “Image Is Everything Campaign” eventhough his best tennis was years ahead. He came back from the bottom to be a successful professional, and even without a formal education made education is legacy in his hometown. Yes now that Andre Agassi writes an honest accounting of his life and career, a life which not many people on the inside would dispute as being controversial, many tennis lifers have seen to push his accounts to the side and shame him. Shame Agassi? Shame on them. In reality, Andre Agassi’s brand should be stronger today that at almost any point in his Hall of Fame tennis career. He is a role model for the serial athlete and has emerged as being sincere and creating life changing experiences for a new generation of children, not serial athletes. What the Agassi brand stands for today is what most successful people should aspire to…admitting ones flaws and looking to make the lives of those around you better with the success you have had. Agassi admitted drug use. Given the culture of athletics in the ’80’s…a time pre WADA and all glamour? Would that be surprising, especially for a rock and roll lifestyle that individual sports like golf or tennis lead professionals to? Not at all. As a matter of fact, most who followed Agassi’s career at that stage would probably not have been surprised at that time about the usage. What the Agassi brand should be remembered for and what it could be going forward is for resilience. A resilience and rededication to a career and a spirit to sincerely give back that is not just rare in athletes, it is rare in most high net worth individuals. Now one can be assured that Andre Agassi does not need more endorsement dollars, nor would he probably court the spotlight. However if there are brands looking for a role model for where America is today…a country on the rebound and dedicated to growing a generation, one may not look farther that Andre Agassi. He reinvented a career and a life and has come out as a man that not just had a Hall of Fame athletic career, but may be in a philanthropic Hall of fame at some point as well. Not a bad role model for today’s challenged times.

From the Mayors to the Players…MLB incorporates giving back and service into every message…

October 30, 2009 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Its the time old tradition…the Mayors of a city betting the obligatory food items and jersey exchanges for the big game. You see it everywhere every year and its cute, it gets coverage and its part of tradition. However not in baseball this year. The Mayors of Philadelphia and New York…Michael Nutter and Mike Bloomberg…changed a the wager from the traditional to the productive, and instead of exchanging cheese steaks and cheesecake only they will exchange working on a community service project in the other city. The idea fits perfectly in line with MLB’s continuous ties to giving back that have played out across the playoffs and the World Series in every city games have been played, from assisting with veterans to improving the lives of the impoverished. Even the on field awards ceremonies have highlighted community service, as evidenced by Derek Jeter winning the Clemente Award for his work Thursday night and the Detroit Tigers Curtis Granderson being honored with the Marvin Miller Award for his community work on Friday. Since the All-Star game, MLB has gone above and beyond to tie all their major projects at major events to bigger causes, whether that’s player programs or a partner like Bank of America rebuilding houses in St. Louis, and then using all their media…print, TV, digital, to promote the good works. In these challenged times it is a very smart play for the league to take not just a leadership approach, but a leadership approach that is properly messaged so that everyone watching is getting the positive story on all fronts (Terry Lefton’s SBJ piece this week had great insight into the ideas). Looking for negativity will take a great amount of work this time of year for baseball, as all efforts have been effectively pushed toward a positive outlook on the field and the good works off it. A very well constructed and clearly delivered and consistent message for a sport that appears to again be putting many of its larger issues behind itself and is making a strong play for its game, its partners and for its fans, to tell positive stories and merchandise those good ideas effectively.

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