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.

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.

Fragmentation In Niche Sports Proves To Be A Killer…

July 3, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Speaking with one voice, whether it is to a business partner, the media, or to fans is always important, especially in the alphabet soup of niche or second tier sports. With the limited dollars and eyeballs available for the casual fan, splitting the marketplace with alphabet soup of organizations usually leads to confusion and can ultimately drive partners on to a platform which is much more simple to understand. The latest example of split markets being a killer is in indoor soccer, which despite the huge success the outdoor game is seeing in the US, just fell further off the roadmap this week. Last year the Indoor game split into two “leagues,” both of which struggled for any kind of existence in far-off marketplaces, and despite the local success of teams like the Milwaukee Wave and the New Jersey Ironmen (who were in two different leagues by the way) the sport is on the verge of extinction. Another sport teetering but doing better with some unity is lacrosse, where the National Lacrosse League extended commissioner George Daniel this week, sending a positive message to all involved. Still, lacrosse, indoor and outdoor, needs to be presented as one platform to be an effective tool, but at least in their case the sport has a platform of success to build on. Indoor soccer has hurt itself with divergent forces for the indoor game, forces which told the sports world they were too fragmented to present a unified front, and in the end, all suffered. Would having one unified league have worked? Perhaps. But with the alphabet soup presented last winter to fans, media partners and business partners there was no chance of survival in an already tight marketplace. Hopefully the indoor game can be resurrected and lifted by the continued success of the outdoor product, but with too many cooks it will be next to impossible to deliver.

Tracking Awareness For Brand Success In The Concrete Jungle…

May 30, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

PR Move of the Day:  With the landscape always crowded in a major market like New York, finding a spot for niche sports to break through and grab recognition is always very challenging, and we have documented a series of successes and some failures since we started the blog in November.  The latest success surfaced in the last few days, as the Reebok Track and Field Championships looked for  angles to not just promote athletes but also drive interest in event attendance in a sport that has faded from the lexicon, even with the Olympics on the horizon.  The promoters took a world class story with both political and athletic overtones, the presence of Chinese Olympian Liu Xiang, and put him on a perfect weather day on top of the Empire State Building for a presser that combined all the elements of the city, the Olympics and the political issues and the event this weekend.  The move gave journalists, the event and the sponsors much more than a tired press event.  The result built good will for all involved and created an unmistakable photo op for NYC Tourism in addition to the event…Rich Deitsch’s piece on si.com probably summed up the success of the event best.  Great non traditional exposure, great way to spin the tried and true and take it to another level.