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.

Multiple Sports, Multiple Activation Platforms Highlight A Week Of Success For Sports…

July 11, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As we head into mid-July, what has normally been a slow season for sports brand activation has unveiled a host of positive programs and good signs for sports on all levels. Starting with Mixed Martial Arts and the hundreds of brands and thousands of fans that have descended on Las Vegas for UFC 100 this weekend. The LA Times had a good look at the UFC’s success and its ability to build fans around the experiential platform that they have created and can execute for their followers, both on site and on pay per view. Great weekend for the UFC, which continues to be the only true national brand in the sport. Adding in the success that the World Series of Poker has sustained in Las Vegas over the last month, the City will enjoy a stretch of “new” sport excitement this weekend that will compare to and surpass any other July time frame. Then fans can look east to St Louis, where MLB has done an outstanding job of taking their partners and finding ways to create grassroots and charity activation programs in the community and on a national and international scale leading into All-Star weekend. Whether it is Bank of America working to give people access to tickets and Fan fest through their local branches or their Hit For Hunger campaign, or MasterCard’s Stand Up To Cancer platform, each brand is being integrated into programs that have both great exposure and tremendous giveback for the community. The women’s US Open in Pennsylvania also didn’t miss an opportunity to link their brands to charity ties in the area and expose their athletes to activation platforms both on site and prior to the event’s start, and NASCAR’s Thursday night special on CNBC gave fans and brands an hour of access to show how all is working in the world’s premier motorsports circuit, leading into a weekend which gives NASCAR some of its biggest major market exposure of the year, with the Sprint Cup Series at Chicagoland Speedway. Now is all right in sports and brand activation these days? Obviously not…but as industry, from the down and dirty world of MMA to the established sports like baseball and golf, a look at the success of brands over a five day period shows that the business of sports is working hard to succeed in the slowest of times, which is a good sign for the future. While many businesses struggle to adapt, it seems like sports and the brands associated are working among the hardest to turn the corner quickly.