Eastern Michigan Combines The Business of Sport, Creative Marketing To Bring Attention and Promotion…

December 5, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It’s not a new idea, but it is another twist on a smart, cost efficient and creative practice. Eastern Michigan University announced this week they are working between the athletic department and their business school to have students create and compete against each other, American Idol style, to come up with an effective marketing and ticket selling campaign for their men’s and women’s hoops programs. now in past years schools like Slippery Rock University has taken over the marketing of a minor league baseball team for a season, and major brands have invested in competition amongst grad schools to develop and then implement branding campaigns, but EMU is giving it a little more glitz and a better reward (cash and other opportunities). Even without the prizes, the idea is a very smart one for a mid-major school in a state that is short on cash and is full of folks looking for a chance to be positive in these tough times. EMU can use the creative minds of the students…the first adopters, the passionate entrepreneurs looking to shape a brand…and put those ideas to work in a fun and creative marketing and branding exercise. The idol-like atmosphere will generate some buzz, as will the prizes. At the end of the day maybe none of the ideas will be earth-shattering, and the fact that the finals will be tested at halftime of a hoops game with fans giving their choice for best idea may make it a bit of a crapshoot. Perhaps the best idea will be a combination of several of the presentations or perhaps there will be a whole season full of worthwhile idea. Perhaps there will be none. The most important thing is that EMU is working with the resources they have, recognizing a need both in the community and in the athletic department to rally, and finding a creative solution that involves all parties. Whether it works to sell tickets or not is not the most important thing. What should be watched and copied is the creative spirit of the students involved and the staff that had the ability to implement the contest.

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.

Through All Of The Hype, Even Reaching The Youngest Active Demo Still Needs The Right Mix…

July 9, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

One of the most elusive searches for traditional sports and entertainment properties is the quest to get younger…to identify with and activate against that very active audience that may have already grown tired of the traditional and looks elsewhere for its thrills. For an audience more interested in the half pipe and BMX than baseball or football, the ways for brands to reach them have changed in some ways, but in many ways remain the same. For all the social media activation, the core decision makers and those brands still need live events and television to complete the package, even if the potential audience (and the numbers that go with it) may show that those participating would rather be out doing than sitting inside and watching. The video game insertion play has made sense for some brands, and this week Doritos unveiled an “interactive bag” which, when combined with an online program, gives you new ways to watch a concert by Blink 182 (which means an adaptation to sports probably isn’t far away). So if the TV numbers are slight, and the live events are primarily freebies in terms of gate, what is the area where brands can get their activation profit bang? This week’s Bergen Record had a big piece on retail and the products the ways marketers are hitting their goals through promotion, using TV and the event costs as loss leaders to promote that will lead to product sale. In many ways this is the classic play that boxing, wrestling and most recently MMA have drawn their large numbers, although the goal was a pay per view event vs. moving product. You use the TV as the promotion to draw fans and lead them to the place where they will spend money…in this case retail. Thus far the brand loyalty for this group…similar to NASCAR…lies in the product first and the event second, with TV and digital a very distant third. The irony in that sequence is that the older marketing cognoscenti still scramble to figure out and throw money at, all the social media bells and whistles, sometimes at the expense of the traditional.

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.

USA Wrestling Takes A Bold Move To Defend It’s Sport…

June 8, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Second tier sports, especially those Olympic sports in non-Olympic years, always have to find ways to fight through the clutter for relevancy to the causal sport fan. Also in that clutter comes the cultivation of the grassroots that keeps the sport vibrant and relevant to a loyal core no matter what year it is. However an even bigger challenges for traditional sports is the assault of the latest and greatest hybrids, which play to a faster and usually younger demo. Cycling gives way to BMX, volleyball to beach volleyball, rugby 15’s to rugby 7’s…even in many ways the X Games to the Olympics. The traditional sports, unless they can adjust, can easily become less relevant, cede market share and sponsor dollars and eventually be eclipsed. One sport facing its battle is wrestling. Although the sport seems to be enjoying somewhat of slow renaissance, the ebb away from the sport to the newer and more edgier sport of Mixed Martial Arts has been apparent for some time. MMA, which has wrestling as one of its disciplines, is faster, more telegenic, and appeals to a wider audience by its hybrid of at least five disciplines, not to mention the mega-attention it gets on the professional side with the UFC. So wrestling, which is amateur in nature, has lost a growing number of young people to the glitz and glamour, and potential dollar figures of MMA. This loss erodes the competitive base that wrestling has in building Olympians, and in turn damages the brand because less top talent means less international success and ultimately less Olympic success, which funds the grassroots programs and sponsor interest. So what to do? First, USA Wrestling has made a number of strides to acknowledge the success of MMA, and has not discouraged elite wrestlers from moving on to MMA AFTER their Olympic dream is realized. That avoids confrontation and builds a link for the future between the two. Second, this past week USA Wrestling made a bold financial move, pooling monies as incentives for elite wrestlers to continue to work toward the 2012 Olympics. The cash pool, which will mean $250,000 for a gold medalist, was announced this past week to show wrestlers that the sport is both solvent and supportive and acknowledges the need for athlete financial incentive. It also is a move that could help generate sponsor interest both long and short term, by showing brands that USA Wrestling is serious in its athlete commitment to build the sport and reward its elite members who stay with the sport. The only downside is in a cash layout in the future. The upside generated buzz for a sport lagging behind its hipper cousin, rewarded the elite in terms of compensation that is clear, showed a forward-thinking approach to other National Governing Bodies, and sent a clear message to those at the grassroots that the sport is serious in growing its champions. Smart move for the brand, and great buzz generation at a time when most summer Olympic sports are still regrouping for 2012.