Tennis Continues To Have An Empty Cup…While WTT Scores Locally.

July 14, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Coming off of an epic Wimbledon for the second year in a row, it would seem that tennis, with all its global promotional arms, the power of the USTA and the other three Grand Slams, and some strong personalities would be poised to make a strong followup showing leading into the US Open Series. After all, this past week had the best team-based tennis event in the world…one that showed that the sport could be played not just as individuals or even as doubles partners, but in an event that fans could understand and experience and that each match would count for toward a season long finale, just like other sports. Yes that team format did deliver with some fun matches, a great digital play, a good experience on site for all and even some amazing press coverage. The only problem for the sport is the team format that got the exposure last week was Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss long-running World Team Tennis entry, as opposed to the often-maligned and much forgotten Davis Cup brand. Here’s a look at both in the week that was. Once again Davis Cup, arguably one of the best on site experiences in sport, got lost again in the scheduling shuffle. The week fell after Wimbledon and at the same time as the women’s US Open, the NASCAR Chicagoland Sprint Cup Series, the run-up to the baseball All-Star game, UFC 100 and even the World Series of Poker. Add in that top American Andy Roddick couldn’t play because of injury and the limitations on travel budgets for most mainstream media, and the Davis Cup as a brand was lost in the shuffle on almost all points. Making things worse is the continued confusing schedule and the lack of any major brand activation in the early rounds and one of the best events in all of sport virtually disappeared. Now juxtapose that with WTT, which grabbed some great coverage in USA Today and the Washington Post (their Washington franchise was home last weekend), tied in charity events with some name players, and found enough squeaky wheels (Murphy Jensen) to effectively use social media to also drive some interest. Given a brands’ ROI, those aligned with WTT easily got more short term and lower cost exposure than those associated with the higher profile Davis Cup event for the week. Can Davis Cup ever go through a brand restoration? Tough to do unless the oft-talked about format change happens. If not, one of the legendary team sports could continue to fall behind a slightly slicker and more efficient cousin run by a legend who know how to make the game fun for new generations.

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.