Beware Sponges Filled With Cash…And Other Lessons…

March 16, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Last year the brand of choice to fill displaced inventory on television and in stadia around the country was Spongetech. Their giant signs were splashed acroos all of MLB, their patches showed up on the NFL’s “Hard Knocks” show on Bengals jerseys, they appeared along the dasher boards at Madison Square Garden. Spongetech, and their pre-soaped sponges, appeared to be the cure-all for every team salesperson.  They helped balance budgets and create some buzz and all appeared grand.

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.

The State of Rutgers Gets Some Great Guerilla Exposure

September 18, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Saturday Rutgers will take on Florida International University in Piscataway, New Jersey but despite the result, the two biggest gains in popularity for the school may have been made away from any court or playing field this past week. First, on Tuesday night’s Jay Leno Show on NBC, award winning documentarian Michael Moore sported a Rutgers hat for his time on stage with Jay. Then later in the week, urban designer Mark Ecko announced that he was creating a line of Rutgers-themed apparel in honor of his alma mater. Moore has been wearing the Rutgers caps as a tribute to Scarlet Knights grad Ann Sparanese, who started the letter writing campaign to save his first book “Stupid White Men,” which criticized President Bush, while the limited edition Ecko line pays homage to the designer’s time spent in New Brunswick on the Rutgers campus (he is an alumnus) and will be sold online at Shopecko.com.

Even In A Down Economy, Open Activation Still Leads The Way…

September 7, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As other mega-events like the Super Bowl, NASCAR, the NBA Finals, the All-Star game, golf’s U.S. Open shied away from large scale media activation and branding with many of their partners toward more subtle and community-oriented activation, the tennis US Open has moved steadfastly ahead in telling its stories, growing its base and solidifying its place as the mega event it has become, even in the slowest of years. Of course it helps that the Open is in New York at the same time every year, and can use its US Open series to build toward the two weeks. However the fact that the USTA and its partners continue to find stories from fashion, green efforts, celebrities, athleticism and grassroots, along with its business stories, is a testament to forward thinking business and smart and aggressive brand building. Even in week one, a look around found an NPR and Fast Company piece on the USTA’s leadership in green space amongst sports, stories on the value of selling oversized tennis balls, the value of the US Open “flame” as a brand motivator and story after story about the fashion styles of players and fans around the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Then there are the brand activation stories, ranging from Amex’s expansion of their partnership to IBM’s expanded role with the USTA. Throw in the new TV deal with ESPN, the controversy with issues of coverage with The Tennis Channel and some rising American stars on the court, and once again the USTA gives all large scale events and brands a great run for their exposure dollars, and shows how even in challenging times an event can be creative and resourceful with messaging and partnerships instead of the running and hiding that has been seen elsewhere. Great effort by all to again take a world class event and find world class coverage.

Will Soccer In New York Ever Hit The Goal?

August 30, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With the first hint of fall you start to hear the bounce in thousands of parks and recreational centers across the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It is the thwack of kids from four to their mid-teens dribbling and passing soccer balls. Like baseball and softball in the spring, fall soccer is a rite of passage more now than ever before amongst young kids. Still even with the grassroots success, the connection to the pro game still lags behind, perhaps in the New York area more than anywhere else in the United States, and it is that disconnect which has continued to slow the growth of MLS in the biggest media market in the world. While MLS has had great success in Washington, great buzz in LA, solid plans built out in Dallas and Columbus and Chicago and New England, the New York market remains a frustrating afterthought.

Black Knights of the Hudson Look To Build Brand, Seize The Apple…

July 23, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It has long been one of the mysteries of sports branding. New York, the centerpiece of the sports branding and business world, has been a college football graveyard. Yes, bars full of displaced college alumni flock to watch games with friends on Saturdays, the Heisman is housed there, and there are many other things to do on a Saturday, not to mention the perception that it is a pro town with two NFL teams. The casual sports fan in New York has never been engaged by local college teams in almost 50 years, save for St. John’s terrific runs in hoops in the 1980’s. The last team with any local cache on the football side was Fordham, a program which lost its national stance in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. So can a local team capture the audience, the branding and the media attention? Judging by announcements this week, Army my just be making that push. The Black Knights of the Hudson, just 30 miles north of the City, have long been one of the jewels of Saturday college football, not for their onfield play but for the pageantry and patriotism that comes with games at Michie Stadium. This week, along with the Yankees (who need to fill suites more than seats), Army announced a series of college football games with Notre Dame, Rutgers and Air Force at Yankee Stadium beginning in 2010, which will give Army a great local stage to compliment their games up the Hudson. Now can it parlay into great new branding and revenue for Army? Maybe. It will become a great non-baseball sales tool for Yankee Stadium because of the opponents as much as Army. But with this week’s announcement of a presenting sponsor for Army-Navy, a new coach, a huge void in a football team to root for in the New York area (Rutgers too will still try and fill that void), maybe just maybe the Black Knights can become New York’s college football team.

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.

The Interesting Approach of Brand Ty Lawson…

June 24, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

As the NBA Draft approaches Thursday, it will be interesting to see the branding winners and missteps taken, and how quickly in this digital age teams will look to immediately activate with their picks…will guys be twittering new fans from the podium, who will be the first to stream and text messages back home and will any team look to Twitter their pick before it is announced, as happened in the NFL Draft? Speed and immediacy, whether they can be monetized or not at this point, will be interesting, as well as how well athletes today understand perceived brand value vs. real brand value. Tuesday’s Washington Post gave a great glimpse inside the workings of North Carolina’s Ty Lawson as he prepped both on and off the court for this Thursday’s coming out. The piece had great access into Lawson and the team around him that is prepped to strike once his name is called, and how they can roll out the new branded Lawson to the Carolina faithful, and to the faithful of his new team. It is a very smart message to try and show potential fans, the media, teams and brands that Lawson is ready for the marketing and playing tasks ahead. however one thing that misses from the article, and is critical to be factored in…are the plans of the team he is selected by. Are they ready to work with Team Lawson on his brand roll out…does it conflict with anything they are planning for their elite customers or partners? Are both sides ready to work together to maximize the opportunity each has created? It sounds simple, but often times it is not. The best partnerships are when teams and athletes start from day one to pull for a common goal…brandwise, community wise, activation wise, access wise and most importantly playing wise. For every LeBron James brand, there are countless others that tried to build upon failed on court or on field focus, and although some athletes can succeed as marketing brands based on just performance, the opposite, brand success with limited on field success, is the rarest of the rare. The Lawson prep story shows smarts by his team…hopefully he lands with the right team that can take advantage of his smarts both on and off the court.

LPGA Tries To Balance Its Brand On and Off The Course…

May 8, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It remains the million dollar question…can you sell women’s athletes just as athletes with good stories, or do you need the sex appeal to make them interesting to the casual sports fan. The LPGA is again trying to play that balance as it comes to the New York area next weekend, pulling in the business community, the athleticism and just enough sizzle to try and lure interest from brands looking for the best possible ROI, and priming the New York golf market before the men’s US Open rolls into Bethpage Black in a few weeks. So how do you balance both sides? Darren Rovell’s blog post on Australian golfer Anna Rawson has her manager taking the sex sells over ability approach , with the thought being her mainstream appeal will explode when she plays well enough to win, and if she doesn’t win she will still have enough casual interest to continue to draw the big dollar. On the non-golf push, a great piece the Daily Press Friday went into detail on the LPGA’s use of social media to attract fans and identify with a larger fan base. The answer is a good mix of all three, with the unknown being what that critical mass will be to a sponsor. Male or female, personality, accessability and now the ability to integrate multiple platforms with a management team are a part of the play for brand success for league or athlete. Having the charisma and the winning edge is also key, but at the end of the day to have the ultimate package you need to win. Most people in their daily lives can find friends or colleagues that have pieces of the combination, but the ability to have all is what brand marketers and fans both want. In a challenged economy that balance is critical as a sport like golf, now falls under the category of discretionary spend after being “essential” when times were better for brands. So can you sell women’s sports golf based just on athletic ability? In this economy the real answer is you can’t really sell ANY sport based just on athletic ability. You need to have almost all of the package to be a good buy, and the LPGA is trying to create the best package with all those pieces for the marketplace.

George Foreman Grill Uses US Open Platform For A Knockout Pitch…

September 10, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The recently completed US Open has been a tremendous marketing and PR platform for most of its larger sponsors who have the ability to activate in multiple ways in the months leading up to the event.  American Express, Canon, Olympus and Chase all create multi-level partnerships both at retail and in strategic spots regionally and nationally to make the Open…the only annual championship held in New York at the same time of year eavery year…the financial and activation bonanza that it is.  However in addition to the top-level long term partners, a number of additional brands have been able to step up with very unique campaigns to grab their own level of activation and exposure as part of the Open limelight.  Case in point is the George Foreman Grill.  Although at first glance the grill may be disconnected to the tennis world, the brand found a very unique way using print, digital and a celebrity endorser (Monica Seles) to tell their story of good eating habits and healthy living through their product on a day (the second Thursday of the Open) where most of the sponsors have completed activation.  What made it even more compelling was they were able to execute without using the product namesake (world champion boxer George Foreman) in the “Knockout The Fat” promotion.   Well placed, unique execution, good sponsor awareness to cut a niche in a mega event.

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