Fins To The Left, Fins To The Right…Dolphins Hit It With Short Deal…

May 15, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Steve Ross is a billionaire or has made the Related Companies into one of the most successful commercial real estate companies in the world. He has purchased the Miami Dolphins, has shown savvy to find a way to keep Bill Parcells around, has let the team continue to grow after a surprising playoff season a year ago, and has a host of minority partners who he will tap into, including the legendary Jimmy Buffett. So this week the team announced a short-term deal to rename Dolphins Stadium after A-B’s Land Shark Beer, a Buffet brand. Eventhough, as Terry Lefton pointed out in the Sports Business Daily this week, the NFL will have the team remove the name for the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl, the short term benefit to the small brand plus the good will and fun that will be built up through the summer of Marlins baseball and into the fall with the Dolphins will get the team and the area some much needed traction, spin and maybe a little bit of controversy in a down economy. This is not rent a stadium for the day, as some minor league teams have done. This is a smart, calculated move by some very savvy branding folks who probably have a bigger picture play involving the Buffett brand in mind, not to mention a great test market for Anheuser Busch. Will it “devalue” future naming rights deals? In this economy few are actually happening and none at premiums, and today when brands are looking to extract every ounce of added value into any deal, this one may be a bit cash poor but brand profitable. The biggest challenge will be to match branding and goodwill and fun for the new naming rights deal if Land Shark does go away. The images of The Coral Reefer Band may resonate deeper than a bank or other institution who may be willing to pony up after the season. Could it have been done earlier to give the Marlins more chance to adjust? Maybe. But there would have never been an optimal time and if played right, everyone will know where the action is for both teams. Fun, smart branding move for the Fins.

Twittering From The Blue Field…Boise State Gets Aggressive With Social Media Marketing…

May 13, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The have had proposals on air, the signature blue field, amazing comebacks and challenges to the BCS…now Boise State is looking to use aggressive social media tactics to grow its brands and expose its athletes to the widest grassroots audience possible in an attempt to market outside its nice audience. The Broncos plans for the summer were discussed in detail in this weekend’s Idaho Statesman, and though not unique as one off’s. they show a solid unified plan for a midmajor school looking to invest in its brand and get exposure where traditional media is limited. While a number of major schools have used twitter and Facebook and YouTube to push ticketing campaigns, most midmajors thus far have not made the investment across all the low cost mediums to tell their stories positively. Therefore the Broncos outreach is a smart one, and if they develop athletes who can compete for national awards like the Heisman, the grassroots base that they are building will give them a leg up. It is more than “cool” or niche for a school like Boise State. It is the right way to begin integrating with limited media coverage to sell product, tell the story of the school, and get recognition. Could it lead to added sponsor dollars? Maybe, but tough without all the marketing dollars and eyeballs that traditional media brings. However it is a low cost, calculated approach to go right to the core audience and show the right demo you understand how to get to them on all platforms. Good lesson to be learned and hopefully carried out over an extended period. Points for the Broncos.

Honda Uses Racing, Online Platforms To Speak To Consumers On All Levels…

January 13, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

In these economically challenged times for the auto industry, even those brands perceived as “doing well” are looking to refresh, remind and build brand.  Such is the case with Honda, as Karl Greenburg points out in Media Post.  The brand has reluanched its successful camapign which used to look at more futuristic endearvors, and will now use its racing platform and its engineers looking not just at success but how they built success through failure.  The brand will use digital to push longer vignettes that may appeal to a younger buyer, while looking to engage the casual fan through traditional advertsing tieing in their auto racing platforms that will be coming in the spring.  At a time when NASCAR is finding ways to deal with their own issues with regard to fan attendance, American car makers cutting back on spending and the like, perhaps this is an opportunity for forward-thinking brands like Honda to push the open wheel agenda to the casual auto racing fan and gain some market share.  If nothing else, the campaign is easily identifiable to all of us going through times of self-doubt, and shows how both the savvy brand and those tasked with delivering brand results…the engineers…overcome failure.  Nice mix of all aspects to keep a strong brand fresh.

Caps May Have Found Innovation In Experiential…

December 14, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Now it may have happened by accident, but an interesting development this past week for the Washington Capitals actually gave a front office staffer a few seconds of a lifetime on ice close to game time, and could unleash a new round of experiential marketing for teams and fans going forward, especially for the minors.  An injury and a late arriving backup forced the Caps to petition the NHL to have a third goalie, that being web programmer Brett Leonhardt, off his computer and into uniform for warmups until Simeon Varlamov could arrive from minor league Hershey.  Now Leonhardt had played in college and had actually worked out with the Caps in some practices, but whose to say a team couldn’t give a relatively competant fan a chance as a coach for a half inning, a batting practice pitcher or a chance to skate a shift on game day outside of the regular prep.  It again gives the fan a chance to have that ultimate experience, is totally sponsorable and would gain media play and in this day of looking for every ounce of justification of dollars, could help lure a new brand or two, especially in markets just below the top rungs.  Does it create distraction or a circus mentality?  Perhaps.  But so did mic’ing coaches, guest ballboys and fans sitting courtside at one point.  But by filling a dire need, the Caps may have opened a door and it will be interesting to see if any brand can walk through.

ESPN Sends Collegiate Bands Battling With Indiana Jones…

September 29, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Credit Brian Gainor at the Partnership Activation blog for uncovering a great month-long promotion that ESPN is doing with seven top college marching bands and the multiplatform release of the DVD of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull in October.   ESPN is working with Paramount and LucasFilm to see which of the seven bands can come up with the most unique performance of the Indiana Jones theme song, with the winning band getting $25,000.  The promotion is taking place online and on campus at all the schools, ranging from the Univ. of Florida to USC, with fans getting to vote for the best performance.  It’s the latest example of movies becoming more and more savvy using sports to reach their core demo, this time for a DVD release of a movie whose previous films were obvious favorites of those growing upo and now in college.  Although the Crystal Skull may not have skewed to the college crowd, using the band platform to promote on campus is a smart one, and one which will generate more unique interest in that demo for an audience that is much more used to the download than the DVD buy these days. Nice foray into the market with a great spin.

Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Brings Fans Into Virtual Battles With The Top Stars…

September 19, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The engagement of the fan with the athlete, whether it is onsite, online or in another area, is always the key component in activation and building in long term support for the brand, the team or the athlete.  Once a fan can connect on a personal basis with the athlete, there is more trust and support in lean times and more emotion in good times.  In team sports, where the athletes are in market for large portions of the year, that connection is much easier to do.  In individual sports, like tennis, golf, volleyball, even auto racing, that connection sometimes is more difficult to do because of the lack of potential physical personal contact.  Now NASCAR has overcome many of those issues with their huge play into retail and television…the athletes are tied to products that consumers purchase and that builds loyalty.  The weekly network TV play also leads into more athletes coming into their homes on a regular basis, and the fact that NASCAR is all North American with its schedule gives the fan a window of tuning in that matches usually with his or her viewing habits.  Golf has some of the same opportunities, and the affinity amongst the male viewer also helps take it to another level of identification.  Golfers on any level can understand the nuances of the game, even if only pros can execute.  So on to tennis…strong grassroots, marketable stars but many non-American and a schedule that plays on a world stage that many times does not match fan viewing patterns no matter where on the globe they live.  The Tour schedules, although much more consistent in years past and with the help of the USTA in the United States have a natural run to the US Open now, still have multiple events on multiple continents on multiple weeks, making identifiablity a problem.  So what to do?  The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has found a very simple, very unique way to have fans address some of these issues with an online application, where fans take clips of their favorite players, and conduct a mock tennis battle against them using clips of themselves playing tennis.  Challenge Your Hero is a fresh idea, a great new digital application, it lets the fans identify with the player style of their choice and for the top clipmaster, will have the ability to meet their foe face to face at the season-ending championships in Qatar.  It also gives the individual one-on-one sport a digital and visual edge over team sports that few have ever looked at, as this type of challenge probably can’t be equalled by a team sport or any other individual sport.  Well played and well served by the WTA.  

AFL Scores With More Hits…And Athletes Take A Drink Of The Beverage Market

May 2, 2008 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With NFL Europa gone, the AAFL never starting, spring football done, CFL not yet on the sked and the draft now over, those who love football now have only to turn to the Arena Football League to tide themselves over until an outdoor game gets going.  Seeing that void, the AFL has done a solid job both in market and nationally (working with the teams and Dan Klores Communications) to identify and drive some nice additional coverage for the brand in the last few weeks.  Some of the latest hits included a solid score on the front page of the New York Times sports ection this week on the value the New Orleans Voodoo is affording to the community in the post-Katrina time, a Men’s Health piece with Dallas Desperados ironman Will Pettis, and a series of pieces on USS Cole survivor and Colorado Crush lineman Charrod Taylor.  All of these are examples of the brand going beyond the game to tell the personalities of their athletes to a larger audience…all the while building stars and finding ways to enhance the AFL and its partners.  Nice job by the AFL to fill the football jones void.