Although the distraction and attention is still largely on the Olympics, the US Open, which begins Monday and remains the world's largest sporting event, still has found ways to grow brand, pitch high level placements with partners and continue to build more buzz in new areas that the event did not touch on in previous years.Marketing Daily's piece detailing partner American Express’ ad campaign, as well as an extensive must-read series of piece in New York Magazine on how the USTA is cultivating new levels of stars, which will grow the sport of tennis in the US.The USTA got out in front with a series of announcements about the event and its partnerships well in advance of the Olympic window, which actally grew attention for the event well in advance of when it is normally top of mind, captured some Olympic attention with the play of Venus and Serena Williams and a big James Blake upset, and will now be able to grab a steady flow of positive sports and entertainment news as it pushes the international coverage for its two week run. Although there may not be the huge amount of sponsor pieces the week before becuase of the Olympic focus, the media coverage should be more than made up for during the event, as there are no better sports event marketers than those who run the USTA.
Some other very good reads…wsj.com has a great q and a with Redskins owner Daniel Snyder…the Times Rich Sandomir has a good piece on the personality of NBC's Bela Karolyi…Ad Age has a good piece on Miller bringing back the iconic “Tastes Great” campaign…the New York Daily News’ Jesse Spector has a good look at the ups and downs of Triple A baseball in Las Vegas…and for a fun Olympic blog, check out New York's Aussie transplant Brad Blanks and his offbeat recollections of all going on in Beijing.?
