As brands scramble to vie for the attention, and dollar endorsements for the top athletes coming out of the Olympics, the folks at match.com came up with a great wa.to glean coverag.the old fashioned way…by going to the court of public opinion.Match.com not only ran polls amongst their very legitimate subscriber base as to who the most eligible Olympians would be…they offered up free subscriptions to the online dating service to signle athletes like Michael Phelps, thus enlisting their product with the name without paying any endorsement fee. It was a great play for the dating service that scored them tons of free publicity, and if the option is picked up by any of the athletes, will get them even more bang for a buck not spent. We are sure the “Michael Phelps Nights” by minor league teams will be upcoming and there will b.a scramble to protevt the Phelps brand, but the first move by match.com was a very smart one in brand association for no cash.AP has a good piece on the Chinese TV ratings for the Olympics, numbers so astounding it shows why marketers are so keen on trying to penetrate even a fraction of the audience…wsj.com has a good piece on the bump Snickers has gotten in brand building through their Olympic work…Ad Age has a good piece on Nike enlisting Don King for their tennis’ “Grapple In The Apple” campaign, touting Roger Federer against Rafael Nadal at the US Open…and the New York Daily News Bob Raissman has a good look on the issues the Jets are having with managing Brett Favre's media schedule…?
