It’s not easy to cut through the clutter on Super Bowl Sunday without big bucks. However what about a brand, albeit not a consumer brand, that will have perhaps the biggest light shone on it, literally, during the game. They are not an NFL partner, not an ambush marketer, and you probably won’t hear much about them on the consumer side unless, gasp, the light go out like they did in the Mercedes Benz Superdome two years ago. They are Ephesus Lighting, the company that literally lights University of Phoenix Stadium and are a pioneer in cost-efficient and effective LED lighting, especially in large spaces. If you want to show off such a great product, could there be a better opportunity?
Now the four basics of LED lighting to the game are: better for fan experience; energy savings for facilities; better production quality for HDTV broadcast; a better stage for players to perform.
Being part of the Super Bowl has afforded Syracuse-based Ephesus Lighting the opportunity to raise awareness of its LED Lighting solution installed earlier this year at University of Phoenix Stadium, and . The company is leveraging this connection to the Super Bowl with an aggressive advertising campaign targeting business and trade media outlets including the Wall Street Journal and SportsBusiness Journal.
They have also scheduled a Super Bowl themed direct mail campaign to sports marketing and facility industry leaders. Another benefit of lighting the big game has been the ability to work hand-in-hand with the production team at NBC Sports to perfect the stadium lighting for the game and halftime show. Ephesus engineers even attended the Patriots-Ravens game with NBC to work on lighting from Gillette Stadium and to more intimately understand what sports broadcasters expect from stadium lighting. It also offered them the opportunity to share the capabilities of its LED system in ways NBC Sports engineers could not even imagine. This has strengthened the buy-in from broadcasters and league broadcasting officials which is an important audience that facility operators must satisfy when they make stadium lighting choices.
Want to put more light on the subject? We asked Mike Lorenz, President Ephesus Lighting on how they benefit from being front and center on the biggest day of the sports calendar, albeit in a somewhat unconventional way, and how it helps open doors for their brand.
Obviously the goal is to have your lighting in as many stadia as possible, how much of a help is having a Super Bowl stadium on your list now?
It’s a great opportunity to showcase our product on the world’s largest stage. Successfully lighting the a Super Bowl should remove any doubt as to whether LED stadium lighting has arrived.
You are not an official NFL partner per se, does that limit how much you can do?
Not being an official sponsor or advertiser certainly impacts some of the marketing we can do, but we believe the sports marketing leaders and facility industry executives we are trying to reach will be more influenced by the 4-hour Super Bowl commercial we have earned, than a 30-second spot we can purchase.
Is there anything you will be doing on site Super Bowl week?
Our engineers are working directly with the game operation staff and the production teams at NBC to make sure the game looks as great on TV as it looks in person. From a relationship perspective, the Super Bowl is a great opportunity for us to meet with sports venue leaders, broadcasting executives, facility operators and anyone else involved in the stadium construction business to continue to share with them the advances of LED stadium lighting.
Where do you see the business being in a few years?
LED lighting will be the new standard for any high performance sports activity venue. The benefits are many and the economics make sense. Our business of retrofitting sports venues is very strong and every new arena and stadium being built is seriously considering an LED solution. Once people understand that LED has arrived and that it is superior to the legacy lighting products currently being offered, they see the light and understand it’s a no-brainer.
