Last year we raised the question of when a someone in the financial services or insurance space would grab a trade day promotion, either with a league or a broadcaster, for the NBA and/or MLB trading deadline. According to Darren Heitner at Forbes, Fidelity Investments has come to the table with ESPN to sponsor #TradeTalk on all the buzz around the wheelings and dealings of pro sports in 2015. Here is our post from last February, a smart get for the brand.
Other than opening day and the start of the playoffs there is probably not one other in-season day that garners more attention in baseball or hoops than trading deadline day. Like National Signing Day in college for football, there is a media frenzy with speculation, rumor, blockbuster trades, hurried press conferences and lots of attention, whether your team is good or not. In recent years, media entities like ESPN, Rivals, and CBS College have gone to great lengths to brand and activate on signing day, but why not on trading deadline day? Granted some trades do happen the day before or a few days before, but the activity leading up to the deadline, which is a hard and fast time, is phenomenal, and summary shows, best trades/worst trades, smartest mover, smartest not to move etc., could all be packaged together for brands that well…spend a lot of money in sports.
Auto Trader, E-Trade, Geico. All have massive businesses built around sports activation and trading. Heck, a smart brand could even come in and scoop up some low cost viral activation programs among the best cities were trades were made or not made. Even ticketing companies should be involved. Think of all the new signage that gets handed out in arenas as welcome placards, or all the background signage that gets shot at press conferences. The NBA has devoted massive amounts of time on their new Sirius launch to trade deadline time, why not roll it together for the right brand?
Some may say that a trading day affiliation is playing on the negative for teams; those looking to unload talent. But in reality for brands looking to take advantage of a high trafficked bug buzz period, trading day presents some very unique opportunities to master a space.
There is a lot of real estate to be had and opportunities to grow a brand for the right company at a time of year; one in late February and one in early August, times that are relatively slow in the sports space except for the moves on the field, and being in that conversation is certainly something that some may desire.
