As our friend Mandy Antoniacci talks about in her TEDX talk, the value of looking up, and around, can never be underestimated in a society that is constantly looking down these days.
So there we were at the New York Jets annual Kids Day celebration on Sunday and came upon some interesting bests and firsts, several of which again show how teams are going to look to new streams of revenue and engagement, as well as doing the little things to improve fan experience.
Virtual signage: From the red zone to the yellow line, brand tagged virtual signage is normal for broadcasts on all levels in football. However how about repurposing jumbo board feeds in stadium for local sponsors who can’t get or want or afford a place in broadcast. The Jets went through a pretty large list of sponsors throughout the game on the video boards, all tagged in very specific ways to promote each brand. It isn’t millions of views but is a great customized add on for the brands that have invested in the team and want more ROI for those in house, especially as the video boards become more and more a part of the experience with enhanced stats and other analytics.
50/50 anyone? It’s not really gambling and a good amount of teams have done 50/50 raffles tied to cause for years, but seeing the numbers go up in excess of 30k with a video board call to action does serve as a nice test for when engaged sports gambling does come to mainstream sports in stadium. Using the video boards to watch prize pools rise on certain prop bets will again be regularly part of the experience down the road, and seeing a large number pop up on the board was a reminder of what will be coming.
The Spirits Have Not Fully Arrived…yet: While beer remains king in the NFL, the league did relax advertising in the spirits category last season, and brands are slowly finding ways into the space. The Jets haven’t gone big with the category and its local limitations yet, but they did find room on the suite level to have Macallan Whiskey set up a free tasting stand. While they were not able to capture consumer info, the tasting stand was very popular during game breaks, and have some added value both to a brand looking to get a leg up with a slightly upscale NFL crowd and to suite holders looking for something both free and different. Get used to seeing more and more spirits making the move, it’s a natural fit.
Lastly, it’s the little things. It was Kids Day and it was a balmy early fall afternoon, so the amount of kids at the Jets-Broncos game was probably a little higher than usual. The jets didn’t miss a beat, making sure all kids coming received pins as a memento for the trip and getting certificates to kids who were making their first trip to see Gang Green. Even in a business where virtual space is growing, it’s those little quality leave behinds that not only shape kids as fans for life, but shows their parents that the franchise is making an investment in their discretionary dollars as well. A little pin spend goes a long way.
