eastwin5

We have often talked about how minor league organizations often outpace the major league teams in terms of year round innovation and brand building. The minors, especially baseball, never have the big star to rely on for long and more than their major brtheren, have to rely on the core fan and the overall game …

Maybe in another life, 40 years ago, a political pundit like James Carville and a Super Bowl winning coach like Brian Billick would not have a lot in common. However these days, through the world of satellite radio, digital TV and social media, they now only can share ideas but can share the same stage. …

Thirty years ago we had the Miracle on Ice, and the sports world waited as Jim Craig, the triumphant U.S. goaltender, prepped for his NHL debut with the Atlanta Flames a week later. Coke made Craig the branding darling of the Olympics, and thousands of kids rushed out to buy hockey sticks across the country …

Over the next few days and weeks the debate as to who the biggest marketing “winners” from the Olympics will be played out…Shaun White, Apollo Ohno, Lindsay Vonn, Julia Mancuso, even Shani Davis…will all appear on the watch list, make the TV rounds etc etc. with all the requestite experts chiming in. Then spring comes …

Slowly, steadily, the good folks at Disney and ESPN have turned one of the brand's more quizzical efforts into a mecca, not for characters, but for the character built through sport. The once somewhat questionable child of the Disney theme empire was Wide World of Sports, launched on the outer edges of the expansive Disney …

In the movie

Friday Tiger Woods spoke…he controlled the message, he got his points out, he was serious and he addressed all the groups he needed to address in a statement. Another stage in the comeback is complete for him. He did not have the long, drawn out presser with reporters, especially those who cover him in his …

The subject of crisis management and brand damage, both long and short, arose again last Friday as the world looked to Vancouver and the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics. By now everyone knows of the tragedy, the issues of blame, the decision for networks to show or not show the footage and for how …

So it's the middle of winter and you have no idea who your players are…or you are having a terrible season and the trade deadline looms and you need to keep your brand fresh and identifiable. What to d.? The mascot. Now more than ever, with brands looking for more ROI, fans looking for personal …

Big time sports and entertainment events draw big time advertising dollars. We all are more than familiar with the amount of sponsorship spent on Super Bowl, Olympic and NBA All-Star ads these past few weeks, and the payoff in exposure brands got with the largest TV audience of all-time for the Colts and the Saints …