Engagement Marketing: Leveraging emotions to connect with consumers

Six Mobile Marketing Trends for 2008

2007-10-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

Six Wireless Marketing Trends for ‘08
by Bryon Morrison

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“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.” -- Albert Einstein

Had Einstein had a mobile phone, he might have seen the future of mobile marketing lies in channel sharing, wireless environments, and convergence. These are among the trends that will impact the industry in the next 12 months.

1. Consumers will be more willing to download applications to their wireless devices. Here’s why:

First is the investment made by major industry players like Yahoo! and Google that deliver direct value to the consumer. Second, the iPhone movement has continued the march toward convergence in handsets and has made people more comfortable with using them for more than a phone call.

Third, the phone is personal, and downloadable applications that are focused on affinities and preferred brands offer another opportunity for people to further customize their phone.

And, finally, a download provides a better user experience which can also reduce or eliminate the need for future data downloads.

We believe in the following year we will see the number of downloadable applications increase significantly, and with it, the number of consumers downloading the applications to their phones. These applications will serve as a platform for customizing how a consumer would like to interact with brands, giving the relationship management to the user.

In return, the benefits to the brands are substantial. An application provides 24/7 access to a company’s brand and links the brand with a positive experience. Also, by developing applications around affinities that relate to the brand attributes, a brand can provide functionality that directly supports the brand promise.

2. Wireless environments. The more control we have over a venue, the more we can use a series of tactics to enhance an experience. Today, clients are asking us to create environments that offer similar experiences to those in Japan or Europe. Specifically, the role of a mobile phone in concerts, sporting events, and retail environments is changing quickly and will evolve further in the next 18 months.

What’s driving this evolution? For one, venues can take advantage of captive audience attending events. Further, attendees typically enter through limited points of entry, allowing us to introduce them to the experience on-site and efficiently opt-in. And, the mobile device is the one constant from the seats, to the pits, to the stage, to the food line, to the bathroom, to the vendor line. Most importantly, it’s the one thing guaranteed to leave the event with the customer.

3. Convergence. While technology has consistently attempted to create convergence devices -- and typically failed to meet consumer expectations -- we believe the phone will be the one accepted convergence device. It has already begun to play out in the U.S. Overseas, it already serves as the phone, wallet, keys and remote control device.

In 2008, we’ll see consumers seek out content and applications to serve various utilitarian and entertainment functionality like games, camera, music, maps and directions, wireless internet, social networking, TV, personal management (finance, calendar, to-do lists, etc.), event interaction, smart-home interface, etc.

Mobile devices are being released with more advanced multimedia capabilities and consumers will look for that device to be a “go-to” solution for managing their lives.

4. Channel-share. Many of our clients have tested the medium over the last 24 months. Now, they’ve reached a point where they recognize that it’s a viable channel that delivers a significant ROI. We’re seeing clients plan concepts for 2008 that are focused on “owning” the channel or increasing their association with the medium.

In keeping with the media principal, “If budgets are limited, then go big and own the channel,” we are seeing clients take advantage of the medium’s low costs and lack of clutter. These strategies are coming to fruition as dedicated shortcodes; heavy media buys in on-deck/off-deck channels; attention to viral, grass-roots marketing methods; and “signature” technology or applications that will be heavily promoted.

We anticipate 2008 being the year companies take a page from the internet playbook and learn from the success of significant first movers like Dell, Barnes & Noble, Nordstrom, Southwest Airlines, Best Buy, Charles Schwab, 1800-Flowers, etc. Though they had successful businesses prior to the internet, each of them took a “land grab” approach to the medium and made their brand synonymous with the internet among that audience base.

5. Customer Managed Relationships (CMR). The natural evolution in the medium leads us to a point of thinking beyond a project or campaign. Anticipating success, we are now asked by clients to focus on how to communicate with their highly valuable opt-in audience that is the result of their various promotions we execute on their behalf.

While the traditional CRM (Customer Relationship Management) approach would be to develop high-level segments and communicate out to four of five groups in a time-bound wave of communications, mobile provides us a platform to speak to consumers on a true 1:1 level based on their desired manner of interaction.

As opposed to planning a mass outbound message every certain number of days or months, we are developing strategies that will introduce relevant options, features, functionality, content, discounts, etc. based on what we know about the user. The next step in that process is developing opportunities for those people to continue to refine their desired manner of being contacted.

6. Structured Learning. “How should we be measuring the success of these campaigns?” This question, along with, “Are we getting the best response possible?,” are two of the most frequent questions we field from clients. We’re working closely with many of our clients to understand the true impact of their wireless initiatives.

We approach the challenge from two perspectives: The “Micro” and the “Macro.” On the Micro level, there are quantitative measures available with every campaign we execute. These measures allow us to do champion-challenger testing that determines how we would optimize a campaign in the wireless space. We introduce these proposed approaches in “learning plans” and continue to test variables throughout a campaign. Ideally, we’re allowed to look at each of the campaigns and identify ways we will measure across initiatives, as well.

On a Macro level, we take into account that wireless is a new medium and each of our campaigns probably have a greater impact than what is literally documented through our direct interaction statistics. In other words, it’s more likely in a new medium for people to be inspired to act based on stimulus, but use an indirect channel to execute the transaction.

Leveraging econometric techniques we’re now able to understand the true impact a wireless campaign has on brand equity, sales, online interactions, etc. We’re also able to determine the ideal media mix used to drive people to the wireless channel. The goal will be to reach a point of accurate forecasting as we have in other media.

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Bryon Morrison is president of ipsh!, the wireless marketing division of The Marketing Arm, which operates within Omnicom Group Inc.

Adam Smith, president, Davie Brown Music talks about AT&T's blue room

2007-03-29T14:24:00.000-05:00

Guiding AT&T on Its Road to Content Creation

Davie Brown's Adam Smith Helps Telecom Channel MTV With Blue Room

By Mya Frazier

Link to full issue

Who: Adam Smith, president of Davie Brown Music

Davie Brown's Adam Smith on AT&T's Blue Room: 'It's not just about being a telecom company. It's about being a distributor of great content.'

Why you need to know him: As the battle to own the "three screens" -- mobile, TV and web -- heats up, Mr. Smith has been on the ground floor of a content-creation experiment with AT&T that aims to position the telecom as a "distributor of great content" and to give the brand a place to control the message about its products. Two years ago, AT&T set out to prove it was hip enough to bring exclusive content around music to a passionate audience with a website dubbed the Blue Room (attblueroom.com). It's the kind of site you'd expect from MTV, not a telecom. But the site offers a peek inside what very well may be the next generation of initiatives from an industry in the throes of change.

Credentials: Mr. Smith, 38, has spent almost 15 years in the entertainment business in sports and music. He's the former VP-marketing at the Firm, a music-management company in Los Angeles, former VP-marketing of the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers and the former managing director at Marketing Arm.

How does Blue Room help AT&T? "It was really created to offer consumers another way to experience AT&T products and services but in an environment that is completely relevant to them, which was music. The Blue Room ... was created and is owned by AT&T, rather than just being a sponsor of an event, a tour or an advertiser on a music website. [Blue Room is] an environment that is created by AT&T, and they can control to a enormous extent the content that is in it and can help better define the messaging that is in it and can also add layers to it like music festivals."

How has AT&T linked up with music festivals? "Two years ago, the Blue Room held the first webcast of Lollapalooza, it was a live webcast and saw a huge jump in traffic and settled well above where previous traffic levels had been, because visitors experience the Blue Room and returned after the event. This was a great way to drive traffic. Now we are going to be the official webcast partners of these kind of events like the Vegoose Halloween festival in Las Vegas, the Austin City Limits music festival, the Coachella, the Bonnaroo and the New Orleans Jazz Fest. The only way to see those events live is if you aren't there is in the Blue Room."

Why is AT&T focusing on music festivals? "We see these as appointment-based viewing sessions; we tell consumers to see Bonnaroo or Coachella on these days or these times. We use media, both online and radio and a limited amount of print, to drive traffic to these webcasts, and they go online and they watch these things all day long from 12 noon until the headliner leaves the stage. And what we've found is that, in addition to watching these streams, they check out other content on the site. We also have promotions in there, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for shows to meet the band or things like that. It's a whole musical experience beyond just seeing archived clips."

But how does this help a telecom brand? "It's not just about being a telecom company. It's about being a distributor of great content, so right now this is a big broadband play. We are delivering exclusive content, and because AT&T is giving them content exclusively and delivering content into the home and soon to mobile devices and to the television with [AT&T's] new television platform U-verse. Exclusive content is where the whole telecommunication industry is going into. Content is hot right now, and everyone is trying to utilize content to connect with consumers. It's no longer about a message, but a message tied to content."

Has being a content provider helped it stand out apart from Verizon Wireless and its V-cast service? "That I don't know. I wouldn't want to comment on that. What we are doing is one of AT&T's many content plays and content-distribution concepts, and it's been successful. I wouldn't want to say more or less because that's all relative."

What is the demographic AT&T is after? "It's a very broad demographic, and that's why we have alternative rock, country, contemporary, hit radio, pop. We focus on all the music genres, and that's why we're expanding to gaming and sports and Hollywood. We are trying to touch on those passion points for things consumers are passionate about in their spare time and let AT&T deliver that to them so we are speaking to them about something relevant to them."

How is that different from the more traditional kind of demographic categories, like men age 18 to 34? "[Blue Room] is going after a target of people who are passionate about something. It's about speaking to them while they are viewing an artist or a video game or a sporting event, and when it's an interest or passion of a consumer, they are going to want to get it. A fan of a specific music will search out that content and will look for it anywhere they can get it because they can never get enough information about their favorite band. If we can aggregate that on an exclusive basis, we have a better chance of drawing them, and then we can surround them with an AT&T message."

Are there other distribution channels planned? "Eventually, the idea is for content on the three-screen play, mobile, broadband and TV."

How does Davie Brown go about putting something like this together? "We tried to leverage existing deals that AT&T had to potentially get content and try and identify areas that have been 'unowned' opportunities, like music festivals, where there is a passionate audience and it's a kind of a tent-pole concept."

But is Blue Room really getting enough traffic? According to ComScore Media Metrix, the site isn't even drawing enough traffic for them to report numbers. Is AT&T's ROI for this effort based on some other criteria? "We don't talk about numbers, unfortunately. I don't know what they measure besides traffic. We always aspire to have more traffic, and we continue to grow and get more traffic. I wouldn't want to say we aren't getting the traffic we want, it's just something we continue to deliver and hope the traffic numbers continue to grow."

What does putting something together like this cost? "Honestly, we just don't release those numbers."

Do you think brands creating their own entertainment platforms, like AT&T has with Blue Room, is the next evolution in branded entertainment? "Absolutely. More than ever, brands don't want to do one-offs, and as marketing budgets shrink, brands are looking to get the most out of their marketing dollars. It's critical for them to do less one-offs and larger programs. If they can create something that is ownable and scalable ... it has more value ultimately for the brand."

But does it cost a lot more? "Yes, but you get more. But if you want to catch lightning in a bottle, it will cost you too. The first few 'Apprentice' deals were free, and now they are more expensive but not worth as much as they were in the beginning. With a one-off program, they could pay for that opportunity vs. trying to create something that is sustainable. The Blue Room is creating something every week, which makes it scaleable and provides value to the consumer because it is always new.

But does this kind of content creation make sense for every brand? "No, but for AT&T, yes. They are in the delivery business. ... They are a part of the business of content delivery. They are not just about connecting two voices anymore but providing communications and content delivery to consumers. It's no longer about just local and long distance. It's about broadband mobile and TV, because people are going to start to expect that from them."

Q&A with Bob Schneider, EVP, Davie Brown Entertainment

2007-03-13T09:49:00.000-05:00

Q&A with...
Robert Schneider
Executive Vice President
Davie Brown Entertainment

Q: You've worked on both the client side and agency side of the business. What can agencies do to ensure their clients are maximizing the agency-client relationship?

A: Clients are best served by their agency when they work together as partners. The agency should always have the most up to date information that the client has relating to the business they work on. When I worked on the McDonald's business on the agency side, they shared everything with us, research, sales info, we knew everything they knew. This information allowed us to contribute focused and creative ideas that could move their business ahead.

Q&A with Bill Glenn, VP, Strategic Insights, The Marketing Arm

2007-03-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

Q&A with...

Bill Glenn
Vice President, Strategic Insights & Analytics
The Marketing Arm

Q: What role does I&A play in the emotional marketing process?

A: I&A is applicable at many points in a program: Idea development, execution or analysis. I&A is much more than a scorecard outlining program ROI. In idea development, it’s the data which provides direction in determining strategy (e.g., leverage film if your target is a heavy movie attendee, create on-site presence at NFL games if the data shows heavy game attendance, etc.).

In execution, it’s creating data which demonstrates the effectiveness of the program’s tactics and strategy in communicating to the target and in analysis; it’s quantifying the ROI of the program using sales and retention data. These three areas combined deliver the basis for key learnings which enhance follow-up programs. So it’s smart to consider I&A as part of the foundation in our overall approach to delivering client success -- it’s an investment which delivers outstanding ROI to your client.

Q&A with Adam Smith, President, Davie Brown Music

2007-03-13T09:42:00.000-05:00

Adam Smith, president
Davie Brown Music

Q: How can clients leverage the power of music when building their brands?

A: The digital music revolution has completely changed the way the music industry looks at corporate America. Now more then ever, artists and labels are willing to tie their music more closely to brands in exchange for inclusion in mass media messaging. The key to a successful music program is to identify all of the potential “asks” of the artist and include them in the up-front negotiation. Instead of just licensing a song, or acquiring the rights to name and likeness, brands need to think about:

What content are they interested in?
What are the artist’s plans throughout the brand’s campaign life? New record? Tour? Award show appearances?
How can I bring the campaign to life on-line and at live events?

Finally, if brands are looking to acquire content to stream on-line, it is critical to promote the relationship and the program on-line – and not just at the brand’s site.

Q&A with Melissa Gena, General Manager, ipsh!

2007-03-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

Q&A with...
Melissa Gena, General Manager
ipsh!

Q: The Super Bowl was a busy time for ipsh! Are brands more receptive to integrating wireless into their marketing programs than, say, 8-12 months ago?

A: Brands are steadily becoming more interested in extending their marketing efforts with the use of mobile components. We worked with three clients on Super Bowl-related programs this year, but interestingly, none of them included a call-to-action in their commercials. I think this illustrates that brands are still taking small steps toward integrating mobile into more traditional mediums, but there is constant progress. I think by next year, you'll see more direct integration and call-to-action from the commercials themselves.

Q&A with Alden Stoner, Davie Brown Entertainment (LA)

2007-03-13T09:34:00.000-05:00

Q&A with...
Alden Stoner
Davie Brown Entertainment

Q: How does Davie Brown differentiate itself from other entertainment consulting agencies?

A: DBE differentiates itself from other entertainment consultancies on a few levels. First, DBE has a long history in entertainment with over 22 years of experience, whereas a number of the various competitors have popped up in recent years and do not have the same heritage or notoriety.

Secondly, DBE only represents brands, where some current consultancies' agendas are compromised since they try to partner their brands with entertainment properties they represent as well.

Most importantly though, DBE is not only a full service consultancy specializing in strategic thinking with regard to entertainment, but also services product placement and integration, promotions, music and talent. DBE interacts regularly with everyone from the on-set decorators to directors to studio executives. We touch all aspects of entertainment, which to my knowledge, no other consultancy can claim.

"Game of Shadows" book references Bonds' DBI scores

2007-03-08T09:29:00.000-06:00

The afterword to the paperback edition of the book "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports," by San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, references the Davie Brown Index:

"Corporate sponsors shared the fans' disaffection with Bonds. Both Home Depot and Bank of America declined to participate in a proposed advertising campaign that the Giants had hoped to build around Bonds' assault on Ruth's mark. "A company like ours is always going to choose the untainted opportunity," a Bank of America spokesman said. Steering clear of Bonds made good business sense, according to a consumer poll taken by a Dallas marketing agency. Davie-Brown Talent found that of 1,500 celebrities who might be hired to endorse products, consumers rated Bonds no. 1,486 in likability and no. 1,488 in trustworthiness."

Celebrity talent-buying agencies navigate ad agencies through muddy waters

2007-02-27T15:07:00.000-06:00

Who Should Pitch, Angelina Or Dylan?
A new breed of corporate consultants is matching celebrities with ad campaigns

Business Week

Burt Helm

How much is a celebrity worth? Advertising agencies don't really know how to calculate the dollar value of star power. Hollywood talent agents are no help: They represent the star's interests.

So along comes a new breed of consultants promising corporate clients that they will take away some of the mystery. A half-dozen of these middlemen are already operating in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and New York--among them Platinum Rye, Creative License, and Davie Brown Talent.

Their pitch to marketers: All the information needed to cut the best deals is at our fingertips. The firms track market prices for the celebrities (accurate at least until the next scandal). And they offer research to determine which stars are truly influential--and which are merely celebrated.

Working either on retainer or for a percentage of the total deal, the agencies negotiate everything from cameos at corporate events to appearances in national ad campaigns for brands such as Coors, Pepsi (PEP ), Chevy (GM ), and AT&T (T ).One advantage these small outfits offer is that they are run by people familiar with the insular movie and music industries.

"Think of scenes from [the hbo show] Entourage," says John Osborn, president and chief executive of BBDO Worldwide, an ad agency owned by Omnicom Group Inc (OMC ). "If I were to pick up a phone and call an agency, I have no idea if I'm getting the right price, or talking to the right person. I need someone who can navigate this world."

Most important, the firms can sometimes shift the balance of power between big stars and big brands. It can be as simple as providing anonymity: When BBDO decided it wanted Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield of the band Metallica for an America Online (TWX ) advertisement, Platinum Rye initiated the negotiations without once mentioning AOL.

When talent agents and managers hear the name of a prominent brand, they can start "seeing dollar signs," Osborn says. "You need someone who can play hardball."These firms are also introducing a new twist in that familiar Hollywood staple, the bidding war: Now it's the celebrities who are doing the bidding. Molson Coors Brewing Co. is looking for a folksy song for its next ad campaign, according to people familiar with the search, but doesn't want to pay top dollar to license an existing tune by the likes of John Fogerty, Stephen Stills, or Bob Dylan.

So Coors, its advertising agency DraftFCB, and Creative License are inviting major recording artists to submit a song on spec. The client gets a tune from a leading songwriter, and the artist gets a promotional boost, plus a paycheck. Which artists are considering it? John Fogerty, Stephen Stills, and Bob Dylan, to name three.

MEASURING INFLUENCE

When it comes to calculating a fair price for more traditional endorsements, the agencies can tap a wealth of information about recent deals. They also collect personal information, such as which causes interest the stars. When Creative License approached Sheryl Crow to use her song Every Day is a Winding Road for Subaru last year, executives went in knowing Crow felt strongly about environmental issues.

Representatives showed her Subaru's low-waste manufacturing plants and talked about its commitment to being green. She agreed to the deal.

Measuring a celebrity's influence, of course, is as much art as science. Q scores, the measure traditionally used to track stars' popularity, doesn't look at how good they are at persuading consumers to buy. Will Ferrell, for instance, is funny, and Angelina Jolie is beautiful, but a company might wonder whether anyone would take either's endorsement seriously.

Davie Brown Talent, which is also owned by Omnicom, surveys some 1,000 respondents to calculate the relative appeal and influence of more than 1,500 celebrities. (Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey are the two most influential.) While most people find comedian Ferrell more likable than Jolie, she is the more persuasive one, their research found.

Jolie is currently earning some $12 million, plus performance incentives, to be the face of St. John Knits International Inc. (SJKI ).

Manning's appeal spikes after Super Bowl

2007-02-09T12:50:00.000-06:00

Manning's Pitchman Appeal Rises on Super Bowl Win, Analysts Say
By Aaron Kuriloff

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Winning the Super Bowl boosted Peyton Manning's already considerable power as a celebrity endorser, according to an index tracking sponsor appeal.

A survey taken less than 48 hours after the National Football League championship game for the Davie-Brown Index found that awareness of the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback increased among all U.S. consumers to almost 74 percent.

Manning's index was 68 percent before the victory on Feb. 4, according to the index, which ranks celebrities by their ability to influence product sales.

Winning the game's Most Valuable Player award turned Manning, 30, from someone who already had the marketing power of U2 singer Bono to a celebrity pitchman as well known as the actor and musician Sting, according to the index.

``After a major event like the Super Bowl, there's a halo effect for the winning players and the MVP in particular,'' Jeff Chown, president of Davie-Brown Talent, a unit of Omnicom Group Inc., said in a statement. ``Americans like winners.''

Manning already was the league's most marketable player, according to a survey by the Sports Business Journal. He appeared last season in national commercials for MasterCard Inc., DirecTV Group Inc., Disney's ESPN, PepsiCo Inc.'s Gatorade, Adidas AG's Reebok and Sprint Nextel Corp.

While Manning always scored near the top of NFL players on the index, which ranks celebrities on criteria including appeal, trust, influence and awareness, winning the title still gave him a boost.

Index Jump

Manning's overall Davie-Brown score rose four points to 74, topping that of his coach, Tony Dungy, who jumped less than a point to 66.1. Manning is approaching the score of Joe Montana, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who is the highest- ranked NFL player on the list with a 74.8. Golfer Tiger Woods leads all athletes, with an 86.1.

NFL players don't usually rank among the leading celebrity endorsers because each team includes more than 50 men who play in a helmet, face mask and pads, said Scott Sanford, senior account director for Davie-Brown.

Manning is an exception to that rule, according to Joyce Julius and Associates, an Ann Arbor, Michigan, company that gauges the impact of corporate sponsorships.

His face appeared on-screen, in-focus for more than six minutes during the Super Bowl, the company found. Chicago Bears Pro Bowl linebacker Brian Urlacher appeared on screen for 2:22, although he was on the field as much as Manning.

Announcers mentioned Manning's name 86 times and Urlacher's 27 times, Joyce Julius's study found.

While the Super Bowl boosted Manning's overall rating, it had some negative consequence for Bears quarterback Rex Grossman, who threw two interceptions in the game.

Grossman's Davie-Brown score for awareness rose six points after the game, even as his score for appeal dropped five points.

``A reputation is a fragile thing, whether you're a president, an actor or an NFL quarterback,'' Chown said.

The impact of a Super Bowl win (or loss) on your image

2007-02-07T10:59:00.000-06:00

What’s a Super Bowl appearance do for a player’s image? If you’re Peyton Manning, it means a five percent boost in awareness nationally and increased trust among consumers.

According to the Davie Brown Celebrity Index (DBI), U.S. consumers rate the Colts quarterback and Super Bowl MVP higher in terms of appeal, notice, trust, influence, endorsement, and aspiration than the days prior to the big game in Miami.

“After a major event like the Super Bowl, there’s a halo effect for the winning players, and the MVP in particular,” said Jeff Chown, president of Davie Brown Talent, which negotiates celebrity endorsements for major brands. “The same is true when an actor wins an Oscar or a singer wins a Grammy. Americans like winners.”

Manning’s coach, Tony Dungy, also enjoyed a boost across the DBI’s eight attributes, including appeal, notice, trust, and aspiration.

On the other hand, Chicago players like Brian Urlacher and Rex Grossman experienced a drop in their scores. While Urlacher’s awareness among U.S. consumers jumped eight percent following the Super Bowl, his appeal, notice, and trust scores fell slightly after losing the game.

Grossman, the Bears quarterback who fumbled twice and threw two interceptions in the game, saw his appeal score drop five points while his trust score fell three points.

“A reputation is a fragile thing, whether you’re a president, an actor, or an NFL quarterback,” said Chown. “The good news is, Americans tend to forgive and, over time, forget.”

The Davie Brown Index® (DBI) is an independent index for brand marketers and agencies that determines a celebrity’s ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent. The DBI provides brand marketers with a systematic approach for quantifying and qualifying the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns by evaluating a celebrity’s awareness, appeal and relevance to a brand’s image and their influence on consumer buying behavior.

Created by Los Angeles marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment, the DBI consists of more than 1,000 celebrities and is powered by a 1.5 million-member domestic research panel administered by GMI, a leading provider of global market intelligence solutions. Respondents evaluate celebrities along eight key attributes: Appeal, aspiration, awareness, endorsement, influence, notice, trendsetter, and trust.

Dungy, Lovie Smith now celebrities in their own right

2007-02-02T14:57:00.000-06:00

MOVE OVER OPRAH AND TOM:

Super Bowl coaches Dungy and Smith rate among most-appealing celebrities in Davie Brown Celebrity Index

Neither will break a tackle, intercept a pass, or win MVP honors during the Super Bowl on Sunday, but Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith have already scored with U.S. consumers.

According to the latest Davie Brown Index (DBI), Dungy and Smith, head coaches of the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, respectively, rank among the most likeable celebrities in the index, on-par with favorites like Michael J. Fox, Denzel Washington, and Tom Hanks.

“Though not as well known as the most-loved celebrities like Oprah, Bill Cosby, and Will Smith, U.S. consumers who recognize them tell us that Lovie and Tony genuinely appeal to them –- they’re likeable guys,” said Jeff Chown, president of Davie Brown Talent, which negotiates endorsement deals for major brands and their advertising agencies. “But it’s more than likeability. They also scored very well in terms of trust, influence, aspiration, and notice. They really have the whole package in terms of endorsement potential.”

Dungy, 51, scored slightly below 48-year-old Smith in the DBI’s “appeal” attribute, but outscored Smith in awareness, notice, trust, endorsement, and aspiration. The coaches posted identical “trendsetter” scores.

The Davie Brown Index® (DBI) is an independent index for brand marketers and agencies that determines a celebrity’s ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent. It provides brand marketers with a systematic approach for quantifying and qualifying the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns by evaluating a celebrity’s awareness, appeal and relevance to a brand’s image and their influence on consumer buying behavior.

Created by the Dallas-based talent division of Los Angeles marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment, the DBI consists of more than 1,500 celebrities and is powered by a 1.5 million-member domestic research panel administered by GMI, a leading provider of global market intelligence solutions. Respondents evaluate celebrities along eight key attributes: Appeal, aspiration, awareness, endorsement, influence, notice, trendsetter, and trust.

Old quarterback never die, they just become product endorsers

2007-01-30T14:25:00.000-06:00

Everywhere you look, there's Dan Marino
On TV. On radio. On billboards. In newspapers. He's a pitchman and an analyst.

By Sarah Talalay
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 30, 2007

Dan Marino will be back on the Dolphin Stadium field on Sunday, making the ceremonial coin toss for Super Bowl XLI before a national television audience expected to exceed 100 million.

But in South Florida, we've been seeing Marino a lot lately. Take a ride on Florida's Turnpike and you can't miss the retired Dolphins quarterback and his wife Claire staring out of a Levinson Jewelers billboard. Above I-95, he has pitched tracts of waterfront and recreational land in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Open the newspaper to find him advertising Maroone automobiles. This football season he had a radio show on Monday mornings on 790 the Ticket (WAXY-AM). In the fall, he volunteered to make ads in support of the unsuccessful campaign for a 1 percent sales tax increase for Broward County mass transit projects, although county voter records show he didn't vote in the election. More recently, he was advising the Dolphins on their coaching search.

That's in addition to his national television work as an analyst on CBS's The NFL Today and HBO's Inside the NFL; his ads for Samsung; pitches for the Sleep Innovations' Marino Recovery System line of mattresses, pillows and slippers; and the NutriSystem campaign that broke in July to show off his 22-pound lighter physique. Some joke that he had to slim down after scarfing Papa John's Pizza he advertised in an earlier campaign.

With business manager Ralph Stringer, he also is co-executive producing The Shanghai Hotel, a feature film about human trafficking that was shot last year.

Overexposed? Perhaps. But Marino's popularity only seems to grow, now that he's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and as the Dolphins continue to go without a star quarterback. He is appealing to companies, experts say, because his football accomplishments are already in the record books and won't suffer from an injury on the field or trouble off it.

"Since he's retired from the Dolphins, they haven't done much without him and they haven't found a replacement for him," said Scott Sanford, senior director of Davie Brown Talent, a Dallas firm that pairs athletes and celebrities with corporations. "I think from a local level that just increases your iconic stature."

According to the Davie Brown Index, which uses consumer research to measure a celebrity's awareness and attributes such as appeal and trustworthiness, Marino is in the top 20 among 340 athletes. Compared with other retired quarterbacks, he's behind Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, but ahead of Troy Aikman.

Stringer says Marino, who retired in 2000, is so busy with his TV schedule that he has had to turn down some offers.

Marino travels to New York on Tuesday to tape the HBO show on Wednesday, returning that night. Then on Saturday he travels back to New York for CBS's Sunday coverage and returns that night. Along the way, he might stop off at a land sale being held by a branch of National Land Partners -- a partnership that emerged because the company's owner played golf with Marino, Stringer said.

"He's everywhere. It's amazing," Stringer said. "I think a big part of that is he's with companies that are probably much more aggressive in what they do."

What also makes him appealing is that he has little competition locally from other star athletes who have essentially grown up and played their whole careers in South Florida.

"You have the Shaqs of the world, but we don't have a lot of bench strength in terms of sports celebrities in South Florida," said Jay Stuck, president of BrandGuy Inc., a Palm Beach marketing and advertising agency.

That's why, Stuck says, Marino could be treading close to too many deals, which could dilute his stature as a pitchman.

"It's great to have an aggressive agent and a large number of friends, but you have to look at it from a brand value standpoint. Marino is a brand. He has to be careful in the future about being a huckster," Stuck said. "That applies not just to Dan Marino. ... I think it's an object lesson for any celebrity. Sometimes 15 minutes is too much."

Marino says he isn't racking up deals for the money.

"You can always use money, but it's not always about that," Marino said. "That's what I do now. I do television, I represent companies. After I retired, that's been kind of my job."

Marino said he has to believe in what he's pitching and that his endorsement deals stem from friendships.

"It's all about relationships and the people you know," he said.

Marino's roots run so deep in the community that his partnerships with some companies go back years. He started out as a customer of Levinson Jewelers in 1983, agreeing six years ago to be a spokesperson, including in the "Live Life Levinson Style" campaign. Mark and Robin Levinson feature other celebrities in advertising, but Mark Levinson says the Marinos are their only spokespeople.

Marino's partnership with NutriSystem came as a result of seeing golfing buddy former San Francisco 49er Jim Stuckey had lost 50 pounds. In July, Marino did a promotional campaign for the weight loss program after losing 22 pounds. His before and after photos are prevalent, and according to NutriSystem, Marino's endorsement works.

Before the campaign aired, 13 percent of NutriSystem's customers were men. Since Marino's story aired, that number has ballooned to 30 percent, said Sheri Keiles, a NutriSystem spokeswoman.

Marino and Mike Maroone, AutoNation president and chief operating officer, have known each other for more than 15 years. They were neighbors in Weston, but when they met Marino was representing another auto dealer. Once that deal expired, Marino and Maroone launched a series of ads that played on their similar names.

"His success on the field and effort in the community, he was a perfect spokesman for us," Maroone said. "He's got that unique combination of obviously great face appeal, the incredible Hall of Fame success, success in business, in broadcasting, tremendous family man. I think the balance he's achieved makes him even more desirable, more trustworthy. It makes him more attractive to potential business."

Peyton Manning NFL's endorsement leader

2007-01-30T14:00:00.000-06:00

He won't be sold short
Peyton Manning hasn't won the big one -- yet -- but he is the NFL's champion when it comes to endorsing products
By Greg Johnson

Los Angeles Times

January 30, 2007

Some fans won't credit Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts with having the right stuff until he grabs as many Super Bowl rings as archrival Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. Manning, however, has few doubters on Madison Avenue, where the second-generation NFL quarterback has joined the elite ranks of athletes who are paid handsomely to pitch goods and services.

Only a handful of professional athletes, including Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, LeBron James and Serena Williams, earned more from product endorsements than the $11.5 million that Manning was paid last year, according to Sports Illustrated. The 30-year-old has forged more than a half dozen sponsorship deals with such powerful brands as Reebok, MasterCard, Sony and Sprint. And, along the way, the nine-year veteran has become an ambassador for the league.

He's done it, to use a sports marketing phrase, by "taking his helmet off" and revealing more of his personality.

Manning's ads include playing the football hero-turned-everyman who begs a grocery clerk to autograph a melon in a MasterCard commercial, the big brother stuck in a sibling rivalry with brother Eli (the New York Giants' quarterback) in an ESPN commercial, and the stand-up comic who gamely dons a fake mustache and wig to hawk Sprint cellular service.

Ad executives aren't alone in their appreciation of Manning's marketing game. "I think it's hilarious," said Chicago Bears defensive end Alex Brown, who will face off against Manning and the Colts in Super Bowl XLI on Sunday. "My son loves him too."Manning's role as product pitchman benefits from playing the right position — quarterback — to get his face on television.

Sports marketers, though, credit Manning for using his good-guy-next-door image, showcasing his playful sense of humor and constantly honing his acting skills.

Bob Garfield, a columnist for Advertising Age, has chronicled the painful parade of athletes who've stumbled while pitching hemorrhoid preparations, low-calorie beer and the like.

In December, Garfield wrote that Manning is "the greatest sports endorser ever. Not the most successful; Michael Jordan, after all. But his delivery, poise and comic timing make Michael look, comparatively, like an extra on 'CSI.' "There's plenty of Manning to be seen on TV and online.

One YouTube entry from an adoring Manning fan sums it up nicely: "I really hope none of Peyton's commercials ever get deleted. I have all nine in my favorites."

It's not as if the quarterback needs extra work. Manning is in the middle of a seven-year, $98-million contract with the Colts. Last year, a Sports Business Journal survey of sports marketing industry executives listed Manning as the NFL's most marketable player.

A Harris Poll survey reportedly listed Manning's popularity as matching that of Jordan among 30- and 40-somethings."When we first asked Peyton to join our team he was second only to Jordan in consumer recognition of athletes," said Kevin Berman, senior marketing manager for Sony Electronics, which uses Manning to pitch high-definition televisions. "That's a nice camp to be in."

Colts owner Jim Irsay credited Manning's commercial success to the same work ethic he displays in practice and during games."I'm not saying that there aren't players as good, and I'm not saying that people don't work hard," Irsay said. "But I'm just saying that if you're talking about someone who prepares, I've never seen anyone prepare like this guy."

Manning has avoided potentially embarrassing ads and stuck with well-known brands. Sports marketers suspect that Manning might eventually add an automobile deal — think fast-moving quarterback using a family-oriented SUV to maneuver out of a tight situation. Yet, sports and advertising industry observers doubt that Manning's first Super Bowl will produce a noticeable number of new corporate partners.

The payoff for a Super Bowl win, marketers said, could come in Manning's post-football career."What he's got is a real opportunity for lasting power," said Matt Delzell, a senior client manager with Dallas' Davie Brown Talent, which tracks celebrity appeal among consumers.

"He's articulate, intelligent and the networks are going to clamor over him when he's done with football. So would a loss hurt? No. Would [a win] help? Yeah."

Manning wasn't always as comfortable pitching products. In the spring of 1999, a youthful Manning was on the second team when he reported to a Los Angeles sound studio to make a 30-second spot for DirecTV. Veteran quarterbacks Bret Favre, Dan Marino and Steve Young dominated the commercials that set the players up in a kitschy setting reminiscent of "The Dating Game."

Over the years, business associates said, Manning has refined his acting skills by using the same intense preparation he is known for on the football field. Manning also seems to have benefited from his status as the highly talented son of Archie Manning, an NFL quarterback in the 1970s and 1980s.

"We really don't need to tell him much or brief him. He seems to be ready for everything coming at him," said Todd Krinsky, a vice president for Reebok. Manning is known to think on his feet during commercial shoots. "If you're asking if he calls audibles during the process, yes he does," Berman said.

At the end of one popular MasterCard spot, Manning asks a grocery clerk to autograph a loaf of bread for his younger brother, Eli. MasterCard's advertising agency had written another line, but Manning decided to mention his brother.

"It was his impromptu idea on the set," said Chris Jogis, MasterCard's vice president for U.S. brand development. "It ended up being one of the best lines in the spot. He definitely has a good sense for what's humorous."

Sports marketers say there's little chance that Manning's commercial career will be derailed if the Colts lose on Sunday.

"He transcends football," Jogis said. "He has a great sense of humor, he's really down to earth for such a great athlete and people can relate to that."

Although Manning has moved well beyond the borders of the sports scene, he's still got room to grow in the marketing arena.

About half of Americans recognize his face, according to Davie Brown's research. Manning is No. 46 on Davie Brown's sports-celebrity list — which includes 350 well-known athletes, including Magic Johnson, Jack Nicklaus, Muhammad Ali, Cal Ripken and Lance Armstrong. As important, consumers like what they see.

Davie Brown's index suggests that Manning scores high in trust, influence and as a product spokesman.

"He's seen as an upstanding citizen who does charity work, he communicates in a way that shows him to be a down-to-earth, friendly person — who happens to be the most talented guy in football," Berman said.

Chicago Bears cornerback Charles Tillman might differ on that last point, but he still laughs each time he sees the MasterCard spot that shows a goofy Manning comforting two movers who lose their grip on a piano that goes rolling down a hill.

"Actually, I think they're funny, when he goes, 'They're not booing, they're saying, 'Moooovers,' " Tillman said. "That's my favorite one. I think Peyton has worked real hard for the success that he's had and he's deserved everything he's gotten."

The face of the NFL:

Peyton Manning ranks 46th on the Davie Brown Index, a list of 350 active and retired athletes. The index measures consumer awareness, as well as an athlete's appeal, influence and degree of trust:

1. Tiger Woods

2. Michael Jordan

3. Muhammad Ali

4. George Foreman

5. Lance Armstrong

6. Magic Johnson

7. Shaquille O'Neal

8. Joe Montana

9. Terry Bradshaw

10. Andre Agassi

46. Peyton Manning

Manning finished 18th in Sports Illustrated's 2006 Fortunate 50 of how much top athletes gleaned from salaries and endorsement deals. Though quarterbacks Carson Palmer, Michael Vick and Tom Brady each topped Manning in total income, the magazine portrayed him as the NFL's top endorsement earner.

Urlacher's marketing potential

2007-01-29T18:17:00.000-06:00

Could Brian Urlacher cash in on celebrity like Peyton Manning?

By Stacy St. Clair

Chicago Daily Herald

Staff Writer

Monday, January 29, 2007

No matter the outcome of Super Bowl XLI, Brian Urlacher is poised to walk off the field a winner.

A recent marketing survey shows the Bears linebacker has an even broader appeal than Colts quarterback and uber-endorser Peyton Manning — once people get to know him.

According to the Davie Brown Index, which measures a celebrity’s ability to influence brand affinity, roughly 18 percent of people in the United States know who Urlacher is. More than 50 percent, however, recognize Manning.

“Brian’s awareness numbers are still pretty low,” says Scott Sanford, senior client director with Dallas-based The Marketing Arm. “But when you play in a Super Bowl it automatically increases.”

And that’s good news for Urlacher, who has very favorable ratings among those who know of him and his on-field efforts. Even his personal peccadilloes, which include dating Paris Hilton and an out-of-wedlock child with the woman who accused Irish dance sensation Michael Flatley of rape, haven’t hurt his image.

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, shown here in his popular Mastercard commercial, has become the NFL's go-to pitchman.

“Brian is thought of as a good guy, a down-to-earth individual,” Sanford said. “He’s also thought of as a fierce competitor.”

According to the research conducted by Sanford’s firm, 77.2 percent of people familiar with Urlacher found him likable. The linebacker’s popularity is backed up by his jersey sales, which have led the NFL in past seasons and were second to only New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush this year.

Manning, meanwhile, was considered slightly less appealing at 75.9 percent.

Urlacher’s likability numbers also beat Oprah Winfrey, Mike Ditka and Dick Butkus. In fact, the index shows the only two Chicago celebrities more appealing than Urlacher are Michael Jordan and actor Jim Belushi.

With more than 141 million people expected to watch the Super Bowl, Urlacher’s popularity will jump naturally. Coach Lovie Smith, quarterback Rex Grossman and kick returner Devin Hester also could make themselves household names Sunday.

But only Urlacher — who rates as the Bears’ most popular player and ranks among the Top 10 of the NFL’s most recognized players — has the potential to become a megastar, Sanford says.
“Brian is the only one who has the opportunity to put himself on the level of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady,” he says. “He’ll have more endorsement opportunities in the next two months than he has had in his entire career.”

Urlacher currently has commercials airing for Nike, McDonald’s and AT&T. With the exception of the phone company’s ads, however, he either plays a supporting role or doesn’t have any lines.

The New Mexico native has said in the past that he doesn’t enjoy doing commercials. That could explain why he hasn’t seized all the marketing opportunities available for him, experts said.
Al Lautenslager, author of “Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days,” says Urlacher hasn’t capitalized on all the spoils that come with being the 2005 NFC Defensive Player of the Year. He believes Urlacher would be an ideal pitchman for the food industry and anything automotive related.

“Urlacher has not translated his success into commercial opportunities,” Lautenslager said. “It’s almost like shame on him.”

Should Urlacher’s endorsements skyrocket after the Super Bowl, he likely won’t eclipse Manning, who has become corporate America’s go-to guy. The Colts quarterback already does commercials for Mastercard, Sprint, DirectTV and Gatorade, among others.

Even if the Colts lose Sunday, it’s unlikely that his image will be tarnished. Experts say it would be nearly impossible for one game to undo Manning’s other athletic achievements and his unsoiled image.

“Peyton came into the league as a star and he has lived up to the hype,” Stanford said. “He’s got a squeaky-clean image, he has a pedigree and he comes from a famous family.”

Urlacher wouldn’t want Manning’s gigs anyway, says Thomas Smith, a sports economist and University of Illinois-Chicago professor. While the Colts star’s commercials are effective, Smith says they succeed because Manning embraces his dorky side.

“That wouldn’t translate very well to Urlacher,” Smith says. “He’s not a goofy guy. He should play to his strengths and find endorsement opportunities that say ‘This guy is a beast.’”

How to get the most out of a $2.6 million Super Bowl ad

2007-01-29T18:09:00.000-06:00

Super Bowl's Longest Yard

January 29, 2007

By Eleftheria Parpis

ADWEEK

It seems that 90 million viewers just aren't enough anymore to make the multimillion-dollar buy worth it.

NEW YORK -- Somber music plays as a chimpanzee looking pretty in pink nonchalantly picks its nose. Sweetly looking into the camera, she repeatedly sticks her finger in her nose and then licks her finger.

"It's tough working with monkeys. And we've had enough," reads the on-screen copy. "Watch the CareerBuilder ads evolve. Feb. 4 on the big game." The ad ends with the chimp giving the camera a proud, toothy grin.

That 30-second commercial is one of two new spots from the Chicago-based company that began running two weeks before the Super Bowl to heighten anticipation for its new campaign, "It's a jungle out there. "The Super Bowl preview campaign is running on network TV and the client's Web site.

Super Bowl advertisers have long touted their game buys with leaks to the press and partial previews of their spots in an effort to stretch their ad dollars. Controversial spots historically garner media attention that can add millions of dollars' worth of "free exposure." This year, however, an increasing number of advertisers are employing all sorts of supplementary efforts pre- and post-game in order to maximize the value of their $2.6 million ad buy. The approaches are varied, but the intention is the same: generate buzz early and prolong the shelf life of the commercials long after the game

It seems that 90 million viewers just aren't enough anymore to make the multimillion-dollar buy worth it. So, advertisers are resorting to every form of modern marketing, from user-generated ad contests, video-sharing sites, blogs, mobile advertising and Webisodes, to additional content on brand sites.

The hoopla began earlier than ever this year, when Doritos, the NFL and Chevrolet introduced their Super Bowl stories months in advance, kicking off contests that asked the general public to submit ideas for Super Bowl commercials, back in October.

More skeptical industry observers say Super Bowl XLI is shaping up to be the most "gimmicky" in memory, but others call it smart business. Peter Krivkovich, CEO of CareerBuilder's agency Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago (whose shop's work on the Super Bowl dates back to the famous Masterlock series that began in 1974 and lasted through the mid-1990s) says the key to a successful Super Bowl showing is to "merchandise the bejesus out of it."

At press time, a majority of the advertisers signed up for the game had agreed to contribute their ads to a showcase on the CBS Sportsline Web site, according to a rep for the program. The showcase will be promoted on the home page as well as in short promos during the game's telecast. The ads will be loaded onto the site at the end of each quarter and will be available for a week after the game.

"It's no longer just about the additional press you get," says Tom McGovern, director of sports

media at Optimum Sports, a unit of Omnicom's OMD. "Now the incremental is all these additional places where the commercial is going to be used."

Halftime sponsor Pepsi last week was still considering how to use its 90 seconds of time. One option: to introduce a campaign tagged "Feel the Pepsi" for its flagship brand with ads from longtime agency BBDO.

To extend the excitement beyond the game, the company has also bought the front page of Yahoo for the day of the game and the day after. Yahoo also built a Web site for the brand, pepsisupercan.com, where people can get a code for a chance to win Super Bowl tickets for life and a diamond-and-jewel-adorned can valued at $100,000. It will also advertise on Yahoo Sports with video spots before and after the game.

All the Internet activity has further cemented the championship game as the preeminent media vehicle to reach a maximum audience. "It's still the viewing and commercial showcase. Nothing really comes close to it from a viewing, commercial or marketing standpoint," says Charlie Rutman, North American CEO of Havas' MPG. "Every client has their own definition of price value, but for every advertiser that is reluctant to get into that spotlight for that price there's a marketer dying for the opportunity. These digital showcases create more interest and word-of-mouth about the advertising efforts, rather than less.

For two weeks prior to the Super Bowl, visitors to BudLight.com can register to use their mobile phones to vote for their favorite commercials on game day. After Anheuser-Busch's final spot airs, registrants will receive a text message with a code that will allow them to unlock a "secret" spot (not airing during the game) on their cell phone or via a microsite. They will also be able to send customized messages to friends inviting them to view the spot.

The brewery is also planning to launch its first Web entertainment channel, Bud TV, the day after the game, where all of the game spots will be featured. "Last year, when we put our commercials on various Web sites, we were quite overwhelmed with the views we had and downloads of the commercials," says Tony Ponturo, vp, global media and sports marketing, A-B. "That also allowed us to realize our commercials were entertainment and content."

GoDaddy's CEO Bob Parsons has been stoking interest in its game spot by blogging about the trouble the company has had getting its ads through CBS clearance and posting at least one of the rejected spots on his site, bobparsons.com. In it, two office workers battle over buying each other's domain and loved ones' names using GoDaddy.com. The phrase, "Too late, I already did my mother," is used as a double entendre.

The overall concept of the final ad will focus on a fictional department at the online company.
The NFL, Frito-Lays' Doritos and General Motors' Chevrolet were some of the earliest promoters of their Super Bowl investments. Last fall, they launched contests inviting the public to create spots, making this the first Super Bowl that will air consumer-generated ad ideas. All three are keeping the public updated on the progress of the contests via dedicated pages on their sites. The NFL posted the winning pitch from New England native Gino Bona.

Chevy is running behind-the-scenes footage chronicling the Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge and has posted the CG ads on its site for viewers to vote on. However, like the NFL, it is using professionals to finesse the contest winners' concepts for the actual game spot. Only Doritos will be airing an ad entirely created by a consumer.

For the last few months, consumers have been able to watch a play-by-play of the online competition on the Doritos site, including voting on which of the over 1,000 entries they want to see aired. The five finalists are all being flown to the game and won't know whose spot won until it airs. "There have been plenty of funny and memorable Super Bowl ads over the years, but very few have genuinely engaged consumers," says Dan Belmont, CMO of The Marketing Arm, which is working with Goodby, Silverstein + Partners on the contest. "That's why this year's Doritos Super Bowl ad really breaks new ground, with thousands of consumers actively creating Doritos brand messaging."

Despite advertisers attempts to create new approaches that will set them apart in viewers' minds, celebrity and scandal still capture consumer attention best. Last week, Nationwide Mutual Insurance, which is prepping a Super Bowl commercial starring ex-Britney Spears husband Kevin Federline, posted outtakes from the production on YouTube. At press time, the video ha more than 100,000 views.

Steven Schreibman, Nationwide's CMO, estimates the company has already received $5 million worth of PR and 180 million impressions from news about its ad, which is scheduled to first air on ABC's Good Morning America on Jan. 29. He says he did not intend to disclose the content of them commercial, but word began to leak about K-Fed's role.

According to Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Nationwide is topping the pre-game buzz, dominating Web chatter with 26 percent of all blog conversations last week. Doritos, Chevy, Bud, the NFL and an anonymous guy named J.P.—who is going to propose to his girlfriend during the game and apparently got an as-yet-unnamed advertiser to foot the bill—are also getting lots of buzz.
Pete Blackshaw, BuzzMetrics CMO, predicts the most successful advertisers will be those who extend their game-day exposure to video-sharing sites like YouTube, calling this "the torture test of marketing integration."

Others predict it will also be the ultimate test of the CG ad trend. "This year might be the year that tells us if the users have the stuff," says Steve Simpson, partner and cd at Goodby, which is overseeing the creative on the Emerald Nuts and HP efforts. "I'm open to it," he adds, "but this is the year that we'll see if it will live up to Time magazine's hype."

Beckham's awareness in the U.S. increases sharply

2007-01-26T07:51:00.000-06:00

Just two weeks after signing with the Major Soccer League's Los Angeles Galaxy, David Beckham's awareness among U.S. consumers has nearly doubled, according to the Davie Brown Index (DBI).

When Beckham announced he was moving from Real Madrid to the Galaxy on January 11, only 33 percent of U.S. consumers knew who he was.

But his most recent DBI report, released yesterday, shows that nearly 63 percent of U.S. consumers are aware of the former England captain.

"At this point, Becks is already as well-known in the States as celebrity-athletes like Jack Nicklaus, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and John Elway," said Jeff Chown, president of Davie Brown Talent, which developed the DBI as a tool for evaluating a celebrity's brand value. "When it's all over, he'll be on-par with the best-known American sports-celebs -- guys like Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods."

In addition to awareness, the DBI measures celebrities across seven other attributes, including appeal, notice, and trust.

Since his announcement on January 11, Beckham's appeal (or likability) score has increased five points, ranking him ahead of popular celebrity-athletes such as Wayne Gretzky and Magic Johnson.

"The Galaxy landing Beckham is like a movie producer landing Tom Hanks," said Chown, whose agency negotiates celebrity endorsements. "Suddenly, you have a chance to really make something special."

Gilbert Arenas waiting for endorsement deals to come

2007-01-25T08:19:00.000-06:00

Gil for hire
By Tim Lemke
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 25, 2007

The recent on-court performances by Gilbert Arenas have been off the hook. His cell phone, however, remains unnervingly silent.

Arenas is waiting patiently for those calls. The calls that say, "Hey, come do a commercial for us." The calls that say, "Help sell my product." The calls that say, "You're just as hot as LeBron James, as Dwyane Wade, as Shaquille O'Neal."

The Washington Wizards star has a couple of nice endorsement deals, of course. There is a big one with Adidas and another with Glaceau, the maker of vitaminwater.

Still, Arenas hasn't busted through to the upper tier of marketable players in the NBA despite the dazzling performances, the MVP-caliber numbers and the long-range buzzer-beaters that now are part of his nightly routine.

"Every player would like some endorsements and to do some things other than basketball," Arenas said. "I'm just waiting for some opportunities. When someone calls my name, I'll be ready to go."

It does seem a little bit off.

Arenas highlights appear on "SportsCenter" nearly every night. He's personable, good-looking, likeable. He is a prolific scorer, a compelling performer. His team is winning, and there is a rare excitement in Washington for a franchise long associated with losing.

Arenas ranks second in the league in scoring behind Carmelo Anthony, the Denver Nuggets forward who has played in about half as many games. He scored 60 points against the Los Angeles Lakers last month and topped 50 on two other occasions in the past five weeks.

Arenas has made a specialty of making game-winning baskets and hitting field goals from far beyond the 3-point line. He ranks among the league leaders in minutes, steals, assists and overall efficiency and has led the Wizards to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Stats aside, Arenas is no marketing dope. He refers to his ascendance this season as "The Takeover," a phrase that has caught on nicely with fans. He calls himself "Agent Zero," a reference to his jersey number, and "Hibachi," nicknames that have been picked up by fans and "SportsCenter" anchors, as well.

His recent 25th birthday bash, which featured rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs as host, garnered national headlines. And he's done subtle yet noticeable things, such as changing from one pair of his "Gil Zero" Adidas shoes to another in midgame. He's also in the process of starting his own marketing agency.

"He wants to be in the same boat as the Dwyane Wades, the LeBrons and the Carmelos," said Paisley Benaza, Arenas' personal marketing consultant. "He takes his own risks, and he's really seen what can happen when you do stuff like that, but it's frustrating him to wonder why companies don't partner with him. If he doesn't break through now, I'm not sure what else it would take."

What else it would take, sports agents and marketing experts say, is the one thing Arenas always seems to get when he goes up for a game-winning three: separation.

"If Gilbert continues to score 50 points and get on 'SportsCenter' and if the Wizards can make some sort of playoff run, he'll start getting calls," said Scott Sanford, senior client director at Davie Brown Talent, a firm that helps match companies with celebrity endorsers. "And he will eventually, but he may not get into that top five without doing something that completely separates him."

A recent report from Davie Brown highlighting the league's most marketable players makes no mention of Arenas at all. And a look at Arenas' body of work does show some holes. He has no MVP awards, just two All-Star appearances and one playoff series win. He has never won a scoring title, has never set an NBA record and has never made an Olympic team.

He's working on all that.

There are, however, a few things Arenas can't control. Like the fact that, as a 6-foot-4 guard, he's not a beast above the rim. Like the fact that Washington, D.C., is not Los Angeles. Like the fact that unlike LeBron, Carmelo or D-Wade, he broke into the league with about as much fanfare as Michael Ruffin.

Never a high school phenom, Arenas initially struggled for playing time at the University of Arizona and was overshadowed by NBA-bound teammates like Richard Jefferson, Loren Woods and Mike Bibby. On draft day in 2001, he fell to the second round and was selected by the Golden State Warriors, a team coming off seven straight losing seasons.

"For a guy that's taken in the second round, his visibility was at zero, and he has had to build it from nothing," Sanford said. "It takes a lot of time to build up your endorsement value and marketability."

It doesn't help that, according to Arenas, some players are eyed by companies even as teenagers playing in high school and Amateur Athletic Union leagues.

"You have chosen ones who were chosen from their AAU days," Arenas said. "The names you hear at AAU are the ones you know. You've got [Greg] Oden coming in and O.J. Mayo. Those are the studs. Those are the guys who are going to get multiple endorsements."

Adidas, however, said it has been drawn to Arenas' "underdog" status, believing it ties in nicely with the company's "Impossible is Nothing" slogan.

"When you look at how determined he was to get where he's gotten today — that was something we saw in him," spokesman Travis Gonzolez said. "He's so determined and fits perfectly with our brand values."

The folks at Glaceau, meanwhile, see themselves on the cutting edge in launching a campaign with vitaminwater to get fans in the District to vote him as a starter for the All-Star Game.

"Vitaminwater has been a fan of Gilbert's for many years," said Rohan Oza, Glaceau's senior vice president of marketing. "We felt that now was the time for everyone to know him."

Benaza, Arenas' marketing rep, said she believes things are on the verge of happening for her client. He's not getting bumped off of magazine covers as often, for one thing (though ESPN the Magazine did replace him with Peyton Manning last week).

"I think everyone has just been playing catch-up to what he's been doing," Benaza said. "It's a bit slow, but this year is different. He's seeing more receptiveness."

It is easy to forget, of course, that Arenas is only in his fifth season and that many of the players with whom he's competing for endorsements have been in the spotlight for much longer.

"Gilbert is 25 — these things will come," Gonzolez said. "He's got plenty of time. When you look at the bigger picture, he's right on par with what everybody else is doing."

WHAT DO THEY HAVE THAT GILBERT DOESN'T?

The most marketable players in the NBA, according to Davie Brown Entertainment. A look at the players' pluses and minuses as endorsers:

LeBron James
Pros:
• Top overall draft pick in 2003 and the most-hyped rookie in league history.
• Appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a high school junior.
•Energetic, clearly loves the game.
• Named rookie of the year in 2003.
•Three-time All-Star.
Cons:
• Plays in Cleveland.
• Has won just one playoff series.

Dwyane Wade
Pros:
• Won a title with the Heat and was named MVP of the finals.
• Named one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" in 2006.
• Is there anything objectionable about Dwyane? We couldn't find anything.
Cons:
•Overshadowed, literally and figuratively, by teammate Shaquille O'Neal.
• First name gets misspelled a lot.

Shaquille O'Neal
Pros:
• A larger-than-life personality, even for a 7-footer.
• He's intelligent and has a sense of humor — and a police badge.
•Four-time NBA champion.
• Named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.
Cons:
• No longer the best player on his team, much less in the league.
• Still can't shoot free throws.

Yao Ming
Pros:
• First pick overall in the 2002 draft.
• At 7-6, one of the tallest players in NBA history.
• The most high-profile player to come from China, a market targeted by the NBA.
• One of the most easily recognized players in the league.
Cons:
• Has been injury-prone over the past two seasons.
• Has yet to win a playoff series.

Carmelo Anthony
Pros:
• Won an NCAA championship at Syracuse.
• Third pick overall in the 2003 draft.
• Member of the U.S. Olympic team.
• Stylish and highly popular among young fans.
Cons:
• Plays in Denver.
• Viewed as kind of a thug. Appearance in "Stop Snitchin' " video didn't help.
• Now teamed with Allen Iverson, he may never see the ball again.

Vince Carter
Pros:
• Fifth selection overall in the 1998 draft.
• Seven-time All-Star.
• Rookie of the year in 1999.
• NBA slam dunk champion in 2000.
• Still an exciting player to watch.
Cons:
• Has won just two playoff series.
• Intensely unpopular in Toronto, where his career began.
• His play never is equal to his ego.

Steve Nash
Pros:
• Two-time MVP, four-time All-Star.
• Named by Time Magazine as one of its "100 Most Influential People in the World."
• He's a nice guy.
Cons:
• Well-spoken but too soft-spoken.
• Not a prolific scorer.
• Can't pull off a tomahawk dunk from the free throw line.
• He's from Canada, a country better known for pucks than roundball.

Kevin Garnett
Pros:
• Eleven-time All-Star.
• MVP of the league in 2004.
• Member of gold-winning U.S. Olympic team in 2000.
• One of the most versatile, hard-working and durable players in the NBA.
Cons:
• Plays in Minnesota.
• Went seven years before winning his first and only playoff series with the T'wolves.

Tim Duncan
Pros:
• Named the nation's best college basketball player in 1997.
• First pick overall in the 1997 draft.
• Named rookie of the year in 1998.
• Led the Spurs to three NBA titles.
• Three-time MVP of the finals.
• League MVP in 2002 and 2003.
Cons:
• Plays in San Antonio.
• So good, he's downright boring.

Dirk Nowitzki
Pro:
• Best player on playoff-perennial Mavericks.
Con:
• Not exactly the sexiest guy on the court.

Tony Parker
Pro: Two-time NBA champion.
Con:
• He dates Eva Longoria. We don't.

About a year ago, Gilbert Arenas was ticked off at Adidas. He was feeling a bit disrespected, believing the company was giving greater exposure to its other clients.

Things have been smoothed over since.

In December, the company began selling the new "Gil Zero" shoe, one of the few low-top basketball shoes on the market. A high-profile launch event and national television spots followed.

Adidas now is in early discussions with Arenas to make him one of the most visible spokesmen for not only its basketball division but the company as a whole.

Arenas has done his part, promoting the shoe whenever possible and finding little ways to give it additional exposure, as he did last week by changing shoes midgame.

Taking his vitamins

Arenas has been drinking Glaceau's vitaminwater for years simply because he likes it. Now, he's a paid endorser for the company and an investor, too.

Glaceau is preparing to roll out a new drink that was formulated with input from Arenas and a handful of other athletes.

"Gilbert is very strategic about who he partners with," said Rohan Oza, Glaceau's senior vice president of marketing. "With him, it's about finding a product that works for him."

CBS set for a super Super Bowl

2007-01-20T20:52:00.000-06:00

NFL MATCHUPS GIVE CBS A BIG KICK

By HOLLY M. SANDERS
New York Post

January 20, 2007 -- No matter what two teams advance to the Super Bowl after this weekend, CBS and the NFL will be winners.

The best game to deliver big ratings on Feb. 4 would be the Chicago Bears against the New England Patriots, featuring teams in two of the top five TV markets.

But all four teams in the conference championships - including the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts - offer star players and compelling stories for an added hook.

"It's a unique year in that each team carries with it a national story with a good angle," said Bill Glenn, vice president of insights and analytics at The Marketing Arm.

When it comes to sports spectaculars like the Super Bowl and the Olympics, tales of adversity and team legacies play a powerful role in attracting national audiences and advertisers.

The Patriots have star power with quarterback Tom Brady and the team's Super Bowl success, including the championship in 2004.

Then there's the saga of Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Colts, who gets his team into the postseason most years but never into the Super Bowl.

After the devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought, the rebuilt Saints are the comeback story. The team was so bad until this year that fans used to call them the 'Aints and sit in the stands with bags covering their heads.

The Bears are, well, Da Bears, and the team hasn't made it to the big game in more than two decades.

In some cases, the potential matchups are even more tantalizing. Consider the Colts v. the Saints: Manning would go up against the team that his dad, Archie, played for and that he grew up rooting for.

The extra oomph could be just what CBS needs to sell out ad time during the big game. With the network asking a record $2.6 million for a 30-second spot, advertisers appear to be holding out longer than usual this year before committing.

More marketers are expected to jump on board after this weekend, in time to capitalize on all the promos and publicity leading up to Super Sunday. CBS, though, insists that ad sales are strong.

"There's a reason why they've been so giddy this last week," said David Carter, a principal at the Sports Business Group.

"You have incredibly intriguing matchups no matter what happens."

Stadium naming-rights deals make a comeback

2007-01-20T20:47:00.000-06:00

A stadium name bubble?

The wave of corporate naming-rights deals for sports venues has some scratching their heads. But teams are raking in record cash.

by Chris Isidore CNNMoney.com senior writer

January 19 2007:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Corporations have developed an edifice complex once again.

Companies are rushing to pay top dollar to put their names on new stadiums and arenas. Three deals in the New York area alone have been announced in the past few months with the sponsorship dollars totaling nearly $1 billion. And potentially the biggest deal, naming rights for the new shared home of New York's Giants and Jets football teams, is yet to come.

The latest deal was announced Thursday. British banking giant Barclays PLC (Charts) agreed to pay a reported $400 million for a 20-year deal for the new basketball arena in Brooklyn (the future home of the New Jersey Nets), even though Barclays is not a player in the retail banking market in New York City.

Across the country two tech heavyweights - business software provider Oracle (Charts) and network equipment provider Cisco Systems (Charts) - have waded into the naming game, even though their sales are mainly to IT professionals, not the general public. Oracle already has its name on a basketball arena and Cisco will have its name on a new baseball stadium.

Those involved in naming-rights fields negotiations say the deals make sense, even for the sponsors without a broad customer base.

"When you look at the brand in the market, these deals are occurring because they want to be seen as leaders in their space" said Bill Glenn, vice president of insights and analytics for The Marketing Arm.

Still, some seem more confusing or jarring than anything else. Both the Fiesta Bowl and college football's national championship game were played earlier this month at the University of Phoenix Stadium. But this new stadium is the home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, not some phantom Division I college team.

The University of Phoenix is a for-profit national college that doesn't even have a football team. It paid $66 million to have its name on the stadium for the next 30 years.

Dean Bonham, who has helped negotiate dozens of these agreements, including the Oracle deal, agrees that the University of Phoenix deal seems a bit confusing. But he said other sponsors without a broad customer base may have their eye on the future when they might be selling more directly to the public.

"Those deals are more a statement about the future of those companies than they are about where they are in marketing today," said Bonham. "Barclays is making a statement they're going to become more of a player in the financial center of the world. It's not going to be surprising if they go out and buy a financial institution that has more consumer focus."

Both Bonham and Glenn said they believe the Giants-Jets stadium is poised to reach record dollar levels. But one other source in the industry said the firm handling the negotiations is telling National Football League teams not to necessarily expect the $25 million a year that some people are forecasting.

No corporate name for new Yankee Stadium

The planned stadium that has perhaps the greatest naming rights potential is the new Yankee Stadium now under construction across the street from the existing park. But while fans can expect to see various gates, concourses and banks of seats, such as the bleachers, carrying sponsors' names, one executive involved in the planning of the stadium insists that the team will not put a corporate name on the park itself.

The Yankees have learned that building their fans' affection for the team's history and tradition is a powerful marketing tool that has helped them improve revenue. But not having a sponsor's name on the new park probably does mean the team is leaving hundreds of millions of dollars on the table.

"This really is a bow to tradition," said the executive, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. "There's no market study that says if you change the name you reduce the value of the Yankees' brand."

Bonham said that lots of times there's a backlash by fans against a corporate sponsor on a new park. He worked on the deal for Invesco Field, the Denver Bronco's home that opened in 2001. Fans were originally upset about the use of a corporate name for the stadium, but Bonham said by the start of the next season the controversy had disappeared.

But he and Glenn said the Yankees probably would have faced greater prolonged fan backlash than any other team if they had sold the name of the new park.

"The emotional attachment that fans have to the Yankee Stadium brand is unlike anything else," said Glenn.

But even if the Yankees steer clear of a corporate sponsor for their new stadium, this is still a boom time for naming- rights deals.

According to trade publication Street & Smith's Sports Business Weekly, 2006 was the most active year since 1999 for new naming-rights deals.

Several of the most expensive deals ever were signed in 2006 as well - with the $400 million, 20-year deal by Citigroup (Charts) to name the New York Mets' new baseball stadium CitiField topping the list.

The average annual value for the 12 deals that were signed last year or first took effect in 2006 is $5.25 million, 61 percent above the average value of the new stadium rights deals from 1999.

Still in some ways these deals have the smell of the late 1990's dot.com naming-rights bubble, when new stadiums and arenas were financed with the largess of companies like energy trader Enron and Internet venture capital firm CMGI (Charts), which also had customers who were also not the average Joe Fan.

CMGI had to pull the plug on its sponsorship of the Patriots' football stadium before the first game was played there due to financial problems. We all know what happened to Enron.

At one point this column was a careful tracker of what I called the stadium sponsor curse, which seemed to predict bankruptcy or at least plunging stock prices market-trailing stock performance for the companies with the hubris to sign naming-rights deals.

But by 2003 the curse was sputtering and it seemed to die in 2004, with the sponsors' stocks outperforming the broader market. Even Delta's 2005 bankruptcy didn't seem to bring it back.

And the latest figures appear to have driven a stake through the heart of the curse. The 65 companies with listed U.S. shares and naming-rights deals saw better than 16 percent gains in stock value as a group last year, better than the nearly 14 percent rise in the broader S&P 500.

Still, it's important to remember that in 1999 those earlier stadium and arena deals all looked like they made sense as well. Enron was seen as strong as any company in America.

Maybe the curse isn't dead - it's only in hibernation.

Davie Brown Talent exec Scott Sanford talks about Tadd Fujikawa

2007-01-18T08:46:00.000-06:00

Q&A With...

Scott Sanford
Senior client director
Davie Brown Talent

What's Tadd Fujikawa endorsement potential?

At this point, Tadd needs more time to see a true endorsement potential. He is now on the radar, and may in fact see some good opportunities in golf-related brands. His value will continue to rise if he's competitive on the Tour. Keep in mind that he's an amateur.

Who does he appeal to most?

From a marketing perspective, youth drives youth. So, Tadd appeals to the younger golf fans.

What was his potential before last Friday?

He wasn't even on the radar before last Friday, at least among the general golf population. Most athletes need a combination of success and a “separator” to achieve marketability. His separator is his age. If he continues to have success, the deals will follow.

How is he different from Michelle Wie?

Michelle separated herself because of four factors: her age, her gender, her physical ability (to hit as far as male golfers) and because she was qualifying for PGA events (that’s all the success she needed). The similarity between the two of them is the age factor, but Tadd needs greater successes to match her in marketability.

What makes Tadd unique?

His age makes him unique. That made Tiger unique at the beginning of his career. Tadd still needs success or a “wow factor” like Sergio displayed against Tiger in ’99 at the PGA Championship. He needs a big stage, and right now golf doesn’t have that because the season just started. His next opportunity is when Tiger makes his first appearance of the season, then the whole world will be watching.

Who's Running Super Bowl Ads This Year?

2007-01-17T16:13:00.000-06:00

Quick run-down of brands scheduled to run commercials during the Super Bowl this year:

Apple

Anheuser-Busch (Bud/Bud Light/Bud Select)

Burger King

Career Builder

Chevy

Diamond Foods (Emerald Nuts)

Doritos

Fedex

Go Daddy (Danica Patrick)

Honda

Nationwide Insurance (Kevin Federline)

NFL Network (Paris Hilton, Martha Stewart, LL Cool J)

Pepsi/Diet Pepsi

Snickers

Taco Bell

Along with several movie studios.

Whether the ads are worth the investment ($2.6 million for 30 seconds) is another question. While I'm not a big believer in traditional advertising, if you're going to advertise, this is the place to do it. Plus, for the big, well-established brands, it's about protecting market share -- spending money where smaller competitors can't, flexing some marketing muscle, and reminding consumers that your brand is No. 1 (or best-selling, or most-admired, or...).

Q&A with Jim Biegalski, VP, consulting, The Marketing Arm, about the future of sponsorship

2007-01-17T13:53:00.000-06:00

Q&A With...

JIM BIEGALSKI
Vice President, Consulting
The Marketing Arm

Q: As a sponsorship buyer, what do you see as the single biggest challenge in the sponsorship industry over the next few years?

A: Properties’ ability to deliver beyond traditional sponsorship inventory and a willingness to develop and engage in three-screen (web, phone, TV) leveraging strategies. That requires a great deal of creativity, from both the brands and the properties.

What used to be signage, tickets, and tabling is now exclusive content, unique experiences, and brand differentiation. It's a complex environment that requires brands and properties to take a tremendously different and creative approach to yield a strong return on investment.

Leveraging content that resonates with consumers is how sponsors get consumers engaged in their brand’s message. Content is critical to engagement. So it’s about creating content – in many cases in conjunction with the consumer – or creating an experience in a way that actively and emotionally engages the customer, instead of simply talking at them or hitting them over the head with signage.

For clients, this is no longer just a “sponsorship space” — it’s part of a larger engagement strategy.

Q: Among arts, causes, entertainment, sports and fairs and festivals, which will be the biggest growth area for your sponsorship dollars in the next few years?

A: With content and access playing such an important part of the overall acquisition and retention model today, I believe entertainment and sports will outpace the other emotional platforms in the near term. We’re also focusing more on cause opportunities.

As consumers, we’re interested in content that is relevant to us -- things that effect our lives, issues that effect the lives of the ones we love, the world in which we live, and the things that we like to do.

Q: Social networking web sites, youtube.com and other online technologies have gained a lot of attention of late. What kind of role, if any, do you see those technologies playing in sponsorship?

A: The web has transformed how we connect with our passions. As technology continues to evolve, I can see properties developing web-centric “engagement” platforms across the three screens on a standalone basis.

Technologies like these will be one piece of the enabling engine related to delivering the creativity discussed above.

Q: What is the next new way companies will measure sponsorship results?

A: Next way? I'm not sure anyone has truly found the first way, outside of media impressions. The "only" way to measure sponsorships will be a truly integrated approach complete with quantitative and qualitative research to determine overall performance. It will include detailed program scorecards based on sound statistical methodology which demonstrates definitive results. In short, ROI will address the complete set of elements that comprise an integrated sponsorship approach.

Q: What is your single-biggest gripe in working with properties?

A: The lack of due diligence to understand our clients’ business, strategies, and objectives prior to presenting a partnership proposal. Few properties really understand the new brand sponsorship world. The majority of properties continue to be stuck in the world of looking at their assets in the same way and selling their same packages -- most of the time without listening to what agencies and brands need.

This in the face of a world which requires a different analysis of property assets and a customized approach to integrated packages.

Q: What one piece of advice can you offer properties?

A: Understand your prospect’s business and adapt your proposal to their goals and objectives, not yours. It’s a simple four-step process: 1. Listen. 2. Listen. 3. Listen. 4. Present solutions based on what you hear, not what you want to hear. This approach will show up in a property’s bottom-line revenue.

Change your mind-set. Again, look beyond tickets and signage. Think in terms of customization, connection, and community. How can your property deliver content and an experience that’s relevant and authentic to our consumers?

Diminutive teenage golfer generates lots of buzz; Could celeb endorsements be next?

2007-01-14T13:41:00.000-06:00

Mention the name "Tadd Fujikawa" to most U.S. consumers, and you'll likely draw a blank stare.

But Saturday, after the 16-year-old became the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut on the PGA Tour, golf fans aren't the only ones curious about Fujikawa.

Brands looking for a compelling celebrity endorser are likely taking notice.

"At least in the short term, his story is unique enough to capture the attention of certain markets," said Jeff Chown, president of Davie Brown Talent, the nation's largest celebrity talent-buing agency. "Whether he has enough equity after just 48 hours to justify a major endorsement deal is another issue entirely."

But, should he continue to have success on the golf course, his value would increase quickly.
Tiger Woods is the top-ranked celebrity-athlete in the Davie Brown Index (DBI), which uses consumer surveys to determine the influence celebrities have on consumer behavior. Brands and ad agencies use the DBI as a tool to qualify the use of celebrities in their marketing programs.

However, other well-known golfers, including Michelle Wie, Phil Mickelson, and Vijay Singh, lag behind other major athletes like Shaquille O'Neal, Brett Favre, and Derek Jeter.

"Other than Tiger, pro golfers are not as influential as other celebrities," said Chown. "That's not to say they don't appeal to certain consumer segments. But overall, a celebrity like Shaq is a more powerful endorser than, say, Vijay Singh."

According to Chown, Fujikawa is not yet ranked in the DBI because most Americans still have no idea who he is. But, if he remains in the spotlight, it's likely he'll be added.

"For brands, it's about breaking through lots of commercial clutter and connecting with consumers," said Chown. "If Tadd can do that, brands will come knocking."

Beckham: American soccer's celebrity endorser

2007-01-11T17:46:00.000-06:00

David Beckham may be newest player in Major League Soccer, but he’s already the best-known soccer star among U.S. consumers, according to the Davie Brown Index (DBI), which determines a celebrity’s ability to influence consumer behavior.

Beckham is the best-known active soccer player in the DBI, and ranks second only to former women’s star Mia Hamm among all soccer athletes in the index.

“When has an international sports-celebrity been so highly anticipated in the U.S.?” said Jeff Chown, president of Davie Brown Talent, the nation’s largest celebrity talent-buying agency, which created the DBI. “Yao Ming was the last big-name foreign player to break into American professional sports, but he didn’t generate near the buzz and excitement that Beckham has. Pele’s arrival in New York 30 years ago was big, but this is bigger.”

Among the 350 celebrity-athletes in the DBI, Beckham ranks at No. 99, ahead of well-known American athletes such as Allen Iverson, Michael Vick, and Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees. Freddy Adu, one of the league’s most popular players, is No. 284 among sports-celebrities in the DBI.

“Casual fans – consumers with little or no interest in soccer – will be drawn to ‘Brand Beckham,’” said Chown. “His celebrity takes him out of the sports page and onto the front page. That exposure alone is worth millions to sponsors.”

The DBI provides brand marketers with a systematic approach for quantifying and qualifying the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns by evaluating a celebrity’s awareness, appeal and relevance to a brand’s image and their influence on consumer buying behavior.

Created by the talent division of Los Angeles marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment, the DBI consists of more than 1,000 celebrities and is powered by a 1.5 million-member domestic research panel administered by GMI, a leading provider of global market intelligence solutions. Respondents evaluate celebrities along eight key attributes: Appeal, aspiration, awareness, endorsement, influence, notice, trendsetter, and trust.

Dan Belmont, CMO of The Marketing Arm, talks about engagement marketing

2007-01-09T08:29:00.000-06:00

Dan Belmont is the chief marketing officer of The Marketing Arm, which is part of the Omnicom Group of agencies. The Marketing Arm (or TMA) is actually an umbrella brand for four other Omnicom agencies that focus on helping brands connect with their customers through what Belmont describes as "emotionally powerful platforms." By that, he means things people are passionate about -- music, sports, movies, TV shows, events, and causes that are relevant to them.

I emailed Dan asking if he'd be interested in a brief Q&A about "engagement marketing," a topic he spoke about recently at a conference in New York.

= = = = = = = = = = =

Q: There's been a lot of talk about engagement marketing over the last few years. How do you define it?

Engagement is the turning on of a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context. By “turned on” I mean activating associations, symbols, metaphors and experiences to co-create personalized brand meaning.

According to the Advertising Research Foundation in New York, the governing body of all advertising research, engagement is what all marketing should strive to create. It’s a process by which we activate associations, symbols, metaphors, and experiences to co-create personalized brand meaning.

The basic definition of “engagement” is “choosing to involve oneself in something.” It means “to participate in” or “to commit oneself to something.”

Based on those abbreviated definitions, you immediately begin to get a feel for what we’re talking about when we talking about “engaging the customer.” It’s about active involvement between consumers and your brand. The result is this co-created image of what that brand means to you.

It’s really what marketing is all about.

When I’m talking with people, and employees, and clients about it, there are concepts that come up again and again. Words like “involvement,” “participation,” “connection,” “experience,” “community,” “sharing,” “interaction,” “authenticity,” “customization,” “relevance.”

For many of us on the experiential and event marketing side of the business, these concepts aren’t new to us. They shouldn’t be. Nor should the concepts required to plan and activate engagement campaigns – things like creativity, integration, and execution across a range of disciplines from entertainment and music to talent and sports to wireless and the web to mobile to hospitality to promotions and PR.

Q: When did this movement toward engaging the customer begin?

The global marketing officer for the largest advertiser on the planet, P&G, Jim Stengel, started us on the path to engagement a few years ago when he stated publicly that the traditional models of advertising are broken. He challenged the industry to come up with new metrics that would better reflect how we plan to connect with consumers.

He took an advertising model that was typically led by creative, and placed media planning out in front. To Jim, context comes before the message. This wasn’t that important before. After all, you could bet a company like P&G would be looking to television first.

That’s not the case anymore. In our effort to make our brands relevant, we need to understand how the consumer might be open to our message, how we can make the message part of their routine, their rituals, their passions… how to make an emotional connection, to get them turned on to an idea of what our brand represents to them.

Consumers are bombarded with millions of messages every day, most of which they don’t care about or aren’t interested in. That’s because they come from brands and products that don’t matter to them.

We live in a world today where the consumer is in charge of how they get information, where they get it from, and when they want it.

I have yet to watch an episode of “Lost” with commercials.

Thanks to Tivo, my favorite show is down to just over 40 minutes of what I want to see, and I would much rather watch it at a later time when others commercial messages aren’t being forced on me or interrupting my show.

I now have the freedom to decide, on my terms, how I will consume media. I am in charge. We are in charge.

So it’s no surprise that – thanks to websites like YouTube – marketing strategies must now deal with the consumer’s control of content.

And, thanks to little devices like the iPod, consumers can customize and access content whenever and wherever they want it. After all, that is the current working definition of engagement.

Q: So a lot of it is driven by the fact that it’s so easy for consumers today to avoid traditional advertising. That’s the basic driver here?

Clearly, that’s a big part of it. But it also has to do with the reality of shrinking brand loyalty. It’s the intrusive and interruptive nature of much marketing. And, that the traditional approach to advertising doesn’t work.

And I think we all have to admit it isn’t as simple as reaching consumers at places and at times when they can’t escape the message, no matter how they try. Frankly, it all seems a little desperate.

Q: Is engagement, then, a more effective way to capture and hold the consumer’s attention?

It is, but engagement isn’t just about getting a consumer’s attention. Traditional advertisers can do that with graphic images, and sounds and music, and arresting colors.

They’re good at getting our attention with hopes that we’ll stick around and listen to their message. They’re shouting at us.

USA Today had a headline last month that caught my interest. It read: “More ads pumping up the volume.” In the article, there’s a quote from a creative director who says: “The industry is desperate to find clever ways to reach people, whether or not it has any legitimate value.”

That’s absolutely stunning to me and it’s another reason why traditional marketing is so ineffective today.

Q: At the risk of oversimplifying it, are there some “engagement principles” that marketers – whether at global brands or small businesses – can focus on to help them better understand and apply “engagement”?

I’d recommend focusing on three things: Content, experience, and dialogue.

We’re interested in content that’s relevant to us. Things that effect our lives, issues that effect the lives of the ones we love, the world in which we live, and the things that we like to do.

Leveraging content that resonates with consumers and their ideas is how we get engaged in a brand’s message. Content is critical to engagement.

Next, ask how you can make your brand part of my experience with this content or this message. How can you create a unique experience that will build upon this model that the brand and the consumer have co-created?

Finally, give people a voice. They want to interact. They want a dialogue. Talk with them, not at them. Engage them in your message.

More people participated in the American Idol competition than they did for the Bush-Kerry presidential competition. That’s because one more effectively engaged people than the other.

So it’s about creating content – in many cases in conjunction with the consumer – or creating an experience in a way that actively and emotionally engages the customer, instead of simply talking at them.

Think less about whether something is an ad or a promotion or a PR activity and more about building trust and community, and creating a dialogue with your customer that shares real knowledge. All disciplines must work together to engage the consumer.

The focus should be on getting your customers actively involved with your brand. How can you get them to participate with your brand? What would persuade them to commit their time and attention and energy to interacting with our brand?

Q: What are a few examples of engagement marketing programs that you admire?
There are some that I really like. I like to cook, and for people like me who spend a lot of time in the kitchen and looking at “dream kitchens,” the Viking range is pretty cool.

A few years ago, Viking opened a luxury boutique hotel called The Alluvian in a little town in Mississippi, which is the home of Viking. In just a couple of years, that little town has become what the New York Times described as a “cooking capital.”

That’s because Viking targets what it calls “stove groupies” and brings in world-famous guest chefs from around the world to lead an entire curriculum of cooking classes that promote the “Viking Lifestyle.” That’s engagement at its finest.

Another example is Range Rover, which launched an interactive website where users can explore exotic locations. It’s this global community where people share there adventures and experiences about travel and food and art and food. Users post their own photos and create their own content.

It’s a wonderful site that brings the user into the experience by providing this intriguing brand-driven content that consumers seek out. It’s pulling them in rather than pushing a message at them. That’s engagement.

I think AT&T is doing a nice job with engagement. AT&T is evolving from a phone service provider to an entertainment provider. Last year, it created a web portal featuring exclusive content from music, sports, and gaming. It features live webcasts, streaming concerts, previews, and all sorts of celebrity interviews, while showcasing AT&T’s products and services. It’s all free. It’s all exclusive.

And, they’ve taken the blue room on the road to various concerts and festivals where fans can come to check their email, recharge their cell phones, watch broadband TV, and play online games. So they’re taking engagement to a new level.

And, they’re working to interact even more intensely with consumers.

Leveraging the passion for college football, they’ve created a feature at the website that provides fans with exclusive team video footage, the official school fight songs, and official team logos. Fans then take these elements, mix in their own personal digital photos, and “mash” it all together to create customized team videos.

Again, it’s the consumer creating the content. To extend it, AT&T has taken it on the road with its AT&T College Football Experience tour where it can engage fans on-campus, just outside the stadium, before during and after the game.

It’s a good example of a huge brand going out – both online and offline – and interacting with its customer in a way that’s meaningful and interesting and relevant.

You may have read recently that the brand managers at Dorito’s are turning over control of their Super Bowl ad to consumers, who can create and submit their own Super Bowl ad for the brand that celebrates their love of Dorito’s.

So people are looking to help shape and personalize what’s important to them.

There’s one more example that comes to mind: Nike partnered with Google during the World Cup to create “Joga Bonito,” which is this community for people with a passion for soccer.

The content is designed to be authentic and credible – two of Nike’s brand values. More importantly, the Nike brand is not intrusive on the site. Nike understands the importance of staying connected and staying relevant.

I’ve go on too long here, but again, it’s a significantly different mindset from marketers of the past.

Q: The big brands “get” engagement marketing? They understand its value?

More and more they do. The best marketers have always understood the importance of connecting more strongly and be more engaging. They understand that a two-way relationship is a better way to connect emotionally and in a deeper way with consumers.

Stephen Quinn, the senior VP of marketing at Wal-Mart, was quoted in a New York Times article a few months ago essentially talking about how the customer is absolutely in charge today, and the brands that do the best job of putting the customer in charge will succeed. That’s Wal-Mart talking.

In the same article, Yahoo’s CMO said that marketers need to allow consumers to help shape the brand experience.

Yahoo and Wal-Mart -- those are two great brands. And they’re on-board with engagement.

Favre: Playmaker, moneymaker for Packers

2007-01-08T17:06:00.000-06:00

Playmaker, moneymaker

Favre worth millions for Packers on and off the field

By DON WALKER

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 6, 2007

For the past 15 football seasons, Brett Favre has provided much of the horsepower that keeps the economic engine of the Green Bay Packers humming.

Couple his image as a throwback player with his swashbuckling playing skills at the game's most important position, add a dash of national fame and celebrity, sprinkle in a compelling personal story, and you have the complete package.

The Packers can rightfully claim they are a national team, and team officials and fan sites often hear from fans from around the world. But until Favre showed up at Lambeau Field in 1992 and became, in effect, the franchise's pitchman on and off the field, the Packers didn't register much on the national football scene.

Even as Favre arrived from Atlanta in the early 1990s, things began to change for the better. The victories became commonplace, there were two Super Bowl appearances, including one championship, and the team began making multiple appearances on national television. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be on the Packers bandwagon, and buzz and merchandise sales grew.

Despite all of that success, the Packers front office knew that aging Lambeau Field had to be refurbished. With Bob Harlan's leadership and Favre's commitment to the franchise, the iconic stadium was transformed into a money machine for local revenue.

Today, there are suggestions the Favre era is about to end. Favre's tearful interview last Sunday night on national TV led many, but not all, observers to conclude that he would retire.
If and when he does, the Packers will not only have lost their most important player but a significant meal ticket.

Pro shop sales

To be sure, the Packers will still sell out Lambeau Field next year and in the years after that. And fans, feeling optimistic after an 8-8 season, might feel good times are ahead even with a new quarterback. But in the Packers' business office, the loss of Favre will force some tinkering and rethinking.

Here's one reason why: In the fiscal year ending last March, Favre merchandise on the shelves at the Packers Pro Shop in Lambeau Field generated $1 million in revenue, the highest ever for a single season. And that doesn't count the untold millions in licensing and sponsorship deals the team has produced, largely from companies and businesspeople wanting to be aligned with the Packers and Favre.

Harlan, the team chairman who himself is retiring in the spring, still marvels at the attention Favre has brought to the organization.

"He's our rock star," said Harlan.

"Sure, you see his jersey at Lambeau and in Green Bay all of the time, but we go on the road and I can't believe the number of No. 4's you see in the parking lots and in the stadium," Harlan said. "He's just a popular national figure, and he's brought unbelievable things to this organization, no doubt. His popularity and the fact that we had just reawakened on the football field when Brett came here was enormous for us. He has been a huge factor."

Generating millions

Kate Hogan, the team's director of retail operations and a 14-year employee with the franchise, said it is accurate to say that Favre is responsible for generating millions of dollars in merchandise sales in the years he has been in Green Bay. Whether it's jerseys, T-shirts, bobbleheads or books, Favre has been a consistently big seller for the franchise at the Packers Pro Shop.

"We certainly understand and acknowledge the importance of Brett Favre," Hogan said Friday. "He's universally liked by everyone."

Hogan said retail sales figures she has seen from the National Football League put Favre in the top 10 in terms of jersey sales in the country, although a spokesman for a national group that follows merchandise sales for the sporting goods industry said interest in Favre had waned considerably.

What makes the Favre name-reign so remarkable is that he never changed teams once he came to Green Bay. In the jersey business, sales of some players - notably Terrell Owens - go up every time they change teams.

Still, Hogan said she has seen a renewed interest in the past two years in Favre jerseys, largely because people sense his days as a football player are soon over.

In the Packers' home markets of Green Bay and Milwaukee, TV ratings have always been high, especially in the Favre era. While winning delivers ratings, Favre still steals most every scene.
In 1992, the local rating for Packers' games was 31. In 1997, a Super Bowl year, the ratings had jumped to 48.5. This past season, the 16 Packers games averaged a 35.9 rating, or 316,997 households.

"It's the Packers they're watching," said Eric Steele, director of research at WITI-TV (Channel 6), which broadcasts many of the games. "Brett is part of that, though. And we've been fortunate to have him for so long."

Last year, after a horrendous 4-12 season, Harlan fretted that angry fans would call and complain about the team. Instead, most of the calls he got centered on one theme: Is Brett coming back?What's right about the league

Nationally, Favre still has a strong presence, both as the face of the Packers and in his own right as a personality and pitchman.

"He's definitely what's right about the National Football League," said Scott Sanford, senior client director for Davie-Brown Talent, which matches celebrities with brands for advertising programs. "He's who you want to see to drive marketing. He's one of the faces of the league and the franchise, and his love for the game and the fact that he is the same person and player he was when he started is fantastic. He embodies what the NFL would like to be."

Sanford's firm has developed the Davie-Brown Index, an index for markets and agencies that determines a celebrity's ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent. Favre ranks in the top 30 of all sports celebrities in the index. In terms of the separate categories of a person's appeal, influence and trust, Favre still ranks high compared with other celebrities.

Last year, American sports fans surveyed in a Harris Poll said Favre was their favorite football player. Favre topped the 2003 and 2004 Harris polls, as well, and placed second to Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts in 2005.

Among all sports figures in the 2006 Harris Poll, Favre trailed only golfer Tiger Woods and retired basketball superstar Michael Jordan.

"If I get a call from somebody from around the country asking for an autograph, it's always a Brett autograph," Harlan said. "In his real heyday, I believe he had the same impact as a Michael Jordan. In his prime, his popularity was just unbelievable."

Not many ads

For such a recognizable and believable personality, Favre himself does not do a lot of endorsements. He has done ads for a worldwide credit-card company and has endorsed a toothpaste for sensitive teeth, a lawn-tractor company and a medication for heartburn. One blogger has joked online that Favre apparently appeals to geezers.

Sports media experts said national ratings are driven by teams, not necessarily individual stars. But Favre certainly has provided his share of emotional moments, such as his stirring performance on "Monday Night Football" in December 2003 against the Oakland Raiders shortly after his father, Irv, died.

"The only time he would have an impact is when the Packers play on Monday night or Sunday night," said Mike Trager, a sports media consultant. "At that point, he might have an influence on the ratings. But the league itself is so strong, no one player can affect the ratings."

Favre has said that he will make a decision about retirement sooner rather than later this time around. Every little bit of information and insight about Favre in the days ahead will be magnified, chewed over and analyzed. And Harlan and the rest of the Packers faithful will be waiting to hear what Favre has in mind.

"The main thing I would say is that it's going to be a sad day for us when he walks into that tunnel for the last time," Harlan said. "But it also will be an enormous loss to the National Football League. They love his daring, his gunslinger attitude, the enthusiasm of the boy in the sandlot. The league will miss him tremendously. And I think a few years from now we will say how lucky we are to have seen him play."

Does a so-so Cowboys team spell trouble for Jerry Jones' new stadium?

2007-01-08T08:57:00.000-06:00

Cowboys' loss hits pocketbook too
Frustrating playoff setback won't boost new stadium's coffers
By David Sweet / MSNBC

As kicker Martin Gramatica lined up for a potential game-winning field goal, it looked like the Dallas Cowboys were finally back.

Void of playoff victories since 1996 — way back when Barry Switzer coached the team — the franchise was poised to put a decade of mediocrity behind it.

But with that fumbled snap on a gimme field goal, the Dallas Cowboys gave away the game to the Seattle Seahawks, 21-20, Saturday night. Not only that, the franchise lost something even more important: a splendid chance to generate buzz for sponsorships, tickets, luxury-suite rentals and other amenities for its new stadium, which it seems to consider the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Slated to open in two years, during the 2009 season, the replacement for Texas Stadium will be no run-of-the-mill facility.

At 40 yards high, the retractable glass doors behind each end zone will be the tallest on earth. One video board — 180 feet long and 50 feet high — will be the largest in the world. With 80,000 seats for regular-season Cowboys games and up to 100,000 seats available for “major events,” it’ll be the NFL’s biggest stadium. Opening a year before the Giants-Jets venue in New Jersey, it will also be the first billion-dollar stadium in the U.S.

When the stadium designs were unveiled last month, the ceremony was worthy of Oscar night. According to Jaime Aron of the Associated Press, included were “a red-carpet entrance that actually was the team’s shade of blue,” and a computer-generated video of the interior that “referenced many architectural greats, such as the Pyramids in Egypt and the Colosseum.” Team owner Jerry Jones announced that the stadium’s glass exterior will “glow blue and silver during the day, then the colors will reverse at night.”

But what does all this mean if the team on the field is, well, pedestrian? The best-known Cowboys, wide receiver Terrell Owens and coach Bill Parcells, will probably be gone by the time the stadium in Arlington replaces Texas Stadium — especially if Parcells has to suffer ulcer-inducing losses like the one to the Seahawks. The newest face of the franchise, Tony Romo (starting quarterback and a formerly anonymous field goal holder), isn't the most popular guy in town anymore. If they keep playing .500 football, the Cowboys will never be bad enough to draft a major, marketable star to build fan excitement around, such as a Reggie Bush, or good enough to make the Super Bowl.

Will the franchise — one of the best-known brands in sports, which has been graced with historic names such as Staubach, Landry and Smith — be able to fill tens of thousands of extra seats in a world-class stadium fielding a star-starved team that shows no hope of being anything more than ordinary?

“Branded stars are always a huge benefit,” said David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute. But “given the fan avidity the team enjoys throughout the region, they can survive for a while without a headliner on the field or the sideline.

“Having said this,” Carter added, “this generation’s impatient sports fan requires immediate gratification — gratification that seldom accompanies back-to-back (9-7) seasons.”

Daniel G. Belmont, president of Millsport, a sports marketing company, believes the Cowboys will be able to market themselves with or without stars by promoting their storied tradition.

“Jerry Jones and his staff are careful to tap into those emotional bonds to help sell tickets and sponsorships,” he noted.

Still, as the Cowboys begin to woo individuals and corporations to become mainstays in the new facility, a scintillating playoff run would have been a welcome sales tool. Because at this point, when the Cowboys’ stadium opens, only one spectator is sure to watch, according to franchise lore: God himself, gazing in through the hole in the roof.

And if the team continues dropping the ball, the man upstairs may even look away.

Cowboys QB could use American Idol as way to build popularity

2006-12-30T15:14:00.000-06:00

A Good Upgrade For Romo
By Darren Rovell | 27 Dec 2006 | 11:38 AM
CNBC.com

Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Tony Romo didn't have many great passes against the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. His best pass was probably made at last year's American Idol winner Carrie Underwood, who NBC caught on the field with Romo before the game and during the game cheering on the Boys from Jerry Jones' luxury suite.

If they do become an item, its a great move for Romo, though perhaps not so much for Underwood.

Let's break it down with the help of Chris Anderson, who provided me with the Davie-Brown Index (DBI) numbers.

Anderson points out the landing Underwood would get Romo -- who currently isn't known outside the sports fan world -- into magazines like US Weekly and InTouch.

Anderson also says that Underwood is actually a better catch that Jessica Simpson -- who Romo was previously rumored to be dating, though the two actually never met.

Here's why. The DBI data shows that while Simpson is more well known than Underwood, Underwood actually outrates Simpson in every measurable attribute including appeal, trendsetter and trust, among them.

Why would an alliance be hazardous to Underwood? It could tarnish her high scores if Romo sours. Underwood had three No. 1 country hits this year and sold 4.3 million albums. That's a lot to put on the line.

Iverson: The Brand

2006-12-21T14:37:00.000-06:00

A.I.'s persona always a draw at retail stores
Marketers say trade doesn't hurt or help image

By SCOTT LAUBER
THE NEWS JOURNAL

Just in time for last-minute holiday shopping, sporting goods stores are likely to have a sale on Allen Iverson jerseys.

At least, the ones with a 76ers logo on the front.

"You'll be able to go to the markdown racks and find all the No. 3 Sixers jerseys you want," said John Horan, publisher of Sporting Goods Intelligence, an industry newsletter based in Glen Mills, Pa. "Nobody's going to buy those jerseys now."

Not after Iverson, the 76ers cornerstone and a Philadelphia sports icon for the past decade, was traded Tuesday to the Denver Nuggets.

But, while the trade spells the end of an era for the 76ers, marketing experts said Wednesday it shouldn't alter Iverson's appeal -- or, in some cases, lack thereof -- as a product endorser.

Iverson's image -- positive as the bold but vastly undersized player in a sport filled with giants, and negative as a rebel who lives on the edge -- won't change with his uniform colors.

Thus, even as he heads to Denver, Iverson's short-term marketability remains on steady ground. In the long term, it may even be strengthened if he can help the Nuggets to an NBA championship.

"He's a very big star; I don't think that's going to change," Horan said. "He's always been a real draw, especially with kids. He's 5-10, on his tiptoes [he's listed at 6-foot]. You'd never guess he'd do what he does. People relate to that.

"Even in this area, there will be people who buy his Nuggets jersey. There are people here who were more fans of Iverson's than the Sixers."

Jason Willis, an assistant manager at Champs Sports in Christiana Mall, said customers have told him they'll continue rooting for Iverson rather than detesting him, which was the reaction of many Eagles fans to former wide receiver Terrell Owens.

But Iverson's popularity stretches far and wide. He has a $100 million, lifetime contract with Reebok, the world's second-largest athletic shoe company. It has produced 10 models of Iverson sneakers (the latest is the Answer X) since 1997.

Reebok even structured its "I Am What I Am" marketing campaign around Iverson's no-apologies persona that strategists believe appeals to youth and urban consumers.

And, one day after the trade, Reebok executives stood by Iverson, leaving little doubt he'll remain their No. 1 pitchman.

"As he moves into the next phase of his basketball career, we wish him the very best," Todd Krinsky, Reebok's vice president for sports marketing, said in a statement. "We hope this move will enable Allen to reach his goal of winning an NBA championship."

Clearly, that wasn't going to happen in Philadelphia. The 76ers have fallen to the depths of the league, and two weeks ago, Iverson requested a trade, team officials said.

The Sixers, however, are one organization that is severing marketing ties with Iverson. He had long been the face of the franchise and appeared on one of five billboards with the team's "It's a Philly Thing" slogan. The team has removed him from that billboard.

"We try not to market an individual player. We've always tried to market the team," said Lara Price, the 76ers senior vice president of business operations. "But Allen was the one consistent player, so you would be crazy not to market him. But now that he's gone, we're going to continue to focus on the team.

"We need to introduce Andre Miller [acquired in the trade] to the market, and we want to continue marketing the young guys. Our goal has always been to have entertainment, a fun atmosphere and an interactive experience for the fans."

Some experts believe Iverson's rebellious nature has hurt his marketability, which won't improve in Denver unless he changes his image.

Davie Brown Talent, a Dallas-based firm that helps clients pick celebrities to appear in ads, excluded Iverson from its list of the 10 most marketable active NBA players. The rankings, known as the Davie Brown Index (DBI), are derived from a 1.5 million-member panel of U.S. consumers who judge celebrities based on eight qualities, including appeal, awareness and trust.

DBI spokesman Chris Anderson noted that Iverson's appeal rating was close to the rating for Mark McGwire, the former baseball slugger who has been suspected of using steroids. In trust, Iverson ranked near professional wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

"Unless you're an edgy brand that isn't concerned with getting involved with controversy, brands usually steer clear of [Iverson]," said Scott Sanford, senior client director for Davie Brown Talent. "The trade will be a good change of pace for him, but it doesn't necessarily mean marketers that wouldn't have come after him before will start now."

In other words, nothing much will change.

As long as Iverson continues playing at an elite level and doesn't alter his image, companies like Reebok will keep enlisting him to endorse their products, while others will shy away.

"Allen Iverson is a brand in and of himself," said Bill Glenn, a vice president for The Marketing Arm, the company that conducts the DBI. "A trade doesn't change the brand unless he changes his behavior."

But what about in Philadelphia, where Iverson leaves behind scores of 76ers fans and racks full of No. 3 jerseys?

"I think he'll remain popular here," Horan said. "Not as popular, of course. But it's not like a T.O. thing. When I went to Sixers games, the reason I went was to see him play. I'm sure there are a lot of fans that still feel that way."

LaDainian Tomlinson: Endorsement-potential grows

2006-12-21T14:30:00.000-06:00

NFL Records Send Tomlinson's Market Value Soaring, Index Finds

By Aaron Kuriloff

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- LaDainian Tomlinson's record- breaking season in the National Football League has transformed him from a marketing afterthought into a potential endorser on the level of basketball All-Star Allen Iverson, according to an index tracking sponsor appeal.

The latest Davie-Brown Index, which ranks celebrities by their ability to influence product sales, found that awareness of the San Diego Chargers' running back increased among all U.S. consumers to almost 37 percent from around 13 percent since Tomlinson broke the NFL season records for touchdowns and points in the past two games.

That raises Tomlinson, 27, from someone with the influence of a television pop star, like 2005 ``American Idol'' winner Carrie Underwood, to someone who commands the same attention as Iverson, the National Basketball Association's former Most Valuable Player who has a $100 million lifetime contract with Adidas AG's Reebok International Ltd.

``It's one of the biggest jumps we've seen over a short period of time like this,'' Scott Sanford, senior account director for Omnicom Group Inc.'s Davie-Brown Entertainment, said in a telephone interview following the report's release yesterday. Profiles are updated every four months by the Dallas- based company.

Only U.S. Olympic snowboarder Shaun White climbed faster after winning a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Games, Sanford said. White has since appeared in commercials for Hewlett- Packard Co., Sony Corp., PepsiCo Inc.'s Mountain Dew and Target Corp.

Alan Zucker, who represents Tomlinson in endorsements for the Cleveland-based IMG sports agency, said he wouldn't comment on new business opportunities during the NFL season.

Rankings

The index ranks celebrities on criteria including appeal, trust, influence and awareness. Tomlinson has always scored near the top of all categories except awareness, Sanford said.

Tomlinson's total had been around 36, in the same territory as Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart. It's now 50.5, close to the 58 of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who has appeared this season in commercials for MasterCard Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. Tomlinson now ranks in the top 20 percent of all athletes on the list and in the top five in terms of likeability.

Iverson, who was traded to the Denver Nuggets from the Philadelphia 76ers yesterday, has a total of 44.8.

NFL players don't usually rank among the leading celebrities on the list because each team includes more than 50 men who compete behind a helmet and face mask, Sanford said. Before this season, Tomlinson had one national endorsement deal, with shoe and apparel maker Nike Inc. The San Diego Union- Tribune said in September that Tomlinson had signed a ``handful'' of national deals early this season.

Super Bowl

Steve Rosner, founder and partner in the 16W Marketing sports consulting company, said Tomlinson's visibility suffers from his location in San Diego, the U.S.'s eighth-largest city, where the Chargers have never won the Super Bowl.

``In what I call the tools of the trade -- shoe contract, trading cards, video games -- in those areas he's had some success,'' Rosner said. ``But this is the year he'll be starting to get more interest from corporate America.''

Tomlinson's rising visibility also might help him earn regional endorsements along the California coast, said Rosner, whose company is based in Rutherford, New Jersey.

To climb any higher on the Davie-Brown Index, Tomlinson needs his teammates' help, just as he needed them to score a league-record 31 touchdowns and 186 points this season, Sanford said.

``There are few NFL players who have become marketable without Super Bowl success,'' he said. ``I think a lot still depends on what happens in January.''

NBA owner as celebrity product endorser

2006-12-06T09:33:00.000-06:00

Mark Cuban, The Endorser
By:Darren Rovell
CNBC/Sports Biz

Many of you might have seen the new ads for the new Samsung phone endorsed by Mark Cuban. It got me thinking, how many sports owners could really be effective in advertisements? The answer is two -- Cuban and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner -- the only two who really have been featured in advertising. You might remember Steinbrenner in those Visa ads.

Anyway, we asked the guys who work up the numbers from the Davie-Brown Index just how affective a spokesman Mark Cuban could be. The DBI gurus report that he ranks No. 1092 out of the 1,500 celebrities that they track, but that he is thought of as a trendsetter and American consumers consider him to be aspirational.

So what does it take to get Cuban to endorse your product. Certainly not money. "I have to like the products," Cuban told us Tuesday. "HP Hewlett-Packard Co and (Samsung) the Blackjack are two examples. Except my wife stole my blackjack, she liked it so much, so I am getting a replacement."

Brand Integration: Better than the best commercial

2006-12-05T08:16:00.000-06:00

Brandtique: MailMate
Posted November 28th, 2006 by David Goetzl

A marketer looking to use product integration to help it tear up the competition might take a page from Staples. The office-supply giant’s insertion of its potent MailMate shredder into a recent episode of NBC comedy “The Office” was about as good as it gets in branded entertainment.

Not only did Staples insert what it bills as “The Junk Mail Destroyer” into the show in such a way that a consumer would hardly know it was a paid plug, but it engineered what could be the Holy Grail of product placement: A demonstration of how cool (for lack of a better word) the MailMate is. And making something as generic as an office shredder seem appealing is no small feat.

In the Nov. 16 episode, the character Kevin, a low-key but mischievous accountant at paper company Dunder-Mifflin, somewhat morosely says how little responsibility he has on the job. But, he adds: “They do let me shred the company documents, and that is really all I need.”

He then ferociously begins using the MailMate–Staples says it offers “ferocious shredding power for identity theft protection”–while speaking to the audience at the same time (”The Office” is done in faux documentary fashion, where the characters often speak to the camera as if they’re being interviewed by a journalist.)

Barely able to restrain himself, Kevin (played by Brian Baumgartner) says: “This thing is so awesome! It will shred anything!” (The integration was one of the top-ranked product placements of the week, according to measurement firm iTVX.)

Then, he begins a product demonstration that may well have led to a near-immediate bump in sales. Proudly, Kevin shows how the MailMate will shred a CD, and even a credit card. He’s so passionate that he willingly pulls one of his credit cards out of his wallet and sacrifices it by dropping it through the machine.

The CD and credit card demo is what makes the product placement so effective. Who knew that state-of-the-art shredders can pulverize more than a bank statement?

And the marketing pitch–that the MailMate is groundbreaking and can splice things one wouldn’t expect–appears to come straight out of the Staples catalogue. On its Web site, the retailer touts the machine’s ability to destroy CDs and DVDs and credit cards.

Also, “Kevin” does a sterling job of making the process of shredding look fun. His enthusiasm and mannerisms go a long way toward inspiring someone to shell out the $69.99 for the contraption, if for no other reason than to drop a pile of CDs in and watch what happens.

Taking advantage of that, the Staples Web site features an opportunity for virtual use of a MailMate as visitors can do their own “slicing and dicing” by dragging a photo, CD or credit card into the “machine” and watching what happens. All the while, “The Office” theme song plays in the background, as Staples looks to extend the value of its integration. In YouTube fashion, a visitor can send the “demo/game” to a friend.

On the show, the whole scene is funny and effective–and it fits in organically. After Kevin has shown the machine’s practical benefits, in keeping with the wonderfully twisted humor of “The Office,” he drops salad leaves into the MailMate.

Then, he pulls out the bottom refuse bin which has a full salad ready to eat. After pouring on dressing, a coworker enters and asks, “Where’d you get that salad?”

“Staples,” he says.

Perfectly wry, perfectly in character. A seamless punchline to a first-rate product placement.

Ruined the class photo...

2006-11-29T16:48:00.000-06:00

Check out the little fella on the front row, far left.

James Bond: Licensed to Sell

2006-11-17T09:10:00.000-06:00

James Bond: Licensed To Sell
Lacey Rose, 11.16.06, 10:30 AM ET
FORBES

His name is Bond, James Bond. And he likes his martinis shaken not stirred. Make that Smirnoff vodka martinis.

A subtle difference? Not to Smirnoff corporate parent Diageo, which is one of six companies whose brands appear in Casino Royale, the 21st film in the Bond franchise, which opens Friday. But as brand-heavy as that may sound, that total is less than the nine brands competing for screen time in the last Bond flick, 2002’s Die Another Day.

The decision to scale back on partners was a conscious one, says distributor Sony Pictures Entertainment: Rather than jam the film with product placements, the company looked for fewer brands that would make a larger commitment to the movie: Rather than just paying for screen time, brands like Sony, Omega watches, Heineken and Ford Motor have agreed to help fund the marketing blizzard for the new movie.

While product placement, a long-running tradition on the big and small screens, plays an increasingly important role in the face of ad-skipping technology like TiVo digital video recorders, Sony’s decision to look for more creative approaches from its brands reflects a larger trend in Hollywood. As audiences grow savvier, they are no longer willing to accept brands as mere props, a la Coca-Cola's role on News Corp.-owned Fox's American Idol.

“Studios are recognizing the power that brands bring to the table,” explains Tom Meyer, president of the entertainment marketing agency Davie Brown, which was among the founders of the modern product placement movement in the early 1980s. The brands can play a role not only on screen, but also off screen, with supplemental marketing efforts in the form of print and TV advertisements as well as online and in-store promotions.

From the studios’ perspective, that partnership means brands can offset vast marketing budgets and target spaces studios couldn’t otherwise reach, like supermarket shelves. And for the brands, it is a DVR-proof way of getting their message across and associating their name with an established franchise.

That explains why global brands will spend $3.07 billion collectively on paid placements--that includes movies as well as television, radio and video games--this year, up 39% from the $2.21 billion they shelled out in 2005, according to PQ Media. The technique has even outpaced the growth of Internet advertising, which is up 33% this year over last, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In the case of co-promotional partnerships, that money doesn’t always land in the studios’ wallets, however. Instead, the licensing and product placement fees typical of basic placements are often waived, because the brands are already spending anywhere from $1 million to $20 million on promotional efforts.

In Sony’s case, those efforts include heavily advertised 007-branded products--think VAIO PCs with Casino Royale logos and screensavers--as well as a host of Web-based Casino games with potential prizes.

And long-time sponsor Smirnoff is spending its resources to promote its Bond tie-in through TV commercials, in-store displays and promotional events. In addition to a DJ contest, the company has placed coded casino chips that will dangle from the necks of its bottles. The codes can be entered on the company’s Web site for prizes of up to $10,000.

This level of sophistication comes as no surprise to Frank Zazzo, chief executive of product placement evaluation firm iTVX. Studios and brands alike, he says, can no longer get away with simply placing a product on a set for an extended period of time. “Audiences are getting savvier, and as soon as they feel that it is an in-your-face advertisement, they’ll have the same cognitive rejection they do with spam.”

But Mary-Lou Galician, head of media analysis and criticism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and editor of The Handbook of Product Placement in the Mass Media, is not so sure its working. “I’m starting to see saturation and advertising clutter,” she says. “I think that something has to be done because at a certain point when there’s incredible clutter like that, ultimately no product is being served.”

Chris Anderson: The Marketing Arm

2006-11-14T13:06:00.000-06:00

Chris Anderson is is the communications director for The Marketing Arm (TMA), a network of marketing services agencies, including Millsport, ipsh!, USM&P, and Davie-Brown Entertainment. Operating within Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), TMA was ranked as the No. 1 marketing agency for 2006 by Promo magazine.

Anderson joined TMA from Southern Methodist University where he was a senior instructor in the Division of Corporate Communications & Public Affairs (CCPA). At SMU, he taught several applied courses, including Principles of Strategic Communication, Strategic Communication Campaigns, Crisis Management, Strategic Sports Communication, and Integrated Marketing Communication.

Anderson joined the SMU faculty in July 1999 as a visiting assistant professor, teaching for a year before leaving to become the director of strategic communications for a Dallas-based Internet start-up company. He continued to serve as an adjunct professor, then rejoined the faculty as a full-time instructor in March 2001.

Prior to joining SMU, Anderson served from 1996-1999 as the director of marketing communications for Footaction USA, a $700 million athletic footwear retailer with 565 stores in 43 states. At Footaction, Anderson was responsible for implementing all strategic public relations programs; serving as the lead spokesperson and primary media relations contact; coordinating all special events; negotiating and managing the company’s sports marketing initiatives; managing the company’s website; and writing and editing all internal and external communications pieces.

From 1992-1996, Anderson was the managing director for Dallas-based Sunwest Communications, one of the largest full-service public relations counseling firms in Texas. Sunwest provides communications strategy and services to corporations and organizations on local, regional, national and international levels. While at Sunwest, he managed a four-member account services team and developed and managed public relations and communications activities for a number of clients, including DF&R Restaurants, a 60-unit restaurant chain; and Restland of Dallas, the nation’s second-largest funeral home/memorial park.

Before joining Sunwest in 1992, Anderson was the associate brand manager for Pro Set Inc., a Dallas-based trading card manufacturer, where he handled marketing/communications activities for the company’s PGA Tour golf and Winston Cup racing brands.

Anderson served as an account executive at the Dallas office of Edelman Public Relations and worked in SMU’s sports information department during the early 1990s. He began his career as the assistant general manager and director of public relations for the Rapid City (S.D.) Thrillers, one of the most successful franchises in the 50-year-old Continental Basketball Association, managing the team’s media relations, game operations, and community outreach programs.

He left the Thrillers to become the field communications coordinator for The Associates of North America (now Citigroup), where he was responsible for writing and producing 12 different newsletters for various company divisions. While at The Associates, he founded and served for three years as editor and publisher of Musselman’s Minor League Basketball Report, a successful newsletter with more than 1,200 subscribers, including all 28 NBA teams, dozens of professional sports agents, and a number of teams in Europe and South America. He later sold Musselman’s Report to a national basketball magazine.

He has also consulted with sports franchise executives, including the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Oakland Raiders, and Memphis Grizzlies on strategic communication issues.

Anderson is an accredited member of both the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the world’s largest professional organization for public relations practitioners; and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the premier international knowledge network for professionals engaged in strategic business communication management.

He is also a former member of the National Communications Association (NCA), Texas Public Relations Association (TPRA), Press Club of Dallas, International Public Relations Association (IPRA), Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), and the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA).

Anderson has earned a number of industry honors, including an IABC Silver Quill; a TPRA Best of Texas award; a Dallas Press Club Katie Award, a Silver Star award from Manning, Selvage & Lee; and a Creativity in Public Relations Award (CIPRA). He has published articles in PR Tactics, Brandweek, Communication World, and PRWeek and has been interviewed as an expert in communication strategy for stories in The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer, KTVT-TV (CBS/Dallas) and KDFW-TV (FOX/Dallas).

While at SMU, Anderson has been honored twice with the HOPE Award, which annually recognizes teaching excellence. He has also earned the Panhellenic Outstanding Faculty Award.

Anderson attended the University of San Diego, but returned to Dallas where he earned a bachelor’s degree from SMU in public relations. He later earned a master’s degree in journalism (emphasis in public relations) from the University of North Texas, where he was named the Outstanding Graduate Student in Journalism.

He lives near the SMU campus with his wife Caroline (an SMU alum) and their sons Colter and Adam.

Kobe's status as a pitchman pariah hard to shake

2006-11-08T15:58:00.000-06:00

Bryant's status as pitchman pariah hard to shake

Nov. 8, 2006
By Mike Freeman
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist

Each time I see LeBron James, the megastar of the Cleveland Cavaliers who is making a grab for the title of second most popular athlete after Tiger Woods, in one of those ticklish Nike commercials, I think, that could have been Kobe Bryant.

Every instance that broad, endearing smile of Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett is seen, a toothy presentation that could white out a full moon, and he is selling this video game or that one, I wonder, that could have been Kobe.

Once upon a time, before he was accused of a horrific crime, Bryant was the one pushing products and making pitches. The NBA world revolved around him. Advertisers wanted him.

Now, three years after Bryant was accused of raping a woman in a Colorado hotel room, it is clear that while Bryant remains a well-known commodity, he is often an ignored one, both by his own league and by dollar-dealing advertisers.

"When you talk about highly visible guys in the NBA, you start with names like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and other guys like Shaquille O'Neal," said Scott Sanford, senior client director for Davie Brown Talent, which negotiates celebrity endorsement deals for advertisers. "Kobe is still in the top five when it comes to recognition but there are still advertisers staying away from Kobe. They're gun shy."

Sanford said he has personally heard from several powerful companies seeking athlete pitch men that still want nothing to do with Bryant.

It is a remarkable transformation for someone that was once an extremely coveted star, both by the NBA and companies wanting a spokesperson.

If there was ever a sports stud who is visible but invisible, solid but also non-corporeal, famous and infamous, great but also a demigod, it is Bryant.

Bryant faces the double whammy, a kick to the groin to make an Oakland Raider proud. Many top advertisers believe he is still too hot to touch. Then there is basketball itself. As the NBA embarks on maybe its biggest push yet to scrub its image to a pristine polish after allowing players to thumb their bling at authority, Bryant, once the darling of the league, is being left in the dust by players with clean-cut reps like Bron-Bron and Wade.

The numbers are striking. Sanford's agency conducts what is basically a celebrity popularity poll called the DBI. It measures how celebrities score with the public in areas such as likeability and trust.

While Bryant still registers high in awareness, just behind O'Neal and ahead of NBA stars like James, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker and Wade, what happened in Colorado, as well as his reputation for at times being a self-centered phony, have clearly eroded his popularity and desirability.

The DBI results show that Bryant scores some 20 points behind those same stars in the areas of influence (the measure of how respondents believe the person is an influence on the world) and aspiration (how much respondents would want to be like that person).

Bryant also trails significantly in perhaps the three most important categories. Trust (how much trust do respondents place in the words and actions of the celebrity), appeal and endorsement (how effective a product spokesperson).

George Bush has higher poll numbers. Thus the rehabilitation of Kobe Bryant's image is progressing -- just startlingly slow. Bryant's image is no longer healing in the critical burn unit after several advertisers dumped him in 2003, but that battered image has still not left the hospital yet.

And might never do so.

The irony is that as well-spoken as Bryant is, he would be the perfect person to anchor commissioner David Stern's attempt to clean up the league's image. But Bryant can't be utilized because he is one of the reasons the league's image has taken such a beating.

Stern has called this the NBA's "new golden era." He is attempting to make sure the league does not slip into the slime. He has warned players about carrying guns. He has asked them to dress better. There is a tougher policy when it comes to technical fouls and a new rule to keep owners and others from haranguing game officials.

It's the new NBA: No Bums Allowed. In conjunction, the league has trotted out Wade and Bron-Bron, posing them as preening examples of buttoned down goody goodies that would never dare crash into the stands or blast apart a nightclub with a 9mm at three in the morning.

Bryant has been notably absent from this renaissance. The invitation was lost in the mail.

When you think of Bryant, you cannot help but go back in time. What if Bryant had not been accused of that act? What if he wasn't so stupid, so selfish? Would Bryant be a part of the league's new snapshot of its players? Would advertisers snuggle up next to Bryant and ask him to sign on the dotted line?

Would we have The Kobes instead of The LeBrons?

The reason for Bryant's current status as a low-fat star is a tangled plexus.

After Bryant was accused of rape, it was reported that several of his major sponsors, including McDonald's, dropped him. One sponsor, Nutella, a chocolate company, was forced to sever ties because their Bryant-inspired ad stated that Nutella was "Kobe Bryant's favorite spread."

OK, that's awkward. Funny in retrospect, but awkward.

The rape case, which ended when the accuser refused to testify against Bryant, is only part of the reason for Bryant's low popularity levels. Bryant remains a player who many fans outside of Los Angeles perceive as an arrogant toad.

Sanford ticked off a list of names, a who's who of NBA elite: Wade, Carmelo Anthony, James, Steve Nash, O'Neal, Allen Iverson, and Garnett.

Then he paused and said: "The biggest difference between Kobe and these guys is that Kobe has a selfish image among fans and potential advertisers. I don't know if I agree with that stereotype of Kobe but that is the perception, and believe it or not, that can hurt almost as much as the rape allegation."

Bryant himself played off of this perception when Nike this year aired one of the few major commercials he has done. It showed Bryant shooting free throws. "Love me or hate me," Bryant begins, "it's one or the other."

Can Bryant rebound? "It will never be the way it was for Kobe," said Sanford.

But he can get somewhat close. "If he can prove he is in it for the team and not himself," said Sanford, "and he can win games, then he can make a comeback."

Bryant less selfish?

We'll see about that.

Gotta love this Halloween costume!

2006-11-01T12:42:00.000-06:00

Peyton Manning: Celebrity endorser supreme

2006-10-22T13:16:00.000-05:00

Most valuable pitchman
By Mark Alesia
Indianapolis Star

The trucks and vans pulled in, and soon a Broad Ripple coffee shop was transformed. A perplexed woman, walking to her hair appointment next door, was stopped by a police officer who politely asked her to wait a moment.

"We're rolling . . . Action!"

Enter Peyton Manning as pitcher, not passer, his national commercial force come to Carrollton Avenue.

A bystander, taking in the milling assistants and video equipment, thought it all resembled a "feature film" instead of one segment in a MasterCard ad that will run for perhaps 30 seconds. Nearby a security officer approached colleagues with a clearly audible tip: The commercial, scheduled to air later this season, included Manning telling the victim of a coffee shop mishap, "C'mon, walk it off."

From Sony to Sprint, ESPN to DirecTV, Marsh to Bob Estes Automotive Group, companies national and local have flocked to Manning, making the Indianapolis Colts quarterback an estimated $11.5 million in endorsements this year, according to Sports Illustrated. That ranks first in the NFL and ninth among active U.S. sports figures (Tiger Woods was first at $87 million).

Manning's agent, Alan Zucker of IMG, wouldn't verify the numbers, and Manning himself declined to be interviewed, saying through a spokesman that he preferred not to talk about marketing during the season.

But a few hours spent watching TV on any given Sunday speaks volumes about how much businesses want to be associated with him.

Manning, 30, has practically become a brand unto himself. Marketing experts tout his golden family name, Hall of Fame-worthy career, wholesome image and self-deprecating sense of humor. On top of that, they say, he's grown into a good actor.

"He represents what's good in sports," said Ben Sturner, president of Leverage Sports Agency, which has offices in New York, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C.
To some, it can seem a bit much -- all Manning all the time. Bob Costas joked about it recently on the HBO program "Inside the NFL," wondering whether a constant stream of Manning commercials might be enough to break an al-Qaida suspect.

Archie Manning, Peyton's father, stopped short of saying his son is overexposed, but added that he "may back off a little bit" in the future.

"This might sound self-serving," the elder Manning said, "but he's turned down some very lucrative things."

Strong statistics

In a poll of marketing professionals by the Sports Business Journal, Manning trounced the competition as the NFL's "most marketable player."

More important, Manning puts up big numbers in audience research that advertisers use to inform their decisions. Those research companies divulged only part of their expensive data to The Star, but it still offers insight into Manning's marketing power:

Manning's "Q Score" -- which measures how many people are familiar with a celebrity and count the person as "one of my favorites" -- ranks higher than Dale Earnhardt Jr., the beloved NASCAR driver and pitchman for the biggest-spending company in sports advertising, Anheuser-Busch.

The Davie Brown Index (DBI), which stresses recognition but measures several marketing categories, ranked Manning second overall among active NFL players behind Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre. Manning scores high on "influence in today's world" and "trust."

In the "E-Score," Manning beat another NFL heavyweight, New England quarterback Tom Brady, in a vital category: name awareness. Manning had 53 percent, Brady 27 percent.

"Brands are making a significant investment in guys like Peyton Manning," said Bill Glenn, who helped create the DBI and is vice president of Dallas-based The Marketing Arm. "First and foremost they want people to recognize him without needing help."

Manning's on-field performance -- which includes a single-season record 49 touchdown passes and led to his $98 million, seven-year contract with the Colts -- by itself makes him a credible endorser. Winning last year's NFL Man of the Year award for community service helps even more. Companies he endorses often contribute to his charity, the Peyback Foundation.

But there's no underestimating the value of the family name for boosting recognition, marketing experts said. Archie Manning is a former All-Pro quarterback in the NFL and Peyton's younger brother, Eli, is the starting quarterback for the New York Giants.

More than one commercial includes all three men. In an ESPN skit, the entire Manning family tours the company's headquarters. Peyton and Eli take turns annoying each other like bored 10-year-olds until a parental glare from Archie stops them, albeit temporarily.

Archie Manning attributes the recent flurry of commercials featuring Peyton to the NFL schedule, which came out in April.

When it became known the Colts and Giants would open the season against each other -- pitting brothers starting as opposing quarterbacks for the first time, and in prime time -- it had a perfect-storm effect.

"You do agreements with companies that say you'll be in one or two commercials per year," Archie Manning said. "When everybody saw they were playing the Giants, everyone said, 'We want a commercial (then).' "

Chris Jogis, MasterCard's vice president for U.S. brand development, said the company had no concern that Manning was being spread so thin that it would detract from his endorsing effectiveness.

MasterCard, Jogis said, is proud of having "taken the helmet off Peyton Manning," giving him a chance to show his sense of humor in what became a popular ad campaign. Other experts said Manning is a rare athlete willing to take a chance by showing a quirky side.

"The way we use him and tap into his personality alleviates any concerns" about overexposure, Jogis said.

The big screen?

The MasterCard commercial was shot during the Colts' bye week earlier this month, but Manning shoots most of his commercials in the offseason. His time is valuable. Companies don't waste it.

The MasterCard day started early at a home near Butler University, where Manning wore a robe for a scene that included a newspaper being thrown through a window.
After the coffee shop in Broad Ripple, Manning proceeded to Capri Ristorante, near 71st Street and Keystone Avenue, to shoot another segment.

Among marketers, including those who haven't worked with him, Manning's reputation is that of someone who doesn't just show up, go through the motions and cash a fat check. He likes to give input. He wants people to get their money's worth.

Hank Aaron: Still appealing after all these years

2006-10-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

Hank Aaron remains a fan favorite

Hank Aaron, baseball's all-time home-runs leader, retired in 1976. Yet he still remains a huge fan favorite.

So says the Davie Brown Index, which measures a celebrity's ability to influence consumer purchase behavior.

The DBI was created by Davie Brown Entertainment, a Hollywood marketing agency. The DBI consists of a 1.5-million member research panel which evaluates celebrities. The DBI measures celebrities across several attributes, such as appeal, aspiration, awareness, endorsement, influence, notice, trendsetter, and trust.

In the world of sports, Aaron is the most appealing celebrity, the company said.

Aaron edged gymnast Carly Patterson and baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan for the top spot in the "appeal" attribute, which measures a celebrity's likeability.

San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who ranks second all-time in home runs, was No. 345 in the appeal category.

Terrell Owens: A Celebrity Un-Loved

2006-10-14T20:38:00.000-05:00

October 13, 2006
In Terrell We (Don’t, No Way, Uh-Unh) Trust
Filed under: Sports, News You Can Actually Use, Actually
DALLAS OBSERVER

You know who people don’t like very much? You’ll never guess. Go ahead. Try. C’mon. Give up? Jerry Jones is more appealing than Terrell Owens.

Hey, that’s not me talking. It’s the famed DBI or, for those of you not familiar with Dallas-based The Marketing Arm over on Bryan Street, the Davie Brown Index. The list, updated weekly but not for public consumption, is akin to a Match.com for advertisers and celebrities, allowing them to make commercial connections. Forbes recently relied upon the DBI in naming Tom Hanks as America’s most trusted celebrity.

What the DBI tells us this week is something we, Bill Parcells and the folks in Philly already know: T.O. ain’t appealing. The DBI ranks celebs in eight categories, including appeal and trustworthiness. There are 1,500 famous folk in the database, including 353 athletes or sports-related celebs. Of those 353, guess who finished dead last 353 in appeal?

Bzzzzzz. Wrong. Try Dennis Rodman. And coming in at No. 347–now try it–bingo, T.O. One spot behind Jerry Jones, two behind Barry Bonds and only two ahead of Kobe Bryant. Quite select company, you must admit. At the top were: Hank Aaron at No. 1 (weird, but OK), Nolan Ryan at No. 2 (Yessir!) and, behind him, Carly Patterson (Really? Our Carly?).

More local rankings after the jump: Or, which Wilson brother is more beloved?

In the category of trust, Hanks is No. 1 with a score of 77.6, whatever that means. Among Dallasites, Angie Harmon, LeAnn Rimes and Troy Aikman scored high. (Weird that Luke Wilson scored only 0.4 higher than bro Owen, doncha think?)

At the bottom of that list, not surprisingly, reside Jones (44.1) and T.O. (41.9), meaning America trusts Terrell Owens about half as much as it does the star of Bachelor Party.

If the DBI ranked celebs by grumpiness, of course, Parcells would be the undisputed champ. “I have no comment on Terrell,” the Cowboys coach grumbled yesterday. When asked why, he harrumphed, “Because I don’t want to talk about him anymore…I’m tired of it.” Let me say it again, for the record. Again. T.O.’s ego makes him a bad teammate. But Parcells’ disposition makes him a bad human. If only the DBI took into account celebs that hated interaction, gravity, oxygen… –Richie Whitt

A sign of advertisers' desperation

2006-10-13T17:04:00.000-05:00

Product placement — you can't escape it
Updated 10/10/2006 11:02 PM ET
By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — To hype the fall TV season, CBS plastered pictures of its shows' stars on postage stamps and across the insides of elevator doors. It laser-coated its eye logo on more than 35 million eggs, and carved the name of a new program, Jericho, into a 40-acre Kansas cornfield.

CBS (CBS) added those blips to the marketing storm sweeping the nation. Advertising is intruding on more previously untouched corners of life, including novels, hotel shower curtains, school buses and the bellies of pregnant women. Golfer Fred Couples is often followed around the course by a gaggle of woman paid to wear the name Bridgestone Golf, his sponsor.

It's advertising ad nauseam. And it's getting worse.

"I've never seen things changing as much as they are now," says Rance Crain, editor-in-chief of trade magazine Advertising Age and a 40-plus-year observer of marketing. "Advertisers will not be satisfied until they put their mark on every blade of grass."

Ad-zapping devices — and a decrease in consumer attention spans — have created doubts about the effectiveness of traditional TV, radio and print ads. In response, marketers have become increasingly invasive.

"It's out of control," says Jenny Beaton, a mother of three in Westlake, Ohio. "I don't know how advertisers can think they're selling more products. It's just annoying everybody."

Many, such as Beaton, are tuning out.

"Advertising is so ubiquitous that it's turning people off," Crain says. "It's desensitizing people to the message."

The more consumers ignore ads, the more ads marketers spew back at them, says Max Kalehoff of marketing research firm Nielsen BuzzMetrics. "It's like a drug addiction. Advertisers just keep buying more and more just to try to achieve prior levels of impact. In other words, they're hooked."

This year, marketers will spend a record $175 billion on ads in major media, such as TV, radio, print, outdoor, movie theaters and the Internet, says ad-buying firm ZenithOptimedia. That's up 5% over 2005. Add direct mail and other direct-response ads, and the total will hit $269 billion.

The increase comes from advertisers trying to out-yell each other, says J. Walker Smith, president of the consulting firm Yankelovich. If a marketer feels drowned out, "They just turn up the volume."

Here's how loud it's getting:

•The average 1970s city dweller was exposed to 500 to 2,000 ad messages a day, Smith says. Now, it's 3,000 to 5,000.

•In 2005, MTV (VIA) viewers had to put up with 21% more prime-time commercials per hour than in 2004, says TNS Media Intelligence and media firm MindShare.

•Marketers shelled out 71% more — $941 million — to integrate brands into TV shows in 2005 vs. 2004, PQ Media says.

•There are now ad-supported TV screens at airports, gas stations, health clubs and on buses and subways. Wal-Mart has its own network. ABC (DIS) signed with the In-Store Broadcasting Network to promote TV shows in Kroger supermarkets.

•Spending for on-screen movie theater ads swelled 21% to $453 million in 2005 vs. 2004. Off-screen ads, such as lobby promotions, rose 18% to $75 million, according to the Cinema Advertising Council.

•Marketers raised "out-of-home" spending, from billboards to elevator ads, by 9% last year to $6.3 billion, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America says.

There's more to come. Marketers see small-screen devices — iPods, cellphones, laptops and video games — as the growth frontier:

•Spending for ads on Web-enabled mobile phones is expected to be $150 million this year, up threefold vs. 2005, according to consulting firm Ovum. By 2009, that will swell 766% to $1.3 billion.

•In 2005, $21 million was spent to place products in video games, a 38% rise over 2004, PQ Media says.

•Last year, companies shelled out $13 billion on Internet classified, search and display ads, JupiterResearch says. That's expected to double to $26 billion by 2011.

Brain freeze

"The human brain doesn't process things any better than it did 30 years ago. But there are more people competing for that processing time," Yankelovich's Smith says. "It's no surprise that consumers are pushing back."

They've put more than 130 million phone numbers on the federal government's telemarketer-thwarting national Do Not Call Registry as of Sept. 5.

Use of pop-up ad blockers on computers nearly tripled from June 2003 to January 2006, to 71%, according to Arbitron/Edison Media Research provided by eMarketer. Users with spam blockers more than doubled to 73%.

Web gives consumers voice

The Internet has emerged as a soapbox for irate consumers.

After Columbia Pictures (SNE) said it would cover Major League Baseball bases with Spider-Man 2 logos in 2004, tens of thousands voted against it in ESPN.com and AOL.com polls. Within 48 hours, the studio called it off, citing the polls.

On a more micro level, football fans watching the Auburn vs. Louisiana State game on Sept. 16 saw CBS serve up Ruby Tuesday (RI) eatery ads with the computer-generated first down line. Among the post-game comments on an LSU online forum: "It was very distracting. ... Please join me in voicing your displeasure." The posting included Web links to Ruby Tuesday and CBS corporate sites.

"Never before in history have consumers been able to spit back at marketers they way they have now," says BuzzMetric's Kalehoff.

But the onslaught goes on. Driving it, Crain says: "Desperation."

Marketing under pressure

Companies are under more pressure than ever to deliver rosy quarterly results, and top marketing executives have less time than ever to prove their mettle. The average tenure of a chief marketing officer at a major U.S. company has declined to 23.2 months, according to search firm Spencer Stuart.

It's no wonder they'll sign off on increasingly bizarre ideas.

For instance, a recent promotion for the Paramount Pictures film Jackass: Number Two appears on urinal mats when the mat is hit with a stream of "number one."

Even conservative Procter & Gamble (PG) has loosened up. It put print ads for Crest Night Effects whitening gel inside women's restroom stalls — at eye level when the user sits down.

"Marketers are saying, 'We must be more innovative — to zig when others zag,' " says Richard Notarianni, executive creative director of media at ad firm Euro RSCG.

"The industry is desperate to find clever ways to reach people, whether or not it has any legitimate value. ... When someone says, 'Let's put advertising in bathroom stalls,' another says 'That's great. It's a captive audience.' "

'Your brand here'

The desperate ad buyers are finding willing co-conspirators.

As more companies, cities, school districts — even individuals — hawk ad space, others feel as if they are leaving money on the table if they don't join in.

"This is about economics," says James Twitchell, consumer culture expert and author of Branded Nation and Adcult USA.

Elementary and high schools now pipe commercial radio onto buses and TV into classrooms. The Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona is one of several districts across the USA that has sold ads on the outside of school buses.

Taking a page from the pro-sports arena, schools also hawk naming right deals for facilities. In Sheboygan, Wis., two high schools just sold sponsorship rights to their cafes to Associated Bank.

In May, Robert Reames III, 27, a father of three girls who was looking for money to replace the family car, sold rights to a permanent tattoo on his neck to Web-hosting company Globat.

The company also bought a temporary tattoo ad on the pregnant belly of Asia Francis, 21, of St. Louis. Globat would not disclose what it has paid for "body art."

No space is too odd. US Airways (LCC) is in talks to sell ads on airsickness bags, spokeswoman Valerie Wunder says. It already makes about $10 million a year from ads on tray tables and napkins, she says.

"The game has become one of finding the next blank space that hasn't been covered," says Yankelovich's Smith.

Most marketing executives know they have a problem. Many of the firms that buy ads are the same ones that put out research reports on the dangers of deluging and angering consumers.

"Advertisers love to talk about advertising clutter," Twitchell says. "That's like the doctor shooting a patient up with amphetamines and then saying that the patient is acting really frenetic."

Hoping to get 'engaged'

In its search for salvation, the marketing industry has glommed onto the concept of "engagement" — a quality-over-quantity idea.

The basic theory: Instead of, for example, running dozens of radio ads, create messages that the consumer seeks out, such as an entertaining Web video, and perhaps even passes on to friends.

"Message clutter is not going to go away. If anything, it's going to proliferate," says Mike Donahue, executive vice president, American Association of Advertising Agencies. "If you're looking at 10 messages and two of them really involve you, engage you and connect with you, those ads will be less annoying and a lot more effective."

Andrew Hertz, 39, general manager of Miami Seaquarium, thinks they might be on to something.

"When advertisers make the ads fun and interactive, they're not so bad," he says, citing a Mini Cooper magazine ad that included stickers of fancy wheels and other accessories that consumers could peel off to customize the car on the page.

What Hertz can't stand: ads in his face, including Internet pop-up ads, and paper subscription cards that fall out of magazines. "The thing that annoys me is when advertising is intrusive," he says.

BuzzMetric's Kalehoff says marketers have to stop pitching so hard, fast, loudly and frequently.

Kalehoff says they need to understand — and respond to — gripes from frustrated consumers such as Hertz. Only then will they be able to produce marketing that sells, he says.

"If you want to make friends with your customers, you have to stop hitting them over the head."

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

Dan Belmont, chief marketing officer of The Marketing Arm, an Omnicom Group agency, argues that annoying consumers isn't the way to persuade them.

"It just wears us out," said Belmont, who serves as chairman of the experiential marketing council for the Advertising Research Foundation. "Stop screaming at us and start engaging us."

In Tom We Trust: Which Celebrities Americans Trust the Most

2006-10-13T17:00:00.000-05:00

Say-so: In Tom we trust

12:48 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 3, 2006

By KIM HARWELL / Special Contributor

I suppose that, under the right circumstances, I would let Tom Hanks baby-sit my little boy.

He seems like a nice enough fellow; it looks like he did a pretty good job with his son, Colin; and he does have all those shiny Oscars that The Boy could play with. So what’s not to like?

Not much, according to a 2006 ranking of celebrity trustworthiness as determined by entertainment marketing agency Davie-Brown Talent and reported on Forbes.com. The so-called Davie-Brown Index, or DBI, evaluates celebrities’ appeal based on a number of key attributes that include trendsetting, influence, awareness and trust.

And who, pray tell, was voted No. 1 on the trust portion of the DBI? None other than our bosom buddy Tom — Hanks, that is. (I assume Tom "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance" Cruise ranked somewhere between Mel “I feel fortunate that I was apprehended” Gibson and Paris “I’m going to be celibate for a year” Hilton” on the believability meter.)

Many of the other Top 10 trustees come as no big surprise.

Really, who wouldn’t feel safe loaning their car to Ron “Opie” Howard, who comes in on the list at No. 8?

Would anyone have a problem letting Oprah borrow a benjamin? Certainly not the folks who helped her climb the list to the No. 4 spot.

The only shock at reading that Morgan Freeman landed at No. 9 was that he didn’t place higher: Did these people not see Bruce Almighty? You’d think that the guy who played God would get more respect than seventh-place Ty Pennington.

Still, would I trust Mr. Extreme Makeover to re-sheetrock my bedroom? You betcha.

Behavioral psychologists have opined that we average Joes and Janes place our trust in these famous strangers — actors in particular — because subconsciously we equate their onscreen personas with the people they really are offscreen. Thus Tom Hanks becomes the consummate everyman who is friend to children (Toy Story), perky blondes ( Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail) and volleyball (Cast Away) alike, and Christopher Walken becomes that creepy guy you hope never shows up on your doorstep with a family heirloom (Pulp Fiction ).

Non-list-dweller Ben Affleck seems to have bought into this concept — or at least its reverse corollary. The actor and onetime tabloid staple has recently espoused the idea that his recent career setbacks (see Gigli, Paycheck, Jersey Girl, Surviving Christmas, et al) can be traced back to public fatigue of the media saturation surrounding his private life (see Bennifers I and II) rather than his own poor script choices and hammy acting (again, see Gigli, Paycheck, Jersey Girl, Surviving Christmas, et al).

It’s an interesting theory but one that might call into question the DBI positioning of America’s fifth-most-trustworthy celebrity, James Earl Jones. Surely if we as a nation can trust the voice of one of the country’s most iconic evildoers (and I’m speaking of Darth Vader, not CNN), we can look past the nonstop coverage of Affleck’s latest Starbucks run to appreciate his dramatic work on its own merits. Then again, Darth Vader never had to live down Gigli.

Michelle Wie as celebrity pitch person

2006-10-13T16:53:00.000-05:00

A win may be Wie's birthday wish

By Ann Miller
Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer

When Michelle Wie blows out the 17 candles on her cake today, no one but the birthday girl will truly know her wish.

But her dreams have often been beyond our comprehension, as are her gifts for golf.

She intrigues us and transcends mere sport. She is revered and reviled. Wie, a year into her life as a golf professional and nine months from barely passing her driving test, still perceives no speed limits. She perceives no limits at all.

"I want Michelle's dreams to come true," GolfWorld Executive Editor Ron Sirak said, "because the most important lesson she has to teach us all is that what we achieve is limited in large part by what we believe we can achieve. She has enormous vision."

Many analyze the good fortune and misfortune of her first year as the prodigy pro in high definition. They detail her immense success on the LPGA tour but can't help wonder why she has yet to win. They recall the early breakthroughs against male competition and still cringe at the late frustration.

They remain in awe at the multimillion dollar endorsement contracts she smiled about that day just before her 16th birthday when she officially announced her professional debut. But they also wonder how any child can weather the tsunami of attention Wie routinely generates.

The Wies look at the last year as a blur.

"It has been a very special year," said her father, BJ. "To watch Michelle grow as a golfer and as a person this year is unlike any other experience Bo and I have ever had."

He calls the past year "one long highlight" interrupted only rarely by the difficulty of watching his daughter go through the "inevitable growing pains" in front of a still-fascinated world.

SHE DRAWS A CROWD

The fascination shows no sign of abating. When she plays, organizers estimate galleries are up as much as 50 percent, along with TV ratings. This for a child whose sole birthday request is to get a puppy.

"This 16-year-old chick is, herself, a happening," wrote Dan Jenkins in the May/June issue of Golf for Women. "She comes with looks, length, youth and incredible talent. One reason Wie can pack a house is because she's the potential Fem Tiger. But another reason is because golf fans are hungering for something unique, different, intriguing."

Her appeal continues to soar. The Marketing Arm in Dallas helps companies choose celebrities to endorse their products based on the celebrity's unique appeal. Wie ranks in the middle (No. 778) of the 1,500 famous people fed into its Davie-Brown Index, and 296th among women. More intriguing, her "appeal" rating is equal to Tiger Woods, who is ranked 14th overall and far ahead of any other golfer. Wie also rates higher than Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson.

"The net story on Michelle is that those who know of Michelle find her to be very appealing and certainly a good spokesperson," said Bill Glenn, Marketing Arm's Vice President of Strategic Insights and Analytics.

"That's not a huge surprise. She's young. People love young individuals excelling in their profession. People tend to look at them and wish I could have done that at 16. And there's certainly her appeal. You look at her on Letterman, and she's a very likeable person."

SPONSORS ENTHUSED

Sony and Nike, who bought their way into the Wie entourage a year ago with contracts estimated at a combined $10 million a year, have lost none of their enthusiasm.

Sony will start a Christmas blitz of print, online and store displays featuring Wie next month. It is her first solo and off-the-course campaign for the electronics giant, which sees her as "the consummate user of Sony products — that's her lifestyle," according to Stuart Redsun, Sony's vice president of corporate marketing.

Sony will concentrate more of its Wie efforts in Asia next year, according to Redsun. He characterizes the first year with Wie as "terrific" and sees her appeal touching golfers and beyond, as "someone youthful and exuberant and graceful to show our products."

Nike's interest is different. The athletic company asks for Wie's insights on equipment and apparel. Her universal appeal and global schedule have been featured in American print campaigns and television ads in the Asia-Pacific region. She has made appearances at retail stores, where her image is displayed.

The fact that Wie is a full-time student at Punahou School adds another element among Nike's predominantly full-time athletes. Cindy Davis, Nike Golf's U.S. general manager, said the company is "very mindful" of her part-time pro status in terms of how much and how she is featured.

"We've used her in a very inspirational way in our campaigns because Michelle is stepping out and doing things that not a lot of 16- and 17-year old girls do," Davis said. "We've definitely used her in regard to apparel and being a great image to wear and show our product to the marketplace."

Michelle Wie is 17. The pressure mounts. Surely she has a birthday wish beyond a puppy.

October 13, 2006

Informing, provoking, engaging people

2006-09-27T17:07:00.000-05:00

Making a New Connection

By ERIC FISHER
STAFF WRITER
SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Published September 25, 2006 : Page 21

AOL’s latest and perhaps most dramatic move — last month’s announcement that it was exiting the paid Internet service provider business to become a fully fledged Web portal — not only confirms a change several years in the making but also shakes up a sports sponsorship category already in deep transition.

Despite years of user defections, AOL still held a dominant 20 percent market share of the domestic paid ISP market before its announcement. Now out of that business — a business AOL turned into a national commodity to huge fanfare and acclaim — AOL is also done buying sponsorships and ad time within sports properties in order to sell online access.

Instead, AOL is aggressively pursuing true partnerships with teams and leagues to develop original content and draw users to AOL.com. A key example of the new strategy is a recent deal with the Washington Redskins to create social networking destinations called AIM Pages. Another is an agreement with the WNBA in which a more traditional sponsorship deal dating to 2000 has been morphed into a combination content and sponsorship pact that created a broadband video channel dedicated to WNBA programming.

The AIM Pages are part of AOL’s attempt to get more deeply involved in online social networking. The pages, somewhat similar to other sites such as MySpace and Facebook, will include personal profile pages, links to photos and news stories and discussion areas.

Company officials declined to specify the amount of monetary shift that is happening within its sports-related marketing efforts as a result of the new corporate strategy. But in general terms, it is safe to say that some dollars once spent to tout AOL as the best place to go for online access are now being spent on writers, designers and other sources of new content.

And more broadly, AOL is now much more in the business of selling space in the growing realm of online advertising than it is about buying it. Buyers of ad space within AOL’s sports content include Alltel and Verizon Wireless.

“We’re not going to live off deals where we’re just sending over oodles of traffic to a [sports] property in exchange for promotional rights. That’s just not our thing now,” said Neal Scarbrough, editor and general manager for AOL Sports, in part referring to the company’s now-expired sponsorship deal with the NFL. “The idea is to invest in our site and do the types of deals we need to create a place where we’re informing, provoking, engaging and entertaining people.”

End of the ISP category?

AOL’s evolution arrives just as the ISP category itself is morphing as a sponsorship sector. The days of selling a stand-alone ISP sponsorship exclusivity are all but over as major communications companies such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon are now selling integrated packages in which broadband Internet access is bundled with multichannel TV and wired phoned service.

“We’re all casting as wide a net as possible and not just sticking to our individual silos,” said Eric Fernandez, AT&T executive director for sponsorships and events. “AOL created a series of initial relationships and sort of captured the [ISP] category. But it’s become a very different business now.”

With the entire sales proposition to the consumer altered, so are the sponsorship investments. Now in vogue are broad-reaching team deals and building naming-rights pacts that include provisions to sell an entire suite of services, of which Internet access is only one part, and contain the ability to adjust specific marketing messages as desired — an important and useful attribute as the means of distributing content into consumer homes changes rapidly.

As a result of the sheer size and scope of those deals, the exclusivities included generally cover the entire communications industry.

Such thinking can be seen most notably in the five building naming-rights deals Comcast, AT&T and Verizon hold among them, including NBA/NHL facilities in Washington and San Antonio.

“This is a very blurred category now. The little guys, people like a Juno or a PeoplePC, have sort of been swallowed up by the huge players, and if they’re still doing things in sports, they’re having to go to the smaller properties,” said Bill Glenn, vice president of strategic insights and strategies for The Marketing Arm in Dallas.

And similar to AOL, content generation and distribution is also a key part of those large-scale deals from the larger players, such as AT&T’s recent introduction of “Game Day. Delivered,” a video offering in which college football fans can construct their own fan clips using official team assets such as logos and fight songs (see story, page 24), and Comcast’s 2005 deal to stream live NHL games at Comcast.net.

“There’s been a sort of shift in corporate thinking on this. As we’ve become more prevalent in Internet access, there are national sponsorships that we can now justify,” said Suzanne McFadden, Comcast vice president of marketing. “But a lot of what’s happening is still at a local level.”

Despite the advance of the large integrated players, there have been some more creative applications for pure-play ISP companies. Earthlink earlier this year sponsored a 15-week run on Fox SportsNet’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” creating the on-set Earthlink Internet Café that continued the show’s hallmark of creating extensive product placement opportunities. Buoyed by strong response to that effort, Earthlink executives now plan to deepen their spending within sports, though they declined to identify specific plans.

“We were certainly looking to do something a bit different on the show after a long run with alcohol brands, and they came in with an interesting approach,” said Adam Holzer, senior vice president of advertising sales for Fox SportsNet. “This is a company that hasn’t traditionally been a big spender on TV, so their involvement has been a big plus.”

Interest in AOL inventory?

Even with AOL shifting away from the traditional sports sponsorship arena, a clamor is not expected to pick up left-behind pieces, in part because there are not, at least not yet, many left-behind, national-level pieces to grab.

The company’s five-year promotional deal
with the NFL expired this year, and subsequent involvement for any online outfit is essentially on hold while the league reassesses its entire digital future. (CBS SportsLine.com earlier this year signed a short-term deal to produce NFL.com while the league assumes sales of its online ad inventory).

For the past several years, many NFL clubs have wanted to sell team-level ISP sponsorships and were frustrated they couldn’t because of AOL’s exclusivity. The waiting game is still in effect even post-AOL, as the NFL is asking clubs to stand down from pursuing the category as it pursues a new overall league deal. Whether that forthcoming pact will again preclude club deals is undetermined.

Beyond the WNBA relationship, AOL also still sponsors the NBA, acting as the league’s presenting sponsor for All-Star Saturday night. It streamed the PGA Championship online and was an active advertiser during the Fox telecast of this summer’s MLB All-Star Game. All of those relationships are expected to continue.

Which celebrities do we trust the most?

2006-09-27T16:57:00.000-05:00

The Ten Most Trustworthy Celebrities
Lacey Rose, FORBES, 09.25.06, 6:00 PM ET

Audiences adore Tom Hanks, whether he's playing a lawyer, a soldier or a wise-cracking cross dresser. And apparently, they trust him too--at least according to Davie Brown Talent's Celebrity Trust Index, which hails the Oscar-winning actor as the most trusted celebrity in America.

Unlike politicians, who we actually elect to control our destiny, Hanks and his Hollywood cohorts are merely there to entertain us. But more often than not, these performers--most of whom we only know through the roles they are paid to play--also garner our trust. In fact, says James Houran, a clinical psychologist who researches celebrity worship, "we will trust Brad Pitt if he tells us to do something before we will trust Sen. Ted Kennedy."

According to James Bailey, an organizational behaviorist at George Washington University, this behavior makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective. "Subconsciously, there are things going on here," he says.

Often we trust actors because of the characters they play on screen. Take Hanks. In one film after the next, we find ourselves rooting for him: as Andrew Beckett, an AIDS victim in Philadelphia; as Chuck Noland, a lone plane-crash survivor in Cast Away. In doing so, we subconsciously confuse--or even substitute--his onscreen persona for his real-world one, which we know little about.

Much the same happens with stereotypically dark character actors like John Malkovich or Dennis Hopper, but rather than boosting their likability and credibility, their disturbing roles can quickly make them seem menacing in real life.

Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, offers another evolutionary explanation. He claims that modern man--or at least, the brain of modern man-- hasn't adapted to, and thus can't fully comprehend, the concept of mass media. Instead, "our brain assumes that we are still living in the small hunter-gather bands we lived in more than 10,000 years ago," he says. "As a result, we assume any realistic images of human beings that we see repeatedly are real human beings. Our brain doesn't understand that these are actors playing roles on a drama or sitcoms, and we act as if they are trusted friends."

Neuroscientists offer yet another rationale, commonly referred to as the "mere exposure effect": the more we're exposed to something or someone, the more we like and trust it. When a media mogul like Oprah Winfrey constantly assaults our senses, appearing everywhere from live television to Broadway to the silver screen, her image begins to wear a neurochemical groove on our brain. Over time, repeated exposure to Oprah's image triggers a sense of comfort and trust when we see it. The more we see Oprah, the more we like Oprah--which explains why she ranks fourth on the Celebrity Trust Index.

Houran likens the trust sensation we experience with a celebrity to that of a consumer brand, like Nike or Coca-Cola. While we might initially be skeptical of something new, or simply uninterested, we develop an affinity and loyalty to the brand as we grow more familiar with it.

Celebrities' good looks matter too.

"Physical attractiveness is way more powerful than we think it is," says Bailey. "Attractive people have an emotional effect on us--a neurochemical release goes along with seeing them."

As a result, we tend to like attractive people more than we do unattractive people. When we recognize one positive attribute about a person, we tend to subconsciously assume they have many more, in what is often called the "halo effect." It's an easy jump from thinking Hollywood darling Reese Witherspoon is beautiful to thinking she is sweet, intelligent and trustworthy. (And apparently, we do. She's ranked tenth on the index.)

What about politicians? Why do we find them untrustworthy?

A lack of physical beauty in the political realm plays a role, says Bailey. "But more poignantly, it is the political necessity to be combative that diminishes politicians' general likability." In other words, we generally see politicians attacking each other, leading us to believe they are neither pleasant nor trustworthy characters. Add to that their power and control over us, and it's almost as if we're hardwired to resent them.

Politicians don't get the benefit of a second take, either. "Unlike the heavily edited images of Hollywood stars--who are almost always portrayed in the most positive light, both literally and figuratively--politicians don't get to be edited," says Bailey.

Is our intense affinity for and trust in celebrities harmless? Or unhealthy? Unhealthy, according to Houran.

"There is something wrong with the fact that we won't put our money in a 401(k), but we'll spend our extra income on eBay to get a celebrity signature or a half-eaten sandwich by Justin Timberlake," he says. "We confuse having a lot of information about a celebrity with having a relationship with them, and it's almost as if we forgo our real relationships for these false ones. We give celebrities false authority because of the way they look and because of how familiar they are to us."

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Woods, Agassi: Stay Tuned

2006-09-07T16:42:00.000-05:00

September 6, 2006
TV Sports
Woods and Agassi: Stay Tuned
By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Since his five-tournament winning streak began, Tiger Woods has demonstrated what television star power means.

And in his farewell to professional tennis at the United States Open, Andre Agassi mixed grit and charisma into a strong viewership potion.

Woods’s presence as the leader or a strong contender in the final round of a tournament has thrilled the networks that televise golf. CBS and ABC have been the most recent recipients of his magic.

¶In the final round of the British Open on July 23, ABC drew nearly 6.4 million viewers, up 6 percent from a year ago.

¶In the fourth round of the Buick Open on Aug. 6, he pushed viewership for CBS up by 3 percent from 2005, to 5.24 million.

¶His victory at the P.G.A. Championship on Aug. 20 led to a 29.5 percent leap in viewership, to 10.1 million, for the final round on CBS.

¶When he won the Bridgestone Invitational on CBS on Aug. 27, the 8.4 million watching the final round represented a 23 percent increase.

¶And when he won the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday, the overnight rating on ABC showed a 17 percent increase over a year ago, although viewership figures for the tournament were unavailable.

Agassi has never been as powerful an audience magnet as Woods or, before him, Michael Jordan, but his well-orchestrated goodbye and determined play despite a painful back attracted viewers.

¶Agassi’s win over Andrei Pavel, after the ceremony renaming the U.S.T.A. National Tennis Center for Billie Jean King, drew nearly 2.2 million viewers for the USA network, with a peak of 2.6 million from 12:30 to 1 a.m. The full night’s viewership rose 123 percent from 2005.

¶The Agassi-Marcos Baghdatis second-round match on USA attracted about 3.1 million viewers. The full night’s average viewership of 2.5 million represented a 203 percent increase over the comparable night a year ago.

¶Agassi’s loss to Benjamin Becker, carried by CBS on Sunday afternoon, was seen by 4.4 million people, and as many as 5.2 million at one point, raising the day’s average viewership to 3.7 million, up 41 percent from 2005.

¶Agassi’s most-viewed United States Open cable TV match was his quarterfinal loss to Pete Sampras in 2001, a major reason why that night’s prime-time block on the USA network attracted 4.6 million viewers, according to figures supplied by the network.

The ability of Agassi and Woods to drive up viewership could be seen in the Davie-Brown Entertainment Index, which surveys celebrity awareness and appeal. The index ranked Woods as the No. 1 athlete, and Agassi as the top tennis player.

AT&T promo turns football fans into video producers

2006-09-07T16:39:00.000-05:00

AT&T Promo Turns Football Fans to Video Producers

AT&T, Inc. is calling on college football fans to move from spectator to producer in a promotion that lets them create customized videos of their favorite football teams and a chance to win prizes.

Fans create videos of their favorite college football teams as part of AT&T promo
As part of the 2006 AT&T College Football Experience Tour program, fans can visit the Game Day Delivered Web site, Attblueroom.com/sports, to create a customized video "mash-up," which allows fans to combine content from several sources to produce a video, using team footage, school fight songs and team graphics. Users drag and drop elements to create a video and can upload their own photos to personalize them.

Meanwhile, AT&T subsidiary Cingular Wireless, lets customers text message their favorite team names to a short code using their Cingular phones and receive a password to unlock bonus team footage for their videos. The customized videos can be made of several colleges including UCLA, Ohio State, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Each week, AT&T will showcase new videos and recognize the producers on the Web site.

As a promotional overlay, consumers have a chance to win prizes by registering on the site, including tickets to upcoming college football games, team jerseys and hats, MP3 players and tailgating gear. The promotion ends Dec. 1.

"We were looking for an interactive opportunity to allow fans to gear up and get excited about game days," said Deborah Carranza, associate director sponsorship and events at San Antonio, TX-based AT&T. Consumers are incredibly passionate about their team and sport, and AT&T wanted an online channel for them to create these customized videos of their teams, she said.

The promotion is tied to AT&T's 2006 AT&T College Football Experience Tour, which kicked off on Sept. 2 at the Arkansas-Southern California football game. The centerpiece of the tour is a 53-foot interactive mobile unit, which will pull up at 16 college games through Jan. 1, 2007. Visitors can create their own video MASHup, play online gaming, catch AT&T's entertainment service called Homezone on large plasma screens, make local or long distance calls, use high-speed broadband to browse the Internet, send e-mails to family and friends, download select Cingular Wireless ringtones and win AT&T-branded merchandise.

Having the mobile unit outfitted with computers, TVs and wireless phones helps AT&T showcase its three-screen strategy to consumers, Carranza said.

"We want to build brand awareness, preference and selection in the market that we serve and the college football market is not specifically targeted to youth, but reaches a broad range of consumers," she said.

Print ads in each region the tour visits and online materials on ESPN.com and Rivals.com support. The Marketing Arm, Dallas, handles the promotion.

Reggie Bush as endorser

2006-08-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

Reggie Bush signs on Adidas line
Marketing - The NFL prospect will tout new apparel and work on a signature cleat
Thursday, April 27, 2006
HELEN JUNG
The Oregonian

Reggie Bush doesn't know for sure which football team he will be playing for next season, but this year's hottest NFL prospect has committed to carry the endorsement ball for Adidas.

Bush, widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in this weekend's NFL draft, will be the public face of the Adidas Group's football business, he and the company announced Wednesday. Along with promoting Adidas' new compression apparel line, Bush will collaborate with the sporting goods manufacturer on a signature cleat that will be available in 2007.

Although Adidas has focused less on football than basketball and running in the United States, its signing of Bush reflects the latest evolution in its strategy to catch industry leader Nike.

"We're signing one of the most revolutionary, innovative players to come around in a long long time," said Eric Liedtke, vice president for marketing for Portland-based Adidas America, the North American headquarters for the German company. "We think he can help redefine the sport."

Terms of the multiyear deal were not released. A report earlier this month in Sports Business Journal pegged the long-rumored agreement to be worth about $1 million a year.

In a way, Adidas' landing of Bush is a surprise considering the company holds a distant second in market share for football cleats to Nike. Bush, while at University of Southern California, wore Nike cleats as part of the school's sponsorship deal with the company, based near Beaverton.

Although Nike courted Bush, the athlete said he was attracted to Adidas in part by its commitment to make him as the centerpiece of its football campaign.

"It felt like I would have more leeway with Adidas. . . . They just didn't have 10, 20 guys already," said Bush. Nike has endorsement deals with NFL players including the Atlanta Falcons' Michael Vick, the Chicago Bears' Brian Urlacher and the Pittsburgh Steelers' Troy Polamalu.

Adidas plans to start using Bush in its promotions as soon as possible, Liedtke said. In addition to footwear, Adidas plans for Bush to market its new Powerweb line of tight, high-tech apparel that athletes can layer under their uniforms or wear alone.

The compression apparel segment -- dominated by Baltimore-based Under Armour -- has rapidly grown into a half-billion-dollar subcategory in the athletic apparel and footwear industry, said Matt Powell, a footwear analyst and contributing editor to industry newsletter Sports Executive Weekly. Nike responded with its Pro line, while Adidas, which has little market share in the space, is rolling out its Powerweb line.

Under Armour holds about an 80 percent share in retail sales of compression apparel, according to Powell.

Adidas' Powerweb hit retailers' shelves several weeks ago, Liedtke said.

Compression apparel

Compression apparel represents a larger market than that for football shoes -- which, unlike basketball sneakers, aren't worn to school or other off-field destinations, Powell said. That accounts for the lower endorsement dollars that football players typically fetch.

That said, it's unclear how effective Bush will be in helping Adidas grab business from Under Armour, which has been very protective about its huge market share, Powell said. Under Armour has been popular not because of celebrity endorsements but because of loyalty from players.

"I think Under Armour's ability to hold on to its share is its strong grass-roots connection," he said. "I'm not sure an athlete endorsement here is what's required."

Bush, as a well-known name in the widely watched NFL, can help push Adidas' brand outside of football, said Joseph Anthony, chief executive of Vital Marketing LLC, a New York agency that specializes in sports and entertainment marketing.

"Someone of his caliber is going to find his way onto every ESPN highlight," he said.

Celebrity status

Bush still has a way to go before he becomes a commonly recognized celebrity, said Scott Sanford, senior client director of Davie Brown Talent, which helps companies sign endorsers.

Sanford is not worried so much about his ability to make the leap from college football, he said, saying "it would be shocking to so many people if Reggie were one of those" who failed to make it on the pro level. But to the average American consumer, Bush is not an instantly recognized face, he said -- something that can be changed depending on how much Adidas puts into promotions.

Bush, who on the field wore tape under his eyes with the number 619 -- the area code for his hometown near San Diego -- said he hopes Adidas will incorporate the number in its marketing with him.

Although he did not have specific thoughts on how the signature shoe would look, he said, "We're going to do what we can. I think the most important thing is . . . how can we make this shoe different from the rest, how can we make this shoe successful . . . in comparison with basketball shoes."

Building buzz on the beach for Broadway show

2006-08-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

Something wicked is brewing on New York and New Jersey beaches.

In an effort to generate buzz around the Broadway hit Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, brand ambassadors are hitting the sand to dole out Wicked-branded premiums. Street teams will give Wicked-branded hand fans and green zinc oxide to thousands of New York and New Jersey beachgoers.

The campaign, which kicked off in July, runs through Sept. 4. A schedule of the beach visits is available at WickedTheMusical.com. USM&P, Marina Del Rey, CA and ipsh!, San Francisco, divisions of The Marketing Arm, handle the effort with Serino Coyne, New York City.

The goal is to "keep the brand top of mind with consumers," said Arthur Kaplan, director of business development for USM&P. Wicked follows the story of two different girls who meet in Oz and develop a friendship, only to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

The beach effort dovetails with a larger program, Wicked Day, to celebrate the third anniversary of Wicked's Broadway run this fall. On Oct. 29, USM&P and Serino Coyne will launch a Wicked Day street fair outside Gershwin Theater in New York City, with interactive games, Wicked food and drinks and a singing contest.

Before the big event, Serino Coyne will rollout a Be Wicked Singing Contest this fall in which fans sing songs from Wicked for a chance to win tickets to the show and compete in the contest grand finals. Fans can send in a DVD or VHS recording of their Wicked song performance. Consumers vote on the top 10 candidates in four designated regions to determine the finalists, who will perform live at Wicked Day in October. Contest details are available at Wicked-Week.com/contest. USM&P will assist in the contest.

The magneticism of Tiger Woods

2006-08-03T10:29:00.000-05:00

THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published August 3, 2006

It's simple math: A golf tournament, plus Tiger, equals good ratings.

Broadcasters and fans have known that since Tiger Woods sprang onto the golf scene a decade ago. But the absence of Woods in several key events this year has underscored how much his presence controls the viewing habits of sports fans.

Final round ratings for the U.S. Open on NBC in June were down 16 percent from last year as Woods missed the cut in his first tournament following the death of his father, Earl. Ratings for the Masters on CBS, in which Woods finished third but never truly contended, were off by 14 percent in the final round.

Meanwhile, the British Open, which Woods won last month, scored a 5.0 rating for its final round on ABC, up 2 percent over last year.

"People are drawn to his dominance and what he's going to do next," said Scott Sanford, senior client director for Davie-Brown Talent, an agency that helps corporations sign with celebrity endorsers. "People are drawn to someone who can just put themselves on a different plateau. Tiger's just got something about him. [Michael] Jordan had it. Lance Armstrong had it. Muhammad Ali had it."

And this weekend, CBS hopes to have it. The network will broadcast the final two rounds of the Buick Open. Woods is playing in the Grand Blanc, Mich., event for the fifth consecutive year.

Over the years, tournaments with Woods in contention have 10 percent to 20 percent higher television ratings than those without. And the exposure for sponsors, particularly Nike, can be worth $10 million for a big tournament, according to one report.

But this year, Woods has played in only 10 events and just three since the Masters in April. Woods went nine weeks without entering a tournament as he dealt with his father's death. During his absence, several key tournaments Woods normally enters saw major ratings drops. Sunday ratings for the Wachovia Championship in May were down 32 percent, while the Memorial saw a 39 percent dip in viewers.

Overall, ratings for golf on CBS and ABC are down more than 10 percent from this point last year, and ratings on NBC are down 3 percent.

It hasn't helped that the non-Tiger events have been won by a host of relative newcomers with little following, including J.B. Holmes, Chris Couch, John Senden and Brett Wetterich. And in six of those nine events, the winner prevailed by five strokes or more.

But this year's ratings dip clearly has not scared broadcasters away from the sport. CBS will expand its coverage from 16 events to 19, and NBC will broadcast 10 events instead of five. Meanwhile, the Golf Network is locked in to a 15-year contract as the PGA Tour's exclusive cable provider, and ABC will show the British Open through 2009.

"There's no question that having Tiger on the leader board has an effect on the ratings," said Brian Walker, Sports spokesman for NBC Sports. "That being said, NBC is bullish on golf in general as evidenced by our recent extension agreements with the PGA Tour, USGA and PGA of America, which will more than double our golf coverage beginning next year."

And as long as Woods continues to swing the club, no one will complain.

"[Woods] is in the middle or the peak of what looks to be a long, successful career," said Eric Wright, vice president of research and development at Joyce Julius and Associates, an Ann Arbor, Mich., company that measures the impact of sports sponsorships. "You look at Michael Jordan in his prime. ... Tiger Woods is every bit of that and more."

Bringing a dying brand back to life...

2006-08-02T13:19:00.000-05:00

CNBC’s Darren Rovell reported that with “gratuitous placement of its logo all over” “Talladega Nights,” Wonder Bread could become “top of mind again.” Rovell: “The best part: it’s all free — Wonder Bread officials simply giving Sony Pictures the rights to use its logo.” Davie-Brown Entertainment President Tom Meyer said Wonder Bread could receive “probably in the tens of millions, if not a hundred million dollars, worth of media value; and then when you add on top of that the relevance that you get for being connected to such a popular guy like Will Ferrell — the value to this is almost limitless.” Rovell noted Wonder Bread parent company Interstate Bakeries “still hasn’t emerged from the bankruptcy protection it entered into in September 2004” (“On The Money,” CNBC, 8/1).

How a crash can influence attitudes...

2006-08-01T15:21:00.000-05:00

This article is several years old, but it's an interesting example of how events influence public opinion:

On-Track Tragedy May Create Hazard For Future Nascar Sponsorships
Brandweek, by Hilary Cassidy

Even though most Nascar promotions will continue unabated, the on-track death of racing star Dale Earnhardt has sparked a lot of hand-wringing in marketing circles, with sponsors taking a closer look at their decision to partner with an inherently dangerous sport even as it has finally garnered more attention from mainstream audiences.

Sponsors with marketing programs tied to Nascar--and especially Earnhardt--have been forced to tweak in-store materials, or literally switch gears mid-program. It's a predicament few would have expected when they agreed to sign onto a sport better known for high speeds and cheering crowds.

"There is a reevaluation of Nascar sponsorships going on in some circles," said Mike Bartelli, vp-Millsport Motorsports, a unit of the Millsport sports marketing agency." I'm unaware of any company that's made the decision to leave or has changed its position, but we're seeing managers being asked if they've really thought through the implications for the brand, and if they have a plan in place, in the event of a tragedy."

For marketers, Earnhardt's death puts them in uncharted territory. The closest parallel is, perhaps, the 1999 death of golfer Payne Stewart, but that happened away from the golf course and he did not command the sponsorships or the extensive marketing empire that auto racer Earnhardt did.

"From the sponsor standpoint, the risk isn't necessarily the danger of negative ruboff on the brand because of the association with tragedy" said Bartelli. "But what happens when you invest millions of dollars behind a driver and just like that, he's gone?"

Coca-Cola, which is featuring Earnhardt among 11 Nascar drivers in TV ads, POP and on vending machines, pulled one spot last week. But it allowed bottlers to decide whether to pull store materials, some of which became centerpieces of impromptu fan tributes.

Can NASCAR sell white bread?

2006-08-01T15:16:00.000-05:00

Sony's 'Talladega Nights'
Comedy Is a Product-Plug Rally

By KATE KELLY and BRIAN STEINBERG
July 28, 2006
The Wall Street Journal

Over two long days last summer, marketing executives paraded through a trailer at a Chicago racetrack, the site of the USG Sheetrock 400. There, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was pitching its top sponsors on a tempting proposition: the chance to lock down high-profile product placements in a feature film about Nascar racing in the works at Sony Corp.: "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby."

Sarah Nettinga, managing director of film, television and music entertainment for Nascar, had pored over the movie script and identified every page with a potential promotional opportunity. In Chicago, she approached the organization's existing sponsors, including Sprint Nextel Corp., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Unilever, on the cross-promotional possibilities within the movie, ranging from logos on the racers' suits to the burgers and pizza served at one character's dinner table.

Sony says it didn't make advertisers any promises, but Ms. Nettinga's offer indicated the company was remarkably open to suggestions. "It was literally, 'The producers pitched the story, and do you have any thoughts on where you would like to fit in?'" she recalls. Her role became so important to the making of the movie that it garnered her an executive-producer credit. Nascar also offered the filmmakers wide-ranging advice on the cars and racing, but it doesn't share in any profits.

The resulting film, a comedy starring Will Ferrell that opens in U.S. theaters next Friday, is one of the most in-your-face efforts ever to cross-promote consumer brands in a movie, and vice versa. Just as Nascar itself blankets every inch of its cars, drivers and racetracks with ads and logos, so does "Talladega Nights."

There are 10 "promotional partners" whose brands make a prominent appearance in the film -- not necessarily more, but definitely more obvious, than the product placements in a typical movie these days. And in a bow to an unusual request from a key sponsor, Mr. Ferrell appears as Ricky Bobby, at times fumbling with his cellphone in the shower and in bed, in three Sprint television commercials and five promotional videos for cellphone users.

It's all part of the effort to sell "Talladega Nights," made at a cost of $73 million, to a mass audience and bring burgers, cellphones and sports drinks along for the ride. At a time when audiences are tuning out traditional ad campaigns and online marketing is intensifying competition between brands, the spirited I'll-plug-your-product-you-plug-mine behind "Talladega Nights" could be the pace car for a new wave of cross-promotional vehicles.

"Our job is always to find a unique way to make sure that the public is listening to our message," says Valerie Van Galder, president of marketing for Sony Pictures Entertainment. "At this point, it's anything you can do to cut through the clutter."

Mr. Ferrell's Sprint spots are but one aspect of the promotional juggernaut. As Ricky Bobby, Mr. Ferrell wears a racing suit festooned with more than half a dozen brands, including Wonder Bread, Goodyear and Coke's Powerade. His archnemesis, a French racer named Jean Girard, is backed by Perrier.

Meanwhile, plugs for "Talladega Nights" are starting to multiply on products and in stores. Grocery stores are now stocking shelves with "Talladega" and Nascar branded hot dogs. Displays at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from Unilever's Country Crock spread plug the movie, too. Nascar's online store is peddling "Talladega" merchandise, including a free poster with orders of caps, T-shirts and other Nascar gear.

The blitz comes as movie audiences have grown weary of -- if not offended by -- the current of logos and branded products that runs through many movies. Helping power the stream is the common fear among movie stars that hawking consumer goods in the U.S. is bad for their image -- a theme that was the basis for the popular 2003 film "Lost in Translation," about a disaffected American actor in Tokyo to film commercials for a Japanese liquor.

Mr. Ferrell entered the ad blizzard with his eyes open. He decided it was OK to appear in the Sprint spot in the context of his bumbling character, says Jimmy Miller, the actor's manager. "As long as [the ads] were the kind of comedy Will likes to do, it was easy," he says.

Marketers who worked on "Talladega" say Nascar's unapologetic embrace of advertising in real life -- where cars, racetracks and drivers' suits are wall-to-wall logos -- helped make the film an ideal forum for high-profile plugs.

"If it didn't have a lot of brands or logos on it, then it wouldn't be considered authentic," says Tom Meyer, president of Davie-Brown Entertainment, an Omnicom Group Inc. company that specializes in linking advertisers with movies.

Executives at Sony Pictures approached Nascar, based in Daytona Beach, Fla., about being involved with the film well before principal photography began. "They instantly got it," recalls George Leon, head of consumer marketing at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Nascar officials identified the existing sponsors who might be interested in "Talladega" placements, he says -- and "from there it was a tag team."

Sony was open to almost any sort of cross-promotional idea within the movie or its prerelease marketing campaign, Mr. Leon says. But there was one option that was never on the table: paying cash in exchange for the movie exposure. Sprint and others "didn't get to hand select where their placement was," he says, "but they knew that they would be part of this recreation of the Nascar world."

The biggest get of all the "Talladega" advertisers may well be Interstate Bakeries Corp., whose familiar blue-yellow-and-red logo for Wonder Bread is emblazoned across the chest of Mr. Ferrell's racing suit and across the hood of his car.

Wonder Bread, which isn't an existing Nascar sponsor, hasn't had such a prominent placement in a movie before, says Norm Marshall, chief executive of NMA Entertainment, which negotiated Wonder's appearance.

Long before detailed discussions with potential sponsors began, Adam McKay, who directed and co-wrote "Talladega Nights," had already written the all-American white bread into the script. With the company's blessing, Wonder Bread appears on Ricky Bobby's uniform and in movie-related merchandise. "That's accidental fortune," says Davie-Brown's Mr. Meyer.

Who cares about the 30-second commercial?

2006-08-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

Networks Say TV Ads Still Matter
The Los Angeles Times

At a news conference in New York, network research chiefs said there was increasing evidence that viewers who have the machines watch significantly more television than people who don't. Not only that, they said, users watch plenty of ads rather than zip through them using the fast-forward button.

"The advertising value is growing in these shows, it's not getting less," David F. Poltrack, CBS Television executive vice president for research and planning, said in an interview.

The view presented by networks was undeniably self-serving since commercial spots are the bread and butter of the TV business. But executives sought to use new research to poke holes in the notion that when technology makes it easier to skip over ads, people will stop watching them altogether.

But Tom Meyer, president of Davie-Brown Entertainment, a Los Angeles firm that seeks to integrate products into shows, said that even if significant numbers of DVR owners watched ads, networks still must come up with additional forms of revenue.

"It's a fact that consumers are using technology to evade advertising," Meyer said. "Advertisers pay for on-air mentions because they want to make sure that consumers are taking in their message and not zipping through it."

Changing minds one cellphone at a time

2006-08-01T14:54:00.000-05:00

Off the Hook!
by Steve Smith, August 2006 issue
Mobile Marketing Gets Creative

Remember all those crappy banner ads in the 1990s, when it seemed that any intern with html skills could become an interactive account executive?

You’re not likely to see the same mistake with the emerging mobile platform. Even at this nascent stage, the creative juices are gushing from seasoned teams that are thinking hard about the unique interactive aspects of this platform.

The industry’s best minds know the world doesn’t need another ringtone, wallpaper, or short-code sweepstakes. The most creative mobile executions these days aggressively explore the wireless device itself — what the technology does, where it does it, and how marketing messages can be integrated into our most intimate communications habits.

Consumers Chasing Ads

Why spend millions to create wireless ads when consumers can make them for you? A year after its successful run, Pontiac’s “Catch a G6” contest remains a mobile marketing milestone. By asking users to snap and submit wireless phone-camera images of the new G6 model on the streets, this brilliant Digitas campaign didn’t pull or push — it just invited consumers to the brand. The “Catch a G6” campaign pulled off one of the toughest stunts in modern marketing: making a new car model stand out and get noticed.

And why have your audience skim your print ad when you can entice them to seek it out? Before its demise this year, ElleGirl magazine had teen readers enter contests by snapping and sending images of sponsors’ print ads to marketing partner Mobot.

The innovative “visual search” technology ran the submission against an image database to match photos with one of 25 brands including Neutrogena, Target, and Maybelline. The branding bump was substantial, according to ElleGirl research: Purchase intent rose 28 percent, aided recall 33 percent.

Better yet, teens liked taking pictures of ads. The average participant submitted 22 entries a month, and 96 percent said they were likely to try such a promotion again. Lesson learned: Don’t interrupt — facilitate. Give the mobilistas reasons to use technology the way they want to use it.

Please God, Not Another Ringtone

Few mobile marketing tools wore out their welcome as quickly as the ubiquitous, cloying ringtone. The AxeBootyTones promotion, developed for Unilever’s Axe body spray by San Francisco-based agency Ipsh, enhanced the medium by linking tracks from the likes of Def Leppard and ac/dc to entries in a would-be Lothario’s little black book. Each tune accompanies a different “type” (i.e., “The Tease” calls up the “Mission Impossible” theme), so a user can assign rings and personae to names in his contact list. The campaigned leveraged the cell phone’s intimacy by letting its young male target live the fantasy of being the kind of man who needs a “little black book.”

If you absolutely must have a branded ringtone, consider J. Walter Thompson’s concept for Ford Mustang: a ringtone in which the Mustang’s engine played the national anthem. Now that’s original.

Location, Location, Location

In-venue, text-to-screen messaging has also emerged as a powerful way to engage the mobile crowd. For sponsors ranging from local radio stations to wireless carriers, Vibes Media runs programs that enable rock concert attendees to trade messages and even post phone-cam snaps on the venue’s screens.

One cad at a Hoobastank concert even used an in-venue text-message application to break up with his girlfriend. His sendoff was followed by countless messages with pickup lines from other guys.

“It tells a pretty good tale,” says Alex Campbell, Vibes cofounder. “People are sitting there with all of this technology and wondering what they can do with it.”

The Longest Text Tale Ever Told

With more than 2,100 possible short message service (SMS) replies in its script, this summer’s mobile campaign for the sequel to “Pirates of the Caribbean” brought messaging to an epic scale, with each SMS clue offering multiple replies and plotlines.

The strategy served two masters well: It promoted SMS usage outside of its youthful demographic and initiated off-portal content distribution for co-sponsor Verizon Wireless. For Disney, it brought moviegoers back into the “Pirates” world before the premiere. The “Pirates” effort constitutes the largest scripted SMS execution to date — and a demonstration of what might be called advertising on demand.

Getting Our Voice Back

In the rush to innovate, marketers have seemingly overlooked mobile’s obvious core asset — voice. But this may well be the year of the celebrity callback.

Simon & Schuster and FlyTXT used mobile to tout Stephen King’s latest novel earlier this year. For Elizabeth Arden’s Fantasy Britney Spears fragrance, Ipsh created a campaign in which Ms. Spears’ voice announces: “Hey, hottie, your phone’s ringing.”

The voice channel has also become a popular tool for in-venue promotions. Attendees at the recent Austin City Limits Music Festival received recorded calls from their favorite performers as they left the concert. Tyson Foods lured 57 percent of cell phone users attending the U.S. Gymnastics Championship to direct-dial into a contest for better seats and a call from a star gymnast.

The wireless platform could well prove to be the most accessible next-generation technology yet. At least everyone knows how to dial a phone.

Celebrities and consumer trust

2006-08-01T14:47:00.000-05:00

The Celebrity Trust Index

Sophisticated celebrity-ranking survey shows which famous people Americans feel most influenced by as brand-shills, and why. (New York celebs are usually less well-liked.)

By Duff McDonald
The New Yorker

Just what’s wrong with the famous people of New York, anyway? According to what’s being touted as the most sophisticated metric of a celebrity’s “ability to influence consumer purchase intent,” the brand-new Davie-Brown Index, our local stars come up short.

The DBI, which was introduced February 13, goes a step beyond the 41-year-old Q rating—which is based on two factors, how many people have heard of Celebrity X and how many people name him or her as one of their favorites—by surveying 1.5 million Americans to score the boldfaced on eight key attributes: “appeal,” “notice” (their pop ubiquity), “trendsetter” (their position as such), “influence” (do they have any?), “trust,” “endorsement” (spokespersonability), “aspiration” (do we want his or her life?), and “awareness” (expressed as a percentage). The scores are then cross-referenced in a database that supposedly will help advertisers decide who among a list of more than 1,500 celebrities will help them hawk their wares. Access costs $20,000 a year.

“It provides a systematic approach for quantifying and qualifying the use of celebrities,” boasts Davie-Brown Talent president Jeff Chown. Thanks to the DBI, ad agencies can be reminded of that which we all know, that Tom Hanks (No. 1) and Oprah Winfrey (No. 2) rule the world, followed by: Bill Cosby, Michael J. Fox, Michael Jordan, Robin Williams, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, and Tiger Woods. Or discover that Dolly Parton still ranks among the top-ten females. “I think it will be incredibly valuable when we look to marry various celebrities with various brands,” says BBDO New York president John Osborn, whose company has already subscribed. “This tool enables you to go much deeper” than Q Scores, he adds.

Local celebs don’t fare well. Michael J. Fox is our top male. And Whoopi Goldberg (last seen touting Slim-Fast) is our top female, clocking in at 21. Only Tom Brokaw and Bobby De Niro (who’s done AmEx) crack the top twenty of either sex. Even Donald Trump is stuck at 103, which he found outrageous. “I want to know who did this survey,” he says. “It’s ridiculous. I don’t agree with it. Give me a break.”

As for Paris Hilton (229): 84.8 percent of respondents have been unable to escape being aware of her—which doesn’t mean they like her (44.3) or trust her (36.7). But Carl’s Jr., who had her wash a car in their ad, has no regrets. “It was a hot, spicy burger; she looked hot in the ad,” says Brad Haley, executive vice-president of marketing. “Her tagline was ‘That’s hot!’—that was pretty much the thought process behind the ad. I don’t think you want to make too much of a science out of this kind of thing.”

More from marketing guru Ray Clark

2006-08-01T14:46:00.000-05:00

AdAge, Madison & Vine

January 25, 2006
The Marketing Arm's Ray Clark Sees It All as Entertainment Marketing
By Marc Graser

Who: Ray Clark, founder and CEO of Omnicom's The Marketing Arm.

Why you need to know him: Mr. Clark's led Marketing Arm's charge to provide branded content, product integration and talent/music licensing for clients such as Frito Lay, Pepsi, AT&T, Yahoo and Lucky Brand. Omnicom agencies Davie-Brown Entertainment, Millsport, USM&P and ipsh! operate as part of Marketing Arm's network.

Credentials: Mr. Clark represented athletes' marketing rights and ran events and promotions before starting Marketing Arm in 1993 at the age of 28.

Explain how Marketing Arm's network of companies work together. What role does TMA play? "The Marketing Arm primarily serves our four business units in two ways: One, we provide centralized agency resources such as creative, insights and analytics, new business, integration, and back office functions. Two, as an umbrella brand, the Marketing Arm is the go-to-market strategy that represents a seamless, high-octane, multi-dimensional service-offering unlike anything in the marketplace."

Does the Marketing Arm have specific clients it works with, or do all of the companies in the network share the same clients? "Purposely, each of the Marketing Arm's four business units have their own P&L, clients and brand identity. All revenue and expense flows through the business units. Currently, we have 90 brand clients and 700 employees."

What types of branded entertainment deals has the Marketing Arm recently brokered? Mr. Clark said that many of the "hundreds of television, film, music, wireless, talent, cause, gaming, sports, motor sports, events, 'retailtainment' and promotional programs" that Marketing Arm's companies have put together "look like branded entertainment," citing such recent examples as Aquafina's involvement at the Sundance Film Festival; celebrities secured for Super Bowl commercials; AT&T at the Olympics; or the creation of its music portal; as well as 'Star Wars' events at Wal-Mart and AT&T's holiday tie-in with Warner Bros.' 'The Polar Express.'

How do you measure the success of programs like these? "It depends on the program. Some are immediately quantifiable. The incremental revenue at Wal-Mart for the 'Star Wars' program blew my mind. Measurement seems to be perceived differently by each client. What we believe is that marketers will be forced to message differently if they want to (a) break through the clutter, and (b) change consumer behavior. Increasingly, marketers realize the platform has to deploy emotion, and that's our bull's eye. Our insights and analytics group is working to establish a more defined approach to determining success against our clients' objectives. The idea is that research will provide the clarity necessary to elevate a program's performance."

There is still some confusion as to what branded entertainment actually is. How do you define it? "I don't define it, and now I don't say it anymore. It might be popular, though, because the last time I was in L.A., I met a waiter, a doorman and a mailroom clerk who had each started their own branded entertainment firm. They all said it was going to be amazing, with lots of great meetings with their good friends at blah, blah, blah. It's really become a catch-all phrase for all things related to entertainment marketing."

What's the best example of branded entertainment that you've recently seen? "I'm entertained by brand-driven content all the time. I just saw the Mountain Dew Films' movie 'First Descent,' and it rocked. I crack up at the cavemen in the Geico commercials, and I think Gatorade nails it every time I see it on the sideline. It's all branded entertainment. Yikes, I just said it. The weekly talk show that Amazon just announced is pretty interesting. They've got a well-known host in Bill Maher and it makes a lot of sense because the guests and topics on the show will relate to items that -- big surprise -- that can be purchased on their site. It's a good example of entertainment marketing having a direct, immediate and measurable impact on sales."

And the worst? "Most marketing has little value. When I see a company sponsoring something, I ask, 'What does the brand bring to the party? Why should I care?' and 'Why are they there?' If I don't have good answers, it was a mistake."

What challenges still exist when putting together branded entertainment deals? "Let's face it: The easy way out is to produce a TV spot and buy a bunch of media, so most clients default to that idea, which is increasingly ineffective. The challenges are big, the risks are significant and high profile, and most clients don't have the stomach to champion such ideas."

How do you think the space will change? "With regards to all forms of content, an on-demand world will create more marketing challenges and opportunities than ever before. And, soon, the consultants who are pretenders and generalists will be kicked to the curb because the experts will have built a brand- and a user-friendly interface in which to serve as a conduit for brands and content. I think you'll begin to see more emphasis on measurement and evaluation."

What's the best lesson you've learned when it comes to branded entertainment? "There are a million ideas, but only a few people who can deliver."

What's on your TiVo? "'Arrested Development,' '24,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' 'Boston Legal' and, oh , 'Power Rangers,' 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and 'The Incredibles' -- over and over and over again."

What's on your iPod? "I have moods. My favorite is my Nirvana and Puddle of Mudd mood, but I'll flip from Lenny to Sade to Tupac to Justin Timberlake to Molly Hatchet to old-school Michael Jackson. Did I really just say Justin Timberlake? I did, what the heck. I like Kelly Clarkson, too."

What do you do on your downtime? "Play with my wife and two little boys. I've always liked to play any sport or game, and every week I try to catch one movie. Go see 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.' You'll be only the 100th person to see it and you'll laugh your ass off."

Marketing guru talks about the future of the field...

2006-08-01T14:43:00.000-05:00

SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY Goes One-on-One With The Marketing Arm’s Ray Clark

RAY CLARK is founder and CEO of The Marketing Arm, the entertainment, music and sports marketing services agency he founded in ‘93 and sold in ‘99 to Omnicom. Ranked No. 6 by PROMO magazine on its list of the top 100 promotional agencies, The Marketing Arm manages more than $200M annually in client programs via relationships with such industry titans as DDB, TBWA/Chiat/Day and BBDO and through its four business units: Millsport (sponsorship and sports consulting), USM&P (events), Davie-Brown (music and entertainment) and ipsh! (wireless marketing). Clark spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.

Q: EDWIN LAND, a physicist and the inventor of Polaroid photography, said, “Marketing is what you do when your product is no good.” Does that mean that a good product needs no marketing?

Clark: That’s like saying nurturing and cultivating are not necessary for a small child if the child is smart. To me, a brand is more like a living organism. It has a life of its own and has to be nurtured and cultivated on a daily basis.

Q: You once said that you could foresee a world in which traditional advertising would become increasingly irrelevant, where agencies less wedded to traditional marketing would be the ones that would prosper. Has that premonition proved to be true?

Clark: It’s been the model for our agency, and in two years we’ve gone from 55 employees to 700. That’s because marketers realize the big ideas are being launched off emotional platforms. And those platforms (sports, music, television, film, gaming) are where The Marketing Arm plays.

Q: Does marketing appeal more to emotions than to intelligence?

Clark: I don’t think there’s a clear difference between the two; I don’t think the two are opposites. In order to (1) break through the clutter of over 2500 marketing messages a day that are bombed on new consumers and (2) change consumer behavior, marketers [must] realize that they will have to play to a consumer’s existing affinities or emotions.

Q: Does emotion play a big role in marketing?

Clark: It does. And I think that marketers are realizing that more and more. Unless you play to the consumer’s existing affinities and emotions, then you have very little chance of breaking through the clutter, and you have even less chance of changing consumer behavior.

Q: On the sponsorship of college football bowl games, you said: “It’s not enough to simply sign on as a sponsor. Sponsors need to activate their sponsorships in creative ways that will actually change consumer attitudes and behavior.” That’s pretty ambitious. What sponsorships have been able to change consumer attitudes and behavior?

Clark: Nokia had an incredible run with the Sugar Bowl whereby it saw, year over year, impressive results that solidified that people positively changed their opinion of Nokia as a company and of its products because it was affiliated with the Sugar Bowl. And it was not just because it sponsored the game; it was because of all the things it did around the game: consumer contests, hospitality, signage -- a combination of a lot of powerful things.

Nokia Drops Sugar Bowl Sponsorship
Despite Successful Ten-Year Run
Q: And now Nokia has dropped that sponsorship.

Clark: Well, maybe they figured out that ten years is enough.

Q: DAVID OGILVY said, “I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support rather than illumination.” Is there an over-reliance on statistics in marketing?

Clark: I believe there is an over-reliance on research at corporate marketing departments. Most corporate decision-makers are risk-averse, and numbers give them the confidence to take some risks when they potentially may be wrong. Mass-media decisions, or more general marketing decisions, may be overly analyzed. However, I would argue that most sports marketing decisions are based on very little research and are overly instinctive or are due to the preference of the corporate decision-maker.

Q: You said, “League and team sponsorships are a bit stale and so are promotional ideas around them.” What’s the freshest idea in sponsorships?

Clark: I’m most intrigued and interested in brands developing their own content and in an authentic way customizing that content to a segmented consumer group.

Q: What does that mean?

Clark: It means developing customized television, film, music or sports, where they own it versus simply signing on to be one of a laundry list of league sponsors.

Q: Give me an example of a brand that has done that well.

Clark: Mountain Dew recently produced a snowboarding film that was incredibly well-produced and completely authentic to a core consumer group in a feature film called “First Descent.”

Q: Is that the ultimate in product placement?

Clark: I don’t know about that, but it’s a great way to appeal to a core consumer.

Q: Are there any marketing ideas that have outlived their usefulness?

Clark: I think that mass marketing in general is more and more a stale idea.

Q: Speaking of stale, the whole fixation on, or fascination with, Super Bowl ads seems so trite. Is imagination dead? Where is the creativity?

Clark: The platform of the Super Bowl has become so large, traditional 30-second commercials are having difficulty living up to it. I think you’ll start seeing branded messaging that does not look like 30-second commercials become the breakout messaging during future Super Bowls.

Q: The Washington Post last month cited unnamed marketing experts who said that the ‘06 Winter Games represent a new challenge in that “U.S. athletes must be marketed at a time when television ratings are falling, corporate marketing strategies are shifting and the battle for Olympic-related advertising is increasingly competitive.” How do you meet that challenge?

Clark: The bottom line is, winter Olympic athletes are on an infrequent stage and they have a tiny window in which to showcase both personality and winning. So, corporate marketers are going to be more resistant to winter Olympians than ever before because there are so many other alternatives that potentially could be more powerful due to frequency and success. Would you rather work with LEBRON JAMES or with the no-name luge medalist? I’d pick LeBron James if the audience was right.

Q: Who’s the next big marketable star: SHAUN WHITE? REGGIE BUSH? VINCE YOUNG? CHRIS PAUL?

Clark Feels Federer Could Be
Greatest Tennis Player Of All-Time
Clark: I’m a tennis fan, so I think Roger Federer is a huge opportunity for the right company. It won’t surprise me at all if he becomes the all-time greatest tennis payer.

Q: You said of next year’s NHL All-Star Game moving from the weekend to midweek, “I would cater to fans first, the corporate audience second, because fan interest is what drives the corporate interest.” Has the league lost sight of that?

Clark: In that particular case, I believe the league has lost sight of that.

Q: Is there a classic marketing campaign that you admire or wish you had participated in?

Clark: Like a lot of people, I admire most of what brands like Nike and Gatorade have done over an extended period of time. But recently I’m most impressed with what the new AT&T has done.

Q: What’s impressive about it?

Clark: AT&T succinctly told the story of two companies with different pedigrees coming together for the greater good of the consumer.

Q: What’s a marketing challenge -- in any area (sports, business, politics, entertainment) -- that you would be eager to accept?

Clark: I’d like to restructure every major element of how the major professional leagues operate, from compensation systems to fan influence to rules to how the leagues are marketed.

Q: The Yankees’ interlocking NY logo was judged recently to be the best of the 20th century. What makes it, or any logo, so memorable?

Clark: It’s not just design. It’s also about frequency and the brand attributes that live on a daily basis for the brand. In the case of the Yankees, they’re seen the most frequently of any other sports logo, and they’ve been seen winning more so than any other logo. Visibility and success. It’s no surprise that it received that rating.

Q: What brands need a fresh look?

Clark: I think the opportunity and challenge in front of Wal-Mart is extremely interesting. And more specifically in sports, [MLB], I believe, will face more challenges over the next ten years than any of the other major sports.

Q: Why MLB?

Clark: The way our society behaves is in contrast with how professional baseball is consumed. And, therefore, they have a problem with how it’s televised, the slowness of the game, and the general interests of a new generation.

Q: Why do consumers believe that a product is good simply because a famous athlete or a popular entertainer says so?

Clark: I think what celebrities do best is they get your attention and they can lend credibility to a message in certain cases. Again, it’s about breaking through the clutter. If a commercial comes on with scale talent vs. celebrity talent, you’re more inclined to lean just a little bit forward when the celebrity talent is in the commercial. It’s a proven fact, and I still believe in it.

How to market women's golf...

2006-08-01T14:39:00.000-05:00

The LPGA is counting on a new marketing push to take women's golf to the next level
By AMY CHOZICK
June 12, 2006
Wall Street Journal

When Carolyn Vesper Bivens began a career in marketing, she used her golf game to work her way up in the corporate world. Now, as the Ladies Professional Golf Association's new commissioner, Ms. Bivens is hoping her marketing background can help the LPGA work its way up in the sports world.

This new marketing effort comes at a pivotal time for women's golf. While the LPGA is still dwarfed by men's professional golf in terms of viewership, TV ratings and prize money, it has made some strides. The LPGA's television audience has increased 26% over the past four years, attendance has risen 18%, and the average tournament purse has increased by 16% to nearly $1.5 million, according to the LPGA.

But it doesn't hurt that these players also are attractive -- Ms. Gulbis is even considered a sex symbol. And Ms. Bivens, the LPGA's first female commissioner, is banking on that combination of talent and sex appeal to win over audiences.

With all the focus on the young players, some people worry that the LPGA may be overdoing the sex-appeal factor. There's a "fine line between sex object and athlete," and the LPGA's young stars need to be careful not to cross that line, says Donna Lopiano, chief executive officer at the Women's Sports Foundation, a nonprofit founded by tennis star Billie Jean King to advance women in sports. "Each player has to decide what they want to be remembered for. Unfortunately, in our society it only pays for women to be sex objects."

Some sports marketers liken the LPGA to the National Basketball Association in the early 1990s, when Michael Jordan's star power boosted the NBA's image. That image took a hit when Mr. Jordan eventually retired. And the NBA, they say, has been searching for a similarly charismatic star ever since.

Ms. Bivens "has to create a tour that is a viable sponsorship opportunity on its own," says Chris Smith, chief strategy officer at The Marketing Arm, a sports and entertainment marketer in Dallas. After all, he says, "Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer will eventually grow up."

Why sponsor a golf tournament?

2006-08-01T14:37:00.000-05:00

PLANO, Texas (AP) -- Electronic Data Systems Corp. was mired in bad contracts and doubts about the company's future when Michael H. Jordan took over three years ago.

A month after he arrived, a marketing director stunned him with more financial news. Already on its way to an $1.7 billion annual loss and virtually unknown to consumers, EDS had become the title sponsor of a PGA Tour event.

The $6 million annual contract with the Byron Nelson Championship barely registered on the company's financial radar, but it still left Jordan wondering, "Who made that decision?"

Title sponsorships usually belong to consumer-oriented companies -- retailers, banks, car manufacturers -- trying to reach the masses, not business-to-business corporations like EDS. But that's slowly changing, and becoming a means to entertain, build relationships and court business ultimately worth billions in sales.

"It's a good forum out of the normal day-to-day rush where you get to spend some quality time with them on business strategies and business issues," Candito said. "I'd like to sit down privately over a cup of coffee or dinner to talk with other customers and learn what they are doing to maximize the value of what they get with the relationship."

These meetings aren't to be underestimated, sports marketing executives said.

"Seven- to 10-digit sales are never easy, so everything helps," said Chris Smith of Dallas-based The Marketing Arm. "I can assure you they wouldn't be sponsoring the Byron Nelson if they weren't making money from it."

Sponsorships from companies like EDS, whose customers are other firms, are not new. These companies often are hosts of hospitality tents, and they buy advertising space on boards surrounding pro hockey rinks and soccer fields.

But to be the title sponsor is an emerging development. This year, EDS is among a handful of business-to-business title sponsors. It joins investment firms Deutsche Bank and FBR, insurance firm Zurich and consulting firms Accenture and Booz Allen. That's 13 percent of the 44 PGA Tour outings.

Aligning a brand with perceived winners...

2006-08-01T14:34:00.000-05:00

Wire story outlining how the NBA Finals match-up between Dallas and Miami will impact American Airlines, which sponsors both arenas:

DALLAS -- American Airlines will have the home-court advantage throughout the NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat -- its name adorns the arenas for both teams.

Experts say it's the first time that one company's name has appeared on venues for both ends of a major pro sports championship series in North America.

The best-of-seven series will test the theory that naming rights, which cost millions of dollars a year, have value beyond feeding corporate egos. It might even influence bidding to name new stadiums and arenas.

"For American Airlines, this is the perfect storm," says Bill Glenn, a vice president at The Marketing Arm, a Dallas firm that advises companies that buy naming rights. "You have two teams that epitomize success, with figures who represent strong leadership. Those are images any brand wants to be associated with."

To like or not to like: That's the question for Bonds

2006-08-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

Barry Bonds is clearly not someone who consumers like or trust. Note from the SF paper about his likeability:

While Barry Bonds awaits news from a grand jury investigation that ends today, the San Francisco Giants slugger clearly is on the outs with the American public.

Davie-Brown, a Dallas-based marketing agency that advises companies interested in using celebrities in advertising, asked a national sample of adults to rate the attributes of 1,500 actors, athletes, political figures and so forth.

The survey included seven major leaguers — Bonds, Johnny Damon, Vladimir Guerrero, Derek Jeter, Andruw Jones, Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez. Bonds, with notoriety for alleged steroid use amid his pursuit of Hank Aaron's home-run record, was recognized by 61 percent of the respondents.

In an indication that baseball is struggling to broaden its national appeal, Jeter was the only other player recognized by a majority of respondents. The survey was not limited to sports fans.

In Bonds' case, familiarity bred contempt. Of the 1,500 celebrities in the survey, the San Francisco Giants' slugger ranked No. 1,486 in likability, No. 1,488 in trust and No. 1,485 as an effective product spokesperson. Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey top the rankings.

"When a brand partners with a celebrity, they're borrowing that celebrity's equity," said Jeff Chown, president of Davie-Brown Talent. "Right now, consumer opinion of Barry Bonds does not support a brand partnering with him. Consumers are saying they know who he is and they don't like who he is."

Ali's company no longer "Greatest of All Time"

2006-08-01T14:28:00.000-05:00

Noticed that Muhammad Ali's company changed names. Here's an excerpt from the Louisville (Ky.) paper:

CKX Inc. said yesterday it has changed the name of Ali's G.O.A.T. LLC to Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC.

G.O.A.T. stands for "Greatest of All Time," and has been Ali's licensing company for years.

Jeff Chown, president of Davie-Brown Talent in Dallas, translated that.

"I think what they're trying to do is make it easier for people to get in contact with them," said Chown, whose company has recruited Ali for endorsements. "If they're trying to make it more accessible to business people, it's going to be easier to find Muhammad Ali Enterprises than G.O.A.T."

Ali ranks 70th out of 1,510 celebrities in Davie-Brown's endorsement index.

"Consumers view Muhammad as a viable spokesperson," Chown said. "He can change consumer behavior by increasing awareness or brand affinity."

Marketers: Landis no longer worth risk

2006-08-01T14:21:00.000-05:00

Good story in the NY Times about Tour de France winner Floyd Landis' rapidly shrinking endorsement potential:

Even after winning the Tour de France last Sunday, Floyd Landis was not destined to become a magnet for companies to hire him to endorse their products, despite his inspirational tale of riding with a dying hip that will soon be replaced. He was expected to maintain his appeal largely within the cycling world but not crash into the mainstream as Lance Armstrong did.

Jeff Chown, president of Davie-Brown, an entertainment consulting firm in Dallas, said “a brand won’t take the risk” on an athlete who tests positive on a drug test, even if he is cleared by a second. “He’s not a compelling enough story, so why risk associating your brand with him?” Chown said.

Chown said Davie-Brown, which measures how stars influence consumer purchases through its DBI index, found that Landis was known by less than half of those surveyed after he won the Tour de France. Armstrong is the fifth-ranked athlete on the DBI index, four places after Tiger Woods. Landis is unranked.

Celebrities and smoking...

2005-09-19T15:05:00.000-05:00

Don't think young people (or adults, for that matter) are impressionable? "Research has shown a direct correlation between on-screen smoking and the onset of smoking in teenagers."

Monkey see, monkey do, if you will. The issue is that more Hollywood celebs are "caught" smoking in the tabloids, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Britney Spears (and dirt-rat hubby Kevin Federline), Mary-Kate Olsen, and Lindsay Lohan.

Clearly, these lovely young folks have little impact on the behavior of adults. But for teens and pre-teens, it's another story.

Actor Jack Klugman, the former Quincy star, is quoted as saying that he began smoking after watching John Garfield, an actor whom he idolized while growing up.

"He not only influenced me," said Klugman, who had oral cancer, "I smoked like him."

If celebs can sell cancer-causing products, imagine what they can do for toothpaste, make-up, or -- in the case of Jessica Simpson -- tuna fish.

Changing perceptions of the U.S. among Muslims

2005-09-19T14:57:00.000-05:00

New Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, an SMU alum and a long-time advisor to President Bush, is already way ahead of her predecessor, former advertising exec Charlotte Beers.

Hughes won't rely on ads, which are by their very nature, biased and incredible. Instead, she will "help amplify the voice of [American Muslim] groups that are condemning terrorism and religious extremism."

Beers had attempted to use the same stragtegy. But opted to use ads over other tactics. Ads won't work in this case. Ads are designed to sell. They lack credibility, even if those featured in the ads seem to be credible sources.

Americans, and people in general, tend not to trust ads, especially those originating from sources they don't trust. News flash: Muslims overseas don't trust the American government.

Terrorist or freedom fighter?

2005-09-14T09:40:00.000-05:00

Terrorism? What comes to mind? Bombs, perhaps? Fanatics, maybe? It's a word loaded with emotion. But defining it is difficult, as the U.N. has found. "In order to fight it, everyone needs to agree on what terrorism is..."

Many of the best euphemisms come from war and war-related words. A few of my favorites:

Detainees vs prisoners
Air support vs bombing
Unplanned landing vs plane crash
Removal with extreme prejudice vs assassination
Public diplomacy vs propaganda
Secretary of Defense vs Secretary of War
National safety measures vs martial law

Amazing how just giving something a new label has the power to change perceptions. The images that come to mind and the feelings I get when I hear "air support," for example, are much different than those I get when I hear (or read) "bombing."

According to this article, "...those who commit terrorism, in almost all cases, find some other term to describe what they do and reject the label 'terrorist.'"

The reason why the U.N. and so many diplomats are spending so much time and energy defining "terrorism" is because words matter. They help us classify things and, more importantly, shape how we think about concepts. Like terrorism...

Does a Low Price Mean a Cheap Product?

2005-09-05T12:29:00.000-05:00

One of the most challenging, yet most often overlooked, aspects of branding is pricing strategy. How much do we charge for our product? All accounting factors aside, how will the price we assign to our product influence how consumers perceive the brand?

Earlier this year, luxury car-maker Jaguar, for example, ditched its lowest-priced models. Instead, the brand is focusing on its $115k sedans. Further, the company did away with most of the incentives (i.e., deals).

Sales fell off, which might be a reason for those in upper-management to panic. But the move away from lower-priced cars is the right move. Mercedes and BMW attempted to widen their customer base by moving "down market." Ditto for Cadillac with its failed Cimarron.

If I'm a loyal Jag customer, I don't want just anyone driving a Jag. It's a sign of exclusivity. Don't turn it into a Ford or Chrysler.

When there's no news, you must create it

2005-08-26T09:12:00.000-05:00

What's newsworthy about Burger King? Nothing, really. So how does Burger King get in the news? By creating news.

You may have seen, earlier this year, when Burger King announced its "Enormous Omelet Sandwich." This bad boy is packed with 730 calories and 47 grams of fat.

Why, in this age of low carb diets, would BK launch this monster of a sandwich? Because it's newsworthy.

I don't know if BK will sell many of these things. However, I'm not sure that was the goal in this case. Remember the old saying: "If you don't exist in the media, you don't exist."

As long as BK continues to make news by rolling out bigger, fatter, more ridiculous sandwiches, it will certainly exist.

How do you perceive Wal-Mart?

2005-08-16T14:19:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, Wal-Mart launched (another) campaign to combat negative publicity about the company. Among the tactics: A two-day media conference attended by 50 journalists where Wal-mart execs "defended Wal-Mart's wages and health care plans." The company has vowed to "be more aggressive about...public relations tactics."

Clearly, WM is trying to change consumer and investor perceptions. Here's the problem: Without real substance, it won't work. To be effective, the company's policies, procedures, business practices, and -- most importantly -- its culture will have to change.

Myself? I'm a Target man...

A mercenary's battle for hearts and minds...

2005-08-15T09:01:00.000-05:00

Interesting article in yesterday's New York Times Magazine about "The New Soldiers of Fortune." The story is about the hundreds of private security firms in Iraq, including Blackwater, Triple Canopy, and DynCorp.

These companies are sensitive about their industry, which they call "private security." Critics, on the other hand, refer to them as mercenaries.

According to the article, "In the world of companies like Triple Canopy, a great deal of importance is attached to a very few words. The word ''mercenaries'' is despised. The phrase ''private military company'' is heatedly dismissed as inaccurate. ''Private security company'' (or P.S.C.) is the term of art."

The battle (no pun intended) here, of course, is over perceptions.

A spokesperson for the industry is quoted as saying, " ''The word 'mercenary conjures up a picture in people's minds of a rather ruthless, unaligned individual, who may have criminal, psychotic tendencies. We are not like that at all. All we really do is help friendly, reasonable governments solve military problems.''

Perception = A picture in people's minds. That's what it's all about...

Who do you trust?

2005-08-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

Looking for a trustworthy spokesperson? Someone to communicate your message? According to one survey, nurse are the top-ranked profession in terms of honesty and ethics. At the bottom? You guessed it: Car salesmen, advertising people, and lawyers.

Note how low the folks in advertising ranked. That's because most people -- save for kids and super senior citizens -- tend not to believe advertising. Not exactly a shock.

Here's the list of the top five most-honest professions:

Nurses
Grade-school teachers
Pharmacists
Military officers
Medical doctors

The Death of Ad Jingles...

2005-08-10T12:10:00.000-05:00

Heard any good jingles lately? Maybe. But probably not as many as you used to. Today, most advertisers prefer using music in their ads that their target audience is already familiar with. "Modern pitchmen prefer pop songs that create a mood, or spark an emotional association" over a jingle.

The idea is that if you associate your brand with a song that's relevant or meaningful to a particular group of consumers, it has more impact than a jingle. Does playing a U2 song during your ad shape perceptions more than playing a tune that no one's heard of? Of course.

Jingles are still useful for smaller brands. And, some major artists don't want to be labeled as "sell outs." But the power of music is clear when it comes to selling products and shaping the way people think and feel about brands.

Branding a sewer...

2005-08-10T12:01:00.000-05:00

Branding is really all about shaping consumer perceptions of a product. Over the last decade or so, cities have become more interested in branding as a way to compete for tourists and new businesses. It's called "place branding" or "destination branding."

One branding tactic that some cities have implemented is "forging their civic identities" onto manhole covers. [See the story here.]Tactical, yes. But in a time when anything can be a communication tool, not particularly surprising.

Beer Goggles...

2005-08-08T12:49:00.000-05:00

You might have seen beer packaged in "a svelte aluminum bottle." Beer-makers are hoping that these "non-traditional vessels" change consumer perceptions of their brands. Iron City Beer, for example, founded in 1861, has moved to bottle-shaped aluminum cans to "make beer...more appealing." The goal? "To upgrade its image."

Keep in mind that the product inside the can/bottle is the same as it's always been. "As time goes on," says one marketing manager, "packaging is going to play more and more of an important role in differentiating brands." And altering perceptions...

What Americans worry about...

2005-08-08T12:44:00.000-05:00

According to a note in Reader's Digest, about 90 percent of Americans are at risk for high-blood pressure. However, less than half of us are worried about it. Instead, we (63%) tend to worry most about cancer, when only about 40 percent of us are at risk for that disease. Our perception is that cancer is the big risk. The reality is that high-blood pressure is the riskier issue.

Mutual funds and name-changes

2005-08-08T12:36:00.000-05:00

The key to a successful a mutual fund? An experienced fund manager? Strategic investing? According to one study, it's the fund's name. "Funds that change names often receive a significant increase in inflows, even when they have not altered their investment strategies."

Incredible, I know. The funds themselves don't change. Just the name. Change the name and the perception is that it's a new/better fund. "Many investors are choosing mutual funds based on factors having nothing to do with the funds' actual performance..."

Again, our behaviors are driven primarily by perceptions, not reality.

Coke vs Pepsi = Perception vs reality

2005-08-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

Perception vs reality is a common theme on this blog. Recent and relevant example highlighted in U.S. News & World Report: In blind taste-tests, consumers overwhelmingly prefer Pepsi, even though most swear they're Coke drinkers. The reality is that Pepsi tastes better to most people. Then why does Coke outsell Pepsi?

According to the article, "researchers scanned the brains of participants during the test and discovered that the Coke label created wild activity in the part of the brain associated with memories and self-image, while Pepsi, though tasting better to most, did little to these feel-good centers in the brain."

There's something in the brain that causes people to perceive that Coke is better. "It has nothing to do with conscious preference."

Old Dallas image is back...

2005-08-04T08:32:00.000-05:00

Don't know if you caught any of the series Sheer Dallas on TLC (narrated by Larry Hagman, former star of the '80s series Dallas), but it was a bit of a kick in the gut to those over at the Dallas C&VB. The show's tagline was "Drama. Decadence. Dollars." Not exactly the image the DC&VB folks appreciate, especially after spending $1 million on a campaign that included the creation of a new city slogan: "Live Large. Think Big."

What does that mean to someone from outside Dallas? For that matter, what's it mean to anyone?

Just as the perception of Las Vegas is the place where naughty things happen (hence the slogan, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas), the perception people have of Dallas is decadence and dollars.

The difference is, Las Vegas has embraced it. Vegas "is what it is." If Dallas wants to build a "place brand," it had better stop kidding itself about what the city is all about.

"Merck does not buy off scientists."

2005-08-04T08:25:00.000-05:00

Ugh. Another verbal pothole. Merck's former head of marketing, testifying at the Vioxx trial, threw out this quote when responding to the question about whether the company offered doctors "presents" to bring "skeptical doctors into the fold." This is similar to Nixon's infamous "I am not a crook" quote. Using negative words and phrases like "crook" and "buy off" have a clear impact on our perceptions. Word games? Perhaps. But it's about managing perceptions.