The Digital Influentials, by Cory Treffiletti

The Brooklyn Nets: A Master Class In Branding (Mediapost 4.3.13)

A few weeks back I was visiting New York and had the opportunity to go to a Brooklyn Nets game.  Having grown up a Knicks fan in Albany, and now a Warriors fan due to my proximity over the last 15 years, I was intrigued to see what Brooklyn was like now that they had their own basketball team and I have to say I was extremely impressed.  As an ad guy, a trip to the Barclays Center is a master class in branding!

The Nets’ move from New Jersey to Brooklyn may have only been about 20 miles, but it’s a world away from where they were.  That shift in location brought with it a shift in attitude, not least of which comes from the association with Jay-Z and hip-hop in general.  The Nets feel like a team who aspires to represent more than a location.  I may never change my allegiance from the Knicks as “New York’s team” but the Nets could take ownership of a tagline much greater – that of a generation!

The colors are stark – a simple black and white motif – and the music is omnipresent – driving beats with a real sense of swagger.  The arena is clean and it’s centrally located and everyone who works there is smiling, helpful and demonstrates a true excitement to be in the house.  The food is delicious – all local flavors and local brands you recognize.  The logo is everywhere – on hats and banners and signage and its being shot into the stands on t-shirts every 15 minutes or so.  Brooklyn even takes advantage of its star quality courtside – actors and sports stars line the court for a showtime-like experience in the “borough that sports forgot” for many years.  It feels like you stepped into an exclusive event, more so than when you enter Madison Square Garden, which is clearly recognized as the world’s stage.

While the Knicks may have a sense of history the Nets represent a feeling of “now”.  They may not be as good as some of their peers, even though they’ll make the playoffs this year.  Regardless of their status as a contender or not, there’s a feeling of excitement and a level of engagement that can be lost when you go to other arenas and root for other sports teams, regardless of the sport itself.   They bring you in.  They get you pumped.  There’s rarely a dull moment in that arena and they try to keep you involved.

Why should you care about this piece of perspective?  As an ad guy I tell people to look around and find inspiration from the least likely of sources.  When the Nets decided to move into New York, many people were pessimistic about their ability to succeed.  How can they gain a foothold in the city owned by the Knicks?  The answer is simple – present a different experience and one that resonates with their target audience.  Build it with frequency and consistency.  Learn what your audience wants (swagger is key among them) and deliver it in everything you do.  The food, your colors, your logo, your music, the events you host to balance out the arena - All of it carries over to the brand you’re putting out there.  As a brand manager you tackle the same set of challenges and though you may not have the same tools in your toolbox to work with, the solution is the same.  Understand your audience and deliver what they want in a way that expresses what you want them to hear.

The Nets are not the only shining example of branding in the sports world, but they are certainly one of the newest to take that step into re-imagining and re-launching their brand.  To me, as a student of advertising, it feels like what Cadillac did about 12 years ago when they rode the opening drum beat of “Rock N Roll” by Led Zeppelin to re-launch their brand for a new generation.  Remember that?

How are you identifying the needs of your customers and moving ahead with them?

Nobody Ever Cried Over A Banner Before (Mediapost 7.25.12)

SuperBowl, Olympics or targeted online advertising – that is the question of the day!

If you had a few million bucks lying around, how would you spend it?  Would you blow your budget on a single SuperBowl ad, buy a category exclusive Olympics sponsorship, or spend a few million bucks on the web?  The answer lies, of course, in strategy.

If you’re trying to see true ROI, you can rule out the SuperBowl.  The SuperBowl is a gimmick, albeit a really big, impactful one.  The SuperBowl guarantees you lots of press for about 2-3 weeks, a large one-time audience and a rather big spike in attention for the same amount of time.  Of course, if you don’t follow that spot up with some level of support and continuity messaging, then you won’t expect to see much more impact for the rest of the year.

The Olympics are the world’s stage and if you are looking for a global audience then this is for you.  Of course the Olympics only last a few weeks, but in terms of frequency and exclusivity during that time period, you can’t beat it.  Additionally, the Olympics become a promotional vehicle that you can leverage the rest of the year.  You can align yourself with emotionally gripping moments and memories that can last a lifetime, but the halo effect of that effort will last you for about 4-6 weeks around the Olympics and then you’re back to square one if you didn’t capitalize on them right away.

That leaves us with online media.  I may be biased (of course I am) but I think this is always going to be your best bet, especially if you do an apples to apples budgetary comparison.  First off there is the factor of waste.  In the aforementioned vehicles there will always be a portion of the audience that does not represent your target, so the effective cost of your media will be higher than you would like.  In online, and through the integration of audience buying platforms, you can reduce your waste factor to near zero percent.  That means you only hit who you want to hit.  Of course for impact purposes you should never go to 100% audience buying, but rather you should balance this tactic with high impact takeover’s and other creative executions. 

Did I mention you can doo lf this at the same time as the SuperBowl and the Olympics?  The web has not gotten wrapped up (yet) in the exclusive, upfront negotiations of network television.  That means quality, premium inventory is available through the year, even during these key viewing periods.  What’s more, lots of people turn to the web for information during these high profile sporting events, and you can take advantage of that!

So why is this even a debate?

Because the SuperBowl and the Olympics are sexy.  These are the two largest appointment-viewing opportunities in the world, and the two biggest tent poles that TV has left to offer.  They aren’t going anywhere the next few years, and advertisers know it.  Sports are possibly the only recession proof programming there is, and they are by far the most emotional programming out there.  This year’s Olympics are virtually guaranteed to create moments of watery eyes and weepy voices.  Nobody ever cried over a banner before, unless they were reading the performance report for the untargeted waste of impressions they spent back in 1999.

So the debate, however silly, will rage on as to whether the SuperBowl, the Olympics or audience-based buying on the web is more valuable.  Me?  I will be at home, watching the Olympics with my laptop in front of me.

What about you?

 

The Past & Future Of Sports In Video (Mediapost 2.8.12)

Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about sports marketing, and this past weekend I was reminded of why; the emotions tied to sports are palpable and real and they are the kind of emotions that brands can only dream of being associated with.

Its really simple if you think about it.  Try and find one other area of life where the emotions are as high or as passionate as they are with sports.  I’ll go out on a limb and say that sports only come second to birth and death when you consider their emotional ramifications.  If you hear a diehard sports fan, it’s not uncommon for them to be as excitable and enthusiastic when talking about their favorite baseball or football team as when you hear a parent talk about the birth of their children or the memories of their parents when they’ve passed on.  It taps into the same emotional core in our brains and it creates lifelong associations.  The kind of associations that brands want to see, at least on a microcosmic-level.

It’s not realistic to assume that household cleanser or shampoo can create that same emotional connection, but it is extremely plausible to consider that brands want their consumers to think strongly about a positive association with their brands, which is why sports sponsorship is such a tricky business.  Sports sponsorships require a brand to engage in a long-term relationship, and a very trusting relationship, because you have to have faith that the athlete will stay relevant, and on the right side of the ethical mores that society puts forth for people in a position of attention and focus.  Athletes are aspirational as well as inspirational, meaning that we can all aspire to be like them (i.e. as self-confident as Tim Tebow).  They are also fatally humanistic, meaning they are only as good as the best or worst of us (see so many examples of mistakes from athletes in recent years).  It may not be fair to place an athlete on a pedestal and hold them to a higher standard, but that is what we do and that’s why sports sponsorships exist.  There is an associative value to working with them, and to transferring the positive brand equity we have in them to a brand.   That value is high for a marketer and athletes make significant money off of them, as well.

If you think of the best sports marketing images of the last 50 years, you think of images of strength and confidence.  The kind that comes from a truly inspirational sports figure.  For me, I think of Mean Joe Green in the Coke commercial.  I think of Michael Jordan in the Nike spots flying through the air.  I even think of  humor (when its done right) like all of the Peyton Manning Mastercard commercials.  These are images of confidence, and the brands that were able to harness the power of sports were able to stand out and differentiate themselves in the eyes of consumers.  That differentiation translates to sales.

What is really interesting to me about sports marketing is that it would not have existed without television, and its future is indelibly tied to online video.   Sports is a physical and visual medium.  You have to be playing sports to understand the physicality involved, and you have to see others play sports to learn about it and understand it fully.  If TV had never been invented, the NFL would be nowhere near as popular as it is.  The NBA and Major League Baseball would be half the size they are today.  Television created a way for anyone and everyone to see sports without having to physically be there, and the images you see on those broadcasts have inspired millions of people to pick up a bat or ball and play.  Those images are inspirational, and online video is going to extend them even further. 

Social media and mobile media are the future of sports marketing.  Mobile video, and sharing video through social platforms – this is where the future of sports marketing lies because these images can take on a life of their own.  The more those images, in all of their video glory, can be shared and seen by droves of fans, the more impact they will have and the more opportunity there is for a brand to reach a passionate audience.   The television (and a close second with the actual stadium) is never going away and will always be the primary vehicle for sports marketing, but digital media has one heck of a future for sports marketing.  Just you wait and see!

An Ode To The Thrill Of Victory & The Agony Of Defeat (Mediapost 5.11.11)

I was reading an article in Sports Illustrated and it reminded me that ABC’s Wide World of Sports recently celebrated its 50-year anniversary, debuting in 1961 and leading the charge with beautiful sight, sound and motion tied to the emotion in sports.  Wide World of Sports was revolutionary, and it became the template for how sports are covered on TV, and eventually the web.  I remember watching it every week as a kid – and being completely engaged in whatever sport they were featuring that day. 

Today there are many, many websites and cable networks who owe a debt of gratitude to the Wide World of Sports series, from ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” to sites like The High School Rudy Awards.  WWOS created emotion around targeted sports where most people weren’t paying attention, and now that the web has matured we’re seeing lots of great sites take that style and run with it, further highlighting smaller, niche sports.

If you visit YouTube there are 4,420 videos for the Metal Mulisha, who lead the world of freestyle motocross.  There are 34,600 lacrosse videos, many of which feature my beloved Syracuse Orange, all of which cater to a very targeted group of individuals.   There are 24,100 videos for kite surfing – and if I had to hazard a guess I would say that outnumbers the number of total kite surfers there are in the US.    There are even videos for “underwater basket weaving” and “hang gliding dogs”, though admittedly many of these are not very useful.

Wide World of Sports laid the groundwork for the increased price and value associated with sponsoring sports by making it about more than who won and who lost, and more about the human nature of sports.  Sports has always been a valuable tool for a marketer, but that innovation in format created a more highly engaged audience in a wider-reaching array of sports, outside the standards of baseball, football, baseball and basketball.  These days the UFC has eclipsed professional boxing and motocross is catching up to NASCAR, maybe not in terms of total dollars but definitely in terms of value for reaching a targeted audience.   Sports Marketing is a huge business, and the web is creating even more opportunities for marketers to reach a highly engaged, emotionally attached audience.  I would hazard a guess that if Tony Hawk were 21 years old today, he would quickly become one of the most recognizable faces in the world (far more than he is today) as skateboarding has substantially benefitted from ESPN’s X-Games and the myriad of clips the web offers (type in skateboarding on YouTube and prepare to be overwhelmed by more than 585,000 videos). 

What’s interesting is that the aggregate of these sports has not been as effective as one would expect.  There have been attempts at aggregating these assets together in ad networks and publishing companies, but rarely have they set the world on fire.  You would think the advent of video online would have created a vacuum that sucked in all of these videos, and created the chance for insightful, emotional, journalistic overlays with highly engaged, highly monetizable audiences!  ESPN is certainly the lead player in the category of online sports, but there’s definitely room for a secondary tier of sports enthusiast sites and content around their audience, isn’t there?

Regardless of the why or why not of the category, the fact is all niche sports owe a solid fist-bump to the Wide World Of Sports for blazing the trail that allows them to reach an audience, foster an audience and monetize an audience in some way.  The fact that some skateboarders, motocross riders and kite-surfers can earn six figures every year in endorsements confirms that the legacy of WWOS will live on for many years to come.

Thanks for the memories Wide World Of Sports!