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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

Ben Sturner — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:18:12 +0000

EA Teams Up With Doritos For Bowl Promo

By Aaron Baar

Super Bowl Sunday means two things for most Americans: Snacks and Football. EA Sports is hoping to capitalize on the conversation by partnering with Doritos to give fans the chance to choose the cover athlete for the upcoming version of its popular gaming franchise, “Madden NFL 11.”
“To associate our brand with Doritos is an honor, and it’s a great opportunity to talk about our brand on the product,” Chris Erb, senior director of marketing partnerships for EA Sports, tells Marketing Daily. “They’re going to sell a lot of chips, and we’re going to be a part of that. The timing is perfect.”

Study: Spending on Email, Social And Search Rising

By David Goetzl

Email service provider ExactTarget released a study this week showing marketers plan to boost spending in email, social media and other non-traditional outreach channels this year. Advisory firm Econsultancy conducted the research along with the Indianapolis-based ESP.
The study of 1,000-plus marketers shows 54% of marketers said they will boost budgets for email marketing, and about 66% in social media (even though about 80% of those acknowledged the difficulty in tracking ROI in the medium).
Delving deeper in social media, the research showed the medium is the “fastest growing digital marketing channel.” That includes venues from Facebook pages to blogs.

CBS Reaches Goal: Super Bowl Ads Sold

By Wayne Friedman

With a week to go before the big game, CBS has sold out its entire commercial inventory in the Super Bowl.
Advertisers paid around $2.5 million to $2.8 million per commercial for one of its sixty 30-second in-game spots. According to media-buying executives, that seems to be about the same pricing average as what NBC pulled in a year ago.
Last year, TNS Media Intelligence says NBC took home $213 million from overall game and pre-game advertising activities.

Energy firm buys naming rights to Philly MLS venue

By Terry Lefton and Tripp Mickle

Energy company PPL Corp. is finalizing a 10-year, $20 million naming-rights deal with MLS expansion team Philadelphia Union, some five months before the first match at what will be PPL Park, a new $120 million soccer stadium just outside of Philadelphia in Chester, Pa.

(www.sportsbusinessjournal.com)

Snow Patrol: Winter X Games Draws Record Crowd Of 84,100 Fans

Winter X Games 14, which concluded yesterday in Aspen, drew approximately 84,100 people for the four-day event, “easily topping the previous Aspen record” of 76,150 set in ‘07.

Ben Sturner is the Founder and CEO of Leverage Agency, one of the most respected, innovative, resourceful and ambitious sports and entertainment branding sponsorship agencies on Madison Avenue. Sturner has taken his multi-million dollar business from a small start-up in his New York City apartment to a premiere agency that has secured deals for clients including: Jimmy Kimmel Live, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball, KFC, Gillette, Progressive Insurance, Southwest Airlines, Reebok, Comcast, Anheuser Busch, Fremantle Media, Mark Burnett Productions and NBC’s Prime Time Celebrity Apprentice, Reveille, Radical Media, as well as other top-tier brands. Ben has been named NYC Entrepreneur of the month in TrueNYC.com and has been interviewed and featured on ESPN, NBC, CNBC, USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL as an expert in sports and entertainment sponsorship.

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

Ben Sturner — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:35:47 +0000

Jobs Unveils ‘iPad,’ Fate of Universe Still In Doubt

By Gavin O’Malley

As scheduled, Apple debuted its highly anticipated tablet device on Wednesday — for many, representing the dawn of a new age in media consumption.
Christened the “iPad,” the device is expected to be available in March for a (surprisingly low) minimum price of $499 (Wi-Fi enabled, with a 3G version to follow a month later). With it, users can browse the Web, read and send email, view photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, and read e-books.
“iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices,” said Apple head Steve Jobs, who unveiled the product at a private event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
The iPad will come in two versions: one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G.

(www.mediapost.com)

ESPN Buys Vistas, Enhances Ad Insertions

By David Goetzl

ESPN said last week it has acquired a company with technology facilitating virtual insertion of ads within sportscasts, such as a logo underneath a hockey player or Pepsi sign behind horses coming down the stretch.
The acquisition of Vistas Unlimited could help ESPN financially, if it doesn’t have to license the embedded-advertising capability it already uses.
Advertisers can insert logos in baseball, college basketball and other broadcasts, but not within marquee property “Monday Night Football,” since the NFL does not allow any sponsorship integrations in games.
PVI Virtual Media Services has been a leader in the virtual insertion space — having developed the line that appears during football games showing the distance to a first down. Owned by Cablevision, it has worked with ESPN on advertising initiatives.

(www.mediapost.com)

NBCU: Profits Plummet 30% In Q4

By Wayne Friedman

NBC Universal had a difficult last three months of 2009 — with profits sinking 30% to $602 million. NBC also witnessed revenue slipping 4% to $4.3 billion.
Much of the drop came from Universal Pictures, with few high-performing theatrical movies and fewer DVDs sales — some 12 million units from “Inglorious Bastards” and “Public Enemy,” versus 33 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, which had “Mamma Mia,” “Hulk” and “Wanted.”
Operating profit at Universal dropped $200 million with revenue sinking by more than $400 million to $1.2 billion. Also contributing to declines was higher TV rights fees for NFL football.

(www.mediapost.com)

Microsoft Calls For Online Advertising To Adopt Traditional Offline Metrics

By Laurie Sullivan

Brands demand the promises and the guarantees of performance — the same performance and fundamental metrics they have come to know in traditional media, such as television and radio.
During his keynote at OMMA Performance Monday, Young-Bean Song, senior director at Microsoft Advertising Institute, told attendees the online industry needs to adopt traditional performance metrics into online to make brands that traditionally advertise on television and radio feel more comfortable about moving advertising on the Web.
Data needs to prove the outcome of a campaign. But that outcome has become complex. So, marketers continue to look for ways to take the data and prove the outcome. During the next few years, companies will bring traditional media metrics to online media plans. The industry will also design new standards for return on investments (ROI).

(www.mediapost.com)

Hyundai Lines Up For Super Bowl Touchdown

By Karl Greenberg

With several opponents on the auto field injured and sending in the second string, Hyundai is dropping back to throw for a touchdown. The automaker is doing its biggest ad push ever for a single model this year, including a raft of ads on Super Bowl Sunday that tout the totally redesigned Sonata and Tucson vehicles, and broadcasting the message that Hyundai has taken a leadership position in the auto industry.
Sonata, Hyundai’s core vehicle, which competes in the brutal mid-size segment of the auto market, will get the most media largess this year, and it is the vehicle that gets the big spotlight during Bowl Day and a month later during the Oscars.
The company, which ran two spots during the game last year, this year will run two during the Super Bowl and four before. The spots, narrated with avuncular gravitas by Jeff Bridges, are elegantly shot and talk about Hyundai the company through Sonata the car. The first, for instance, touts Sonata’s 35-mpg rating and Hyundai’s leadership in fuel efficiency; another pre-kickoff ad focuses on Hyundai’s proactive work on vehicle safety.

(www.mediapost.com)

Dew keeps tour name through ‘11

By Tripp Mickle

Pepsi has agreed to a two-year extension that will see Mountain Dew remain the title sponsor of NBC’s and MTV’s action sports series through 2011.
Sources valued the deal at $4.5 million to $5.5 million a year.

(www.sportsbusinessjournal.com)

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Sports Business Weekly Buzz

Ben Sturner — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:00:52 +0000

Leverage, Top Rank partner for boxing upfront presentation

By Jon Show

The Leverage Agency and Top Rank will partner this Saturday on what they are calling the first advertising and sponsorship upfront in the history of boxing.
Other boxing promoters and networks like ESPN aggregate the rights to multiple fights as part of advertising and sponsorship sales, but industry insiders believe this is the first time a promoter has partnered with an agency and television networks to package rights for a formal upfront-style boxing presentation.
Under a multiyear relationship, Top Rank and the Leverage Agency are pooling sponsorship and advertising rights to 48 fights in 2010, including 12 pay-per-view events and 36 events on FSN or Fox Sports en Español. The 12 PPV events will feature three “super fights,” including Manny Pacquiao’s bout at Cowboys Stadium against Joshua Clottey on March 13.

(www.sportsbusinessjournal.com)

Sun Life Financial takes naming-rights at Dolphins Stadium

By Terry Lefton

The Miami Dolphins on Wednesday will announce Sun Life Financial as the new naming-rights partner for their home stadium, just four days before the Pro Bowl and 11 days before Super Bowl XLIV are played at what will be called Sun Life Stadium.
Sources said the five-year deal averaged about $7.5 million annually.
It was unclear whether Sun Life category rights will be restricted to insurance or be more broadly-based to include financial services categories.

(www.sportsbusinessdaily.com)

Evangelical Pro-Life Spot To Air In Super Bowl

By David Goetzl

Colorado evangelical group Focus on the Family said it has purchased one of the remaining spots on the CBS broadcast of the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.
The group indicated that the spot will carry a pro-life message, raising a key question: How will it meet CBS’ long-held policy of refusing advocacy ads?
Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother Pam will be featured in the 30-second ad with a “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life” message, according to the religious group.

(www.mediapost.com)

Scott’s Miracle-Gro Seeds Major League Baseball

By David Goetzl

Talk about grassroots marketing. Scotts Miracle-Gro has a deal with Major League Baseball to sell seed blendsand fertilizers akin to those used on the fields at iconic venues such as Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.
The arrangement is part of a broader link that pitches Scotts as an “official lawn care company” of MLB.

(www.mediapost.com)

Pacquiao-Clottey Gives Cowboys Stadium A Big Debut Bout

While the March 13 Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey bout at Cowboys Stadium “isn’t the hoped-for mega showdown” between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., it still is a “good, big-time boxing start for the house that Jerry Jones built,” according to Gil LeBreton of the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM.
The stadium will use its “basketball configuration for the bout.” The top deck will not be opened, and the center-hung video board “will be lowered to 30 feet over the ring.”
Ticket prices to the fight will range from $50-700, and Top Rank Chair Bob Arum is “excited about being able to offer what he called ‘reasonable prices’ for a world-class boxing show.”
Jones yesterday said he envisions as many as “four or five significant fights a year” in the new stadium. Jones: “Las Vegas has its aura, and we can do things here to capture our own aura.” The ring will be placed at midfield, and Arum and Jones noted that they are “hoping to fill 40,000 seats.”
In Ft. Worth, Tobias Xavier Lopez notes there were “comparisons to the Roman Coliseums” throughout yesterday’s press conference at Cowboys Stadium, and Arum suggested that the Dallas facility “could replace Madison Square Garden or Caesar’s Palace as the ‘new Mecca of boxing’” (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 1/20)
Jones said, “With the stature of Pacquiao, we’re going to be able to put on a unique fight.” While the plan is to fill 40,000 seats, Arum indicated that a “60,000-seat plan can be arranged if necessary.” Arum also announced that HBO PPV will televise the fight (L.A. TIMES, 1/20).

(www.sportsbusinessdaily.com)

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About Ben Sturner

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