SCC Blog
All-Star Marketing
February 21st, 2008All-Star games. What are they? What do they mean? Do fans care about these events that pit the best of the best in each respective sport against one another? By taking a closer look at the marketing and hype that surrounds the events, I think one could draw the conclusion that fans do indeed care. The ratings, although in some cases quite modest, would support that notion: Major League Baseball’s 2007 All-Star Game drew a 16.1 rating, the NFL’s Pro-Bowl a 10.7 and the NBA All-Star a 4.5. Broadcastingcable.com reported that “TNT’s All-Star Saturday — featuring the Orlando Magic’s Howard strapping on a Superman cape en route to winning the Slam Dunk Contest — was the most-watched Saturday night in the event’s 23-year history and saw double-digit-growth (13%) in the 18-49 demo. For the three days of coverage (Friday-Sunday), TNT said it averaged 3.27 million homes according to Nielsen Media Research fast nationals. The network added that 3.2 million people went online for extra coverage via Turner’s TNT NBA Overtime broadband channel.”
Some all-star games have morphed into events that have earned their own moniker over time. For example, many refer to Major League Baseball’s all-star game as the “midsummer classic.” Typically all-star games follow a similar format. The game most often takes place in the middle of each league’s respective season. Fans will vote for their favorite players from each respective conference. Top vote-getters usually earn the right to participate in the game as starters. The remaining players are often voted in by league executives, rewarding those players who have competed at a high level throughout the season but were not recognized by fans. So where does the marketing come into play?
Ultimately, all-star games for professional sports leagues were events created with the goal of offering something fun for the fans by providing a competition between top athletes on a grand stage. From a marketing perspective, the goals have shifted over time, particularly as the business of sports continues to boom. Now, in addition to pleasing the fans, leagues have worked hard to create an experience that is much bigger than one game. They aim to create an entire event with a frenzied following. All-star events provide the league with an exceptional platform for expanding their brand and building buzz about their sport and its top athletes. You can bet that each league takes full advantage each year of cranking up the marketing machine to promote its all-star event. And, with the increase in hype, there’s always an increase in sponsor interest… It’s no secret that a number of sponsors utilize all-star events as a launching pad for partnerships and promotions. For example, this year Pepperidge Farms tipped off a partnership with the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA and the NBA FIT Program during NBA All-Star 2008 in New Orleans. So, what exactly are leagues and sponsors doing to market the extravaganza?
For starters, we no longer see any all-star “games.” Rather, we see all-star events: home run derbies, slam dunk competitions and hockey/football skills challenges, all of which are featured as special programming on TV that serve as a precursor to the game itself. Most events span an entire weekend, not just one day. The goal? Generate water cooler buzz…as in, two co-workers chatting the next day at the office asking one another, “Did you see Dwight Howard’s superman dunk last night?” And let’s not forget about the sponsor’s role in this equation. You know, the Sprite Slam-Dunk contest, the NFL’s Pro Bowl Skills Challenge Presented by Ameriquest and the State Farm Home Run Derby.
In 2007 when the NBA’s showcase event was hosted in Las Vegas, adidas took the opportunity to make a major splash for their brand by decorating some of the city’s “landmarks” in adidas gear. The Statue of Liberty statue at the New York, New York Hotel & Casino donned an Eastern Conference adidas jersey while the lion outside the MGM grand boasted the Western Conference’s jersey. To further leverage the brand throughout the event, adidas unrolled the “All-Star Mobile Experience”, in which consumers were alerted via text message to everything adidas throughout the weekend, including adidas Store events, athlete appearances, limited edition shoe releases and other announcements. Of the event, Erich Stamminger, President and CEO of adidas, had this to say: “The NBA All-Star is a chance to celebrate the game of basketball and to tell an important ‘Impossible is Nothing’ message.”
This year’s NBA event, hosted in New Orleans, created a host of community relations opportunities for both the NBA and its sponsors. Jordan Brand’s All-Star Weekend participation included the donation of a new gymnasium to a local Boys and Girls Club. Several Team Jordan athletes were once members of the Boys and Girls club so this was a community relations effort with some synergy. Garry Cook, president of Jordan Brand, had this to say about the event: “Jordan Brand and Team Jordan athletes join together at All-Star to pay tribute and rebuild, remember, and respect the people and the great city of New Orleans.”
As for the NBA, the league and its “NBA Cares” community outreach program produced a community event entitled, “How To Be An All-Star Parent” in support of local business owner Carol Lewis and her publication, Modern Parents Magazine. In addition to programs like that, more than 2,500 people attending NBA All-Star 2008 engaged in various projects throughout New Orleans in to help with the ongoing efforts to rebuild the city. Nearly 15,000 New Orleans youths joined in NBA Cares events, including the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam and Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA clinics and more than 25 NBA Cares events and activities took place throughout the city over the weekend.
Creating excitement about the event is what really stirs the marketing pot. Of the 1,000 media members who descended upon the Big Easy for this year’s NBA all-star event, 285 hailed from 33 foreign countries and territories. According to Sports Business News, the 2008 All-Star festivities were broadcast by 123 international telecasters to 215 countries and territories in 44 different languages. Knowing that an event has this kind of global appeal helps insure the level of fan excitement will get a boost and media coverage often translates to increased participation from fans, league brass and sponsors. The end result? An event that transcends just one simple game.
For those of you who think that players and teams don’t care about being recognized as an all-star, well, this might help to reposition that train of thought. Consider the promotional campaign launched by the Portland Trailblazers this year in an effort to have their star player, Brandon Roy, included in the All-Star game. The Blazers franchise shipped an iRoy to over 75 coaches and select media members…basically to those folks the team felt could influence all-star personnel decisions.
I’m sure many of you are wondering…what the heck is an iRoy? Well, the iRoy was an Apple iPod filled with Brandon Roy video highlights and testimonials from his NBA colleagues on Roy’s worthiness as a NBA all-star. There were stats, interviews with Roy’s teammates and coaches, and several photos. It even had its own Brandon Roy “branded” packaging. That left me thinking…How much would a promotion like that cost? Well, the least expensive iPod Nano costs around $150. Some quick work on a calculator would suggest the promotion cost the team a minimum of $11,000. Considering the amount of publicity the iRoy promotion generated, I’d say the marketing effort was a smashing success. Oh, and Roy did indeed make the all-star game where he scored 18 points, the second highest point total by a Blazers player for an all-star game in franchise history.
Like most major events, all-star games tend to have a major economic impact on the host city. Obviously not to the extent of the Super Bowl, but often times it is very significant.
This year’s NHL All-Star event brought over 8,000 out-of-town visitors and 6,700 hotel room nights to the city of Atlanta. All-Star weekend reportedly generated an estimated economic impact of $20 million, according to the Atlanta Sports Council. The 2003 NBA All-Star event (also in Atlanta) generated an estimated $34.3 million, and last year’s NCAA men’s basketball Final Four $45.2 million, according to the Sports Council. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, an event’s economic impact is largely driven by the number of out-of-town visitors it draws. Host cities also gain another valuable benefit. Let’s just say that these events aren’t branding mechanisms exclusive to the league and its sponsors. Consider the comments of Gary Stokan, the Sports Council president, “I think these All-Star games, and sports in general, have been a great branding tool for Atlanta. It’s a marketing asset we’ve been able to promote Atlanta through, especially because of all the media and television coverage that goes along with these mega-events.”
All-Star events tend to infuse a certain sense of pride in the communities in which events are hosted. The NFL made waves recently in discussing the possibility of moving its annual Pro-Bowl away from Hawaii. Hawaiian residents and NFL players alike are dismayed by the news. “It’s important to the fans over here,” resident Sia Tufele said a few weeks ago when interviewed outside a Pro Bowl practice. “It’s the only professional game in town, and there’s no place better than (here) for that game.” Pro-Bowl QB Jeff Garcia had this to say: “I think it would be hard to get players interested in playing if the game were held somewhere on the mainland. The game draws a lot of local interest here and as players we look forward to coming. Why would you change that?” Despite the insistence of its players and the Hawaiian community, the NFL appears likely to shift the Pro-Bowl site. According to the USA Today, the league, which receives an annual subsidy of $4.5 million from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, will reportedly explore other venues for the game when the current contract expires next year. The question has to be asked. Why on Earth would the NFL consider moving the game when its executives, players and host patrons would be so disappointed? The answer is simple. It’s all in the name of marketing.
*** Questions for Classroom Discussion ***
1) What is event marketing?
2) What is sports marketing?
3) Which is this an example of? Why?
4) Why sponsors attracted to major events?
5) Why is media coverage important to any event or sports property?
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