SCC Blog

Cold Pizza

Earlier this week I was watching the ESPN morning show Cold Pizza in my hotel room.  ESPN’s uncanny ability to transcend sports is nothing short of astounding.  We’re talking about the sports network who built an empire by creating a 24-hour-a-day television channel comprised entirely of sports programming.  That feat in itself has revolutionized the industry.  Now, clearly in an effort to remain cutting edge, they seem intent on venturing outside the realm of sports programming to broadcast events of a very different nature, apparently with relatively successful results.  This particular episode of Cold Pizza illustrates my point perfectly. 

Keeping in mind that this is the same network who now manages to achieve higher ratings with their Poker Championships than many network shows, the Spelling Bee Championship still seems to be a bit of a stretch.  Yet here’s the host of Cold Pizza, interviewing two of the contestants in the upcoming event, quizzing them on the appropriate spelling of Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka’s last name (which they nailed, by the way). 

Prior to that was a segment featuring the new star of the world eating championship circuit, Joey Chestnut.  In case you’re wondering, yes this is indeed considered by many to be an official “sport”, regulated by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.  Chestnut (affectionately nicknamed “Jaws”) has slowly overtaken Kobayashi (known as the “Tsunami”) as the face of competitive eating.  Meanwhile, others like Tim “Eater X” Janus have found the “sport” to be a great marketing tool, painting his face before each competition.  The face paint design was apparently inspired by former WWE Wrestler The Ultimate Warrior, and colors change depending on the competition and sponsor.  This portion of Cold Pizza was acknowledging Chestnut’s recent crowning as the reigning chicken-wing-eating champion, noting he consumed SEVEN pounds of wings, crushing the second place recipient Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas by nearly one full pound.

On set was a member of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus crew.  He was plugging everything from the elephants to the double human cannonball stunts.  His presence was carefully integrated into the show in periodic segments (including dog tricks), maximizing exposure for the circus.  Another classic example of the convergence of sports and entertainment…

This is not to say that they didn’t spend any time discussing sports, because they did.  Topics ranged from the impact of the NBA draft lottery, specifically the good fortunes of the Blazers and Sonics, to how Michael Vick’s recent comments may be an indication that Mr. Vick has grossly overestimated the adoration of the public when it comes to his image. 

In PR news, they announced Joe Paterno will be making his team clean the stadium after every home game for the recent off-field indiscretions of several Penn State football players.  Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson also joined the show to discuss the state of the game.  Of course there was a perfect segway to seamlessly plug his promotional relationship with MasterCard and Home Depot…

Still, I’m amazed at how much non-sports related content dominated the show.  The question is, could any other network pull this off???

Posted in Entertainment Marketing, General, Marketing, Media, Promotions |

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