There is a way for a sports-minded brand to gain positive earned media that breaks through the commercial-laden mega-sports events.
During President Trump’s State of the Union marathon speech, he congratulated the U.S. Men’s Olympic hockey team for their gold medal victory. Doing so, however, spotlighted a major problem I have with clients spending millions of dollars on Olympic tie-ins.
Once the last Olympic event is completed, three things always occur:
1) Because of the large number of TV commercials, surveys show that viewers often don’t know which brand is sponsoring which commercial.
2) American sports writers immediately begin covering sports that are popular in the U.S., like football, baseball, basketball, and hockey.
3) Brands’ marketing execs will say that they are happy with the results even if they aren’t.
Point’s number one and number two are not a secret. Point number three is what is said confidentially.
Unlike not too many years ago, when television and radio were the prime news outlets for brands promoting products, today there are other venues to spread the message.
But sports marketers are unlikely to cut ties with mega-sports events for various reasons.
–They are fearful of losing their jobs if sales fall because they did not approve advertising for a mega event.
–They use the events as a customer relations vehicle.
–They are fearful of cutting the umbilical cord to an event because a competing brand might take their place.
Not cutting the cord might help an exec to keep the job, but does it help the company’s P & L? The only way to be certain whether the ROI is worth the money is for a brand to discontinue advertising on a sports mega event and see if doing so affects sales.
Client surveys from a multiyear sports marketing campaign that I managed for nine years revealed that, amid the clutter of brand sports promotions, relatively few people remembered which brand underwrote each promotion after a few days. Eventually, when Major League Baseball wanted to increase the rights fee, the client dropped the program.
But there is a way for a sports-minded brand to gain positive earned media that breaks through the commercial-laden mega-sports events: develop its own program. I would advise brands to align with some of the “newer” sports that are growing in popularity among younger people, such as flag football, pickleball, volleyball, youth soccer, padel, 3×3 basketball, lacrosse, skateboarding, and all-women’s sports.
Major newspapers like The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post no longer run daily stories on baseball and football in their print editions. They now feature articles on sports that were once considered obscure, and that trend is not new. When I was a young sports reporter at New York City dailies, prizefighting and thoroughbred horse racing were considered prime beats. Today, they are covered sporadically.
There is no reason why sponsoring “newer” sports and developing a well-crafted publicity program cannot generate national affirmative publicity for a sports-minded client. It can also be done at a fraction of the cost of a mega-event TV commercial. I know it can be done because I’ve gained national publicity for dart contests and snowmobile racing events.
I’m not suggesting that a connection with these “newer” sports can take the place of advertising on major mega events. What I am suggesting is that far-sighted marketers consider them.
Aligning with one or two of the “newer” sports can help keep sports-minded brands in the public eye until the next Super Bowl and Olympics.
