Marketing and the NFL Post Lockout

First of all let it be known that no one ever thought that the season wouldn't happen.  $9BB is a lot of money to leave on the table and let's be honest without the fans there really is no NFL anyway.  And because the NFL has the largest viewership of any sport in the U.S. it means that there is a lot more money to be made through marketing and advertising.  Just a quick recap to those who don't understand why it is essential to market through the NFL.  The NFL touched 150 million viewers last season or just a little under half of the U.S. total population.  The demographic is 18-55 year old males, middle class with a tendency to lean right.  If you have a product that fits that demographic and it has the potential to offset the incredible price you are going to pay to see a Patriots vs. Jets game in primetime then you darn well better pony up the money and get on it.

TV stations had been reluctant to sell advertising space because of the lockout but now that the locks have been removed from locker rooms it's turning into a free for all to gobble up all the advertising space.  The NFL signs incredibly lucrative tv deals that it distributes to the teams.  The TV stations make their money from companies doing media buys to push their products.  Now that we have a firm grasp on how it works here is how the landscape will change and look now.

It really won't look too different on the surface but internally it'll be a scramble!  The biggest challenge is coordinating the new sponsors and advertisers.  There won't e any down time in commercials or a lot of repeats, in fact it will probably be an even better play for the networks carrying the NFL.  Money is king and there was all kinds of build up to this season because of all the story lines with the lockout that everyone wants to have a piece of it.  The only down side could possibly be the fact that without a full blown training camp that the on field product won't be as good as previous years at the beginning of the season.  If marketers actually pay any attention to this it will probably be in weeks 3-7 when the injury bug will hit a group that is out of shape.  If I were to put money on it I would avoid these weeks because of the probability.  Injuries usually occur at the beginning and the end of the season when people are out of shape and then tired. 

With the shortened training camp expect people to still be getting their feet under them even in the beginning.  If anything the risk of injury and lack of cohesiveness on the field during the first few weeks will keep the marking and advertising back.  There will still be some great games and the die hards are going to love every week their team plays but to the casual fan if Peyton Manning is injured during the time period (and the way things are looking he could be out at the beginning of the season) who is really going to want to watch Indy play?  Same goes for Brady and the Pats or Brees and the Saints.  The lockout will affect the product which if you are a marketer would mean not as much money being spent in the beginning... but that being said look out for the second half of the season, through attrition you'll see some lean, mean, and fresher than normal teams which will factor into a great closing stretch of the season!  My money is on marketing late in the season when it means more and you have the better product on the field.

My sincere apologies

I have been missing in action.  I have been working diligently to finish writing my book.  I hope that everyone can forgive me for not posting more often.  I will get back with some incredibly insightful and earth shattering thoughts on marketing and the pursuit of happiness soon.  I am planning posts and hope to get back to it sooner than later.  Some of the scheduled posts are:

NFL How the marketing will look post lockout.
MLB and what a face can do for a brand.
The growing footprint of The North Face.
Outdoors but not granola.

Hopefully these will intrigue you to check back!

Thanks for the patience.

Ryan

Branding and Marketing a Book

This post is going to be a work in progress.  I'm finishing writing my first book and I am very excited about it.  But now that I have a book, my product if you will, how do I get people to read it?  Well let me tell you.  The first thing I did before I started writing my book was look at my target market.  Who would buy my book?  Does this target market actually buy books regarding this?  How big is this target market?  I even went as far as to consider hot topics right now.  My book is social commentary which is an incredibly hot topic right now.  I figured that if you put up something that was entertaining, controversial then it would possibly sell. 

Writing is a huge undertaking.  I managed to hit the 50K word level which is probably just about where I want to be.  A good read but a quick one.  Knowing what I have in terms of a product and who I want to sell to I next started considering the opportunities to gain publicity.  Talking heads can be annoying but they are also the biggest proponents of my type of book.  I also am going to contact local radio stations to set up inteviews about my book and my opinions.

I need to establish credibility so I'm going to book speaking engagements and also see if I can submit a couple of articles to news papers.  The end goal?  It's to pick up some credibility, spread my thoughts and honestly, just see how far a guy can get with a product!  It's almost an experiment of sorts.  I want to produce a commercial for it and see if it goes viral on Youtube.  I'm going to have a website for it also.  I really just want to see how big I can grow it.  I believe in my book and my thoughts.  I think that I have reasonable credibility and would love to write more.  I'm not doing it as a Morgan Spurlock type thing, it is a real book with real opinions, but combine that with my marketing ability it'll be interesting to see what I get.

As for the release date... TBD, the name... I have one but I want to make sure that it is what I want it to be.  I'll keep you updated.

Travel Brands

I recently returned from a trip to Panama and while there I couldn't help but notice the different brands of the different travelers.  First of all you have to understand that Central America is a haven for travelers.  It's a conglomorate of Europeans travelling for 1-2 months, Australian college students looking to get a way for 6 months, rich latins who spend time in another country flaunting their cash, business men doing deals in developing countries and the dread locked nomadic "dude I just love the laid back lifestyle" hippies who hang out for months at a time and who knows how long they end up staying there.  Oh and did I mention the crazy Americans who have given up on the country and are drawn to the cheap real estate and semi-Americanized culture (in Costa Rica and Panama at least).  Then there are the typical Americans who only have a few days off of work because we all work so hard.  We spent 9 days in country and everyone thought we were crazy, I thought it was a good amount of time until we heard the stories of people hanging around and traveling all throughout Latin America.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.  The adventurers and Typical American travelers are the ones who pack for the trip.  They wear the clothing that is best suited for travel and the conditions they will encounter.  If you look at the different brands that are available that tout themselves as "Travel Brands" you can easily recognize many of them and many you didn't even know existed.  Ex-Oficio is a travel brand.  They want to be known as a travel brand plain and simple.  Their clothing is for those who want to have good looking apparel that is somewhat performance based but the branding is all about the Jet Setter.  Many companies have "Travel" as a category now.  For example Patagonia has a Travel section see here.  Another well known company that is making headway into the apparel realm is Merrell.  They like Patagonia, have a Travel section.

Of all the brands that I saw in all of Panama ironically old faithful Columbia was the most visible brand.  I saw many travelers, businessmen, adventure seekers, and fishermen wearing the Columbia Omni-Dry shirts.  Multiple times I saw the hats and shoes.  Somehow Columbia has resonated with the traveling types.  I have a couple of theories on this.  First, the price point.  Columbia is affordable and many deft travelers are used to traveling on budgets and want to get the best bang for their buck.  Second, Columbia has penetrated the Latin market better than many of the aforementioned brands.  I saw many Latins wearing Columbia which leads me to believe that a concerted marketing effort has been made world wide.  And it has paid off.  I saw fishermen from Europe with Columbia on, backpackers from Argentina, Americans that were laying on a beach all wearing the brand.  What does this mean?  Well, I'm not sure if Columbia intended to become a traveler brand but it certainly is a big area that could/should be and is being exploited see here. 

I remember it being that cute brand from Portland that had the old lady testing coats.  They made great coats and outer wear but now Columbia has grown into a formidable affordable outdoor/travel giant.  I guess I can't say that I was completely shocked to see everyone wearing Columbia clothing as I brought my fair share of Columbia gear, I guess I was just shocked to see so many people wearing it in the airports and on the buses.  Everyone scattering around to participate in their various activities while wearing quality performance apparel.

Sponsorships and branding

I recently went to an auto race in Utah and I was intrigued by all of the sponsorships.  On every car... well almost every car there were a grundle of sponsorships.  The teams themselves are supposedly extensions of bigger brands/owners.  There is the Michael Jordan Racing team, complete with the Jumpman logo and everything.  The National Guard is a sponsor for that team along with Gatorade, Upperdeck and Hanes.  All those brands have jumped on board all to be part of the man MJ.

Sponsoring is rough way to go when you think about it.  It fairly ineffective way to spend marketing dollars and you really never know what you're going to get as far as returns.  Even worse than that you really can't measure any of it.  Every once in a while you hit a homerun when you line your brand up with a relevant event or product.  I look at some of the classics that have been successful and they make sense.

Gatorade - Has done a great job with associating itself with sports and leagues.  NBA, NBA, High School Athletics.  This is great sponsorship dollars.

Coke - Pumping billions into the Olympics is incredible but there is a reason why it is the global drink of choice.  (Even though they have a different formula in Mexico... they use real sugar and it's better!)

Nike - College football teams.  If your team wears Nike apparel you know you have a good thing going.  This extends beyond just the unis, the apparel is going to be quality also.

Under Armour - The NFL Combine.  It is the perfect showcase for UA.  The training and the venue is right on.

Mountain Dew - The Dew Tour.  Young, adrenaline kids showing off with loud music and disregard for society... well done.

Social commentator/film maker Morgan Spurlock the man who brought us Super Size me has a new movie "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" coming out in which he had sponsors pay for all of it by using ad placement.  He even got Pom the Pomegranate drink to purchase the naming rights to the movie.  It looks fascinating and kind of puts things in perspective.  How effective placement and sponsorships can be depends completely on the product and the associated brand.  The Sprint Cup doesn't seem like a great marriage nor does Energy Solutions Arena but spending money and sponsoring can certainly get your name out there. 

The Battle For the Most Interesting Man in the World Title

Make no mistake, there is a battle going on.  It's fierce, it's bloody, and it's foreign.  Sound like something out of Central Asia?  Well, you'd be mistaken, the battle is in the booze.  Beer as a matter of fact.  With the incredibly overwhelming success of the Most Interesting Man in the World campaign by Dos Equis created by Euro RSCG of New York, Heineken decided it needed to ride this wave too.  What makes this type of campaign so appealing that the Dutch brewers want to jump on board?  Lets take a look:

Historically beer drinking wasn't associated with class.  Many of the drinkers  had a rough edge to them and saw it as a recreation drink or relaxation drink.  Picture a beer at a baseball game, or tailgating at a football game, or best of all, "bartender give me a beer".  With this type of audience already firmly entrenched as a drinking base it was time to reach out to other drinkers.  A subtle message that is permeated throughout the campaigns is that everyone can drink a beer.  These campaigns can be as educational as they can catchy.  With this in mind it's interesting to see how similar yet different these two campaigns are.  The end goal is to have one of the catchier campaigns, reach a new audience and get people to buy your beer because of the campaign you put together.

Dos Equis:

I love this guy, he's my hero, he's who I want to be in 30 years.  Problem is that it's in 30 years.  What about in the meantime?  Well, Dos Equis has done a great job of inserting clips from "his life" throughout all of the the ads.  The ideas for their creativity has been astounding.  Essentially clips of a man throughout his life showing all of the amazing things he has done, stuff that you and I could only dream about.  His life reads like a story book or a novel.  He has rubbed shoulders with dignitaries, explored in places that are so remote not many people have been there.  Accomplished tasks that still show up in record books.  All while wooing women and smiling.  He's exotic with a beard.  His accent can't even be placed, is he Spanish?  Dunno, German?  Dunno... his origin is as interesting as he is.

As part of the overall message, Dos Equis has really appealed to the young professionals, shooting for the 25-40 year old range who still think they can be that guy.  It's a fun campaign that has changed the way we look at Dos Equis.  Having an exotic foreign name to it has helped too.  Having gone from almost complete obscurity to on of the most talked about beers out there, congratulations, it worked.  It worked so well that I now can't wait for the next Most Interesting Man in the World commercial.

Heineken:

A little known fact is that Heineken owns Dos Equis.  So the big question is why would they compete with themselves?  The answer isn't so easy to explain.  There are two sides to this.  In case you haven't seen the ads, there is a young man whose nationality can't be placed (the spot was shot in Spain with a French actor) but totes a thin beard and is dark haired.  He enters a room and immediatly greets all sorts of people.  These people range from Indian women to foreign dignitaries.  There is even a scene with a Martial Arts expert.  Essentially the man is good at everything and has done everything in order to meet and greet these people.  Everyone loves him and he too is one of the Most Interesting Men in the World.

To answer the question of why compete?  The overall success of the Dos Equis campaign had to be so overwhelming that the big whigs thought it would be Okay to introduce a little competition. Rivaling The Most Interesting Man in the World (TMIMW) is a very hard thing to accomplish.  He is distinguished and has a take on life that we would all love to have.  So to introduce a spunky young man into the mix and try to take some of that real estate was a tough task to ask.  Heineken did a really good job through the agency Weiden + Kennedy of Amsterdam in making this young buck "interesting".  The campaign is older than you would think. It started in 2010 and has been a viral hit for a while but starting in March 2011 went mainstream.

The music, the feats, the person, all scream a younger peppier version of TMIMW but will it last and will it win?  Heineken sure hopes so because of this being their flagship brand and precedence for the rest of the company.  They are confident that this globtrotting youngster will inspire people in their exploration of the world and their Beer. “Heineken wants to elevate our drinkers by showing aspirational behavior — our consumer knows how to navigate the world, is confident, open-minded and resourceful,” spokeswoman Tara Carraro told Ad Age.

  Regardless Heineken is sure looking to brand itself very similarly to Dos Equis.  The difference being a peppy and young look trying to inspire young people to behave a certain way.  Heineken will never touch what Dos Equis as done and I think it's safe to that The Most Interesting Man in the World is still in a league of his own.  He was a first mover and carries a mystique to him that can't be matched. Our young Heineken friend looks like one of his disciples but as was with Peter or Paul, there is no replacing the Master.

The hype leading up to the launch, hitting your target.

One of my current clients has been working on raising some hype for one of their products.  It made me think of the hype that companies raise in order to grow awareness.  One recent campaign that is a few  years old is the Android campaign where pre-launch commercials were produced and run non-stop through every major event.  I remember watching them through the Superbowl and every other major event.  When the phone was finally released the brand had been established and the consumers knew everything about it.  It seems to have lived up to exactly 89.3% of the hype.  It was positioned to rival the iphone and is sorta kind of doing that.

In the outdoor and sports world this type of things is a little more difficult to do.  Consider this: if The North Face wanted to launch a new type of coat that would be the end all be all for any type of activity (never gonna happen but I'm just saying).  How would TNF position this?  First of all you would have to consider the fact that not everyone is going to purchase your product.  Your target market is very defined.  Someone in Arizona or Florida is not going to need your product.  With a phone, everyone buys a phone and wants a phone.  This is not the same with outdoor products.  TNF would launch a huge campaign to hit their demographics but the ROI on that investment wouldn't be very good.  Conversely if TNF targeted their campaign to the traditional outdoors outlets they would probably sell the exact same amount of product.  It's like I've said before, those who are going to buy it are going to buy it.

This leads again to the question of how do you hype a product before you launch it if your results are going to be the same without the additional costs of the campaign?  The answer is long and murky but here is the brief version of it all.

Currently the mentality of the "next big thing" doesn't really exist in the outdoors community.  It doesn't make sense to do it.  The results will be the same without the spend.  Gun manufacturers have attempted this but it requires someone following the industry intently.  The best way to hype an upcoming product or brand is to piggy back on what is currently being done by the company.  There are plenty of really good campaigns out there but instead of completely focusing all the efforts on the next product only about 20 - 30% of the focus should be used on the next product.  While a complete campaign will need to be run for the product it's much safer to utilize the space of a current product that is doing really well.  One example of this is in the outdoor clothing space.  Take my old favorite Under Armour.  What Under Armour has done is utilized what they have done in the past, leveraged their brand and put together small campaigns announcing or advertising upcoming products.  A great example is ski and snowboarding clothing.  There was never a big campaign or even a lot of money spent, rather by inserting it as an option or "see our winter line" on their website they were able to spark interests and create the next "big" for them.

It's a tough industry to revolutionize.  That's why building large amounts of hype just doesn't work.  You have to parlay your current hype of one product into the next thing that is coming along.  Unless the overall product is really something that is show stopping it's not going to be worth the costs of creating the hype.  The outdoors market is finicky and has to be treated as such.  Make sure your campaign is concerted and hitting the right target.  One proven way is to utilize other products that already have awareness.