Olympic Advertising and NBC

                Having seen and learned an enormous amount in the advertising industry over the course of my internship, I just thought it would be interesting to reflect on some of the notable intricacies of the Olympics, which always seem to dominate public attention during their air time. When NBC paid $1.2 Billion for the exclusive rights to the Olympics they really dug themselves into a hole because by paying this exorbitant premium, they handcuffed themselves to reaching such a high quota. NBC wants cable providers to pay more and in turn charge the consumer more while advertisers are forced during this Olympics to pay more than ever before as NBC tries to re-evaluate and change. Overall things have been more than interesting for the 2012 Olympics in London.

                On a different side of things, the advertisers that are in fact paying these elevated prices for ad time and ad space are being outmaneuvered by companies who are getting similar connections with their brand to the Olympics using a strategy called “ambush marketing”. What this essentially means is that advertisers can associate themselves with a specific event or happening without having to pay for the sponsorship costs. This is achieved by letting the viewer infer the connection through what could be called subliminal advertising without ever explicitly making the connection.

                The first great example of this was the ad Nike premiered in late July. The advertisement (shown below) depicts various everyday athletes doing a variety of activities with the motto “find your greatness”. What makes the ad ambush marketing is that Nike includes dozens of images of the word “London” on a variety of different objects from swim caps to street signs. At any other time, this would mean relatively little, but Nike lets the viewer make a mental association between the Olympics and Nike and doesn’t have to pay to sponsor the Olympics. Although the advertisement never says anything about London, England or the Olympics the inference within the ad allows Nike to tie its brand to the Olympics thereby increasing the value of their brand for a fraction of the cost that other advertisers are paying.

                Similar to Nike, Burger King decided to sneak one past McDonald’s with its advertising campaign in Brazil. As clearly depicted, the pack of fries closely resembles the Olympic torch. In addition to this Burger King is offering a double portion of fries the day after Brazil wins a medal in any event. Unlike Nike however, this advertising campaign is a lot less subtle as it does in fact tie itself to the Olympics through the double fries promotion directly associated with how well Brazil performs in the Olympics. Thus Burger King hopes to connect Brazilian Olympic success with its products. Strange I know, and let’s be honest, the athletes in those fast food commercials never actually eat that junk, but the campaign is no doubt to be a success for Burger King (pending a lawsuit from the good people at McDonald's).

                These two campaigns are not the first of their kind, but are generating a lot of buzz and even more positive media for Nike and Burger King as these videos are passed along and scrutinized. Although as an ESPN employee, I would have preferred to have the Olympics broadcasted on our own networks, it made far more fiscal sense to allow NBC to pay through the nose and continually bungle the process. The Olympics as a brand has suffered in this regard because from the very beginning the people at home have been discontent with what’s been happening on the NBC network. I think most people can agree that the opening ceremonies were generally a disaster and poorly aired which set the stage for complaints ranging from staggered tape delays to the vast difference in broadcasting quality between NBC and BBC. The American public generally agrees it has been getting the short end here so it has been thought-provoking to see our media rival flounder s.

                As a last note, I’d just like to add two advertisements I encountered that I felt it was my duty as a blogger to spread to the world. One is of MMA Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva who is a spokesman for Burger King and promoted the ambush marketing campaign via Twitter over the last few days. The other is an ad for Ragu pasta sauce that aired for the Olympics which is… well, quality advertising.

                                              

Invasion of Privacy

                One of the most recent issues with the development of technology is privacy. A few weeks ago Microsoft released the news that all of the browsers on its new computers and software would have the Internet privacy settings automatically set to on, something that has never been done before. The reason this was so unheard of was that companies that wanted to advertise digitally wanted that information from consumer’s browsers in order to better reach their target audience by monitoring their activity on the Internet.

I can personally attest to the shocking nature of how well some advertisers seem to know based on previous searches or simply what type of person I am based on the circulation of websites I visit in a typical month. Facebook and Google have been pioneers in this industry, divulging user’s information, pictures, and statuses in order to give advertisers a more accurate view of exactly who they are targeting. Unlike many social media websites that may have rotational or fixed ads for the general population, Facebook caters each page towards a specific user in order to give advertisers a placement which they know reaches their desired demographic. In a recent article Facebook admitted that around 135 million of its users created no content, meaning they either individuals or companies created this accounts for the sole reason of observing other active users accounts, which we can assume is then collected into data and sold to advertisers. These 135 million are called lurkers, the name itself connoting dastardly deeds, and these accounts are simply there to invade your privacy and catalogue your activity. 

Additionally, just in the past few weeks data company Datalogix has created new software that allows companies wishing to buy ad space digitally to target their audience based on what they watch on television. By partnering with TRA, a company acquired by TiVO, digital ad buyers will have access to this information based on data pulled from cable boxes in millions of homes. TRA and Datalogix can provide online ad buyers a perspective of what type of person lives in that household and how to market effectively to them online. Using this data from over 4 million households, advertisers can examine the millions of online impressions and cookies from a single user or a group of similar users and extrapolate this to the general public. For example, if a certain type of person watches X television show then they are more inclined to see Y movie when it comes out and if all those people have certain websites in common, that is exactly where a company would choose to advertise because of this new technology. It is exactly here where the issue of privacy comes into play.

Although the Obama Administration and the Federal Trade Commission have proposed changes and issued reports in their “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change” they haven’t actually made an difference in an advertising industry that is in no rush to police itself and cut profit margins. Many consumers aren’t even aware that they can turn off behavioral targeted ads and monitoring. Eventually, if the market doesn’t change to alert consumers to their choice in this matter or the digital advertising industry doesn’t change altogether , we can expect that Congress will have to make some type of ruling outlining the exact extent to which the everyday person has a right to privacy on the Internet.  

http://adage.com/article/digital/web-ads-target-based-watched-tv/236433/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage

Intern Symposium in Bristol, CT

                Being in the New York office of ESPN, we don’t get much of a taste of the day to day production of the shows that really help define ESPN as a brand. At Trinity one of my classmates and I film, edit, and broadcast our own version of SportsCenter on what we call the Trinity Sports Network so naturally I was incredibly interested to see the production aspect in Bristol, CT where ESPN first got its start back in 1979.

This past Tuesday, the entire summer intern class of 2012 converged on the Bristol campus bringing interns from California, New York, Chicago, and North Carolina together to see what went on behind the scenes. We began the day with an introduction speech by President John Skipper who was every bit a leader as I could have expected. Between his comedic anecdotes and subtle put downs of Duke (UNC is his alma mater) he was a relatable figure who storied rise to his current position was riveting to hear. I was also relaxed by the table I was sitting at which could have been easily supplanted in a 6 year olds sports themed birthday party, complete with sporty name cards and ESPN letter salt and pepper shakers.

 Skipper explained that as we dive headlong into today’s technology focused age we must anticipate the convergence of platforms as the difference of screens between computers, TVs, and smartphones will cease to be important. One of the things that has astounded me most as an intern is the ability for those in charge to captivate an audience. In all the seminars and meetings I’ve attended I have always been sucked in by the passion and the knowledge behind the words and John Skipper was no different in his ability to dominate a room. Later on in our panel discussion, the theme of passion emerged again and again as the driving force as to why ESPN was at the top of its market. Its employees and talent genuinely have a love for what they do and want to go out and put forth an effort unequaled by other companies in our field.

The next part of the day was the recreation of a show on ESPN called Stump the Schwab with Howie Schwab. I claim to know an exorbitant and seemingly endless amount of useless sports knowledge, but compared to Howie I knew about as much as… well, someone that doesn’t know much about sports. The questions ranged from naming the starting 11 on Chelsea FC to listing the first overall picks in the NBA draft for the last 23 years. Needless to say it was a slaughter out there, but I was impressed by how many right answers my fellow interns were able to get.

The last part of our visit to Bristol was a tour of the entire campus, 30 acres of pristine sports paradise. As we headed out the doors to make our way to the production studios, Stephen A. Smith of such critical acclaim with First Take and other ESPN analyst positions, walked past us sending up a series of gaps and inducing a few star struck jaw drops. Our tour guide, Jeff, assured us that this type of sighting was a common occurrence, but many of us were still incredulous that the man we saw argue on the TV with Skip Bayless everyday had passed not more than a few feet away from us. Although hard to top that experience, we were equally in awe under the bright lights of the familiar studios in which we’d seen countless broadcasts over the years. I’d just like to say that sitting behind that desk was a pretty great feeling. Unfortunately the day had to come to a close after the tour, but I hope one day I can sit back in one of those seats under the lights in Bristol, CT.

Just a few links to a few old Trinity Sports Network Videos

NBA Jersey Advertising: Flop or Not?

On June 20^th the National Basketball Association decided to accept advertisements on the uniforms of its players becoming the first of the four major sports leagues to allow this. Being an intern in the Consumer Marketing and Sales group, I felt that this was an interesting step in advertising, essentially creating a new medium for advertisers to get their brands out to the public.

Before the NBA sports like the WNBA and NASCAR had allowed advertisers to put their products on jerseys, driver’s suits, race cars, and whatever else they could slap a Wonder Bread sticker on. Advertising in NASCAR has always felt somewhat natural as brand names and advertisers often go hand in hand with a particular driver or car. Example being, every mother’s son at any of the big cup series throughout the NASCAR season knows that Tony Stewart is the Office Depot car and Jeff Gordon drives the Du Pont car. It’s just common knowledge and how the sport has developed. During the race there isn’t as much of a focus on the driver because all we see is the car and thus the advertisements, but to begin putting advertisements on athletes really doesn’t seem in line with what the NBA is.

You could argue that the WNBA has been doing this for years, but the Women’s National Basketball Association is an entirely different beast, a beast which is in fact starving for advertising dollars. The article reports that teams could expect to earn anywhere from $1.5 million to $7.5 million per year a relatively small amount in a market that grosses around $3.5-4 billion a year. The question then must be asked, is the revenue from these advertisements worth what could potentially be a hit to the NBA brand? The ESPN website could cover 90% of its websites in advertisements that move and vie for your attention while you are innocently trying to read about how your team did in last night’s game. It could have pop-ups and prestitials, all manner of distracting and annoying ads that although they would make ESPN more immediate dollars the detriment to ESPN’s brand is undeniable.

Fans have been clamoring since this announcement about how the “uniqueness” of jerseys will essentially be ruined by advertisements. Jersey sales go up with great athletes that change the face of the game and reconstruct how we perceived certain organizations. The way Jeremy Lin came bursting onto the scene for the Knicks this year was a revolutionary period for the NBA. Never had one player so shocked the basketball world in 25 games like he managed to. I honestly wonder if the same amount of Lin jerseys would have been sold if the Knickerbockers had uniforms sponsored by T-Mobile, one of their larger advertisers. I mean, how many Boston Celtics fans would happily trade in the KG or Ray Allen jersey they have now for one that has a big Sprite logo sewn on? How many Spurs fans want to see Tim Duncan sporting a jersey sponsoring something you blow your nose with? Let’s be real. The two organizations and their fan followings couldn’t be more different (something I cringe about as a Knicks fan), but it’s safe to say neither set of fans is going to be greatly appreciative of this change.

It’s at this point that the NBA must see that the advertising dollars it’s getting from these companies are worth the cheapening of the brand. Personally, I hope David Stern Armani Exchange’s this policy before he Lacostes the league its rep. Paul Frankly I’m sorry for making these jokes.

YP and the VP

The other day I had the opportunity to attend a meeting sponsored by the ESPN Young Professionals, which is a group of driven young men and women working within the ESPN community who are truly the industry’s best and brightest. The guest speaker for this meeting was none other than the Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Sean Bratches. I’d just like to say right off the bat that Mr. Bratches was one of the best public speakers I’ve ever had the privilege to listen to and it was really enlightening to hear him speak on so many diverse topics I didn’t have a large amount of knowledge about.  I don’t usually gush like a pre-teen girl who’s just seen Justin Bieber, but I can confidently say that every person around that table was enthralled with what Mr. Bratches had to say.

                In an increasingly changing market characterized by the rise and fall of competitors and new technological innovations that radically redefine business plans, ESPN must continually be willing and capable of change if it is to remain at the top of the industry. One of the most striking things about Mr. Bratches was that he knew an astounding amount about the business and how it has been evolving, while many of his peers at companies like Comcast or NBC frequently ask themselves how advertising dollars translate to Tweeter. The mobile and digital mediums of advertising and marketing are on the up and up as people today have so many portable options to carry with them throughout the day. Whether it’s an iPad, iPhone, or simply a laptop we consume more now than ever on the go and working at ESPN we are more conscious than most about the fact that people need access to information anytime, anywhere.

               Developments like WatchESPN and the Scorecenter mobile app are tailored specifically for a generation of people constantly on the move so that sports fans around the world never miss a single moment of their sports teams. In my last post I mentioned the Euro Cup which was a major event that WatchESPN covered among its 24/7 programming of live events, and in the month of June during the tournament 5.3 million viewers tuned in, racking up 862.2 million minutes of viewing while ESPN apps hit 1,555,906,950 minutes. According to NCTA Cable studies, in 1977 only about 6.5 million people had cable television. So in one single month WatchESPN achieved almost as many viewers which really just goes to show how these industries can evolve quickly. One of the things Sean Bratches mentioned was that in this day and age, in order to achieve the desired 10% annual growth ESPN would have to have to expand its market by over $1 billion. In order to hit those numbers every year, new radical innovations need to be implemented and ideas like WatchESPN and mobile apps are exactly what this era calls for. As an intern who focuses on largely digital sales and marketing, I was informed in my first week that at ESPN the television side of sales and marketing makes over $4 billion each year whereas digital and mobile only take in about $300 million. The main difference here is that television has been in households worldwide for over half a century, while the internet and its application to mobile devices is relatively new technology and so digital and mobile markets are growing significantly faster because there is the most room for innovation and change. Ten years ago the way people used the internet was radically different from how people use it today and men like Mr. Bratches see that this growth in the market is where ESPN needs to be.

               Mr. Bratches left us with one last point, encouraging us to all go out with the same attitude as Steve Jobs in his creation of Pixar and Apple. Nothing can be off the limits and nothing is guaranteed, we need to all go out there and constantly be looking to change instead of accepting what is around as an inevitable truth because as Steve Jobs proved, we can improve, innovate, and succeed even when others are so sure we'll fail.

Here is a link to WatchESPN http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index

               

Euro Cup

Living in Hartford, CT I thought I knew what it was like to live in a city, but coming to New York is something entirely different. New York is home to so many different cultures and things to do that it is hard to wrap your head around. In the first week of the ESPN internship all of the interns met together every day for training and we were given the opportunity to get to know one another as well as train for the work ahead of us. The topic on everyone’s mind seemed to be the upcoming Euro Cup, which draws viewers from every corner of the globe. Most every child is thrust into playing soccer, or football, as our non-American friends insist we call it, at some point in their life. Some of us only play a year or two in a recreational town league where our favorite part is the orange wedges at half time, but others develop a true love for the sport.

 I myself worshiped renowned backs like Danny Alves and Gerard Pique as I played a back or defender position. My sophomore year of high school, our team was left without a keeper, or goalie for those of you less soccer inclined, and I was graciously volunteered by my teammates because of how tall I was. My role models evolved into players like Casillas, Joe Hart, and other famous brick walls and net minders as I remained in this position throughout my high school career.

Now obviously the Euro Cup isn’t quite as big of a deal as the World Cup but these tournaments are far more than simple soccer games between countries. In this day and age the pride and sheer bliss that comes with your nation’s striker beautifully finishing a crossover or a header into the back of the opposing teams net is unparalleled. The world is in a dark place financially as citizens in countries like Greece, Italy, and many others struggle to make ends meet. But you can absolutely bet that fans of those countries forget their every financial worry when players like Di Natale or Karagounis put one in the back of the net to the sound of a stadium full of screaming fans. I thought I knew what it was like to love a sport more than anything, but the roar of Madison Square Garden when the Knicks and Rangers played or when the Yanks played at home seemed laughable in comparison. In the U.S. many of us grow up watching multiple sports and thus our allegiances and hopes are divided, but in other countries their is only soccer. When your team loses in the quarterfinals, there is no "well hockey starts in a month so I'll just focus on that" in soccer. It is the end all to be all. The first time I went to a Barcelona vs Madrid game in Barcelona I realized that the sport meant so much more than simple soccer. It was the manifestation of history and every single person stopped what they were doing to cheer on their team. Nothing made you look quite like an outsider like not watching the futbol game that day, or saying soccer for that matter.

Regardless, soccer is a way for people to escape their everyday troubles and align themselves with something great, with something perennial. 50 years down the road, people will talk about how their country triumphed against all odds to win the World Cup or the Euro Cup. They will know exactly where they were and who they were with when they were watching it. How they accidentally threw that nice vase they used to have in the TV room after the referee missed that off sides call. How everyone hugged and cheered and was so horse and hung over the next day but everyone at work the next day was exactly the same from the same revelry.

One of the coolest things about working at ESPN is that I feel like I’m in the thick of it. We are a hub for millions of fans seeking for information, replays, and actually watching the games themselves. The new ESPN FC website is a veritable Holy Land for those who follow soccer religiously. The WatchESPN link from this site extends soccer fandom even farther than we ever thought imaginable.

Check out a few of these links to relive the greatness.

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/visuals/tag/_/name/euro-2012

http://abcnews.go.com/International/slideshow/2012-european-soccer-fans-faces-16597147

http://www.eurocuppictures.com/k-euro-2012-football-fans-(guys)-74.htm