connecting people,opportunities and ideas

Heat Launch New Technology in Sport Sponsorship, By SIG Intern, Tom Segal.

After much anticipation the Miami Heat recently launched their new MediaMesh clear LED system. In one word it is “amazing!” The Heat are the first sports organization in the United States to use this technology and have already attracted big players to advertise on their system including Bacardi, Miller Lite, Verizon, McDonalds, Gatorade and Adidas just to name a few.

The exposure the screen will generate facing the popular Biscayne Boulevard is immense with over 5.8 million people either passing by or attending an event at American Airlines Arena each year, but the location is not the only benefit making potential advertisers drool. The real attraction is how cool this thing looks! It is nearly impossible not to fixate your eyes on the objects practically floating across the front of the arena while passing by; so much so that I guarantee it will cause more than a few accidents on Biscayne.

Pricing for the ad spots are unavailable without inquiring with the Heat’s VP of Sales, but the structure for the advertising deals are based on 8 second increments that run for a combined 30 minutes a day.

With the increased attention the system has been getting from potential advertisers, other organizations such as the Orlando Magic, have already inquired about acquiring systems for their new stadiums.

In a time difficult to obtain sponsorships, something new and exciting had to be done, and I think the Heat had a “slam dunk” idea in incorporating this new technology into their arena. The organization is also using Twitter as a medium to get fans involved with the LED video board selecting fan “tweets” throughout the day to display across the screen.

Check out the video on the Heat website to see how ridiculously cool this new LED technology is. I would definitely crash on Biscayne Boulevard if something appealing was flashing across this thing.

Do others think this was a great idea by the Heat, and how quickly do you think this technology will grow among other sports franchises?  I also like how the Heat incorporated Twitter to get the fans involved.

http://www.nba.com/heat/news/aaa_unveils_media_mesh.html

Featured Article by David Rachell of Pinpoint Marketing and Dan Beeman of Sponsorship Insights Group.

The global economic downturn has taken multiple shapes that adversely affect many industries. The wise sage, Benjamin Franklin, once said that out of adversity comes opportunity. Perhaps Ben’s statement could very well apply to the downturn being our opportunity to strengthen the North American sponsorship industry.

Most reports show that the industry is weathering the economic storm fairly well.  But, activity from a different type of storm has been brewing at the U.S. Capitol. This storm involves legislative regulation aimed at prohibiting some of the most prolific industry players from using sponsorship as a means to foster new business growth.

Imagine (more…)

I’ll start by saying – Thank you Jason Peck for always bailing me out of my technology vortex of darkness. It is Saturday and I am playing with my laptop and am considering using video on the front page to make it more dynamic.  I am thinking that not many people will be reading this, so I won’t embarrass myself too badly.  Here is the copy and the video. 

What do you think?

Sponsorship Insights Group is dedicated to connecting People, Opportunities and Ideas.

We help properties generate partnerships with appropriate brands.

We host the premier online sponsorship and marketing professionals group.

We partner with IEG, Marketing Sherpa, Teamwork Online, SponsorPitch and others to provide cutting-edge information, content job opportunities and more through our integrated website and blog.

We are pleased to offer an array of services through our alliance network, social media, OOH, marketing, specialty leasing, garage revenue enhancements, concierge options and more.

Our goal is to provide all properties and marketing professionals a one-stop location to gain efficiency and effectiveness in an unfiltered objective way.

How can we help you?

Everyone played it as a kid. It was a traditional backyard game. All you needed was a basketball, a hoop, a friend, and a little creativity. You know it: H-O-R-S-E. And now the NBA is adding it to its All Star Game festivities. Joe Johnson, Kevin Durant and OJ Mayo are set to participate in the event’s premiere Saturday, February 14 at 5 p.m.

However, the game will have one strange twist. It won’t be called H-O-R-S-E. Instead, it will be called G-E-I-C-O in honor of one of the league’s leading sponsors. Players will compete to avoid spelling out the name of the prominent car insurance company.

Some may see the addition of the event as an ode to nostalgia, but its modified name only further proves just how significant sponsorship dollars are to the sport industry. In 2007, sponsorships accounted for $490 million of the NBA’s revenue. Most teams will bring in at least $6 million in sponsorships per year, and some will bring in over $20 million. Needless to say, corporate partnerships have are becoming the new wave way of making big money in sports.

The entire All Star Game weekend has over 20 sponsors alone, with Adidas, T-Mobile, Right Guard, and Southwest Airlines included. Right Guard will sponsor the new Block Party event and Southwest Airlines will host a police vs. firemen contest. (more…)

The Top Five Trends:

• Insight and innovation viewed as keys to combat down economic and business cycles; Marketers indicated market research and development would either stay the same or increase in 2009.

• Customer satisfaction and customer retention remained the top two marketing concepts followed by marketing ROI, brand loyalty and segmentation, which represents a “Back to Core Principles” approach to marketing. Of the 62 identified marketing concepts, faith-based marketing, six sigma, game theory, anti-americanism and immigration were viewed as the least important.

• The issue of global warming showed the largest decrease in importance (dropping 14 places in the rankings), while green marketing showed a statistically significant 5% drop. (more…)

I just spent the morning at the ICSC Shopping Center Conference.  I hosted a discussion on developing new revenue through common-areas of retail destinations.  I also listened to a few minutes of a discussion hosted by a few ICSC Trustees and leaders in the industry.  Here are a couple of interesting insights: (more…)

On Thursday and Friday, Feb 5, 6, I will be attending the ICSC Open Air Shopping Center Conference in Hollywood, Ca.  I will be leading round-table discussions on: Specialty Income – How to Maximize Revenue from Non-Traditional Sources at Your Property.

The following is my presentation overview.

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Sponsorship is part of the marketing mix. 

Sponsorship programs should be purchased and activated subsequent to a complete immersion into all facets of a brand. 

Don’t buy sponsorships until the work of understanding the brand is done.  Then sponsorship decisions should be self-evident.  Don’t try to sell sponsorships unless you understand the DNA of the brand.

Last night, I attended a MENG meeting in Los Anegeles and our guest speaker was Sasha Strauss of Innovation Protocol, managing partner of a strategic brand development agency.  He was articulate and insightful.  He also provided some great case studies of their work.  He outlined their philosophy on Brand Strategy:

Don’t communicate unless you know exactly who you are and why you matter

Don’t market

Don’t Advertise

Don’t publicize

First, build a brand strategy from which all facets of your communication can grow from – consistently with character.  Then tell the world. 

Smart!  What do you think?

The difference between advertising and sponsorship is that advertising can be an element of sponsorship.

While sponsorship offers extensions – vertically, horizontally, experientially and, hopefully, when done right, digitally  and transformationally.

Amazingly, even in these tough economic times, Super Bowl advertising and sponsorships sold out, generating $200 million in revenue.  However, the angle for some, like Hyundai was slanted to promote their ground-breaking return policy.  You can read more about it in the NYT article.

Some were good, some bad.  You can read reveiws from AdAge here.

In terms of activation, I thought that HULU did a good job of aligning with NBC to promote themselves simply and direct traffic to their website to view the Super Bowl commercials.  It was what good sponsorship should be:  relevant, synergistic, integrated and consumer-centric.

They even made it a little dificult to find the commercials by not putting a tab on the front page for easy navigation.  This forced consumers (me) to learn about the site (and find classic SNL skits).  I now have their site bookmarked.  Smart.

For an All-American game and sport, I thought, it was about time for The Boss or at least an American act to perform at halftime.  And Wow.  What a National Anthem performance, by Jennifer Hudson!  But why coudn’t I find it on Hulu?

What are your thoughts?

I re-listened to the IEG 2009 Trends webinar and got a few more nuggets that I wanted to share and some insights/analysis:

• Sponsorship spending grew by 11.4% in 2008 but is projected to only grow by 2.2% in 2009
• Of the nearly 17 Billion sponsorship dollars spent by North American Companies, most will continue to be spent on sports (68%), however, they project to only grow by 1.8%
• Of all sectors, sports is projected to be the slowest growing at 1.8%
• Sectors with biggest growth opportunities are festivals, fairs and annual events, associations and member organizations (4.4%).

Given these numbers, what are some suggestions for sellers?  (more…)