The National Hockey League's Winter Classic game, which sneaked into the New Year season three years ago, has become the sports fan's alternative to a winter parade of bowl games, including the Rose Bowl, happening the same day. The Winter Classic match, officially the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic (the title sponsor has re-upped for an additional five years) has also become a big sponsorship magnet. As the league gears up for the 2011 game at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field (Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Washington Capitals), the forthcoming game is garnering record numbers of sponsors, sold out its brand partnership inventory two months before the match, and posted a 21% increase in sponsorship revenue versus last year. Among the 16 or so sponsorships the league has sold for the game are Discover Card, which signed as title sponsor of the 2011 NHL All-Star Game and official card of the NHL among other things; Honda; Verizon; Dick's Sporting Goods; Pepsi Max; and GEICO. Verizon and GEICO will debut new hockey-themed spots on NBC during the game. Keith Wachtel, SVP integrated sales at NHL, talks about the game and how sponsors are activating. Q: What's the Cliff Notes version of NHL's sponsorship roster for the Winter Classic? A: The title sponsorship, which Bridgestone has, really needs that long commitment to build equity. The next level is the four in-ice positions -- our four "Presenting Partners" Verizon, Honda, GEICO and Dick's Sporting Goods. Three of the four we want to engage in long-term partnerships as well through the season. The fourth, Dick's Sporting Goods, is a huge retailer of NHL products and a great partner for licensees, and it is in the Pittsburgh area. McDonald's has, since the game's inception three years ago at Wrigley Field, "owned" penalty boxes and benches. The next sponsorship level is branding on camera-visible dasher boards, which are unique to us, and where the majority of our other partners appear. So, within that you will have brands like Reebok, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, Army, Discover Card, and Cisco -- those are our bigger partners who secure that inventory -- but all partners get in-arena assets like signage on the LED Jumbotron screens, mention in PA announcements, signage at the venue, game program ads, and local market opportunities. The last category is local partnerships, which might mean camera opportunities, but they are smaller partners looking to activate on a more local level. Q: Who will cover the game?A: Keep in mind that while this is in the U.S., most of the partners are North American and also in some respects global. The game will be covered on NBC in the U.S. and on CBC and RDS in Canada, and ESPN, so partners will get a big presence. Q: You noted a 20% increase in sponsorship revenue. Where is it coming from, more sponsorship opportunities and real estate? A: No, the revenue increase is from supply and demand. We are building equity and momentum in this, and quite frankly our partners get it. We have the ability to sell partnerships for increased revenue. The other thing is the growth of our own media properties like NHL.com and NHL Network and that's all working correctly, and that means interest in NHL has increased. But if you look at the sponsorship roster, while we think these sponsors would be partners regardless, I think the Winter Classic actually helps them in selling the NHL to their management. It's a property that has become so important in the marketing calendar of our partners that it has had a halo effect in terms of our overall business through the year. It's the keystone of our regular season, and from a regular-season standpoint, it gets the highest ratings. That's one of the reasons our partners clamor for it. Q: What drives the ratings? A: Where the game is in the calendar there are many bowl games, so this is a differentiating sport for that period. It puts us on the front page, literally. There has come to be more press about this game than anything else on Jan. 1. In a sense, the NHL has stolen New Year's Day. And it helps that NBC has done a great job supporting it. The fact that Bob Costas is hosting also really legitimizes it. From a broadcast standpoint, 60% of ad inventory has been sold to [NHL sponsorship] partners. That's great because we aren't just looking to sign partners to fill our categories, but also to market and activate across touchpoints, including broadcasters [advertising opportunities] and individual NHL teams. Q: Is the NHL helping to sell network advertising to partners? A: No, we don't sell the ads. NBC does that, and they have done a great job optimizing the value of the event. What NBC has also done is build a marketing platform for ads around hockey, which didn't exist before. Q: But how do you explain to prospective sponsors how viewership has grown?A: Actually, viewership has been stable, but at this point the key metric is in comparison to regular-season games. The Winter Classic will do three times what regular-season games will do in ratings. Partly because the game galvanizes the hockey fan who is already the most avid in all of sports. And while, like all sports -- which are tribal in nature -- fans love their team, the Winter Classic also demonstrates that hockey fans will tune in to big events whether or not they are fans of the Penguins or Capitols. And programs like HBO's "24/7" [documentary/reality show about the Winter Classic teams and their rivalry that began as a pre-fight reality show about boxers] reach even casual fans and people who may not even watch hockey. Q: How is the league promoting the game?A: Our promotions activity uses all of our touchpoints, including NHL Network, which is in 40 million homes. We will do 17 hours of live programming from the Winter Classic itself -- twice what we did last year. So if you are a hockey fan, NHL Network is the only place you can see full content up till game day. And we sold that coverage to Reebok, which will present all of the NHL Network coverage live from Heinz Field during the Classic. Also for the first time, we will be using virtual signage on NHL Network during broadcast of the practice session on Dec. 31. That means we can rotate Reebok along with other partners into the game beyond just the dasher-board real estate. Q: What is the larger strategy for sponsors involved in the Winter Classic but looking at the big picture?A: I think what you'll see is activation of our key partners in the U.S. and Canada all season long, partly for the sake of continuity: there's the Heritage Classic Outdoor game on Feb. 20, which is a huge window for our Canadian partners. The two months of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are huge, so there are spikes of activity. The model is getting partners to activate throughout the season, but to do major event activation in the big windows like the Winter Classic, which lets them activate early in the season, and they want those windows early on.
MillerCoors' Coors Light is leveraging SnapTag technology to enable customized regional promotions as extensions of a national, sweepstakes-driven Super Bowl XLV campaign. The brand is employing the mobile image recognition technology to achieve multiple, simultaneous objectives, according to Ryan Lindholm, client partner at Razorfish, Coors Light's digital agency. These include consistent point-of-purchase brand image exposure on a national level, scalable yet targeted reach within an interactive, relationship-building context; and the ability to enable distributors and retailers to connect with their customers via region-specific promotions and offers. The SnapTag consists of the Coors Light logo encircled or ringed by a code (a "ring code") that determines whether the participant will be offered an entry in the brand's national "Snap, Send, Score" sweepstakes or messaging relating to one of 11 regional promotions. The campaign is a major component of Coors Light's marketing strategy around its Super Bowl XLV and NFL sponsorships. The national sweeps, which uses the tagline "You Could Score the Unthinkable" -- meaning win "insider access" to the Super Bowl beyond fans' wildest dreams -- features a grand prize of a trip for four (winner plus guests) to the Super Bowl, attendance at the brand's Super Bowl party and other prizes/perks. Two first-prize winners will receive game trips for themselves and one guest, party admission and other prizes/perks. Additional prizes include a champion-autographed football, items used during the game, official NFL and Super Bowl gear, flat-screen TVs and NFLShop.com gift cards. "As the official beer of the NFL and the Super Bowl, we're bringing fans closer to the game than they ever imagined possible by taking insider access to a whole new level," said Rick Gomez, VP of marketing for the Coors family of brands, in the promotion's announcement. Now through game day -- Feb. 6 -- people of legal drinking age can use any mobile phone with a camera to snap photos of the Coors Light SnapTag on specially marked boxes of Coors Light and Coors Banquet or on promotional materials and ads, and send the images to a designated text code or email address. In line with standard alcoholic beverage marketing requirements, they then receive a message asking them to verify their age and provide state information. Upon verification, those who have snapped tags that are on the Coors packaging or in the media for the national campaign -- which include point-of-purchase (POP) materials, out-of-home ads (bus shelters, for example), ads on NFL.com and a tab on the brand's Facebook page that offers a video along with the SnapTag -- are entered in the national sweeps. (They can also enter the sweeps through a site-based entry form.) People who have snapped tags that are on in-store or other promotional materials/advertising produced for the regional markets receive messaging/promotions specific to that region's program. Those who have interacted with a regional promotion will, after a period of a week or two, also receive messaging offering the opportunity to enter the national sweepstakes. The lag will ensure that national efforts are not intrusive on regional efforts and that the brand does not "over-communicate" with people, says Lindholm. "We want to be sure that consumers are participating as they want to" -- that the consumer's own choices regarding engaging with the brand trigger not only the initial national or regional promotion response from the brand, but any subsequent engagement, Lindholm stresses. If consumers choose, via opt-in, to continuing engaging, "the cycle continues," he says. While Miller Coors could have achieved its dual national/regional objectives by using a texting platform not based on image recognition, image recognition technology offered critical speed-of-execution and cost advantages, explains Lindholm. Coordination activities with regional markets were streamlined and time-compressed, and the printing of region-specific promotional materials could be accomplished through simple on-press plate changes to incorporate their respective regional ring codes, rather than requiring costly and time-intensive, one-off press runs for each market, he points out. "The needs of our consumers and distributors are always changing," so speed-to-market as well as mass-market scalability were essential requirements for the campaign, stresses Lindholm. One key reason for selecting the SnapTag technology rather than a QR code/2D barcode platform or other image recognition platform was its ability to interface with any mobile phone with a camera (no app downloading or smartphone operating system required), reports Lindholm. Since 80% of all cell phones in North America have cameras, the paramount prerequisite of sufficiently scalable consumer reach was met, he explains. "Basically, it made it viable to risk using an emerging technology" for a major national campaign for the brand, he adds. At the same time, using a mobile-phone platform is made to order for reaching Coors Light's core 21-to-29 target audience, given that smartphone owners -- who are growing rapidly, but still represent 22.5% of the U.S. mobile market, according to July 2010 ComScore data -- skew to the 25-to-34 age demographic (as well as to males, although the gender gap is closing). Another MillerCoors brand, craft beer Colorado Native Lager, was the first brand to use SnapTags on packaging (in a spring 2010 campaign), although major brands such as Ford, Unilever and Crayola had used them on displays and ads. The Coors Light campaign represents the largest rollout of SnapTag use for POP materials to date, as well as one of the "most robust" campaigns to date in terms of use of regional targeting capabilities, reports Jane McPherson, CMO at SpyderLynk, creators/owners of the SnapTag technology. Coors Light worked with SpyderLynk and Razorfish to develop the customized SnapTag program for the Super Bowl campaign. In the end, of course, it's all about engaging interactively and building brand relationships with people. This campaign will provide Coors Light with a wealth of data about how people use the snap-and-send capability to interact with the brand initially and how the relationship can be optimized thereafter, says Lindholm. "This is a very important program for [Coors Light]," both for the year ahead and beyond, he says.
After several years of yanking on holiday heartstrings, the best retailing ads this season played it for laughs instead, with comical spots topping the National Retail Federation's list of favorite ads. "You can really feel the change of tone," Mike Gatti, executive director of the NRF's Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, tells Marketing Daily. "Last year was a difficult year, and so the ads were very nostalgic. This year, they are all a little more cheery. The stores are looking for a different way to tap into the consumer psyche." The trade association's survey, conducted by BIGresearch, included more than 9,100 adults, and found that comedy made the biggest impression, with the lighthearted Target spots bumping Walmart out of first place, and Macy's celebrity-filled comic ads jumping into third place. Other companies in the top 10: Best Buy (#4), Kmart (#5), Sears (#6), Old Navy (#7), Kohl's (#8), JCPenney (#9) and Toys R Us (#10). The survey also asked whether ads motivated viewers to shop at stores with appealing ads. And while 16.8% said they were motivated to shop at these stores, 33.5% said since they shopped at these stores anyway, the ads had no impact. The poll also asked people to name their favorite online holiday promotion, and while Amazon came in first, brick-and-mortar brand names were overwhelming favorites: Walmart came in second, followed by Target, Kohl's and Best Buy. In the case of online ads, 22% say they were motivated to shop there, while 27.7% said they already did so. "Amazon is the exception here," he says, "and we've all been saying that the multichannel approach gives stores an advantage because it gets you in front of the consumer in so many different ways. What's changing is that increasingly, the people who run the store Web sites are not 100 miles away in a garage full of Twinkies anymore -- they are evolving, integrating into all aspects of marketing, and everything facing the customer. We are seeing the results of that." While humor dictated their favorite TV spots, values affect their favorite method, with 42.3% saying that coupons most influence their store choices, followed by advertising inserts (24.3%) and word of mouth (23.3%). But broadcast TV did gain a smidge in influence, at 22%, squeaking by direct mail (19.7%.) Advertising in social media was seen as influential by 4.6% of respondents.
Almost three-quarters of consumers intend to make some changes in the way they celebrate the holidays this year, with a notable proportion intending to give homemade gifts, according to Millward Brown. Fifteen percent said they would replace some store-bought gifts with homemade gifts, either for the first time or more than in previous years. A smaller proportion (9%) reported an intention to give more gifts of their time. While there is no suggestion that Americans are turning their backs on holiday spending, small but significant changes do seem to have their roots in some underlying shifts in value -- particularly among younger consumers, says Ann Green of Millward Brown. The shift is simultaneously driven and reinforced by two factors that are intertwined. "The first is the economic pressure that results from the recession and unemployment, and the second is the realization that it is possible to live well on less money (or with fewer material goods)," Green tells Marketing Daily. "Some people have the experience of 'living well on less' forced upon them, while others reevaluate their own circumstances based on what they see happening to family and friends." The holiday season also tends to bring feelings of gratitude and altruism to the forefront, so it is not surprising to find these impulses expressed at this time of year, she adds. Overall, 40% of those surveyed said they would focus less on spending money and more on spending time with loved ones this season. Almost 30% said they would put more time and effort into buying meaningful gifts. In addition to the desire to make meaningful investments in personal relationships, a heightened awareness of those in need is evidenced by people's altruistic intentions. Almost one in five respondents (18.5%) intend to give more to charity this season, and almost as many (14.4%) intend to increase their commitment to volunteer work. All of these shifts are more notable among consumers ages 18-34, who are more likely to give a gift of their time (13.3% vs. 7.1% of those 35 to 64) and to make charitable contributions in lieu of gifts or cards (9.4% vs. 4.1%) "This age group is one that is more affected by the current employment pinch, and these younger adults are also aware of the long-term economic challenges we face as a country," Green says. "Of course, another factor that may be at work in the willingness of younger adults to volunteer or make gifts of their time is that, due to unemployment (or underemployment) they may simply have more discretionary time than older adults. But we also see their commitment to finding meaning in the other behaviors they have reported: Their intent to give more to charity and to make charitable donations in lieu of cards or gifts." Notable was the disproportionate number of women who intended to increase the practice of making gifts of their time, Green says. "Overall, twice as many women as men expressed this intention (12% vs. 6%), and the impulse is stronger among women 18 to 54 than those 55 to 64 (13% vs. 9%)," she says. "So the women who are most likely to be working and raising children are also those most likely to choose to further extend themselves in terms of sharing the precious commodity of time."
Already responsible for one of the hot toys of the season -- having been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Extra and CNN -- the makers of the uDraw Game Tablet (a sort of easel for the Wii) are looking to deepen their consumer engagement with an online contest. "Part of what we're doing is making sure that consumers who get uDraw have a chance to really experiment with it. So we want to do everything we can to encourage them to engage with it," company representative John Singh tells Marketing Daily. "It's less about enticing a consumer to buy than it is about giving them a real reason to get involved with the product." Through the online contest, users of the uDraw Game Tablet can submit winter-themed artwork created with the device. The contest is open to members of Club uDraw, which is free to join at WorldofDraw.com. The winner of the contest, determined by company executives and through an online vote, will win $500 worth of THQ video games for the Wii and will have their artwork used as the primary background on WorldofuDraw.com. "This contest is really what uDraw is all about," Julie MacMedan, vice president of corporate communications for THQ, tells Marketing Daily. "This promotion helps us build a community of artists." In addition to on-package call-outs drawing attention to the WorldofuDraw.com Web site (where the contest is prominently displayed), the company is actively promoting the contest and Web site through social media. The device was featured as part of Ellen DeGeneres' 12 Days of Giveaways, and praised by news outlets such as CNN, the New York Daily News and Wired.com. The tablet has consistently been among the top 10 video game titles offered at Amazon.com, according to the company.
Social media reached an inflection point in 2010, with the volume and speed of social conversations reaching unprecedented levels -- and showing no signs of abating. More enterprises embraced the business value of social media, coming to view it as Social Intelligence and a necessary competitive tool. We also saw many well-known brands -- from FedEx to Pepsi -- working hard to make a meaningful impact in the social sphere, and find ways to connect with their customers on a one-to-one level never before possible. And this shift in attitude toward social media by many businesses led to increased demand for serious analytics to enable informed decision-making. In addition, we witnessed a growing trend toward consolidation in the space, another sign the social media industry is maturing. Attensity purchased Biz360, Lithium Technologies acquired Scout Labs, and MarketWire purchased Sysomos -- just to name a few key deals from 2010. As we enter 2011, we can expect to see a continuation of merger and acquisition activity, and within a short time, smaller competitors will no longer dominate the industry. More importantly, within the next 12 months, we will move beyond the inflection point and to a defining moment when social media comes of age. Social media is poised to go mainstream -- and very soon it will be recognized, and accepted, as a meaningful communications channel and strategic business tool by all major businesses. Twenty eleven will be the year for businesses to meet their customers where they converse, make purchasing decisions, and recommend products and brands to others they trust, and who trust them. As part of this transition toward adopting social media as a core business strategy, we'll see Global 2000 companies fully embracing tweeting and posting, understanding that moving forward this is how they must meet and interact with customers not just listen. They also will realize -- with relief -- that they longer need to spend billions to direct customers to other channels and instead, can use their resources more strategically. There will be more collaboration and integration with partners and agencies with the sharing of learning's, processes and customer data. This includes fully integrating social media with traditional sources of data such as CRM, as well as from the brick-and-mortar channel. With more emphasis on integrating intelligence and learning's we will also see increased investment on predictive analytics, businesses not only can learn what a customer is doing right now in the social sphere, but also anticipate where he or she is going. This deep insight will help enterprises shorten the time required to foster brand affinity -- when a consumer makes a powerful, emotional connection with a brand. Brand affinity, in turn, can help to accelerate consumer loyalty, thereby making the process less expensive and time-consuming for businesses. Social media is still evolving in many ways, but the inflection point of 2010 signifies a point of no return: Enterprises no longer can view social media as a "someday" pursuit or something simply to dabble in -- instead, it is a critical business strategy to pursue starting now. And in 2011, the social channel will be where business and consumer will finally meet as equals -- and not as brand and customer. This, more than anything, is what will compel all major businesses to finally get serious about getting social.