As I’ve written here before, since sports marketing got serious twenty years ago, one of the industry’s most important trends has been NPD. Inspired by the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, both launched in the early 90s, every sport has created new or re-packaged events and formats in search of the same success. Some work, some don’t, but the dynamic continually creates new opportunities for sponsors.
When I first heard about the football 4 Nations tournament a couple of years ago I really liked it, and I still do. In case you haven’t heard about the 4 Nations, it’s a new biennial football tournament, starting in 2011, to be contested by the national teams of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Carling were unveiled today as title sponsors.
Here are my 4 reasons why I welcome the 4 Nations and believe that it will be a success.
1. It’s based on a similar template to rugby’s RBS 6 Nations, which is one of the great events in the sporting calendar because it taps into the rivalry between the four home nations – as well, of course, as France and Italy.
2. It represents a welcome antidote to one of the curses of international football, and indeed modern sport, meaningless matches. The 4 Nations will have meaning.
3. All four countries will have a title to play for regularly on the international stage, something they don’t have right now – and will want to win it.
4. Because of all of the above, I believe the fans will embrace it.
Success isn’t guaranteed of course: there are challenges to be overcome. The tournament will take time to build its identity, profile and meaning, which will need skilful promotion by its stakeholders, particularly given the two month gap between rounds of matches. Most importantly, the teams will need to field the strongest players: nothing turns fans off more quickly than an inferior product.
But if those challenges can be overcome, I believe the 4 Nations will be a resounding success.
And if it is, maybe, just maybe, England will in time want to join in too, and (if the Irish, Scots and Welsh let them in!) we’ll see the return of the Home Internationals tournament, which fans of a slightly older vintage (such as myself) loved so much when we were kids in the 70s – because of moments like this…
The Vancouver Olympics and the 2010 World Cup have been watershed events in the evolution of sports and entertainment marketing strategy in the digital era, as new technologies enable increasingly compelling ways for brands to engage fans following these events, and living their lives, simultaneously online and off line. A fascinating feature of this has been the rise of the iPhone app that, out of nowhere, becomes a cult phenomenon around mega events.
But I’m betting that the World Cup’s left-field equivalent of the Vancouver cowbell app phenomenon will be the vuvuzela. Unknown to the wider world unfamiliar with South African football, the sound of the vuvuzela will be a defining feature of this World Cup, and one I’m sure fans around the world will want to download and share. There are already six vuvuzuela apps out there, each backed by some smart marketing, in particular by Aculocity, developers of the Virtual Vuvuzela app. Try Tweeting ‘vuvuzela’ and you’ll see what I mean.
Microsoft has announced the release of a new mobile phone designed to capture the hearts, minds and standing orders of ‘younger, chattier, socially switched-on’ users.
Developed in conjunction with former Manchester United sponsor Sharp, the brand is to be known as KIN, and represents a range of mobile phones – currently dubbed KIN One and KIN Two – the former in particular a pretty neat-looking device somewhere between a Palm Pre and the chubby widescreen variety of iPod Nano.
From left, KINs One and Two
It’s not a Blackberry, neither is it an Android-a-like, and it’s definitely, categorically not an iPhone challenger. With social media feed functionality placing it in an interesting limbo between smartphone and old-fashioned ‘dumb phone’, the KIN may, in fact, be more of a long-term stepping stone for Microsoft in converting a wider audience to the upcoming mobile Windows 7 OS.
Check the KIN website: it’s all very ‘youth’ (and not even in a ‘this is what all the kids are doing these days, isn’t it everyone?’ Gap style), informative, pretty and dynamic…nice, and contains only the tiniest nods to Microsoft…phew.
Does this mean Microsoft has broken free from its infamous track-record of dad-dancing that has confirmed the world’s third largest company as one of its dorkiest? Of course not, as confirmed by the following shot of Microsoft exec Robbie Bach from the KIN’s press launch last week – probably not the Generation Y shot in the arm the product required, given its offering and audience.
Robbie Bach at the KIN press launch
So why do Microsoft rule the uncool, and how do they manage to make things so effortlessly undesirable?
The much-ridiculed Window 7 Launch Party video holds one or two clues…
If you never saw this, please watch as much as is humanly possible of the video above (I’d say about 12 seconds) and then have a look at the Remix version on this ‘tribute’ site, which, through the tiniest addition has produced something eminently more watchable.
So why will people line up to shoot Microsoft down for this? Is it because the original video is so replete with cheese, yet so bereft of irony? Is it because of the public’s distaste for celebrating what is effectively a stress-purchase, in this case designed to solve the problems created by Microsoft Vista, W7’s predecessor? Or is it simply that the idea of hosting a party to launch a computer operating system is just incredibly bizarre?
Go back a little further to Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ campaign. This was a response to Apple’s ongoing advertising creative which pitched a ‘typical’ PC user against a Macophile. In the US this campaign included Justin Long (of Dodgeball and Die Hard 4.0) as ‘the Mac’, but UK consumers will be more familiar with the localisation featuring Mitchell and Webb.
Whilst a comedic exercise in stereotypes – termed as bullying from certain pro-PC quarters – ultimately, Apple’s campaign was grounded in the functional versus the inspirational: on the whole people have to use PCs, but choose to own a Mac. If this isn’t an indicator of brand love, then I’m not sure what is.
Were Pharrell Williams’ claims that he’s a PC enough to turn the heads of unbelievers? What about when they see him on his iPhone? Did Eva Longoria’s endorsement make PCs any sexier? Tough to say, especially when she was subsequently captured at the airport on her MacBook. Isn’t this indicative of the difference between obligation and aspiration?
Whatever way you look at it, in the constantly-updating, virtually-democratised world of the web, where transparency is a badge of honour, there’s very little room for the clumsy manufacture of cool. And even if you did want to – Microsoft boffins, take note – there’s a formula you need to apply…
Generated through research conducted between InSites Consulting and MTV Belgium amongst 13-29 year-olds, the above represents the key factors (at an official ratio of 22% originality, 23% popularity and 55% attractiveness) that contribute to make a brand, product or service ‘cool’.
The same study demonstrated that 73% of all brand loyalty is about the coolness of the brand, with young people today buying twice as many cool brands than uncool brands, while the future purchase intention of these brands is no less than three times as high. It doesn’t really matter whether this is right/wrong/lowlands-specific, but there’s little argument in the study’s assertion that trying to be cool is the worst thing you can ever do. Ever.
A tragic confirmation of this is Microsoft (honestly, I don’t actually dislike the company, there’s just so much cannon fodder) and its foray into the digital music market…the ill-fated Zune. They have the set-up, the know-how, and the can-do attitude, but this couldn’t save Microsoft from failing on the Originality, Popularity or Attractiveness fronts, in the face of Apple’s iPod. In fact, in what is probably my favourite comedy product on the internet, you can even buy what has been termed the ultimate Apple anti-theft device, the ‘Hide-a-Pod’ - a Zune-disguise for your iPod.
Who knows what the fate holds for Microsoft’s latest mobile offering, but unless they learn the lessons from past product launches, there’s a chance it could be KIN useless.
Formula One pits nation vs nation in A1GP copycat shock!
Some time ago, I recommended to FOTA that it adopt some of the infrastructure of A1GP (the self-styled World Cup of Motorsport), were it to start a breakaway series, which was a topic being discussed earlier in the 2009 season by the F1 teams’ representative body. I meant it as a logistical efficiency, whilst bemoaning the decline of A1GP which I reckoned was founded on some interesting principles: nation vs nation in identical machinery.
F1 machinery is not identical and I am happy for that: A1GP could never offer a constructors’ championship. But I remain intrigued by the nation vs nation idea and think that – more by accident than design – F1 is heading this way. I think it would be good for the sport if it were to do so because national passions could be piqued, adding a spice to its competition that F1 has largely been missing. The news today that Jenson Button has signed for McLaren has helped.
To begin not with McLaren but with Jenson’s former team Brawn GP, here’s how I see it:
Brawn is now Mercedes Grand Prix. Mercedes is German. In 2010 its drivers will be Nico Rosberg and possibly either Nick Heidfeld or Adrian Sutil. All are German. They may be sited in the Northamptonshire countryside (Mercedes F1 engines are made down the road from Brawn’s Brackley site, in Brixworth) but this team will be under teutonic management. Team Germany.
Not ten minutes’ drive from Brackley, Force India F1 operates from Silverstone. Promoting Indian brands globally, and western brands in India, the team’s commercial proposition is clear. Owner ViJay Mallya is the face of this team that has no Indian drivers yet, though Arun Chandhok remains a decent bet for a drive next year. Flushed with pride at its late season progress and with an Indian GP on the cards from 2011, Team India is alive and well.
To the east, in Hingham, Norfolk (until it moves even further east to the home of its Malaysian owners) is Lotus F1, managed by Tony Fernandes, the man that built Air Asia on the back of a Williams F1 sponsorship. The corporate body behind the team (Malaysia Racing Team Sdn Bhd) has embarked upon a programme of driver development aiming to put Malaysians in F1 cars in the future. In his tweets, Fernandes refers to “Team Malaysia aka Lotus F1″.
On the other side of London, the McLaren team pairs Jenson Button with Lewis Hamilton. Ignoring the fact that the team remains 30% owned by Bahrainis and will run Mercedes engines under its existing contract, we know that Mercedes will be reducing its investment in the team over the next couple of years. This will allow McLaren to become Team GB A.
In Oxfordshire, Williams F1 markets itself as the only truly British-owned team, the only true independent and the only team still managed by its founding partners. In 2010 none of these statements will be true, so the commercial proposition will have to evolve. Nonetheless, for Sir Frank’s unstinting loyalty to Queen and country, I think Williams can comfortably assume the mantle of Team GB B. At least it will run a British (Cosworth) engine in 2010.
One new entrant struggling to assert its nationality is Spanish team Campos Meta, which has been desperately trying to sign Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa but there is so little interest from Spanish sponsors that the team is having to run a Brazilian and (probably) a Russian or a Venezuelan. But it’s a Spanish team sited in Valencia and Madrid, and no-one else is laying claim to the title of Team Spain.
By contrast USF1 positively glows with pro-American sentiment. I cannot imagine a sports team from the USA with the name US in its title, based in Charlotte NC, being anything other than Team America, whoever ends up driving the cars..
Ferrari is of course an Italian brand and excites rabid passions among the scarlet-clad grandstands of Monza and beyond. Even though it has failed to excite with its driver selections since Michael Schumacher departed (a shame: Felipe Massa is a cool character worthy of more than he receives from the fans) it will doubtless rise again in 2010 to become Team Italy.
So there you have it: Team Germany v Team India v Team Malaysia v Team GB A v Team GB B v Team Spain v Team Italy. This is a solid reflection of where F1 is touring, location-wise, and I think we will see teams from Korea and Russia before too long.
The teams that do not fit this model (Renault, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Qadbak Sauber and Virgin Racing) are backed by sponsors with naming rights that care little for national boundaries and so fail to excite national passions. This is not a criticism: their commercial objectives are transparent and they will doubtless serve their sponsors well. But I predict that their share of national support will be weaker than the “national” teams with a corresponding reduction in media attention that may yet cause sponsors to take note.
All of which may mean that A1GP’s legacy is more memorable than most commentators assume, as Formula One becomes the true World Cup of Motorsport.
@synergytim tweeted this morning about a music download service soon to be launched by Sky. Sky Tunes, it says here, will take on iTunes and offer a bona fide alternative in the music download market which is to say these days, the music market per se. It’s the second such service to have crossed my bows in as many weeks, the first having been brought to my attention my my 11-year-old daughter Maddie who received what she perceived to be a genuine offer of free music from her mobile provider, Vodafone. Being the sensible girl that she is (she gets it from her mother) she first checked with me to see if it was OK to reply “yes” to Vodafone’s text and receive 10 tracks of her choice, for free.
I checked it out to find that had she done so, she would have been able to choose her 10 tracks from the UK top 50-ish, and then would have committed with no further action on her part, to a monthly subscription of £5 added to her mobile bill, for which she would have received a further 10 tracks and “the option to buy loads more”. Dangerous stuff when you’re 11 years old and Daddy pays your phone bill, so we declined to proceed.
@synergytim’s tweet reminded me of this today, as I checked out Sky’s service as described in The Guardian, finding that for a monthly subscription of £7.99 I could receive 10 tunes or an album each month. Pricier than the Vodafone service and with no apparent differential benefit.
If I understand these services correctly, I believe that in both cases should I neglect to choose tracks or albums or if I forget, the service provider will choose my music for me. How kind.
Digital natives will be too young to remember a company called Britannia Music, but migrants may recall how in the 1970s and 80s, members of the Britannia Music club, snared by the offer of four albums for £1 each, then paid about £5 per month to the club, for which they received the Britannia Music-selected “Album of the Month” in their chosen format: LP, cassette or 8-track (this last is a dimly recalled format from my pre-school days, I assure you). The entire catalogue of Britannia Music was available for purchase at full or discounted prices. Funny, but all the stuff I listened to always seemed to be full price.
Sky Tunes and the Vodafone Music Club use similar mechanics to the old Britannia Music club, adapted for the digital age. Having wasted my hard-earned pocket money as a teenager on Kirsty MacColl’s Desperate Character and Witchfynde’s appalling debut Give ‘Em Hell, I want to warn all you young folk out there that there is a better, more transparent way of buying music. It’s called iTunes and whilst I welcome competition in the free market, the above two examples are not it because they are fundamentally not transparent. Not honest, even.
These lock-you-in-to-a-punitive-contract music supply services are not new and offer nothing that can not be obtained for similar prices or cheaper elsewhere. The Guardian points out two added benefits of the Sky service: first, that its tracks come DRM-free and can be played on any MP3 player whereas iTunes tracks require an iPod. With iPods dominating the personal music scene to as great a degree as Microsoft dominates the personal computer OS market, this seems a dubious benefit. And second: Sky offers unlimited streaming for free, which is nice, but I get that anyway via Last.fm and Spotify. I have done so for months.
And where do I listen to these free music services? On my iPhone and iPod, of course.
So John Cleese will be footing a £12.5 million bill for his divorce of second wife, Alyce Faye Eichelberger. As Cleese put it, “I got off lightly. Think what I’d have had to pay if she’d contributed anything.” Whatever the reason for this split, there may be more proceedings to be filed over the coming months, following news of the imminent release of Championship Manager 2010 from software house Eidos.
For a limited time only, Eidos is offering its revered football management title to online consumers through a ‘pay what you think it’s worth’ mechanic. Aside from a non-negotiable £2.50 ‘delivery charge’, buyers can theoretically spend as little as a penny extra to own the game. It’s an audacious move, with even the staunchest of CM fans likely to pay less than RRP to get a piece of their narcotic of choice. The risk-reward ratio must come down to how many new enthusiasts/devotees/junkies can be brought into the franchise through either the reality of the deal, or the PR noise it’s made. It’s brave, it’s bold, but one has the feeling it’s based on a commercial reality – surely someone at Eidos has done their sums before this launch got the green light? Radiohead employed a similar tactic on the release of their album ‘In Rainbows’ and claimed to enjoy the last laugh, making more money than all their other albums put together.
The fact is that much of this has been made possible by the move from the physical to the virtual transaction. Whilst there’s no suggestion that making £2.51 a time off a product traditionally retailing at around £40 will keep the CEO in your pocket, the shift from purchase off-shelf to online does fundamentally change the business model: no packaging, no CD, no negotiated shelf-space, no point of sale material…no hassle. It’s not as though this is anything new – software has always been available via the internet, legally or otherwise, but the bandwidth has got broader and the delivery mechanisms more mainstream. We’re not talking about shady P2P software ‘shopping’ services for the tech-savvy, but point-and-click, monetised downloads for the wider PC/console/mobile user.
The iTunes App Store blazes a trail with its well-vaunted billion downloads worldwide, giving an impression as to the appetite of iPhone and iTouch owners for the various games, utilities and services available. Similarly, both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have their own download services for the broadband generation, offering software updates – such as the well-publicised England kit that Umbro automatically ‘launched’ in Pro Evolution Soccer – and full games. In fact, digital distribution of this kind of content – whilst not a replacement for a physical purchase given the size of modern console games versus their in-built storage capacity – has proven hugely profitable for a number of companies. The classic software title Worms, recouped its development costs within four hours of its release on Xbox Live Arcade – a staggering feat without a single CD in sight.
And now, Championship Manager, the football sim notable for its reputation of turning male university students into soccer stat-devouring zombies after countless all-night sessions on their PCs – long the bane of other halves across the globe. Officially cited in over 35 divorce proceeding to date, it’s the pastime that makes regular football widows grief look half-baked, and the dirty little secret that should set alarm bells ringing in any prospective relationship. With incidences of laptops being thrown from windows following any given catastrophic loss, to that of the player fabled to have dressed in a suit and tie for his team’s appearance in the FA Cup Final – the game has created its own Masonic subculture of transfer tips, war stories and spousal rejection.
And thanks to the Eidos honesty box, it’s about to get worse…
I really like the thinking behind Procter & Gamble’s new deal with the NFL, which sees an array of 13 brands in the P&G portfolio become ’Official Locker Room Products’ of America’s dominant sport. P&G’s own comments about the deal also reveal a very interesting insight into the consumer products giant’s new commitment to sports marketing.
What do I like about the deal? Two things in particular.
First, creating a new, customised category around P&G’s products is seriously smart. It’s been done before of course – GE’s Olympics deal, Sony’s FIFA deal – but nothing wrong with that. For a house of brands like P&G, the commercial benefits – marketing synergies and retail efficiencies in particular – are immense. Crucially too, P&G’s ‘Locker Room’ play works as a consumer message – not to be underestimated, as so often these type of ‘official’ tags have absolutely no consumer meaning.
Second, playing the NFL to Mom. An odd choice you might say, given that P&G’s products are mainly purchased by women, and that the NFL audience is 66% male. That 33% female audience for the NFL is still huge of course - estimated at around 94 million by Nielsen. But the key is, Mom doesn’t just buy for herself: she buys for the family. And if a consuming family passion is the NFL – which it absolutely is in the US – then connecting P&G’s products to that family passion is absolutely on the money.
“And let’s not forget” added NFL Marketing SVP Mark Waller today “that more women watch the Super Bowl than watch the Academy Awards”.
Not convinced? Then consider Gatorade: a brand which went from niche sports drink to mass-market everyday family drink, primarily bought by Mom, by leveraging above all its NFL credentials, in a partnership which endures to this day. And while you’re at it, on the same theme you might also want to consider Gillette - owned by P&G since 2005 of course – which is most famous for its sports marketing.
Which brings me to P&G’s new commitment to sports marketing. In the news around the NFL deal, P&G’s Jason Dial was quoted as follows:
“When we aquired Gillette [in 2005], we found out how much of a role sports marketing could play…Gillette created the winning principles of sports marketing to our broader portfolio.”
I wonder whether other consumer products companies - hitherto oddly under-represented in sports sponsorship – will follow suit?
One thing’s for sure: with big investors like the financial services and auto categories cutting back, and with supply far outstripping demand, there’s never been a better time. After all, the audience is still there, and still just as passionate - ask Mom.
Ever thought about naming a star? How about owning a nice plot of land on the dark side of the Moon? Fancy sponsoring a three-toed sloth in Costa Rica?
As PT Barnum famously never said, “There’s a sucker born every minute” – applying Newton’s Third Law (he’ll now be spinning in his Westminster Abbey sarcophagus) would suggest an equal and opposite reaction. After all, you only know you’re a mark once you’ve been conned, right? Therefore every sap needs a swindler, and in today’s society, there always seems to be someone out there ready to sell you something:
So it’s nice to see a company turning the tables on the snake oil salesmen and scammers: why buy something that’s worth nothing, when you can use something that costs nothing?
The company in question is Intel, whose 2009 ATL campaign, set to roll out over the next three years, sees the technology giant using the sign-off “Sponsors of Tomorrow”. I mean, who’s going to monetise ‘Tomorrow’…Annie?
It’s interesting that Intel should be using the collective plural ‘sponsors’ here, a move, in line with the content of their ATL, to both humanise the company and express the broad range of areas across which it – I mean ‘they’ – work.
Neatly turning things on their head, the campaign is less ‘Intel Inside’, and more ‘Inside Intel’. The execution below might aim at geek-chic, but it also emphasises who makes up the company, not just what the company makes.
You’ll notice that even the brand-defining/ubiquitous/maddeningly annoying Intel ‘chimes’ are now performed in the new ads by company employees (okay, the actors portraying company employees), reminding us of a company’s most important asset – its people.
As “Sponsors of Tomorrow”, the casual perspective of Intel being just a sticker on your PC may have had its chips.
In an unlikely turn of events, a single T-shirt, sold on Amazon.com has become one of the most popular items in the online retailer’s clothing section, experiencing a 2300% sales boost in a matter of months.
But what manner of apparel could be doing such incredible business? Is it a niche limited edition…? Is it the work of an up-and-coming Harajuku enfant terrible…? Was it worn by all four Beatles during their final tour of the US? I’m afraid not.
The item in question is in fact the ‘Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt’ – the kind of outerwear normally reserved for heavy metal concerts and sci-fi conventions. If you don’t believe me, have a quick look at it here.
Nothing special, you might think (if you do think it’s something special, you might want to stop reading). In fact, thanks to a jokey post from one satisfied (alleged) owner in the product’s ‘Customer Reviews’ section, with feedback on said T-shirt including “Pros: has wolves on it…attracts women…Cons: could probably have used more wolves on the ‘guns’…”, the item has become an internet hit.
Thanks to the wonders of viral email, the product now sports over 300 reviews from satisfied customers, ranging from the humorous to the mildly disturbing. At present, Amazon has not appeared to overtly censor user comments, perhaps content that the phenomenon is translating into an unlikely sales lift.
Whatever way you look at it, there’s no denying the power of a the odd well-placed, web-based witticism – even more so, given that this has led to hundreds of people parting with their hard-earned cash on the back of it.
N.B. Crushingly for UK-based lupine aficionados, the ‘Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt’ is not currently available on our shores. Amazon.co.uk are stocking a single wolf variant, however. I guess you could always buy three of them…
Barack Obama may have decided against signing corporate sponsors to help fund the estimated $40m costs of official events around his inauguration, but brands are deploying an array of marketing techniques to attempt to gatecrash the moment. Here’s a selection.
IKEA has led on experiential, via a mock motorcade touring Washington DC and an IKEA-furnished virtual Oval Office in Washington’s Grand Union station. The latter is replicated online at embracechange09.com, where consumers can add virtual IKEA furniture to the Oval Office and send their suggestions to both their friends and the White House.
Honest Tea, who struck marketing gold when Obama was seen drinking its Black Forest Berry tea on the campaign trail, has launched a limited-edition range renamed “Barack Forest Berry”, and will be sampling around DC all week.
And Audi of America is going seriously big with a raft of broadcast, online and print sponsorship initiatives, including an unprecedented broadcast sponsorship of the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news bulletins on inauguration evening, all to launch a year-long ‘Celebration of Progress’.
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