Review by Nick Daly in KIN 332 (Section 2)
This article focused on sports and entertainment marketing assets at a time when both of these worlds are affecting each other more than ever. It started off by discussing Pepsi sponsoring and endorsing the new hit television singing show “The X-Factor” on FOX. With this sixty-million dollar deal, Pepsi would receive product placements and specialized signage and ads throughout the show. In addition, Pepsi tried to bring in the “sports aspect” of this deal by offering the winning contestant a Super Bowl ad appearance to go along with the six million dollar record deal from Sony. This, in turn, created a mixture of Pepsi’s biggest sports and entertainment marketing assets. As Ryan Chinman, CEO of Platinum Rye put it, “Every sports property is looking for an entertainment overlay, and for their sponsors, if sports are the cake, they want entertainment to be the icing.”
The article then shifts towards the differences between sports and entertainment marketing. Entertainment content is generally cheaper and easier to acquire than top-flight sports content. In addition, sports provide an incredible television platform that music and entertainment just doesn’t have. However, music and entertainment do offer tremendous flexibility as well as powerful social media connections. The biggest actors and musicians of the entertainment industry are much more willing to do endorsements than sports stars (with the exception of a Derek Jeter or Peyton Manning), but most of these entertainment deals don’t come close to the biggest sports marketing deals and endorsements. All in all, marketers have the flexibility of the entertainment world countered by the comfort level and relative ease of the sports deals which are more structured.
In general, many marketers today feel that the sports and entertainment worlds are beginning to merge as one, as companies and brands feel they can make an impact and benefit their product most by catering to sports events and endorsements simultaneously with entertainment/music events and endorsements. This, they hope, will allow for deeper ties to pop culture.
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This article explains how companies want to get their brands involved with the sports industry along with the entertainment industry. The article goes on to talk about how Pepsi signed a deal with X-Factor to get ads, logos, and product placements throughout the show. This deal was not enough for Pepsi who then added an association with the NFL by offering the winner of the X-Factor a Super Bowl ad appearance. This is a prime example that shows how companies are trying to tap into both industries to make people more aware of their brand. In addition, the article mentions that actors and musicians are more willing to do endorsements than sports athletes but the largest entertainment endorsements do not even come close to endorsements within the sports industry. Finally, in the sports industry the schedule of events is known way ahead of time but in the entertainment world it is not as easy to know the schedule in advance therefore making it more difficult for companies to market their products.
The combining of the sports and entertainment industries when it comes to marketing can be very beneficial to interested companies. CEO of Pepsi Frank Cooper states, “When it’s a question of using a sports or entertainment platform, we ask ourselves which will have the greatest impact on popular culture. In this case the answer was sports and entertainment.” It will be interesting to see in the near future if the sports and entertainment worlds continue to grow closer of it they will go in separate directions.
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