"Joe Flacco banners annoy fans"

From ESPN.com

Review by Ethan Miller in SRM 435 (section 2)

The NFL is one of the biggest organizations in America; along with have one of the most loyal fan bases to go along with it. However, are those fans actually loyal to the NFL or loyal to the NFL team themselves? This article answers that question, by proving that fans are more loyal to the team itself rather than the organization that created them.

Throughout the years the NFL has grown to become almost unrecognizable compared to the league that existed 50 years ago. The game on the field is part of the changes that have gone on, but what has changed the most is the fans’ experience. Now more than ever the fan experience at a NFL game is one of the greatest in all of sports. This has helped them develop the loyal and vast fan base that they’ve become known for. This same fan base is quick to turn though as shown by the banner that they posted at Mile High stadium of Joe Flacco. The NFL posted to banners next to each other, one of the Denver Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning and the other of the Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco. The NFL said that they were simply promoting the opening night of the season and there was no harm meant. Needless to say, the whole city of Denver was outraged and began defacing some of the NFL promotions as a form of protest against the advertisements.

Was this the right move by the NFL? It’s tough to tell. The NFL Kickoff game is one of the most important games during the season. In 2010, the Kickoff game brought in 27.485 million viewers to the game. Other than the Superbowl, this is the largest viewership the NFL has during the season. Another factor that went into the banner placement was the fact that ever since 2004 the Kickoff game has been played at the defending Superbowl champion’s stadium. However, due to scheduling conflicts, the NFL was forced to schedule the Kickoff game in Denver and forced the Baltimore Ravens to be the away team. This put the NFL in a huge bind because they were forced to advertise the Kickoff game as the big event that it is for the league, but were advertising the Broncos’ opposing QB on their stadium. (Not to mention it was the same QB that knocked them out of the playoffs the previous year).

The intention of the banner and smaller ads was to promote the NFL as a whole. They were trying to promote the brand and organization. However, the NFL failed to realize that by doing this they were alienating the Denver fans. Ultimately this promotion actually hurt the NFL because the people they were advertising to (the city of Denver) were the people who hated the ad the most. If anything this made the city of Denver lose brand loyalty to the NFL, and instead be loyal to the Denver Broncos instead.This article relates to this class because the NFL is always trying to expand their brand and fan base. They often are very successful in including the fans and increasing the fan experience, but when they misfire they misfire bad and causes a city to cause uproar like in Denver.

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Review by Chase Warren in SRM 435 (section 2)

Opening kickoff for the NFL season holds almost as much prestige as Super Bowl Sunday Kickoff. This years season opener featured the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens visiting the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority at Mile High. In the article “Joe Flacco understands fans’ ire”, Jeff Legwold expresses to us the way that Joe Flacco felt about the fact that he, along with Peyton Manning, would be featured on large banners outside of Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Obviously, Denver fans were not happy with the fact that Flacco’s banner was hanging on their stadium alongside the beloved Manning. When Flacco heard that this was going to be happening he was very surprised and actually agreed with the Denver fans. He exclaimed, “ I think it’s all deserved, I don’t know if it’s deserved towards me, I happen to be the guy they put up there. But I don’t think here or anybody in our city would be too happy if we had somebody else from a different team on our stadium. I wouldn’t expect anything different than all of the people in Denver to be pretty upset by it.” Again, Flacco understood the fans dismay, and he made a good point that any other city in the league would feel the exact same way if that was happening in their stadium.
From a marketing standpoint, there is no one to blame besides the NFL itself. It was not the Denver Broncos or the Baltimore Ravens that were to blame for all of this controversy. The “NFL Kickoff Special” is nothing but an NFL promotion. The NFL decided that they would feature both teams because they were coming from a neutral standpoint, trying to promote the game to all NFL fans, rather than just one team. NFL vice president Brian McCarthy called it a “celebration” of the NFL season, not just the Denver Bronco’s season. This makes perfect sense from a marketing standpoint. It is much important to appeal to the entire league as a whole. Fans that have a neutral standpoint on the game do not want to see any favoritism towards a certain team during the first game of the 2013 NFL season. As stated before, it is a “celebration” of a new season for everyone, not a promotion for the Denver Broncos. This article is relevant to the course because it touches on how it is important to target the right audience in order to maximize fan potential. This article was very interesting and was a perfect example of sports marketing in a certain industry. There is a lot more to simple marketing strategies than what shows on the surface.