Internship Opportunity: VAVi Sport & Social Club

VAVi Sport & Social Club brings together adults through various sport and fitness leagues, social events, and weekend trips. With over 30 sport and fitness activities offered to our 85,000 plus members, VAVi is a force to be reckoned with.  They combine social living with active living and produce the best events in town. Some of those events include the Ridiculous Obstacle Challenge Race, the Electric Run, a New Years Eve Party, and ski trips to Mammoth Mountain. VAVi is a fast-growing company based on the simple mission of having fun. 

The organization has several internship postions available. Click here and here for descriptions.

Visit www.govavi.com for additional information.

"Emotional Marketing in Budweiser’s Super Bowl Ads"

From Adweek - article 1, article 2

Analysis by Taylor Mickelberry in KIN 501

In 2015, the third advertisement in a loosely connected plotline by Anheuser-Busch (A-B) featuring its famed Clydesdales and a little puppy will air during the Super Bowl. While the puppy didn’t appear in the first edition of the sequence featuring
A-B’s Budweiser brand, he will certainly be the focal point of this year’s ad named “Lost Dog” (Griner, 2015; McMains, 2015)

In the 2013 version and what is considered the first of this plotline, titled “Brotherhood”, a trainer raises up a tiny Clydesdale to become one of the main attractions of the Bud brand. When the trainer returns to see the Clydesdales in Chicago and sees his horse leading the pack, he holds on to some glimmer of hope that the horse will recognize him. When he realizes he is foolish to think so, he returns to his truck, only to find his horse running down a Chicago street to reunite with him in the emotional payoff viewers expected.

In 2014, we find the same trainer (yes, he’s back! And he’ll offer some of the best analysis that could be found later on!), still raising Clydesdales, but this time he’s living near a puppy farm; And one of those pesky puppies keeps getting out to hang out with his friend, a Clydesdale in a stall. Finally, the puppy is getting adopted, but he’s not happy about this. The Clydesdale gang helps to stop the adoption and walks the puppy back to his friend in the epitome of the title of the ad: “Puppy Love.”

Those ads both won the top spot in the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter and “Puppy Love” won an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Commercial (Horovitz, 2014).

And so, that leaves 2015 as the perfect conclusion to the trilogy of stories here (unless A-B goes all Star Wars on this plotline). This year, A-B has put out a few GIF’s and photos and told us the name of the ad early, “Lost Dog,” unlike last year when our little puppy friend stole America’s heart early, garnering 23 million YouTube views by the Friday before the spot actually aired (Judkis, 2014). The GIF’s show the trainer, played by actor Don Jeanes, tacking up a missing dog poster and struggling with a unruly Clydesdale while simultaneously we see photos of a dirty and scared Labrador pup (presumably the one from last year) running around town.

But did they sell beer?

Odds are, they didn’t.

In fact, A-B is trying to bring back the Budweiser brand, which fell to the third-best selling beer since 2001 and has been declining in sales for almost 25 years, mainly thanks to the fact that the younger generations prefer Coors Light and Bud Light (another A-B product)(Brown, 2015).

But it was, nonetheless, a brilliant marketing campaign and still was successful in its secondary function: cementing Budweiser as an All-American company and reminding its consumers that it knows about life and love in America.

Mark Schaeffer sums it up for us in a 2013 St. Louis Times-Dispatch article by Lisa Brown.

"I don't think beer drinkers are going to buy more Budweiser next weekend because of it," Mark Schaeffer, president of the Clayton office of ad agency Hoffman Lewis, said of the Clydesdale spot [the 2013 “Brotherhood” ad]. "But a long-standing brand like Budweiser has to do an ad like that, that reminds customers of its heritage”(Brown, 2013).

So there’s that secondary function playing its role: A-B is reminding the public of the company’s image and that in and of itself can go much farther than selling a few 6-packs in the immediate days after the Super Bowl.

Basis for analysis on the emotions in these advertisements comes from Kelsey Libert and Kristin Tynski’s article from October 2013 in the Harvard Business Review titled “The Emotions that Make Marketing Campaigns Go Viral."

Libert and Tynski highlight multiple key elements in order to leave a lasting impression on consumers. The first they highlight is to leave branding to a minimum as to not come off as “salesy.” Next, they say to take viewers on an emotional roller coaster in order to keep the viewer interested and to ensure that the viewer is never bored. Finally, Libert and Tynski suggest a company should emotionally connect the marketing that you are doing to the position of your brand.

The Budweiser ads are able to do all of these things; The commonalities being that they never indicate they are Budweiser ads until the last few seconds; they usually have a happy feeling until somewhere between half and 75 percent of the way through, in which they jerk the viewer to somewhere not pretty; and finally Budweiser always positions themselves (via a logo or some other type of identification) alongside a happy ending in order to ensure customers that their company can be connected with the same emotions they just felt throughout their commercial.

Additional great analysis comes from Jeanes, the actor who plays the trainer-rancher in A-B’s ads. In a Forbes article from 2014 by Gay Gaddis, Jeanes says “No one wants to be sold to anymore. The American people voted [the Budweiser ad] as their favorite because it touched their emotions. Budweiser found that Super Bowl XLVIII was the perfect opportunity to entertain and meet people’s needs for that emotion (Gaddis, 2014).”

Marc Wayshak of Entrepreneur is able to further this though in his 2014 article as he says that these type of marketing campaigns are more memorable because of the emotion brought up. Wayshak continues by saying that A-B is trying to create an idea that connects more to the life of the consumer, rather than the product you offer.

Creating an emotional appeal, even one that does not heavily feature your brand could help enhance your brand anyway via the good feelings it leaves consumers. This is possible when consumers talk about your marketing campaign and therefore your company in good terms. A positive public image goes very far in selling products, even if the original consumer of that saw the ad doesn’t buy it. It could be his friend, his mother or his spouse that decides to purchase an item based on the positive vibes he felt while watching a marketing campaign.

The positivity behind a brand is such a powerful tool for companies to position themselves in the fast-paced world of tweets, YouTube, viral videos and other digital marketing that is all over the place these days. These emotions help the marketing campaign to stand out over all others.

This is a key topic for this class for two reasons. The first reason is that as sports professionals, we will have to work with these individuals and companies and the positive image could be reflected onto us if we enter into sponsorship agreements with them. Secondly, if we are marketing our own entities, we could use these skills to help forge an emotional connection within our own communities, which could help sell tickets or do whatever our entity’s mission statement is.

Emotional marketing is something that always seems to have successes, and it is no more highlighted than on Super Bowl Sunday, much like it will be this week.

"Social media push erupts to 'dim lights for Tark'"

From KLAS-TV Las Vegas

Analysis by Samantha O'Brien in SRM 334 (section 2)

Hall of Fame coach of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Jerry Tarkanian passed away last Wednesday, February 11th. He had taken the Runnin’ Rebels to four Final Fours and won the national championship in 1990. Over the course of his coaching career with the Rebels, he had a win-loss ratio of 509-105. His entire coaching career consisted of a 7.90 winning percentage, which is extremely high. He fought and received $2.5 million after a long battle over suing the NCAA for trying to kick him out of college basketball.

After the death of “Tark the Shark,” two Las Vegas locals Tony Cordasco and Scott Gulbransen felt that his life meant much more to Las Vegas than to simply have a public and private funeral. They felt the community, as a whole, should celebrate the life of Coach Jerry Tarkanian. They thought, what better way to do that than to honor him with one of the most noble Las Vegas tributes there is: having the Las Vegas strip dim their lights for a few minutes. This is usually only done for entertainers and Earth Day, but many people believe Coach Tark deserved it too.

The social media, or more specifically, Twitter, blew up once the #DimTheLights4Tark hashtag began trending. Once news spread of his death, it took less than a week for it to take over twitter and actually got most of the hotels and casinos to agree to dim their lights for three minutes in his honor.

Not only was that trending, but there is now also a twitter page called Dim The Lights 4 Tark furthering the campaign. There is now a #PackTheMackInBlack hashtag. This one is to spread the word about the blackout in the gym for the Runnin’ Rebels game this Wednesday (tonight). All players will be wearing black, and they want all of the fans to do it as well, out of respect for Coach Tark. The dimming of the lights will take place a few hours after the game at 10:30 pm PT for three minutes.

This is important to our class because it shows the power of social media. We often see a lot of stories about negative things that athletes, coaches, and administrators do or say, and they spread like wild fire. The same goes for good things too. Two men wanted to do something special for Coach Tark. Less than a week later, they get approval for this tribute, and the news spread through the entire United States. It only took one week for the message to reach all areas of the country, and probably other countries as well. The Internet, social media, is a very powerful tool. When used the right way, we can do great things with it.

Media and the NBA All-Star Weekend

From ESPN.com - article 1, article 2, article 3

Anlaysis by Max Swartz in SRM 334 (section 1)

For our current event, we decided to do things a little bit differently and choose one huge event with a couple of smaller stories that happened during the event. The event we focused on was the 2015 NBA All Star Weekend that occurred over the past weekend. The specific articles that we chose to focus in on were Carmelo Anthony’s decision on how much he was going to play in the All Star game, Kevin Durant firing back at the Media on Saturday, and Saturday Night Live dominating the ratings versus the All Star Game. Carmelo Anthony has had an injured knee all season, and he told reporters on Friday that he was going to shut his season down after he played for a couple of minutes. From a media standpoint, I believe that this story shows a break in the chain from the owner/management side of communication to the player side. If Anthony truly believes that he should not play any more then the team’s personal media staff should have came out with a statement regarding Carmelo’s health, and then they should have consulted with him about future statements that he should make to the media. The next smaller article that we focused on was Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder lashing out at the media at first in defense of his coach, Scott Brooks, but eventually ranting a little bit more on the award voting process and talking to the media in general. From a media standpoint, I believe this story is important because the way that we see players interacting with the media within the next 5- 10 years could completely change. It is becoming clearer and clearer that many players are beginning to have a problem with the media and how the media is misrepresenting the players. Also it is very different to have a player like Marshawn Lynch, who has been someone who has never been in the limelight and doesn’t enjoy talking to the media, and a player like Kevin Durant who is one of the young faces that will make up the face of the entire NBA, and someone like him needs to be able to talk to the media. The last article we did was about the television ratings during last Sunday night’s All Star Game; during the game, Saturday Night Live aired it’s 40th Season reunion special, and the ratings at the end of the night ranked the All Star Game with a 5.5 and SNL ended with a rating of 14.2. From a media communications standpoint I believe this story is relevant because if one of the league’s marquee events during the season gets that outshined, then there is a problem. Right now the NBA is making the most money, has more viewers, and there are more marketable stars then the league has ever had before, but that can all be overlooked if you cannot keep your viewers for one of the best events of the season. The key is to make the game itself more interesting and more enticing for the players to actually try, watching a little bit of that game like I did, it was easy to tell the lack of willingness to play the game and more just going through the motions.

All of these articles are relevant to this course in slightly different ways; the first story about Carmelo Anthony was about keeping possible injury announcements internal within the organization, and if an announcement is going to be made, then it should come from a team official so there is no grey area in the report. The next story regarding Durant is relevant because as possible members of the media someday, the player-media relationship is something that is going to change and we need to be ahead of the curve for it. The last story is relevant because every league has an All Star Game, and it should be must see TV, but with the way things are going, All Star Games are more out than in right now, and that is something that needs to be changed.

---

Analysis by Jesse Moses in SRM 334 (section 1)

Our current event focused on the NBA All Star weekend, and more specifically three articles of events that occurred during the weekend. It was a star studded weekend with some very interesting topics that we got to cover. The first article that we will discuss is about Carmelo Anthony dictating his minutes in the All Star Game. He has been fighting a knee injury basically the whole season. In the article they quote Carmelo saying that it is “very likely” that he will not play the rest of the season after the All Star break, even though later in the interview he told reporters that he will play in the All Star Game, “Even if I come out and just play a couple minutes and just wave”. The second article is about Kevin Durant and his comments about the media and the voting for the MVP. He lashes out at the media saying that he is only talking to them because he has to. He then goes further into the whole media relationship with the players and comments on how they should not be the ones voting on the MVP, that in fact it should be the players because they play with the candidates. Finally in the third article, they discuss the competition between Saturday Night Live Forty and the NBA All Star Game (the two broadcast at the same time on Sunday). SNL stole many viewers from the All Star game and the article goes in depth into that competition.

In the first article there is a direct tie into the media and communication standpoint of this course. Carmelo Anthony went onto ESPN Radio and told them his plans for the rest of this year and more importantly the future. It is directly associated with communications between the player and the coach/front office and the team’s media sources. He went through an outside source of media instead of talking directly to the New York Knick’s reporters. On the coach/front office side, we wonder if he spoke to them before going through with this interview. We wonder if the team was blindsided or not by this comment. This ties directly to our course because we might someday have to deal with an athlete that is going through a similar situation. In the second article they speak about the tie between the media and professional athletes. Kevin Durant spoke out at the media telling them “"You guys really don't know s---". This was a direct shot at the media, that really got out Durant’s opinions. He believes that they are glorified and that they do not deserve the power that they are given. This article and story relates to our course because someday we could be the media and this is a statement directed at us. We have to know how to cover a statement like this and how to evaluate the situation and not let it get out of hand. Finally in the third article, they speak of SNL 40 and how it stole views from the All Star Game. The media/communication aspect of this article and of this story is very important in our field. As a part of the media we will have to promote events, such as the All Star break, and be successful in competition with other shows. This directly ties into our course because of the fact that we have to be able to deal with a situation like this and draw viewers to our program. We may face a very similar task at some point in our career and we need to mull down the situation and find a solution.

The NBA All Star Weekend was a long one with many different events. It was entertaining at parts and others were bland. The events were only half of the excitement, with Durant and Melo being in the headlines as well as the SNL 40 dominating the TV ratings. All in all it was better than it has been and people will definitely continue to talk about it.

"Bleacher Report and Snapchat Form Unique New Sports Media Partnership"

From Bleacher Report

Analysis by Andrew Brownlee in SRM 334 (section 2)

From the start of sports being played, people have been trying to figure out the most popular and effective way to cover and report on them. From newspapers and radio, to television and Internet, sports have become both easier to follow and quicker to get results. Two companies have gotten together (Snapchat & Bleacher Report) to form a new way to report live sporting events that might just leave the current media networks in the past.

Snapchat is a photo messaging application that users can take pictures, record short videos, (10 seconds max) then text or drawing and send them to a controlled list of receivers. Bleacher Report is an American digital media company that has the task of covering hundreds of teams and sports all over the globe. These two companies have partnered up to create a new unique method to cover sports.

Bleacher Report and Snapchat plan on expanding their network to the United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. By giving a 10 second teasers, fans will be able to get a taste of the sporting events and have access to the full stories on Bleach Reports website. With increasing interest in American sports such as Football and Basketball in Europe, Snapchat will be a great way for people to get an idea of what goes on before, during, and after events. Large Companies such as the NFL and the MLB would love to expand their fan bases globally. By combining these to companies, the world audience will be able to follow sporting events live and feel like they are at the event.

Snapchat and Bleacher Report are not just inventing a new type of media outlet. They are created an innovation that will revolutionize sports media. As future sports managers, our class will be responsible for learning the best new ways to bring news to the public. I believe that the new innovation will compare to radio, television, and Internet in history. By educating the class on this subject, they will be more aware of this topic and be on the forefront of leading this new type of sports media.

"Atlanta Hawks Thriving Off Court Thanks to Rebranding, Embracing Social Media"

From Bleacher Report

PowerPoint by William Lin and Travis Oyler in SRM 435

Outspoken Athletes

From The Players' Tribune, The Cauldron, David-Wise.com, and Jacob Webster

Analysis by J. Reid Dickerson in SRM 334 (section 2)

Ever changing technology has allowed for significant growths in journalism and news reporting. News journalism has gone from regional reporting to international, from pens and paper to laptops and recording devices, and from newspapers and journals to radio and television then to internet reporting and cellphone news updates. Also with the improvements in technology, there is an increase in the amount of pundits putting forth their opinion on certain topics in the news. Nowadays, anyone can get or give opinions on certain news topics in a number of ways from comments on a news article to phone calls to a television station or radio station. The growing popularity of the public being interested in the opinions of former players and reporters on certain topics has led to many networks such as ESPN, ABC, NBC, and FOX News giving their analysts talk shows to voice their opinions to the tune of fantastic ratings and high listenerships. This occurrence is most popular in the sports reporting world with shows like Mike and Mike, First Take, and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, all on ESPN, featuring reporters giving their opinions on athletes and certain sports. This way of reporting has put the athlete at a disadvantage because it gives the athletes no real way to respond to their critics except in interviews and game news conferences where they have to field questions and can’t always respond the way they want. Because of this, more and more athletes have been writing first person articles to show their perspectives on certain sports topics, giving the fan a completely new way to interact with the athletes of their favorite sports.

When Derek Jeter retired in 2014, he quickly invested himself in life after baseball by starting a website called The Players Tribune, a website that gives current players a voice and a way to share their opinions, ideas and thoughts on their sports and athletics as a whole. Contributing writers and topics that have been tackled have been Derek Jeter on cleaning out his locker, Blake Griffin about Donald Sterling and the teams overall thoughts about the entire situation, and Danica Patrick on racing against her boyfriend. The Players Tribune seems to be the leading outlet for athletes to contribute their ideas and thoughts but is not the only way for athletes to let their voices be heard.

Blog posts and letters also are a way for athletes to give their view and outlook. Recently, Josh Gordon has published a letter he wrote to Stephen A. Smith, Charles Barkley, and other individuals who had criticized him for repeatedly getting suspended from the NFL for marijuana and alcohol related transgressions. In the letter, he describes why he got suspended most recently and why he doesn’t care what Stephen A. Smith or anyone else has to say about him because he has never met them. The article was hard to believe and seemed like a long string of excuses written by a hard-headed person who doesn’t want to stop living the life he is living but perhaps it is really the truth.

Other blog examples have come from the freeskiing community. Before the X Games one week ago, many people in the ski and snowboard community were in an uproar about the double booking of the FIS World Championships and the Winter X Games Aspen on the same weekend, making it nearly impossible for athletes to make both contests. Each contests has its merits. The FIS World Championships is the top competition offered by the FIS and has strong ties to Olympic qualifying. The X Games are the action sports world top contest and the first of its kind. Both David Wise, half pipe skier who is defending champion at both events, and Jacob Wester, who is not competing at either event, published articles describing the unprecedented problem, both with their own points. David Wise explained that the FIS were acting very arrogantly by expecting the top action sports stars in the world to skip the X Games, an event that was literally made for them, and attend the FIS World Championships. The X Games have always been held the weekend before the Super Bowl so as to obtain the greatest viewership and by the FIS scheduling their contest the same dates showed their pompous attitude and uncaring nature towards freestyle events. David Wise explained that he and other athletes tried to get the FIS to move the freeskiing events to the beginning of the contest so the athletes could make both events, to which they refused. The fact that the top 16 (16 riders is a full field) skiers and snowboarders for each discipline were on location in Aspen for X Games shows how much these athletes care about the X Games. In Jacob Wester’s post, he explained how he liked the comradery of the X Games because each athlete is competing for themselves instead of for their country as they are at the FIS World Championships which shows that the athletes are more supportive of each other doing well rather than winning for a country. Overall, the FIS hurt themselves by scheduling their event on top of the X Games because the best athletes were in Aspen and their competition was downgraded in intensity because of the lackluster attendees.

Due to the increase in these first person essays and blog posts written by current athletes who are in the middle of the sport and are most up to date on such topics rather than former athletes working for a news network, it seems that athletes are interested in sharing their opinions. The articles give fans an inside look at an athlete’s life and their feelings without the athlete feeling like they have to write the article or are writing it for someone else as they might feel in interview or news conferences. Hopefully, more athletes across all sports disciplines will join in and contribute their own pieces to continue this positive trend.

"Northwestern Football Puts Personal Touch On Videos Seeking Season-Ticket Renewals"

From SportsBusiness Daily

Analysis by Taylor Tuccito, Alyssa Hall, and Ashley Adams in SRM 435

"Adidas Goes Shopping for 500 Football and Baseball Players"

From Bloomberg Business

Analysis by Jeffrey Hajek and Xavia Gary in SRM 435