Review by Kolbie Owens in SRM 435 (section 2)
This past July, the Marijuana Policy Project created a pro-marijuana advertisement that was supposed to be seen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the jumbotron. However, the constant criticism from anti-drug groups caused the company who owned the jumbotron to take it down. The ad called “New Beer” specifically targeted beer and alcohol consumption. Within the advertisement, people are being violent, are hungover, and in depression from drinking alcohol. Then it cuts to individuals that are happy and smiling because they have smoked marijuana. The Drug Free America Foundation, Inc and Save our Society from Drugs had the biggest problem with the advertisement. They complained about how this ad was making false statements that say marijuana is safer than alcohol.
From a marketing point of view this advertisement should have not been shown in Indiana. It should have been shown in another state where marijuana is legal, such as Colorado or Washington State. In these states, the advertisement would be less criticized, and more publicized. Indianapolis does not even allow medical marijuana, so to pick a NASCAR audience in this location was a bad target audience to choose.
From a sales point of view, I find this advertisement very effective. Targeting alcohol, beer specifically, was very smart because alcohol is an extremely popular drug that is advertised with little criticism. Also, beer is very prominent in the sports world. It is sold at almost every sport event, and publicized tremendously. Therefore, showing the negative affects of alcohol, with the positive affects of marijuana, cause the audience to think marijuana could be a better option. This article is a great representation of what we will learn in class. Marketing and sales are all about consumer behaviors, and creating effective ways to sell products. This controversy with the pro-marijuana advertisement just shows what problems can occur when a product is not sold or marketed in the right way. This class is going to give me the skills to create strategies, and develop effective marketing plans, so that I will become successful in this field.
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Review by Jennifer Luck in SRM 435 (section 2)
A commercial “touting marijuana as an alternative to beer” was pulled from displays outside a NASCAR race after just a few airings. The ad was purchased by the Marijuana Policy Project-the nation’s largest pro-marijuana legalization advocacy group-“and was celebrated by the organization as the first time a pro-pot campaign would be seen at a major sporting event.” However, the boards set to display the commercial were not technically on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s grounds. An independent media company, Grazie Media, owns the jumbotron. When officials with the company that had allowed the Marijuana Policy Project to purchase airtime caught wind of its pro-marijuana message, they scrambled to take it down. “We decided to pull ultimately because it’s not obviously a great fit for the NASCAR audience, for the family kind of oriented audience, that’s why we decided to pull the ad,” Grazie Media CEO Vanessa Wojtala said in a released statement.
Mason Tvert, Director of Communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, jabbed back at the advertiser’s decision, accusing the company of being hypocritical in supporting alcohol-related content while denying the marijuana ad. “We find it odd that this company is willing to run ads at an alcohol-fueled event, yet unwilling to run an ad that simply highlights the ways in which marijuana is less harmful than alcohol,” he said.
Marijuana is not legal in Indiana, for medical or recreational use. The ad was scheduled to play 72 times throughout the weekend.
From a marketing standpoint, this ad should not be played at a major sporting event. No matter what one’s opinion is on marijuana, this pro-pot ad is promoting an illegal drug. Marijuana is not legal in Indiana, for medical or recreational use. I do not believe it is smart for a media company to allow a pro-illegal drug commercial play at an event where hundreds of thousands of people are going to see it. Marketing is used to communicate the value of a product or service to customers, for the purpose of selling the product and service. Marketing should only be used to promote legal products and services.
However, from a sales point of view, this commercial is a new opportunity for companies to make money. It is probably not the smartest idea to have this commercial play in a state where marijuana is not legalized, but in the 18 states where medical marijuana and two states where recreational use is legalized this ad can be played. As marijuana continues to be legalized in the United States, it is going to be advertised more in the public eye. Just think about how much money FOX is going to make this year off of beer commercials alone in this year’s Super Bowl. Who knows, maybe one day these major TV networks will have a new source of commercial income.
This class examines how promotional activities and sales efforts are closely intertwined and impact upon the success or failure of the sport and leisure industry. This promotional ad was not approved by the sports industry, and NASCAR is lucky they were able to dodge what could have been a major crisis.
From Adweek
Review by Kara Beckley in SRM 435 (section 1)
NBC sports took a new approach to attracting audiences to a not-so popular sport. The English Premier League has given rights to NBC for three years to broadcast and promote Fútbol. NBC is mainly watched by United States citizens, in which do not have soccer as a high sport on their list of passions. The Television Company teamed up with an ad agency out of New York, The Brooklyn Brothers. Guy Barnett is the creative director for the agency and is given much of the credit for the five minute YouTube Web film staring Jason Sudeikis.
They use Sudeikis as a newly transferred coach of English Fútbol from American Football. He is seen coaching the Tottenham Hotspur team, in an amusing and inexperienced light. The film was segmented around a sit down interview with the Coach and how he is doing with the new transition and also includes what are clips from a press conference. The goal of the film was written out by the agency but ended up becoming a improvised act by Sudeikis. The Hotspur team was able to actually be in the film while they recorded for 10 hours on two days.
The use of something extremely amusing to the audience you are trying to capture is a huge a critical piece of gold. The more serious an ad gets, the less interesting it is with the generations today, causing a lack of attention. By having humor in the mix with promotion, makes so many different audiences want to understand what is going on. It’s brilliant, and in the case of the Brooklyn Brothers and NBC Sports, it worked tremendously well. Not only did the video have seen it, also. It was shown through short clips on NBC stating “It’s Football, Just not as we know it.” Adding the humor makes the viewer intrigued to find the film on YouTube and take in the entire picture. By doing this, it adds a spark to target audiences to watch the English Premier Leagues or even just give them a slight knowledge that a largely known company such as NBC is covering it. For marketers to have the chance to show viewers of NBC shorts of the Web Film is highly successful for the reason of each viewer gaining interest and wanting to find out more about the soccer league and simple watch the amusement itself. The media aspect was very well considered with this approach. The technology era is huge and incorporating YouTube, along with a Facebook app to help understand Fútbol increases convenience for newly gained audiences.
This article is relevant to the class because it markets a new product to a new audience in an almost effortless way. Sport marketing can be done through all various types of sports. Many ways are effective and some are not. This relates to the class in a way that shows a good marketing strategy to the technological era and gives the class a good idea of success through promotion. It is a little bit different than the typical advertisements on billboards or in magazines, and makes it unique and very practical for the future in the industry.
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Review by Brett Ireland in SRM 435 (section 1)
NBC Sports has come up with a new way to promote professional football (Fútbol) to Americans. They have taken a new approach involving comedy that they hope will draw more American fans to the game of soccer. The created a five minute video starring Jason Sudeikis as the new Head coach of the Tottenham Fútbol team, having have had no experience in the “other football.” Through mostly improvisation, Ted Lasso (Sudeikis) faces challenges of the differences between football and fútbol. In a comedic manner, Lasso learns how there is only slide tackling as opposes to tackling in football, hands are only to be used by the goalie in the goalie box, and the rule of off-sides is very challenging to comprehend. T
The video is only five minutes in length and was originally released in short segments on television. The campaign includes a Facebook application and the video has also received millions of views on Youtube. NBC created their own audience by creating a comedic video that could appeal to wider margin of people other than current fans of Fútbol. They were not only reaching out to American soccer fans, but sports fans in general and trying to promote that while it is a different sport, it is still very entertaining. It also attracted anyone who is a fan of Saturday Night Live (SNL) and of the actor Jason Sudeikis. This campaign has showed great success because it has had so many people watch it. The main purpose of this was to make Americans more aware of and interested in professional Fútbol, and it did just that.This article is relevant to Sport Marketing and Sales because it shows an example of a successful campaign in promoting professional Fútbol. I feel this article does a great job of introducing an innovative way to promote to different demographics. In order to run a successful sport marketing campaign, it is important to know your audience as well as what interests them. This promotion shows several things that we will learn throughout the semester including marketing plans for generating revenue and consumer behavior (the state of professional Fútbol in the United States).
From Ad Age
Review by Erika Grimm in SRM 435 (section 1)
In today’s world, there are over 36.6 Million Fantasy Sport Players between the United States and Canada alone. These users contribute to a 1.1 Billion dollar industry. Meaning, there are people in this world whose sole job is to research and reach out to this specific target market. The article named “Fantasy Football Players Are A Dream Demographic - - If You Can Get Their Attention” written by Sonya Chudgar gives the exact demographic of who these players are.
Ms. Chudgar describes a very specific set of demographics. “A college-educated professional, often a male, in his 30’s or 40’s with an average household income over $90,000, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.” For a professional in the marketing business, this set of facts makes them salivate as much as a perfectly cooked 16 ounce free steak would. This specific demographic group, as Sonya states, has extra income. Meaning, not only do these men have the resources to afford league fees, but they have the finances to be slightly impulsive and buy something they weren’t even sure they wanted. If a marketer can grab his attention, they have a higher percentage chance of influencing him to buy their organizations product or service.
The trouble marketers run into is that the players are not on any of the many fantasy football media channels to look for ways to spend their money. As with any media channel, advertisements are not particularly welcomed by users, creating a more difficult job for marketers. When a player goes to the, let’s say Yahoo Fantasy Football site, if the same ad is on the site for three months, the player will eventually tune it out completely, leaving a minimal chance for ad’s company to make a profit from that user. It is also true that if an ad has absolutely nothing to do fantasy football, a minimal percentage is left for potential profit opportunities.
This being said, marketers have to create advertisements that catch users eyes’. Chudgar writes, for example, about Volkswagen. VW is a vehicle name brand, having absolutely nothing to do with fantasy football, but VW signed a three year fantasy sponsorship with CBS in 2011. This car company is marketing towards Fantasy Football players by introducing something called Coaches Corner in which “Fantasy users can compete with CBS Sports personalities to see whose team does better, and the CBS personality will then heckle or praise his opponent with a custom video response embedded in a VW banner.” This is one example Ms. Chudgar addresses within the article. Marketers utilize a very specific set of demographics to make creative ads that attract users and ultimately increase that company’s profit potential. As there are approximately 36.6 Million Fantasy Sport Players in the U.S. and Canada right now and that number growing dramatically each year, I see no issue for marketers reaching this target market.
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Review by Dean Marlowe in SRM 435 (section 1)
Fantasy football leagues are a way for many football fans to interact with their favorite game along with their friends. As the article stated, fantasy football leagues have made strides over the past two decades growing from something that seemed “nerdy” or “uncool” to a raved about pastime. Before, participants in fantasy leagues were on the same level as people that also played computer games and had the online persona of a warlock. During that Dark Age for the hobby, marketing was not such a big concern because there were not a great number of people that openly participated. Now, a lot of attention is being paid to this aspect of the sport that is fiercely growing among the industries ideal population.
Focus has been pointed to this industry more and more as participation has seen an outstanding increase. A marketing research company called Ipsos has calculated a total number of 25.8 million people that are expected to engage in fantasy football leagues this year. Of this large number of people they are expected to generate $1.1 billion. This is obviously a huge market, and what sweetens the deal for companies is that many of the participants are their ideal demographic. This means that the people they want to target in the first place to buy or use their products can be easily accessed in one general area. The demographic is males who are educated with disposable incomes and an education, aged between 30 to 40 years. These people are making companies invest millions of dollars into advertisement spaces on fantasy websites.
Websites containing the leagues are not the only ones being targeted for advertisements, though. Many players willing to devote an ideal amount of time and money into their teams are going to want to find out the most breaking news regarding players to gain the edge on their fantasy rosters. News like injuries can generate a lot of traffic onto sports news websites, especially if they have the story before anyone else. Fantasy players are going to want to visit these sites as often as possible, which make them ideal advertising locations. On the flipside to this, the participants visit so often that they have become accustomed to going to the exact page that they need ignoring any ads that may pop up. In order to try and combat this problem of neglect, some companies are creating more interactive ads to try and gain more attention. For example, VW will create ads that use popular sports personalities to heckle league members and attract more attention to ad space.
There is a lot of potential in fantasy football leagues and interest keeps growing. A lot of the work for these companies has already been done, because they have their ideal clients and customers in one area. These are two feats that are sometimes a big enough struggle in marketing on their own. Now, these potential moneymakers are all lined up, but the challenge is how to interest them and catch their attention. The first companies that are able to create effective advertisements will be the ones that will see an amazing response from the growing market that is fantasy football.
