Donna's Promo Talk

Sharp Teams up with MLB with their Lights Out Challenge Sweepstakes

It's October, and besides the upcoming presidential election and the doom and gloom about Wall Street and our ecomony, let's not forget that it's the most exciting month of the year for sports. I finally got around last week to writing this post about my favorite sport, NFL Football, and the excitement us Buffalo Bills fans have been feeling. We were certainly brought back to a hard reality this past Sunday when our starting quarterback went down on the second play of the game and we lost BIG! But hey, we got a bye coming up this week and we're still 4-1. Much better than we're we've been in over 10 years!

So now I have to talk about those boys of October. Yes, this year's Major League Baseball season is coming to a close. Neither New York teams made it to the playoffs this year and the playoffs have already showed us that 2008 isn't quite the year for those Chicago Cubs either. However, my team, the Boston Red Sox are in there. I'm watching them during Game 4 against the LA Angels right now on TBS as I write this.  So if I get distracted at some point, please give me a break.

Now I'm hoping that the Red Sox will be playing the Tampa Bay Rays next week on October 14th during the fourth game of the American League Championship Series. That's when Sharp Electronics will be teaming up with TBS on a really innovative promotion that will give fans a chance to win a Sharp big-screen TV.

Sharp is promoting its “Lights Out Challenge” with a series of 45-second TV spots that debuted during last week's initial round of Major League Baseball playoff action on TBS. These spots not only highlight the promotion but also the the brand's energy-saving TVs.

The spots direct fans to this TBS micro-site, where they can enter the Sharp Lights Out Challenge Sweepstakes for a chance to win a 46-inch or 42-inch Sharp Aquos TV. They can also register to participate in the partial blackout by indicating how many lights they intend to turn off and logging in their zip code.

“The end goal is to increase awareness and ultimately increase sales,” said Sharp spokesman Chris Loncto. “It really fits perfectly for us.”

Sharp Aquos is MLB’s official HDTV. This interactive promotion is a unique way to integrate traditional TV media with an online promotion. TV viewers during the fourth game of the ALCS  are typically a pretty sizable audience  giving that the series is the best of seven games. This should give Sharp an effective platform to push its LCD TV products in prime time while still at the beginning of the NFL season, at the start the NHL season and just in time for the important 4th quarter holiday shopping season.

Loncto noted that the company also is intent to present its energy-saving perspective: “One of the core philosophies of Sharp is to present products that are energy-saving and energy-creating,” he said.

The micro-site will feature a U.S. Map that will track the states that have turned out the most lights. Announcers on TBS will report on how much energy was saved and which states saved the most during the post-game show.

So whether the Boston Red Sox make it our not, I'll still be tuning in and shutting off some lights. This should be interesting. BTW - there still is no score in the top of the 5th inning, but the Angels are pushing with two men on base. Gotta go now!

NBC Promotes Sunday Night Is Football Night

It's already Week 4 of the new NFL football season and I can't believe I haven't written about football once since it started. Last year I had this post written on opening day. We all start out with great hopes for our team and by now we're either still very optimistic or we're realizing that we're in for a very long season.

Well the Buffalo Bills are now 4-0! They haven't been in this spot in 16 years, since 1992 when they were the Super Bowl team that consisted of Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith! We Bills fans are very, very ecstatic. However, we do realize that since they haven't made the playoffs in the past decade that they've been given a pretty easy schedule this year. Plus, their conference rivals, The New England Patriots have lost their star quarterback, Tom Brady, so that has helped their season outlook quite a bit as well.

NBC Sports is back, entering its third season, with their Sunday Night Football season this year and their main objective is still focused on making "Sunday Night Football Night". They started off the season this year with a September promotion in 7-Eleven stores aimed at targeting its core audience, 18-to- 34-year-old males who NBC sees as the hardcore fans for these Sunday night games.

The Big Match-Up Promotion features branded Big Gulp cups with full Sunday Night Football schedules and branded hot dog containers for that Super Big Bite at 7-Eleven. Banners bearing NBC Sports’ signature tagline, “Sunday night is football night,” are displayed in the windows of the 6,000 7-Eleven stores around the country. Theses banners are co-branded with Pepsi who is a sponsor of NBC’s Sunday night football franchise.

“We wanted to be the first sports franchise to be in 7-Eleven because it’s the best way to reach that hard-to-reach male demographic,” said Mike McCarley, vice president of marketing, promotions and communications for NBC Universal Sports & Olympics. “It’s a great destination to reach those young men who are the avid core football fans.”

7-Eleven found that Sunday Night Football tested off its focus research charts in appeal among those young males, compared to movies it’s promoted to that same demographic crowd, according to McCarley.

7-Eleven came up with the Big Match-Up concept to tie to its Big Gulp and Super Big Bite. Fans had the chance to enter all month in a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to a live taping at Football Night in America at NBC Studios in NYC. FreshWorks, who I previously wrote about here when they won this year's top  Reggie Award for another 7-Eleven promotion, are executing the campaign.

NBC Sports has also created the Sunday Night Cookbook which is being marketed through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. The cookbook is part of a partnership with Time Warner Home Entertainment and features recipes from top chefs and players representing each NFL team, along with NBC’s announcing crew and singer Faith Hill. Sales proceeds are going to Taste of the NFL, which supports food banks around the country, and the book is expected to be a big holiday season hit.

Well this Sunday Night Football game just ended and the Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-2O. It was a great football game. The Bears!

Now we still have 13 more weeks left in this NFL season. Can the Bills hang in there for the long haul? I don't know, but it's gonna be fun watching them. At least we have a prayer. This is such as great game.

Olympics Wrapping Up and Dove Partners with "The Women"

Last week I was out taking a August vacation like so many of the rest of us this time of year. So, that's why you haven't seen any new posts from me. I went back down to Myrtle Beach to visit my parents who still don't have Internet access. I sat out in the driveway a few days with my laptop and snuck on to a neighbor's "unsecured" wireless account...just enough to check email.

One thing about not having Internet access is you watch more TV. It was great that the Beijing Olympic Games were going on since I spent quite a bit of time with my mom and daughters watching many of the events. I had originally wrote that my two teenage daughters weren't that into the Olympics when it first began, but we all really got into them, especially my college-bound daughter. Who could not be excited about Michael Phelps who my girls think is really "hot", as well as the beach volleyball teams, both guys and girls, and of course women's gynmastics. The games are now starting to wind down with tomorrow being the closing ceremonies.

In the latest news, US Women's Soccer won the Gold by defeating Brazil. The team was able to do it without their famous teammate, Abby Wambach, who I mentioned before is a graduate of the same high school my daughters are from.

NBC Universal had a very successful Olympics and said earlier this week that more than 196 million viewers have watched the Beijing Olympics on its various networks through the first ten days. This figure makes these games the fourth-most-watched TV event in U.S. history, NBC said, "only behind the complete totals of the 1996 Atlanta (209 million), 1994 Lillehammer (204 million) and 2004 Athens (203 million) Games." They sold an $25 million in additional advertising that they were holding on to and said that overall the network had secured around $1 billion in Olympics-related advertising from about 100 marketers. They owe Micheal Phelps a big percentage of that!

So, it's now on to the next big thing, which will be the political conventions! Once their over than we can really "get ready for some football!"

Oh and since I was out last week I missed my guest blogger spot on Lipsticking and instead wrote a post yesterday which I don't want you to miss. This post is about the latest project from the folks at Dove and their Campaign for Real Beauty. So please again visit Lipsticking and read about Dove's new short film The Women Behind "The Women". It's another example of a great viral marketing program and this time integrates some entertainment marketing as well! I'm asking readers to please leave their thoughts and comments on what they think about the campaign. So chime in!

 

The Olympic Games Have Begun - Are you Watching?

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games got off to a spectacular start.  I stayed up till midnight on Friday night to see the end of the recorded version of the opening ceremonies that NBC broadcast. It was really cool the way they lifted Li Ning, former Olympic gymnast for China, to the top of the Beijing National Stadium ("The Birds Nest") and had him appear to be running on air with the Olympic torch to light the cauldron. 

It appears that the opening ceremonies that the Chinese hosted for the world were the most spectacular to date and included an amazing blend of human talent combined with technology. I found it really hard to pull away from watching the event on TV...even the commercials. While the Olympic Opening Ceremony normally doesn't receive the same hype for TV ads as the Super Bowl does, there were some really great ads that ran during the broadcast.

One of my favorite ads was from McDonald's featuring children's soccer. It didn't have any words, just a musical score with very strong expressions coming from the "losing team" and well as the "winning team".  It showed how the kids' expressions changed dramatically once the food showed up... for the losing team of course. It reminded me of when my daughters were young and going to McDonald's was such a treat. In fact one of my daughter's first words were "french fries" (which actually sounded like "fra-fras") and she would yell that out whenever we passed the Golden Arches.

I'm looking forward to watching some of the events tonight. I read that the U.S. already got it's first Gold Medal - in Fencing. The time difference is a little confusing. We'll get to watch some live meets tonight, Saturday evening, which are actually taking place Sunday morning in Beijing. That's why it's so important to be able to watch what you want, when you want. NBC is scheduled to have over 2.200 hours of event coverage online this year. That's pretty cool, even though there has been some criticism for not giving viewers more choice. Check out this article from Silicon Alley Insider that lists some of the ways NBC could have really utilized Web 2.0 in their strategy.

Another interesting bit of research that I read in this Adotas article is that teens are not that into the Games. I have two teenager daughters who are so busy with what's going in their own lives that they really don't appear interested at all in the Olympics. They may have been more I think if Abby Wambach was there playing with the U.S. Soccer Team. Abby is a graduate of Our Lady of Mercy High School here in Rochester, where both my girls are from. The team did pretty well without Abby today. The study on teens was done by Harris Interactive which states that less than half, 43%, expressed any interest in the Olympics.

I've also been trying to keep up with Jenny and Tom who are blogging on Kodak's blog, A Thousand Words, from Beijing. I've also been able to follow Jenny on Twitter. It appears to be an experience of a lifetime for her so far. She writes in her first post from Beijing about how "tall" she thought all the Chinese women were until she noticed the platform shoes they wear. Jenny took this photo of the shoes along with some other great photos of the Opening Ceremonies you just have to check out.

Well I just have to admit that these Olympic Games have brought back for me at least a sense of patriotism and if anything helps make the world seem like a smaller place. I've learned so much already about China and its people. It's hard to comprehend how big of a country it is ....over 1.3 billion people living in a country on the other side of the world from us Americans. Hopefully we'll get to know them and they'll get to know us a little better. Now wouldn't that be be a great result of these games?

Web 2.0 and the Beijing Olympic Games

Today's Wednesday and that means I'm again a guest blogger over at Lipsticking.com.  So, please follow this link and read my latest post that talks about how some Web 2.0 strategies are being integrated with a couple of Olympic marketing efforts.

With only ten days left till the Opening Ceremonies, the excitement is really starting to build. But could NBC be doing more to attract an online audience and will you will following the games online or on TV?

I'm hoping to get some discussion going on over at Lipsticking. So I invite you follow me and discussion over there.

Kodak Promotes the Olympic Games, the Mummy and Nascar

Eastman Kodak is another major brand that currently has developed marketing programs that tie both into the summer theatrical release of "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. However, unlike what NBC Universal has done, the two Kodak programs are totally unrelated.

First off, Kodak partnered with Universal Studios to promote the latest Mummy franchise through their longstanding partnership with Penske Racing and NASCAR. On July 12 driver Ryan Newman and the Kodak No. 12 Dodge at the NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway featured a bold paint scheme from The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor along with Kodak branding. Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman's firesuit and helmet were also specially designed for the race as was his pit crew. Check out Kodak's blog A Thousand Words which features photos and updates from the day.

Brendan Fraser, who plays explorer Rick O'Connell in the series, attended the race as Kodak's guest and served as Grand Marshal, giving the command "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines."

"Kodak is thrilled to partner with Universal Pictures and Penske Racing on this exciting promotion that ties together our longstanding relationship with the motion picture industry and our partnership with NASCAR," said Betty Noonan, Kodak Director and VP of Corporate Marketing and Business Development,  "When four great brands get together, great things happen and our customers win."

In addition to the racecar branding, Kodak-The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor advertising  appears on trackside billboards and the film's trailer was shown on SprintVision inside Chicagoland Speedway throughout the race weekend. Additional advertising appears in print and online, as well as the Kodak Times Square Gallery in New York City. Themed merchandise, including die-cast cars, t-shirts and hats, is also available and the Kodak-The Mummy show car is on display at Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood theme parks throughout July.

Additional images of the racecar can be seen here on Kodak's website. A Ryan Newman podcast can also be heard here on Kodak's site by clicking on Marketing Insights.

Now as far as the Olympic Games goes, I mentioned in my earlier post here that I had the honor of working with Kodak during the 1995 Atlanta Summer Games. Unfortunately however, following the closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic games Kodak will conclude it's sponsorship as the Worldwide Official Imaging Sponsor which it has held for the past 100+ years.

This year Kodak will be covering the games live on their blog, A Thousand Words. Jenny Cisney who is Kodak's "Chief Blogging Officer" will be blogging from the games and sharing with us the fan experience, sights and sounds, culture, etc. from Beijing. Richard Mackson, a  professional photographer who worked with Sports Illustrated will be posting his own photos. Tom Hoehn will also be reporting on how Kodak products are there supporting the Games. So, I'm going to be referring to Kodak's blog as the Games begin.

Starting on Aug. 9th Kodak will again be featuring their Olympic Picture of the Day which showcases a new photograph from Opening to Closing ceremonies (17 total).  This will be posted daily on Kodak's Olympic Page, Kodak Times Square Gallery and on IOC's official Olympic site.

The Kodak Store will be featuring a Olympic pin promotion which starts on Aug. 4. Also available is a Kodak downloadable Olympic Games Party Kit.

So, stay tuned and I'll be providing updates and photos of the games from Kodak. It will be bittersweet knowing that it's Kodak's last year covering the games as an official sponsor. I just hope the images of the Games will continue to be chronicled in the same high quality, professional way that Kodak has done for the past 100 years.

NBC Universal Cross-Promotes Olympic Games and The Mummy

Here's a marketing first: a campaign that promotes the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as well as the next sequel in a major summer theatrical movie release. 

NBC, "America's Olympic Network," owns the exclusive U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2012. Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios and part of NBC Universal, is behind The Mummy series and this year's release of the next sequel: "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor". NBC Universal is promoting these two huge upcoming August events with what it calls it's "most comprehensive synergistic effort ever".

NBC first launched this combo campaign back on July 1st with a very unique and innovative co-branded TV spot in which they utilized top assets from both their TV and movie studio side. The piece features settings and characters from "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" along with Olympic athletes that are seamlessly blended in sequences in which the action from the film transforms into Olympic events. The connection is that most of the action in The Mummy takes place in China and the Beijing Olympic Games are also in China.

The TV spots will continue through the end of August. “The Mummy” hits theaters on Aug. 1, followed by the Beijing Summer Olympics opening on Aug. 8th. On July 18th an extended 2:30-minute version also started running in NCM theaters nationwide. It also is being featured on in-park screens and Astrovisions at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios, on screens in 235 college campuses, at the NBC Experience Store at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, on NBC Wireless Networks' NBCNews2Go, NBC.com, NBCOlympics.com and other NBC websites, in over 4,700 New York taxis on the NY10 Taxi Entertainment Network.  Additionally it's being distributed on multiple cable systems nationwide.

Watch the extended piece here:

It's a pretty cool film and one that has been getting rave reviews so far from those who have viewed it. Brendan Fraser, star of "The Mummy," made an appearance at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL, to present a first sneak preview of it as well as mingled with some fans. Not only is this the first time the Olympics Games have been cross-promoted with a major motion film release, but also this year NBC will carry an unprecedented 2,200 hours of coverage streamed live online at NBCOlympics.com.

You can read more about the marketing campaigns surrounding this year's Summer Olympic Games in my previous posts here, here and here.

Baby Ruth's Video Contest Winner Sings at MLB All Star Game

Last night they played the 79th All Star Baseball Game in what could be the last nationally televised event at the old Yankee Stadium. The game lasted 15 innings and almost 5 hours moving into the early morning hours. The American League finally won the game, 4-3, but it really wasn't so much about who won or lost, but the event itself.

  Back in April during MLB's opening week I wrote a post about this promotion, The Baby Ruth "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" Video Contest. Nestle's Baby Ruth and MLB teamed up and invited fans to submit their own consumer-generated content in celebration of the song's 100th anniversary. The lucky winner was given the opportunity to lead the song during the 7th Inning Stretch at Yankee Stadium during last night's game.

Well Adam Wilbur, a high school band teacher from Medford, NY, won the contest and got to lead 56,000 fans in singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".

Adam competed the day before against two other finalists, Chad Gunderson of Sherman Oaks, CA, and Robert Huffman of Birmingham, AL, at the MLB FanFest held at New York City’s Javits Convention Center. Each had to sing the song for the three celebrity judges; actor William Peterson from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, “Extra” entertainment reporter AJ Calloway and former Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams, an accomplished guitarist, who said “They were all great”.

Once the judges announced Adam was the winner he said “I feel good. I didn’t come here expecting to win,”  and then described his immediate reaction as “excitement, followed by extreme fear”.

More than 620,000 fans voted in the selection of the three singers last month from among several hundred who submitted videos to the promotional website at MLB.com/babyruth. On the video submitted by Adam he not only sang the song but also played the ukulele and was accompanied by his twin brother Fred who played the tuba and is also a high school band teacher. Fred was a little disappointed that he couldn’t get to share the spotlight with his brother and said “The fact that we won is just awesome”.

Nestle's Baby Ruth gave out samples of the popular candy bar at both the FanFest and at the All-Star Game. Asked whether the winning video might have a post-All-Star afterlife, Tricia Bowles, brand manager for Nestlé Brands, said “It just might now. Who knows? We’ll see what happens from here.”

Adam and his brother Fred made sure they included several Baby Ruth mentions in the video arrangement which improves the odds that it may end up as a TV ad or at least reach a wide audience on YouTube. The song was originally written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Pilzer in 1908 which has had many other notable vocalists, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin as well as Harry Caray, Chicago's famous sportscaster.

Congratulations to Adam and Fred Wilbur as well as the other finalists.

Coca-Cola Launches Integrated Olympic Marketing Camapaign

Coca-Cola is not only the world's largest beverage firm but also the most recognized and valuable global brand. The company is a top sponsor of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games and the longest-running corporate supporter of the Olympics, going back to 1928 (Eastman Kodak would of been but they missed one year).

With now less then a month to go till the August 8 opening ceremonies, Coca-Cola has presented a series of new Olympic advertising, marketing, promotions and interactive activities. All of it centers around the theme of unity, cultural connections, and the celebration of Olympic Spirit around the world. The Coca-Cola China Olympic programs use the Mandarin expression "Shuang", meaning complete physical, emotional and spiritual refreshment, to describe the tremendous passion, pride and excitement felt by all Chinese as hosts of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"The common theme in all these Coca-Cola initiatives is to celebrate the global connections and magic that occurs when the world comes together in friendship at the Olympic Games this summer here in China." said Kevin Tressler, Director, Worldwide Sports and Entertainment Marketing for Coca-Cola.

Three new TV commercials are being launched in China around the games. You can watch this one titled "Shuang City" and see Beijing transformed into an Olympic playground, featuring Olympic basketball athlete Yao Ming.

You can visit YouTube here to see a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Shaung City" and also check out the other two TV ads,  "Bird's Nest" and "Yao and LeBron".

Celebrating America, the Olympic Games and their Sponsors

Happy 4th of July! It's such a beautiful morning here today and with Independence Day falling on a Friday it has given many of us Americans the gift of a long summer weekend. We have plans to visit some friends who have a place on Canandaigua Lake today, one of New York's magnificent Finger Lakes. It's such a picturesque part of the country and one that has been experiencing a growth in local wineries which has helped to raise the bar of New York State wines. Anyhow, I'm anxious to get out there and enjoy the day. However, it's been such a hectic last few weeks (I did survive the high school graduation party) and I haven't been on my blog, so here I am.

Today is the holiday in which we celebrate our country's freedom. However, many of us Americans this year are trying to remember how proud we are to be Americans, and yes I did say "trying"...it's been kinda difficult to do with the current presidential administration we have in place. But the Olympic Games are back this summer and they are helping to again bring out our sense of patriotism. We are now starting to see some of the trials on TV and hearing more and more about our U.S. teams and the individuals who are getting ready to compete in Beijing.

Millions of dollars are spent by brands to be official sponsors of the games as well supporters of the individual teams. This year some of the corporate brands that have been sponsors for years are getting some harsh criticism from international human rights activists that feel they are endorsing China's human rights record. However, Worldwide Olympic Game sponsors such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Kodak and Visa are all back. Unfortunately however, following the closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic games Kodak will conclude it's sponsorship as the Worldwide Official Imaging Sponsor which it has held for the past 100+ years.

It was back during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games that I got so heavily involved in creating and executing promotions for Kodak that I realized what a huge marketing event this is. During that year Kodak not only promoted it's worldwide sponsorship, but also supported the individual sports (national governing bodies or NGBs as they are called). The strategy was to assign specific sports to specific retailers and develop exclusive tie-in programs.

I was leading the agency team at the time working with Kodak on this program which resulted in 73 different account-specific promotional campaigns that we rolled-out in a six-month period for about 33 different retailers such as Wal-Mart, kmart, Target, Walgreens, Kroger, Safeway and some that have merged and are no longer such as Eckerd Drug and Revco. Many of these included sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to attend the Olympic Games.

I learned an extraordinary amount that year about working with the Olympic Committee and the individual NGB's as well as learning the differences and individual needs of Kodak's retail customers. All these promotions were communicated mostly through in-store merchandising and some with retail advertising. Nothing existed online at all yet. That was just 12 years ago, and think about how different it is today. Not only have the promotions moved online, but the coverage of the games have as well.

So, from now until the games begin in August I will be covering many of the different interactive promotions and marketing programs that the various sponsors have developed. Thanks to those brands that support the games and the teams. They pay a huge price to be an official sponsor and without their support these games could not take place. So please do support them and their products and services as well as stay clear of those that try and jump on the bandwagon unofficially.

Have a great 4th of July weekend and stay safe. Please visit my last year's post which includes a vintage 4th of July video from 1940.