Donna's Promo Talk

Mets Fans Try to Break Guinness World Record with Wise Potato Chips Big City Crunch Promo

We're just about at half-way through the baseball season and I realized I haven't written any posts this year regarding a MLB promotion. Last year I wrote quite a few. This post last May was about MLB teaming up with Indiana Jones on the release on the new film sequel. This post last July was all about Baby Ruth's User-Generated "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" video contest. Then almost two years ago to the day I wrote this post about the MLB and MasterCard promotion that included the MLB Dreams Sweepstakes and another user-generated contest.

So I really felt compelled today to write about this promotion that's taking place this evening, July 10th. It's doesn't include a major interactive promotion or user-generated contest. It is just a pretty creative promotional event. And where else would it take place, but in New York City.

Wise potato chips will be attempting to to set the Guinness World Record for the most potato chips ever crunched at once at the New York Mets' new stadium, Citi Field. The Mets will be playing the Cincinnati Reds tonight as the Big City Crunch gets underway. Every fan entering the new ballpark will be handed a .75-oz. bag of Wise Potato Chips. At a designated time, instructions will be given to open the packages and, when given the go-ahead, to start crunching.

"As New York's favorite snack food, it's only natural for us to support one of New York's favorite teams, the New York Mets," said Jolie Weber, Wise Vice President, Brand Marketing. "We developed The Big City Crunch to give Mets fans -- the most vocal and passionate fans in baseball -- a chance to be a part of history ... a loud history

Representatives from Wise have been in and around the area driving a Wise-wrapped van and distributing Wise Potato Chips. They also have been getting consumers to try the Wise "Spin the Wheel" game where players were given the chance to win Big City Crunch-branded merchandise, as well as tickets to tonight's game.

Representatives of Guinness World Records will be on hand tonight to record the occasion and, if all necessary criteria are met, will certify that a world record has been set.

The promotion was developed to increase awareness for the chips and leverage Wise’s sponsorship as the official potato chip and Cheez Doodle of the New York Mets. Wise's sports marketing agency, Source Communications, came up with the promotion which is a complement to a season-long advertising presence at Citi Field, including outfield and LED ads for Wise brands.  A New York local print, outdoor, TV and radio ad campaign promoting the Big City Crunch and featuring Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, began back in May and will run through tonight's event.

They even have some social media integrated into the mix by creating a Twitter page. So we can follow them on Twitter here to find out if they're successful or not. If anyone can make noise, its New York baseball fans. Yes, I'm a New Yorker and a Mets fan (but not a fan of that other New York team)!

NHL Launches thePORTAL.com & Will Hold TweetUp to Promote Stanley Cup Playoffs

The National Hockey League (NHL) today opened the doors to thePORTAL at NHL.com to deliver fans a unique Stanley Cup Playoffs experience. thePORTAL at NHL.com leverages the exclusive access and unique digital media capabilities of the NHL to transport fans inside the action and behind the scenes with all 16 teams chasing the Stanley Cup.

Unfortunately the Buffalo Sabres did NOT make it to the playoffs this year and their season is now over. Even though they hung in there at the end and beat the Hurricanes 5-1, a Rangers' win kicked them out of contention. We can't blame it on the Rangers though.

thePORTAL at NHL.com is highlighted by special features such as live coverage from the NHL Video Review Room in Toronto. Each time a goal is reviewed during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, thePORTAL at NHL.com will be the only place for fans to learn in real-time how NHL rules are being interpreted and applied, leading to goals being allowed or disallowed.

thePORTAL at NHL.com also will be the only place where fans can see video interviews with NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell and NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy, who will discuss every call made the night before in the NHL Video Review Room. 

“The Stanley Cup Playoffs are when NHL teams elevate their play in pursuit of the Stanley Cup. We’re elevating our game, too,” said Andre Mika, NHL Senior Vice President of Broadband and New Media, and Executive in Charge of Programming. “We're breaking new ground in how we super-serve fans during our key events, an important element of our digital strategy to bring fans places other media cannot.”

The NHL is also planning to hold its first Tweetup, a meetup of people that Twitter, on Wednesday, April 15, between 7-10 p.m. EST to celebrate the launch of thePortal at NHL.com, as well as the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This strategy sends a message to fans that the NHL is the Digital League. Michael DiLorenzo, NHL director of corporate communications, said there isn't a more appropriate launch venue for the portal than a social media gathering.

Fans can find the flagship Tweetup party at the NHL Powered by Reebok Store on 6th Ave in New York City. McDonald's will sponsor free food in the city. Satellite "Tweetups" will occur in Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Edmonton, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Vancouver, and Washington.

NHL fans also have the opportunity to post comments and interact with celebrity blogger on NHL.com and on Twiiter at Twitter.com/NHLCelebBlogs which just started up today.

Anyhow, the first puck will be dropped Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET when the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals open at Verizon Center on TSN, while the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins do the same at Mellon Arena on VERSUS, CBC and RDS.

The Final Four is Here - What Brand-Sponsored Bracket are you following?

Well the Final Four has been decided and will play each other today. I'm feeling guilty that I have not written even one post about March Madness this year. I guess all the conferences I attended this past month have taken me a bit away from the world of sports.

So today we're looking at what should be the best day of the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament: The two semifinal games, starting with Connecticut vs. Michigan State at 6 pm EST, followed by North Carolina vs. Villanova, both covered on CBS. Our Syracuse Orangemen at least got through a couple of rounds this year.

Then tomorrow finally for all the die hard baseball fans (say Hi to my Dad, the classic Boston Red Sox fan) it's play ball! The Major League Baseball season opens with the Atlanta Braves vs. the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies on ESPN2.

Last year I wrote this March post that included some pretty innovative online promotions around the NCAA Tournament that involved blogs and social networks. This year however Twitter is the hot topic.  Most of us didn't know a Tweet from a Retweet this time last year. But hey I have to admit, I'm one of those that's been kinda obsessed by the whole thing and it's growing fast... currently at about 7 million users, up 15 times from a year ago, according to Nielsen Online. Then after just hearing Guy Kawasaki's Keynote about Twitter at the SES NY Conference a week ago,  you really see how marketers are integrating it into their mix.

Super Reggie Award Goes to Kraft and their DSRL Campaign

Day 2 of PMA ’09 is just getting under way this morning. Yesterday was quite a full day that started off with Tony Palmer from Kimberly-Clark who shared with us some Aussie humor with a few down-under TV spots. Then we had Penry Price from Google as our luncheon keynote at mid-day who have us a great quick overview of today’s digital world. A look at Harley-Davidson’s creativity from Mark-Hans Richer, the current CMO was the afternoon highlight. Then we wrapped up the day with a dinner to celebrate the 26th Annual Reggie Awards.

After a dinner that consisted of filet migon and what looked and tasted like sweet mashed potatoes, they announced the winner of this year’s Super Reggie. Kraft Foods took home the big cash register this year with their Oreo Double Stuf Racing League (DSRL) campaign. As the headline of PMA’s special Reggie Awards supplement says, they “licked the competition”. The agency partners behind this successful campaign included Draftfcb (general and promotional advertising), Razorfish (digital), Digitas (online media), MediaVest (media), IMG (experiential) and Weber Shandwick (PR).

The promotion was first launched back in 2007 that I wrote about here since it was the first time we got to see the Manning brothers together endorsing a product. DSRL has now gained its position as an actual “professional sport”. Kraft claims that Double Stuf has enjoyed 16 consecutive months of sales growth since the program debuted and a 7% sales jump at the height of the promotion.

The objective they all started with was to differentiate the Double Stuf Oreo cookie from its older brother. “The spark came as we were thinking about fun new ways to engage consumers with Oreo,” explained John Ghingo, marketing director for Oreo at Kraft Foods. “Lots of people partake in the rituals of twisting, licking and dunking Oreo cookies in milk. Double Stuf Racing League focuses on the ‘lick’ aspect and takes Oreo to a new place in an unexpected way.”

As I noted, the campaign first started with the Manning Brothers, the two NFL quarterback stars Payton and Eli, competing against each other for the DSRL title. Next up were the Williams sisters, tennis champs Venus and Serena, who were challenging the guys in this “second sport” through a national TV ad. Viewers were encouraged to go online at whatsthesecondsport.com and create avatars that enabled them to participate in games, blogs and fan discussion groups.

Sweepstakes and instant-win prizes were also featured that gave the DSRL fans a chance to win a trip to New Orleans to participate in a “lick race” with the Manning Brothers for a $10,000 grand prize, A father/son team from Dayton, Ohio won the race in 27 seconds.

A spring contest is scheduled for this year that will include both the Mannings and the Williamses, so the program continues. Kraft is looking to bring on new talent, so who knows what sports celebrities they’ll bring on board next.

Back to the conference for now. We have Nazz Nichols from Nokia (say that 3'x fast) on next.

95% of Super Bowl Ads Scored Online

So were you one of the 148.3 million people that watched at least part of Super Bowl XLIII this past Sunday with the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals? It was the second-most-watched Super Bowl ever, just behind 2008's record-breaking  game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots.

NBC said it did sell out of all its ad inventory getting $206 million dollars, which is up from the $186.3 million Fox sold last year for the game. So advertisers did pay more and got less viewers. I've been writing about the ads and promotions associated with Super Bowl XLIII here and here and I asked the question in my last post of how many ads would actually try and get their money's worth by driving viewers online to extend the experience?

Last year I learned that 64% of the Super Bowl ads promoted their website after which I had predicted a much higher percentage. So I wasn't sure what to expect this year. Would the advertisers get it right and make their $100,000 a second ad pay off?

The Advertisers of Super Bowl XLIII

This past Sunday was the first one in quite a while that we didn't have any NFL Football which is always a big readjustment for many of us. We now have Super Bowl XLIII to look forward to that is less than a week away to be played in Tampa Bay. But for many of us our season is over, except for you fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals (yes, I did say Cardinals!).

So besides waking up to even more layoff announcements today we still have the largest marketing event of the year to look forward to. Here's a run down of what advertisers we should expect to see this year:

Anheuser-Busch - Even though they are now owned by Belgium company, In Bev, the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light is still expected to run five minutes' worth of advertising during this year's Super Bowl. They've been testing as many as three different ads using their famous Clydesdale horses and are considering one spot apiece for its Bud Light Lime and Budweiser American Ale products. Bud Light is also expected to get plenty of face time, with at least three spots possible. A-B is famous for testing its Super Bowl ads among consumers again and again, so the final lineup is still in question.

Bridgestone - The tire maker will once again sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show, which this year features Bruce Springsteen. They're expected to run two 30-second commercials which will contain humor while focusing on showcasing the performance of the company's tires.

CareerBuilder - This website company intends to run two 30-second ads, one in the second quarter and one in the third. This year's ads are will not use the famous monkeys from Super Bowl ads past.

Cars.com will air one 60-second ad in the second quarter which is expected to be "humorous".

Coca-Cola Co.intends to advertise its flagship cola in multiple spots. During last year's Super Bowl, Coke received critical acclaim for their ad that featured balloons from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade slugging it out for a bottle of the fizzy brown liquid.

Recently they announced that they'll use one of their three spots to feature Coke Zero alongside Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. This spot is now in it's final editing stages, however the company wouldn't disclose any details about how the Coke Zero commercial might look.

Under the company's "Open Happiness" campaign, which is led by Wieden + Kennedy, Coca-Cola is pushing a 30-second spot featuring avatars and a 60-second spot that features music performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

PepsiCo's Frito-Lay - As covered in my previous post, the company will run the winning ad from it's Doritos consumer-generated Crash the Super Bowl ad contest.  Doritos will give the winning entry $1 million if the ad become "the first-ever consumer-created commercial to claim the No. 1 ranking in USA Today's annual Ad Meter."

General Electric, the parent company of NBC, the broadcaster of the 2009 Super Bowl, intends to run one spot in the game.

GoDaddy will again run at least one 30-second ad in the Super Bowl and may have another since we've learned that they were producing two ads, both of which will feature race-car driver Danica Patrick and follow a similar tone of the company's past Super Bowl ads.

Hyundai is expected to run two commercials to help promote the launch of its 2010-model Genesis coupe.

Monster is expected to kick off a campaign highlighting the fact that it has become the official career services sponsor of the NFL. As part of that pact, the company said, it will run an additional 30-second "in-game enhancement" to launch an NFL-themed promotion intended to drive traffic to the site.

The NFL is running a promotion which I wrote about in this post in which players and fans tell personal stories. Clips can be seen online, and fans can vote on the stories.

Pedigree, The Mars dog-food brand, is making its first Super Bowl appearance. Watch their ad here and they will donate a bowl of food to dogs in shelters.

PepsiCo Beverages will run a numbers of commercials and has declined to comment on its Super Bowl advertising. It's worth noting however that Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Gatorade are all getting new packaging and logos which may mean that these brands may bet the spotlight.

I just received this press release tonight that states that on Tuesday Weatherproof® Garment Company will be previewing their 3 second ad that NBC rejected to run during Super Bowl XLIII. During their screening they plan to announce alternative methods to reach Super Bowl consumers. Last Super Bowl they attempted to buy a 3 second ad and committed to outreaching to other smaller advertisers to join forces in order to “time share” an ad for this year’s upcoming Super Bowl. While NBC denied Weatherproof’s “time share” concept, this year's weakening economy and lackluster Super Bowl ad sales beg the question: why decline an innovative solution? We'll see, stay tuned. 

Winner of Samsung and NFL "That's How I See It" Stories To Become a Super Bowl Commercial

As I'm writing this post I'm watching Game 2 of the NFL Playoffs, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers are the favorite to win, but so were the Eagles who lost to the Cardinals earlier today. So the Arizona Cardinals are headed to Super Bowl XLIII to play against the winner of this AFC Championship Game.

Super Bowl XLIII will take place two weeks from today on February 1 in Tampa Bay. If the Steelers don't win this game the predictions are that there will be little interest in who actually wins the Super Bowl since the Steelers are the only team left in the running that has a big national fan base. So, we'll soon see.

Besides the ad from Dorito's Crash the Super Bowl Video Contest that we will see during the Super Bowl which I just wrote about in this post. We will also see another consumer-generated commercial that will air during the Pregame Show on NBC that's a fan's story from Samsung's "The NFL. That's How I See It" promotion.

For eight weekends, Samsung, the Official HDTV of the NFL, and NFL Films toured various NFL markets stopping at Best Buy retail locations and NFL stadiums across the US to capture stories of how fans see the game. Hundreds of fans shared their stories such as a New York Jets fan who had his wife sign a contract before marriage allowing him to catch every home game; a superstitious Washington Redskins fan who can't be bothered during games; a New York Giants fan who won over his future brother-in-law with tickets to a game; and a faithful San Francisco 49ers fan who calls the game following September 11, 2001 the most memorable she's ever seen.

There have been two rounds of voting. The first round of 24 videos was posted on nfl.com/howiseeit from November 20 to December 3. Then the second group of 24 was posted December 4 to December 17. 275,000 votes were cast and the final nine videos that included one wildcard were announced on December 18. Final voting took place up till January 4. The winning story, determined by the number of fan votes and a panel of NFL and Samsung judges, is now being transformed into a commercial to air during the pregame show prior to Super Bowl XLIII.

"Samsung and the NFL developed this campaign to involve the all-important fan. The stories collected truly exemplify the unique passion fans possess for the game of football," said Tim Baxter, VP of sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics America. "We are excited to open these stories and look forward to turning the winning story into a commercial for all to see on Super Bowl Sunday."

This Super Ad promotion is part of Samsung's "That's How I See It" campaign which includes four unique commercials showing how fans experience the NFL through their Samsung HDTV and an interactive microsite that contains fan stories, and even purchasing advice from notable celebrities and athletes like NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, Rich Eisen of the NFL Network, legendary rocker Alice Cooper and television personality Regis Philbin.

We now have a score of 16 to 14 with the Steelers over the Ravens in the 4th Quarter. So, I gonna go now and watch the rest of this game. Go Steelers!

Countdown to Super Bowl XLIII - Dorito's Ad Contest Kicks it up a Level

Well the first month of 2009 so far has been all about Obama and football. I've already posted here regarding Obama's inauguration promotion, so now it's that time of year to start our countdown to Super Bowl XLII which is taking place on Feb. 1st in Tampa Bay! So what better interactive promotional campaign to start off this annual media blitz with than Dorito's!

In it's third year of developing a consumer-generated content contest tied-in with the Super Bowl, Doritos is currently in the final phase of it's $1 million Super Bowl ad challenge with consumers voting for one of five finalists eligible to win tickets to the Big Game.

 We're down to five final entries from nearly 2,000 submissions in the third annual Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. This year again, the winning ad will be aired during the broadcast of the Super Bowl. However, Dorito's has added another layer and will award the winning contestant $1 million if the Dorito's ad takes the #1 spot in the USA TODAY Ad Meter rankings that rates the popularity of the TV spots appearing during the game.

Voting is currently taking place online for one of the five ads and will continue just up until Jan. 25. Voters automatically have a chance at winning a pair of ticket to the Super Bowl. 21 pairs will be awarded, one pair per day.

The final five ads have been submitted by the following participants: Joe Herbert of Batesville, IN; Oren Brimer of New York, NY; Eric Heimbold of Venice, CA, Chris Roberts of Burbank, CA, and Michael Goubeaux of Los Angeles. They were chosen by a panel of Doritos judges and will each be awarded $25,000 and a trip to Tampa Bay to view the game from luxury suites.

“They are literally about to give Madison Avenue a run for its money,” Ann Mukherjee, Doritos group vice president of marketing, said in a statement.

While visiting the Web site, those voting in the contest can view all of the 1,961 ads that were submitted during the contest entry period - Oct. 3-Nov. 16, 2008.

Take a look back to learn more about Dorito's previous Crash The Super Bowl Contests here. This is my third year covering this promotion which has become the model for consumer-generated content contests. So, who do you think will be the winner this year?

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.