The End of the “Hostile Environment”

I am officially calling for the end of the “hostile environment.”  If you watch sports regularly, particularly college or pro football, then you have been hearing the phrase “hostile environment” with increasing regularity over the past two years from announcers who somehow thought they needed a more exciting or dramatic way to describe the crowd or atmosphere at an “away” game.  

Here’s what happens for the team that’s not playing in their home stadium.  The crowd cheers on their team instead of the visiting team.  When the visiting team has the ball, the home team cheers loud to try to somehow affect the communication and play of the visiting team.  Sometimes they do.  This is called…..the home team advantage.  But please, please stop referring to every loud stadium as a “hostile environment.”  It sounds ridiculous and the “environment” isn’t any different than it always has been.  Fans cheering on their team. Fans yelling and getting loud when the other team has the ball. How very “hostile.”

Ask USF about the “hostile environment” they just went into in Tallahassee where the “hostile” ‘Noles crowd was all dressed in white for a fierce, dare I say. “hostile” whiteout.  Very hostile indeed.  USF 17 FSU 7.  Is there usually a home team advantage?  Of course.  The stadium is full of their fans, just like it always is and always has been.  Is it “hostile?”  No, it’s football fans cheering for their team and against the other team. 

So, let’s stop this “hostile environment” nonsense.  Don’t even get me started on “physicality.”

General Motors Stadium for Cowboys?

As the Cowboys get ready for their home opener at their new stadium, General Motors is rumored to be on the verge of signing a new 10-year, $200 million naming rights deal for Cowboys Stadium.

Beautiful General Motors Stadium?

Crazy right?  Also untrue.  A headline to stir the pot and get your attention?  A little.  But more than that, a headline to bring home a couple of key points at a time when industry leaders on both sides of the sponsorship fence and the public have very strong opinions about the merits of sponsorship, in particular naming rights deals.  It also points to the ongoing debate over measurement.  How does that big naming rights deal get measured and does anyone believe the methodology?

After all, GM is in bankruptcy and just took $50 million from the government to get “back on its feet.”  How could they irresponsibly go spend millions per year just to put their name on a stadium, which gets them no return?  There it is.  Backlash from government officials, the public and auto industry leaders.  This naming rights stuff is exactly the type of irrational spending that can’t be tolerated at “times like this”, right? 

Well, where was the outrage when GM announced just a month ago and only about two months after the announced bankruptcy and government bailout that it would significantly increase ad spending?  Completely outrageous right?  How can they frivolously be airing TV commercials, much less featuring GM’s Bob Lutz as the “star,” at a time when more and more TV viewers are fast-forwarding right through commercials?  How many millions in government money  are going to be throw away on this?   Now, we’re not saying that, but nobody is.  Why? 

Here’s why.  Because “advertising” is accepted by the public and industry leaders don’t question the methodology of measurement, for the most part.   If I the media buyer meet my GRPs, I can show the client that we are making the right moves, right?  Deep down, when everyone has their backs up against the wall and fear drives decisions, the fall back is “what we know to be the truth.”  And the truth for most people in advertising is media numbers, math.  Let’s face it sponsorship execs, most sponsorship deals at some point still run across the desk of a media exec who has to find a way to put that sponsorship through the “evaluation,” er, math equation.  You can argue all day about whose equation is right or which formula is the “right one,” but at the end of the day, that sponsorship has to fit into something that resembles what advertising execs know to be the truth, numbers or eyeballs or listeners or ratings.  Let’s put aside the argument about whether advertising works, right?  If the numbers are met, it works.

Okay, no problem.  We can do that, right?  We can extrapolate the enormous amount of “impressions” that GM will get from its new naming rights deal and in fact we’ll be able to show that the “value” far exceeds the expenditure.  This is the most high-profile naming rights deal ever and because of that, GM will receive somewhere around ” a gazillion” (rounding up here) impressions as a result. 

This is where we sponsorship gurus step in, already a little hot and bothered by all of this “impression” talk, and say…”Stop talking about sponsorship as a means to get impressions!  Sponsorship is not about impressions, it’s much deeper and more meaningful than that.  This is about an integrated marketing platform that can deliver Return On Objective and deliver on real marketing and sales metrics. It can offer one-to-one marketing, product trial, retail promotion, etc, etc., etc.”  Sorry Charlie.  When fear is driving decisions and we can’t afford “backlash”, we can’t choose to believe that all of that “stuff” actually works.  We know the truth to be media numbers and frankly the public is okay with us blasting them with TV commercials, so they don’t care how many millions of their dollars we might spend on it.  (plus, we’ve made a TV star out of the “big guy” and that’s a sure-fire success that crushes any media audit or evaluation).

And so, the debate rages on with everything being throw in from all sides.  So what’s the point?  How do we sponsorship believers bring companies, politicians and maybe even the public to really get them to the point of “believing?”  Could it actually be okay for GM to have its name on the new Cowboys Stadium and could that actually translate into car sales?  We, of course, say yes, absolutely yes.  If done correctly.

Of course, there is a whole  other and deeper discussion here about the forces that actually affect sales.  Was all of the sponsorship that WaMu did a failure because they went bankrupt?  No, it was all of their advertising, of course.  Kidding, naturally.  But there are so many other forces at work in any given company, that things aren’t as black and white as most execs want them to be.  The point is that for media, impressions have driven decisions and it is a completely accepted formula for success.  Not so for sponsorship, right.  It’s not about impressions.  Sure, that’s why the sponsorship industry and brand execs got so giddy when WNBA jerseys became available.  After all, brands had been clamoring for a chance to sponsor WNBA teams all along, right?  Of course not.  They got punch-drunk at their chance to show…..IMPRESSIONS. 

Like it or not, the impressions evaluation and justification is here to stay, perhaps in varying degrees.  As to whether or not it will be “okay” for GM or other U.S. auto companies to spend (much less financial institutions) money on sponsorship in addition to than tried and true advertising, time, the economy and political agenda will tell.

Unfound gold in Cowboys new scoreboard

The Dallas Cowboys are faced with whether or not they’re going to have to move their scoreboard higher and out of the way of punted footballs that are likely to hit it most games.  The scoreboard was hung to specs allowed by the NFL, but apparently the Cowboys never actually tested the height with real punts, like they did in Indianapolis where it became obvious that punts would have easily hit a center-hung scoreboard.

Great Video, no permanent signage

As I watched the ESPN stories on the board in Dallas over the past couple of days, the first thing that struck me was of course the enormity of this new video board.  Absolutely huge and apparently stunningly clear HD video.  But then something struck me that was even more glaring.  There is no permanent signage anywhere on the board, none.  I know from a sponsorship standpoint the thought it likely that sponsors will get their impressions via the video in the form of actual commercials, vinettes and other sponsored features.  All good.  But guess what?  When the highlights are shown the video will likely show game footage or other non-sponsored images.  Now that the scoreboard has become a huge story, get some permanent framing around those screens, or on the sides that will be shown every single time there’s a story an every single time the game cameras point at the boards, which of course is going to be very frequent now.  Fill those corners with some permanent signs and you have instantly found revenue, along with some sponsors that will realize incredible ROI, at least in the form of impressions.  We never advocate sponsorship solely for an impression number, but this can be a tremendous asset as part of an overall marketing plan with the Cowboys.

So, get after it Cowboys.  You have an even bigger gold mine in your new scoreboard than you thought you did.

On average, MLB Ballparks nearly 30% empty.

As we head into the dog days of summer and look at MLB attendance, there’s no question that the economy is certainly having an effect on ticket sales with stadiums at only 71% capacity on average.  What’s glaring is that those numbers are helped tremendously by a couple of teams that do very well, namely the Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies, Cardinals and Dodgers.   The real problem comes when you start to look at some teams that are doing very poorly and likely to get only worse as it now becomes more obvious that these teams won’t be competitive heading down the stretch.

Here are some observations:

Eight teams are dealing with average attendance of 50% or less, with the Florida Marlins leading the way at an average capacity of 46.9%, which is just over 18,000 per game.  What’s really amazing about this?  That’s a HUGE increase of nearly 17% from last year for the Marlins! 

Which team has seen the biggest percentage drop in attendance?  The AL Central leading Detroit Tigers, down nearly 22% from last year at about 75% average capacity.  The Tigers claw their way to first place in while the auto industry tanks. 

Who’s had the biggest percentage increase?  The Kansas City Royals.  Yes, the Kansas City Royals, with an 18.4% increase, averaging just under 24,000 per game, still at just 62.7% of capacity.  Keep in mind that the Royals got off to a hot start early in the year but have now settled into the basement that they’ve become so familiar with. They finished last year as third worst in terms of percentage of capacity and are likely to be contenders again this year as they fade through the rest of the season.

Lots of Empty Seats at Nationals Park

Remember when nice, new ballparks were going to help attendance for many teams, despite their poor performance n the field?  It’s not happening.  Pirates- still losing ground and averaging under 50% full.  Padres – down nearly 18% at just under 57% full.   The Nationals of course are really hurting, with a drop of nearly 20% and about 57% full on average. Again, none of those teams are going to contend for anything.  More likely, they will get worse, and so will attendance.

So, how does all of this compare with 2008?  It’s down about 6% from this time last year.  If the numbers stay where they are at 71% of capacity, that’s only 2% off from the final numbers of 73% last year.   I think it will end up a bit below the 71% since many teams are going to see their averages slide downward. 

The bigger picture is how the lower numbers translate across the sales channels like merchandise and concessions, which factor into the overall financial well being of each club.  Naturally, sponsorship has been a big issue all across the landscape and it would seem likely that the haves also are benefiting much more than the have nots in that area as well. 

Here are the full numbers (through July 20th), as reported in the Sports Business Journal compiled by Brandon McClung.

Home team	Dates	Total	Avg.	% cap.	Previous	Change	Dates (2008)	Max.	Min.	90%+	50%-
Arizona Diamondbacks	50	1,274,924	25,498	52.40%	30,300	-15.80%	49	48,796	17,528	1	19
Atlanta Braves	47	1,381,053	29,384	59.10%	31,459	-6.60%	51	51,175	15,364	6	19
Baltimore Orioles	47	1,141,425	24,286	50.40%	26,124	-7.00%	45	48,607	10,130	2	24
Boston Red Sox	45	1,702,517	37,834	101.60%	37,621	0.60%	47	38,347	37,057	45	0
Chicago Cubs	45	1,800,895	40,020	97.20%	40,593	-1.40%	49	41,509	37,956	45	0
Chicago White Sox	46	1,259,664	27,384	67.40%	29,289	-6.50%	48	39,745	18,023	5	5
Cincinnati Reds	44	1,112,496	25,284	59.70%	25,617	-1.30%	49	42,234	9,878	6	17
Cleveland Indians	48	1,067,545	22,241	49.20%	26,897	-17.30%	47	42,473	11,408	1	25
Colorado Rockies	43	1,302,586	30,293	60.00%	33,449	-9.40%	50	49,427	18,246	3	13
Detroit Tigers	40	1,235,007	30,875	74.80%	39,516	-21.90%	48	44,588	18,905	7	2
Florida Marlins	48	868,377	18,091	46.90%	15,494	16.80%	48	46,427	10,131	4	34
Houston Astros	48	1,419,721	29,578	72.20%	36,442	-18.80%	46	43,827	22,032	2	0
Kansas City Royals	49	1,172,925	23,937	62.70%	20,215	18.40%	45	39,026	9,593	9	19
Los Angeles Angels	45	1,832,941	40,732	90.00%	40,770	-0.10%	49	44,222	33,411	26	0
Los Angeles Dodgers	46	2,010,481	43,706	78.00%	45,039	-3.00%	49	57,097	30,530	13	0
Milwaukee Brewers	46	1,753,531	38,120	91.00%	36,155	5.40%	48	45,455	25,016	26	0
Minnesota Twins	48	1,357,757	28,287	60.70%	25,767	9.80%	53	48,514	15,169	1	12
New York Mets*	45	1,778,756	39,528	94.60%	50,291	-21.40%	45	41,944	35,981	40	0
New York Yankees*	46	2,087,353	45,377	86.70%	52,610	-13.70%	52	48,271	42,065	4	0
Oakland Athletics	45	798,653	17,748	50.60%	21,294	-16.70%	55	36,067	10,127	4	27
Philadelphia Phillies	46	2,023,674	43,993	100.80%	41,720	5.40%	50	45,343	32,759	43	0
Pittsburgh Pirates	43	820,992	19,093	49.80%	19,369	-1.40%	50	38,411	8,482	4	26
San Diego Padres	48	1,179,204	24,567	57.50%	29,920	-17.90%	53	45,496	13,646	5	22
San Francisco Giants	46	1,586,482	34,489	82.90%	35,524	-2.90%	48	43,012	23,934	16	0
Seattle Mariners	43	1,174,111	27,305	57.00%	28,732	-5.00%	49	45,958	16,034	1	17
St. Louis Cardinals	47	1,901,917	40,466	92.00%	42,399	-4.60%	51	46,707	35,206	27	0
Tampa Bay Rays	45	1,036,712	23,038	62.30%	21,330	8.00%	53	36,973	11,420	6	17
Texas Rangers	48	1,323,570	27,574	56.10%	24,937	10.60%	45	49,916	12,184	3	27
Toronto Blue Jays	46	1,088,505	23,663	47.80%	27,503	-14.00%	47	48,027	12,145	1	31
Washington Nationals	46	1,096,058	23,827	56.90%	29,700	-19.80%	50	41,985	12,464	4	25
TOTALS	1,379	41,589,832	30,159	71.60%	32,177	-6.30%	1,469	57,097	8,482	360	381
* The Mets and Yankees are playing in new ballparks with smaller capacities than their 2008 venues.

Why Jet Blue and Southwest are among The World’s Best

Travel & Leisure just came out with its World’s Best Awards for 2009 and the Domestic Airline category offers little surprise in that none of the “big boys” are in the Top 10.  None of them.  No United, American, Delta, Northwest or US Airways.  Number one is Virgin American, so congrats to them.  But it’s number two and number five that I think are the best stories and have the case studies that brands can really learn from.   Number two is Jet Blue (up from three in ‘08) and number five is Southwest (up from number seven in ‘08). 

Jet Blue is the same Jet Blue that came out of the gate looking great, feeling good and had people rushing to enjoy it’s free DirecTV on every flight.   People loved it.  “This is the only way to fly,” people told me when they flew Jet Blue.  Then, in February of 2007, Jet Blue was brought to its knees by a crippling winter storm in the northeast and cancelled nearly 1,000 flights in a week’s time, while stranding some passengers for 10 hours on planes that sat on the tarmac.  It cost the airline more than $30 million.  Guess what?  It happened yet again in March, but to a lesser extent, with more than 200 flights being cancelled.  How can you be the biggest carrier at JFK, one of the busiest airports in the world, and not be able to handle winter conditions appropriately? 

The storms and associated cancellations, along with sky high oil prices, wiped out the profits Jet Blue had enjoyed, along with severely smearing the goodwill and brand equity that it had built up.   The “big boys” snickered and sneared and breathed a sigh of relief that “the next Southwest” had seen its day.  After all, people were all over national news saying, “I’ll never fly Jet Blue again.”  In the words of Lee Corso…”not so fast my friend.”  It’s one thing to say you’ll never fly Jet Blue again after you’ve been sitting on a plane for 10 hours with crying babies and well. okay crying everybody.  It’s quite another to get on that Delta flight with the crabbiest flight attendant you’ve ever experienced, no DirecTV, no leg room and a delayed flight in perfectly good weather conditions.  Did I mention no DirecTV?   Yeah, sure, you’ll fly on Delta, American, United or one of the other guys and pay more with no DirecTV and crabby patties on the flight when Jet Blue offers a less expensive flight that makes you feel like you’re sitting in your family room watching the ball game and then suddenly you arrive at your destination.  No chance.  They came back.

Jet Blue continues to score the highest among low-cost carriers in JD Powers & Associates annual customer satisfaction awards and profits have returned.   After what would have seemed to be a double knock-out punch or more when you factor in oil prices, Jet Blue has people singing its praises and they’re making money.  When I flew Jet Blue a couple of months ago, it was about the giddiest group of fliers I had ever seen.  People were happy and enjoying themselves, while they were flying!  Can you imagine? 

Why?  Because Jet Blue has a great product with a tremendous unique selling point, or two.  As it turns out, people are happy to forgo awful airline food in exchange for a nice leather seat with more legroom and their very own entertainment machine in the form of DirecTV with all of their favorite channels, movies on demand and music.  Jet Blue, from the beginning, understood how important it was to make people “feel” like they were flying in first class, or better.  Although they suffered a massive setback, the quality of their product and value proposition trumped that big mistake.  The experience they provide is that much better.  The value is that much better. 

The other big part of what Jet Blue did was reimburse flights or offer to rebook those that got cancelled and they now have a Customer Bill of Rights that specifically outlines how customers will be reimbursed for cancellations or delays!  That’s right, if a flight is delayed due to a controllable irregularity (their fault), then customers actually get vouchers ranging from $25 to full round trip fare, depending on the length of the delay.  They addressed their problems, figured out how to avoid them in the future and then also built in something to make the customer “feel good.”  There it is again, making the customer “feel good.”  The key here is that they actually do it. They don’t talk about being “the friendly skies” and then treat you like you’re a huge inconvenience to them.  

Of course, the Jet Blue story is really an offshoot of the Southwest story and model, just taken to a higher level.  Southwest has understood for years that it could offer a less than luxurious flying experience if it made the passengers feel good and gave them unrivaled value.  They consistently do both.  The key for them is consistently.   Southwest is an excellent airline operator that has figured out how to its business effectively and profitably while giving the customer what it wants.  Ultimately, most Americans want a hassle-free flight that they can afford that gets them to their destination on time and alive.  Throw in some cheery flight attendants, a superior rewards program with some free drinks and. . .success!  Another “feel good” story.  Another successful airline that has been rewarded with a World’d Best Reward.

What’s more remarkable about Southwest is that it no longer is a small carrier.  It’s one thing to have cheery employees and operating efficiencies when your a small, lean company like Southwest once was.  Southwest is now number three when it comes to passenger counts for all domestic airlines and yet it still has figured out how to keep passengers in its seats and keep them happy. 

When Southwest and Jet Blue started their airlines, they were contrarian and many bets were placed against them because of it.  Now, they’re leading their industry and being rewarded with profits and numerous rewards.   They have good products backed up by good customer service.  The new CEO recently commented that GM will focus on “customers, cars and culture,” with the customer at the center of the company’s universe.   Interesting what happens when you think of the customer experience and how to make it better.  Even better if your product is great.

See you soon on a Southwest or Jet Blue flight.

Dale Jr. Endorsement for Camaro Contest Falls Short

We’ve written in past posts about how critical activation is when brands decide to use celebrities as endorsers, in addition to how important it is to fully leverage the valuable asset (the celeb endorser) that the brand has paid so dearly for to help sell its product.  GM enlisted Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a contest called Win Dale Jr’s. Camaro.  Sounds exciting, and I can imagine millions of people getting excited about winning a new Camaro that belongs to Dale Jr., or has Dale Jr. detailing, or anything to that effect. 

Home Page for "Win Dale Jr.'s Camaro" Website

The first problem when clicking on the banner I saw in www.espn.comis that when I get to the contest site, there’s nothing that tells me that this is Dale Jr.’s Camaro, or has ever had anything to do with Dale Jr.  From what I can tell, I’m gong to enter a contest to win a new Camaro, but the Camaro has nothing at all to do with Dale Jr. 

Winning a new Camaro is a nice prize to be sure, but I’m supposed to have a chance to win Dale Jr.’s Camaro, right?  This does belong to him or did at one time didn’t it?  There’s some sort of great, exciting story about this being Dale’s car, right?   Dale Jr. is going to pop up in a video and give a really cool tour of his car and talk about how lucky some fan is going to be to drive the car that he owns, isn’t he?  Who better to tell me how great the new Camaro is, particularly since he’s an owner, right? 

If GM is going to pay the price to have Dale Jr. lure people into entering the contest, and they name the contest “Win Dale Jr.’s Camaro,” there needs to be something there that tells me that this is indeed his car, and there should be a great story about it to keep me there and tell me about how great this new car is.  If GM only paid for his likeness and couldn’t use his voice or shoot him for a video, they still need to tell the story about this being his car. 

Contest page

As for the contest itself, you need to answer three questions of which you would find the answer by going to different sections of the Camaro site, but actually you just need to click on the choices and you can get to the correct answer easily enough without going through the site to look for the answers.   After I enter, it would be great to get a personal message from Dale Jr. himself in my inbox wishing me good luck and then telling me to go watch a video of him in his Camaro, thereby extending my engagement with Camaro.  You guessed it, didn’t happen.

The reasons a brand chooses a celeb endorser, athlete or otherwise, are primarily to increase the chances for people to engage with the brand and to make that engagement richer than it would be without the endorser.  This could have been a very rich, deep engagement and GM just completely blew the tranny on this one.  Once again, one of the key questions after you’ve paid for an endorser for your brand is, “what else can we do?”   Now that we have this person that we know millions of people are attracted to, how can we leverage that person’s brand so that people will have a deep, emotional and memorable engagement with our brand?  What are all of the ways we can give the consumer a rich experience by using this endorser?  The list goes on.  Unfortunately, either GM, their agency or both stopped asking questions after Dale Jr. was secured.  They simply went and made a contest website.  Bummer, for them and for the consumer.

Hey Dad, Want to Have a Catch. . .at Wrigley Field? Yes!

If you’re a long time baseball fan and have been loyal to “your team” most or all of your life, you have an emotional relationship and attachment to your team’s stadium.  Of course, for most teams, that has changed with new stadiums being built for the great majority of teams.  Not for “my team.”  My team is the Chicago Cubs.  I was born right down the street from Wrigley Field and my Dad was born in Chicago after his Dad came to Chicago from Ireland.  We are Cubs fans and we have a near and dear attachment to Wrigley Field, along with millions of others.

The first time I entered Wrigley Field with my Dad, I was about 10 years old and when I got into the stadium, I might as well have been entering another world.  It was amazing to me and larger than life.  From Rick Monday, to Manny Trillo, Dave Kingman, Ryne Sandberg, Sammy Sosa vs. Mark McGuire, Carlos Zambrano and countless others, I have had some great Wrigley experiences.   Yesterday, though, was an all-time classic, and there was no game.

Saturday was “Hey Dad, You Want to Have a Catch?”  Day at Wrigley Field, where you can go on the field for 50 minutes and have a catch.  When I first saw the button on www.cubs.com, I thought I must be misreading it.  You mean really go onto the field and have a catch?  As some background, my 79-year-old Dad still lives on the north side.  I live with my family in the Orlando area.  I didn’t hesitate.   I bought three tickets, one for me, one for my 8-year-old son and one for my Dad.  Three generations of McCauleys were going to play catch…on Wrigley Field!  I also bought “spectator” tickets for my wife, my 5-year-old daughter and my Dad’s wife.  They would be able to sit in the stands, take photos, video, etc. and also get lunch with us afterward.

I picked the 11 a.m. time slot, which was the second session of the day.  The weather was sunny and warm in the mid 80s, perfect.  When we got into Wrigley, the first thing we noticed is that the infield grass was roped off. . .no pitching.  Not a biggie.  The bases were opena and available for running, very nice.  We were all told we should head to the outfield, with one player against the ivy and the other facing, so everyone was throwing the same way.  It wasn’t that crowded, maybe a total of 50 people in our session, plenty of room for everyone to spread out and have fun. 

We were each given a new baseball and then headed out to left field and stuck close to the foul line and the infield, so we would be accessible for photos from the stands.  My son Ryan and my Dad took to the field with their backs and I stayed closer to the infield and we began playing catch, on Wrigley Field.  At the age of 8, my son has already played six season of baseball. He’s a good ball player, just coming off an all-star season.  I could just see that he was eating it up.  So was I.  So was Grandpa.  It was just awesome.  We just kept playing catch and honestly, I don’t think any one of us wanted to stop.  But I knew the 50 minutes would go by fast, and there were all sorts of pictures we wanted to get and spots on the field we wanted to check out.

We got photos in both dugouts, where more than a century of hall of famers have sat.  We all hit our mock home runs and trotted around the bases, Ryan first (and as fast as he could), me next and Grandpa after me.  When Grandpa got home, we were waiting for him like he had just hit a walk off three-run shot and greeted him with high-fives and pats on the back.  Incredible. 

Then, we headed to right field and center field to touch some ivy, catch some pop flies against the ivy, take some more photos and before you know it, time was up.  Way too fast.  But just unbelievable.  The first thing that went through my mind as time wound down was, “should have bought two sessions.”  We kept throwing until we were one of the last ones off the field.  As we exited under the right field stands, we got a commemorative t-shirt, and an official framed photo for each of us on the field, taken by a hired professional photographer.  We then headed off to the Captain Morgan Club for a hot dog lunch with the ladies and everyone else in our session. We ate our hot dogs and chips, took in the sunshine and lake breeze and basked in the experience. 

I could bore you with all sorts of family history to tell you why this was even more special that it may even seem, but I will spare you.  Let’s just say to be our there with my Dad and my son was just about as good as it can get.  Life is a blink of an eye.  My Dad is 79, in great health and can still throw the ball around well.  He played softball through his 40s and 50s and still bowls in a league and golfs once a week all summer.   That’s right now.  Life is a blink of an eye.  go out and do what you want to do with the people you love.  Don’t hesitate. 

Thanks for indulging me and sharing this incredible experience.  While we were there, they announced that this was the “5th Annual..” which surprised me, since I had never heard about it.  I got lucky and made a great decision.  I can’t wait for the 6th annual next year.  Maybe I’ll see you there.

Why Bob Parsons is a smart marketer & why exclusivity matters

Go DaddyCEO Bob Parsons broke the news tonight at about 9:30 p.m. via Twitter that Lexus has prevented Go Daddy from airing its latest commercial during the U.S. Open entitled “Speeding” because it features a vintage Ford Mustang.  Lexus is exclusive sponsor of the Open and said that no other automakers can be shown in commercials during the Open telecast.  This all according to the Go Daddy press release, mind you.

No word yet from Lexus, but it really doesn’t matter.  Maybe Lexus is going to say the commercial is “distasteful” to avoid any anti-american backlash, already put forth by Parsons in the release.   In reality, if you’ve see the spot (and you’re about to), then you may agree that the car is practically unnoticeable given the other content.   It’s Danica Patrick in a classic Mustang getting pulled over by a female cop who “wants to be a Go Daddy girl” and goes through a striptease to prove herself.  

Here’s the “why Bob Parsons is a smart marketer” part.  He has always known that sex sells and he’s always sold it to the right crowd.  Further, he knows how to get even more attention for something that doesn’t air than something that does.  It’s no accident that he knows how to use Twitter, has been podcasting and blogging for years, not to mention using You Tube as a Go Daddy marketing channel.  The guy gets it and Go Daddy is a household name because he gets it.  Putting aside what you think of using attractive women to sell products, there’s no contesting that it works.  From cars to lipstick, beer to shavers, it’s always worked.  That said, nobody has figured it out like Parsons for Go Daddy because he knows how to use the media.

Here’s the “why exclusivity matters” part.  When negotiating sponsorships, brands should always, always try to secure exclusivity in as broad of a category as possible.   Why wouldn’t you?   The property will of course typically push back and then maybe try to parse out the category, say auto into foreign and domestic or maybe even foreign auto and foreign truck, etc.  Nothing new here.  However, right now when properties are clamoring for sponsorship dollars, it’s the best time there has been in decades to capture wide categories.   If you’re wireless, start with communications to include everything in the category.  Depending on the strength of the property, you may get the whole thing.  Then, of course, you want to lock that up for as long as possible. 

In this case, nobody is going out to purchase classic Mustangs or even new ones because of this ad.  But why not include it in your deal if you can?  Lexus did and good for them, eventhough on the surface and in this instance it may look a bit over the top.  They just ran up a guy who loves “over the top” and knew exactly how to leverage their exclusivity.  Not many marketers know how to do that.

So here’s the commercial, which has been out for a while now:

Tony Hawk street surfs at the White House

Tony Hawk was at the White House today and tweeting all the while.  If you’re one of the more than 900,000 followers of Tony, you know that he really gets it when it comes to Twitter.  Posts are fun, relavant, timely and friendly.  Hence the more than 900,000 followers.  

To climb on board the Hawk Tweetosphere, check it out here: http://twitter.com/tonyhawk

Living on Airtran plane for 30 straight days – half way home

Airtran’s stunt of having comedian Mark Malkoff live on one of their planes for 30 straight days is now 16 days old and so we wanted to check and see how it’s going from a traction standpoint and also wondering what will be considered a successful campaign.   The campaign by Airtran is to help draw attention to its new WiFi service from GoGo, which they plan to have on every plane by late July.   Prices for the new service range from $7.95 to $12.95 depending on what kind of device you’re accessing the service from and how long the flight it. Malkoff has also done other branded stunts, for example with Starbucks, trying to go to each Manhattan Starbucks store in one day, which he did.

Airtran has done a nice job of integrating Twitter  (@mmalkoff )and facebook and naturally You Tube.  Nice way to showcase the technology and create some good dialogue.  The hub for it all is on http://www.markonairtran.com.

Here’s a look at the trip so far:

So, here are how the stats on the social media stack up so far:

Twitter:  3,088 followers 

facebook: 832 fans

You Tube: 2,426 total views of a total of 50 videos

We’re always interested to hear what brands constitute as a success when it comes to social media or even when it comes to regular online contesting.   Were benchmarks and goals set for the various social media channels, and what were they based on?  What ongoing research is being done to measure brand lift during the campaign and following, and of course how will an increase in both ticket sales and the new WiFi service be attributed to the social media campaign?  Naturally, there is mainstream media in the marketing mix for the new service, so we’re interested to know if the social media is being connected by Tad and his marketing team to actual sales lift or if it’s just enough to engage people in the brand while touting the new service.

What’s your take?  We’ll post another update when the campaign is over and re-post social media numbers to see how everything went.