Extend the Life of Your Marketing and Ticketing Strategies...

Can you name ten (10) brands that advertised in this year's Super Bowl?

Joseph Jaffe of Ad Age posed this question to prove that marketers are spending too much time and effort on the upfront "oohs" and "aahs" and not enough on the follow through. Each company spending $2.3MM to advertise during the Super Bowl would hope that you would remember their associated presence. In reality, the Super Bowl is a data overload, overwhelming consumers with a variety of messaging (commercials, commentary, in-game advertising; not to mention the actual game)

Does your marketing, branding, or ticketing campaign mirror a fireworks show - a program that is breathtaking but very short-lived for consumers? Do your front-loaded efforts provide solid back-end results? If the answer is "No", you may want to re-analyze your priorities, planning stages, and activation tactics. Marketers too often settle for the "sizzle" when they need to be focusing on ways to engage consumers through personal interactions and experiences. Sports marketers and sponsors need to reach their fanbase beyond the cute jingles and catch phrases.  There needs to be a call of action that drives fans to inquire about more information, share stories of their experience with friends and family, have a desire to trial products/services, and have an intent to purchase.

Sponsors and teams alike are in pursuit of "lifetime customers" but do our marketing campaigns and in-arena engagement tactics support this notion? Collectively as an industry, we need to evolve and optimize our communications to better engage fans through unique sponsor integration and personal experiences.