Gatorade Offers An "Out Of This World" Vacation

Gatorade is leveraging its recent commercial featuring Tiger Woods hitting golf balls in a space suit on the moon with a unique contest for consumers. Gatorade is challenging fans in five (5) cities across the country to hit a golf ball in a golf simulator designed to look like a moon for a chance to win "an out of this world vacation", valued at $125,000.

Male and female finalists with the longest drives at each event will fly to New York City to compete in the Grand Prize Event on June 11th in Times Square. One (1) male and one (1) female will win the opportunity to create their own  "out of this world" vacation experience valued up to $125K.

The cities where the competition will be held include:

• San Diego (Seaport Village, Thursday, May 15th)
• Dallas (Victory Park, Tuesday, May 20th)
• Chicago (Pioneer Park, Thursday, May 29th)
• Miami (Bayfront park, Thursday, June 5th)
• New York (Military Island, Wednesday, June 11th)

Gatorade is promoting these events by featuring celebrities on-site (San Diego - LaDainian Tomlinson, Dallas - Jason Terry, Chicago - Tommie Harris, Miami - Bill Parcells, and New York - Jimmie Johnson and Celebrity Guest).

In addition, Gatorade is going to donate $100,000 to the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Utilize Local Celebrities to Drive Fan Engagement

Have you recently considered activation tactics that leverage hometown heroes? When was the last time you considered using a local celebrity to drive fan engagement at your venue? 

The Utah Jazz recently leveraged David Archuleta, a rising celebrity on Fox's American Idol, to sing the National Anthem before the team's Game 3 playoff matchup against the LA Lakers. The team had to fight through some rights issues with the producers of American Idol and representatives from the NBA, but the hard work paid off. Archuleta sang a great rendition of the song, raising the EnergySolutionsArena crowd to its feet. To complement the pre-game performance, David Archuleta served as "The Fan of the Game"; to which the Jazz leveraged his appearance by selling $5 4x6 photos of fans with Archuleta on the team website.

The Tampa Bay Rays recently executed a similar tactic, asking American Idol singer Syesha Mercado to perform the National Anthem before one of the team's home games. Check out the clip below:

A New Wave in Sneaker Sales...

Onitsuka Tiger, a Japanese sports brand, recently launched a sneaker vending machine in London, England. Could this signal a new wave in retail sales for the shoe market? Most likely not, but it could be a great way to offer select merchandise to your fanbase. 

Teams and organizations can leverage similar retail tactics to sell merchandise and offer customized products. While this shoe retail technology is still in the early stages of existence, teams should begin brainstorming new concourse tactics that drive sales without incurring labor expenses. Retail vending machines may signal a great way for teams to offer fans team autographed merchandise (shoes, bats, balls, jerseys, hats, etc.) and excess premium giveaways.

The vending machines that Onitsuka currently uses can sell twenty-four (24) pairs of shoes at a time in six (6) different sizes and mirror a tactic implemented by Reebok in 2004.

Search for innovative ways to drive sales without affecting your bottom line!

Ten Under Par = 10% Interest Rate?

Wachovia is taking a very interesting approach to activate its title sponsorship of the Wachovia Championship next weekend. The financial services provider will reward all of its Way2Save savings account customers with an interest rate equal to the under par score of the winner through a promotion entitled "Save Like a Champion". 

Thus, if the leader scores a -10 under par in the tournament, Wachovia Way2Save account holders will receive a 10% interest rate for three (3) months (verses the standard 5%). Wachovia sees the promotion as a great way to engage people around the tournament in both, a traditional and non-traditional means.

Wachovia is supporting the promotion with a full-page ad in USA Today, television spots on the Golf Channel and CBS, print ads in Golf Digest, SI Golf, and Golf World. The company will also complement the promotion with digital and POS components.

Human LCD... The Next Revolution of Stadium Signage?

When it comes to in-stadium signage, it seems that American sports organizations have discovered how to brand every inch possible... But two (2) clips enclosed below drive the question, "Are we adequately leveraging our fans, the same group that we are targeting, to effectively portray our message?"

In East Asia, the following clips demonstrate how two (2) teams/organizations have made use of their fanbase to create "HUMAN LXD". The clips are pretty amazing... Fans in the stands use different shirt lifting techniques in unision to display the interactive messages... Will sponsors soon have "after-work" practice for American fans to try this?

Looking for Effective In-Game PA's?

All sports marketers realize that in-game PA's can often get drowned out by relative noise, on-court/on-field happenings, and other variables that sometimes cannot be controlled. But how do you overcome this and really capture the crowd's attention?

Consider a strategy implemented by Carlsberg at an AFC Wimbledon game in the clip below:

In the above clip, as the crowd waits expectantly for the game to start a loud tannoy announcement begins as the voice says: "We have a very important message for a dons fan Derek Wilkinson with a message from your wife who's just called from St Georges hospital where she's given birth to a healthy 6lb 4oz baby boy."

The message then becomes more detailed and includes the wife allowing him to name the child with a combination of Wimbledon players' names, to get an au pair from Sweden and telling him that she'll get a taxi back from the hospital on Tuesday so he doesn't have to miss the game at Bromley. The announcement then finishes with: "This announcement was brought to you by Carlsberg. Carlsberg don't do wives but if they did they'd probably be the best wives in the world."

Too often, in-game PA's pushing brand messaging are too serious. In essence, corporate partners need to step back and realize that most fans are attending the game to have a good time and do not need to have their experience interrupted by a serious sales pitch/message. Try a little humor (as seen above) in your PA's, it could go a long way! 

Score With a Dairy Queen Partnership!

Are you looking to activate your current partnership agreement with Dairy Queen franchisees? Are you searching for ideas that you can pitch to local DQ operators to drive their local sales efforts? If so, I have added a document in the Partnership Activation resources page that might assist your needs.

The "DQ Shoot From the Blue" promotion is a unique on-ice initiative that is designed to drive fan excitement in-arena and retail traffic at local Dairy Queen establishments. With fanbases looking for more interactive and integrated programs, the "DQ Shoot From the Blue" promotion serves as a great way to drive awareness for Dairy Queen and its select blizzard items.

Click the link below to see what the "DQ Shoot From the Blue" promotion is all about... It may help you score a local partnership agreement! 

http://www.partnershipactivation.com/partnershipactivationresources/dq%20pdf.pdf

Selling "The Bank Shot"

Are you an NBA organization or University athletic department looking for ways to activate partnerships with banks and financial institutions? Take a page out of the New York Knicks' playbook by selling the "Bank Shot".

The New York Knicks are currently featuring the "HSBC Bank Shot", a promotion that rewards a select contestant for "banking their shot in".  The HSBC promotion features a selected contestant who has the opportunity to shoot three (3) free throws - if they can make just one (1), they receive the chance to take a three-point shot for $10,000. If the contestant banks the shot in, he/she wins $15,000!

Organizations and athletic departments can take the Knick's concept of "The Bank Shot" and alter it to meet their own objectives to drive fan awareness in-venue. Some ideas for "The Bank Shot" include:

• Contestant needs to "bank in" a shot from mid-court to win $10,000
• Teams/organizations can set up five ball racks around the court. For each "bank shot" a contestant makes using balls off the rack in :30, they can win $100. Teams can feature a green "Moneyball" on each rack that contestants can "bank in" for twice the value

Sprint's High Investment Offers High Rewards

How do you activate a 10-year title partnership agreement with NASCAR where you spend approximately 100MM annually? Sprint has answered this question by developing the Sprint All-Star Customer Celebration, an innovative rewards program for existing Sprint customers with thousands of NASCAR prizes at stake. 

How can consumers win? Sprint customers can become eligible by establishing an account on Sprint.com via MySprint, with prizes being offered on a first come, first serve basis (the promotional offer ends April 30th if all prizes have not been claimed).

Prizes included in the Sprint All-Star Customer Celebration include:

• 10,500 tickets to the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge May 15 at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. Whie at the event, Sprint customers will have access to an exclusive Q&A with Sprint Cup drivers
• 1,000 tickets for lunch and a chartered bus ride to behind-the-scenes tours of Hendrick Motorsports, Michael Waltrip Racing, and Joe Gibbs Racing May 16 in Charlotte, NC
• 20,000 tickets to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race May 17 at LMS in Charlotte
• A select number of pit tours prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race
• Opportunity for a select number of customers to be stage front for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race pre-race for driver intriductions and the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Victory lane

Sounds like a great way to retain customers, doesn't it? Sprint is taking a very interesting approach to activate its national partnership. Sprint is offering thousands of once-in-a-lifetime experiences for the All-Star race, a very interesting approach to activate a national partnership with a regional focus and not account for travel. I would be curious to see what the redemption rate will be on Sprint's offered experiences (accounting for travel, interest in attending the event, etc.). 

NASCAR claims a fanbase of 70 million persons (nearly 1 in 3 Americans); a strong incentive should exist for NASCAR fans living in the Southeastern region to register accounts online but it truly is amazing that this promotion is not open to general consumer base.

Dr. J Helps Nets Fans Say Yes!

The New Jersey Nets recently announced that all fans who purchase season tickets for the 2008-09 season by May 30th will receive a free Nets jersey hand-signed by Julius Erving! This unique "Early Bird Special" serves as a classic example of Brett Yormark and the New Jersey Nets' ceative efforts to stimulate fan interest in-market.

Erving, considered "The Greatest Net of All-Time", never actually played for the New Jersey Nets... But do fans really care? In this case, the Nets are offering an exclusive inventory item that should sway a number of fans who are sitting on the fence with their renewal decision. Terms of Erving's involvement were not disclosed.

What to watch for: 

• How are the Nets measuring the effectiveness of this promotional incentive?
• Will this offer backfire in the future with season ticket holders as they might delay their decision to renew in hope of receving a free item/experience?
• How much will season ticket renewals/new ticket sales spike as a result of this promotion?  
• What time of media coverage will the Nets receive from this promotion?
• Will the team find a way to leverage the Dr. J tie-in throughout the 2008 NBA season?