FIFA, UEFA, and the FA: A Case for Social Media Sponsorship

Sponsorship dollars are constantly declining in the current world economy. Brands willing to partake in sports sponsorship are demanding evaluations for their return on investment to maximize their marketing efforts. The increase in social media use by sports organizations is also rising and from a sponsorship perspective it is untapped asset to generate revenue. I’d like to formulate a case study on the social media assets, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, of global sports organizations, like FIFA, UEFA, and the FA, and the integration of sponsors. The field is relatively new but a certain growth area and provides more than just added value, which is common place involving sponsors and social media.

I’d like to make a case for sport organizations using their social media assets as a major sponsorship sales piece. These assets provide benefits in a number of way including, reaching consumers where they interact socially via the World Wide Web, measurement, target market demographic information, and much more. I believe social media sponsorship activations can involve a great amount of creativity and reach consumers in never before seen ways. This association with sponsors and sports organizations I feel can be a serious source of revenue that otherwise may be over looked. My capstone will take a look at existing practices in the industry, the measurement and value provided to sponsor, and creative ways a sponsorship can integrate into social media assets of sports organizations.

Bill Simmons to launch New Sports/Entertainment Site

It still does not have a name and it has not hired a top editor, but Bill Simmons unveiled details of his new project, which will be a new website that will be 70% sports and 30% pop culture. It will launch later this spring. And while it will be fully owned by ESPN, it will not carry the ESPN brand. 

“This is something that was really important to me when my contract was up at the end of last year,” Simmons told THE DAILY. “It’s going to have a bunch of quality writers. And it’s going to have the flexibility to have a lot of people come in and write one time a year or a couple of times a year, whatever. I’m hoping that we’re going to have enough quality people coming out of the gate that other people are also going to want to write for it.”

Simmons would not say who he has hired to write for the site, other than Chuck Klostermanand Katie Baker. “We’re going to start with somewhere between 8 to 12 writers that will be on staff fulltime and some freelance people that will be involved on a weekly or bi-weekly basis or a monthly basis,” Simmons said. “A pretty good share of contributors that will be coming in and out.”

Tennis App from Legend Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors App

March Madness Social Media with Coca-Cola Zero Social Arena

(Atlanta, GA, March 15, 2011) ~ This year, NCAA March Madness will be just as much about the fan Tweets and Facebook posts as it will about the high-flying dunks, buzzer beaters and improbable upsets. That’s because Coca-Cola Zero, Turner Sports and CBS Sports have partnered to create the most impressive and robust online fan experience ever with the launch of the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena.

From the First Four™ through the Final Four®, fans can log on to the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena at CokeZeroSocialArena.com and follow every aspect of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, from the action on the hardwood to the online social commentary. This innovative digital experience will accompany live streaming of the games on March Madness on Demand (MMOD) and feature a real-time Social Ticker displaying fan chatter and trending social topics around the tournament, and a first-of-its-kind Social Bracket that ranks teams based on the sum of online conversation about each team. The MMOD experience, including the live player, can be accessed through NCAA.com, CBS Sports.com or SI.com. “Each year millions of everyday people suddenly become rabid basketball fans – immersed in the live action of March Madness and obsessed with following every play, every upset, every victory over the three weeks of this exciting tournament,” said Bea Perez, chief marketing officer, Coca-Cola North America. “With the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena, we’re giving fans the ultimate way to follow the tournament wherever they are and play a role in March Madness through their own social commentary.” When visiting the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena online or via the new iPad app, fans can monitor and contribute to the social chatter around each match up from their own Facebook posts and Twitter feeds. Fan comments and social media posts related to March Madness will appear in “Tourney Buzz” on the site.

 Joining in on the conversation will be CBS Sports and Turner Sports online and on-air basketball analysts who will be regularly commenting on live game action, sharing tournament observations and connecting with fans. The Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena also will contain an “Impressive Moments” section, a video portal highlighting the most exciting plays from each round of the tournament. Fans will be prompted to vote on their favorite impressive plays, and the video with the highest ranking will be featured on the national broadcast show, “Impressive Moments of March Madness” presented by Coke Zero airing at 3 p.m. EDT on CBS Sports leading up to the coverage of the Final Four games on April 2. And to top off this most impressive March Madness experience, Coke Zero is sponsoring a sweepstakes where fans have a chance to win tickets and a trip for two to the 2011 NCAA Men’s Final Four in Houston. Between March 14-24, fans can submit an entry on Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena for one of two grand prize packages, including two Final Four 2011 Final Four tickets, round-trip airfare and accommodations for four nights in Houston. To visit March Madness On Demand and explore the Coke Zero March Madness Social Arena, visit http://mmod.ncaa.com. iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch users can download the free NCAA March Madness On Demand app from the App store. More information on the Coke Zero NCAA Men’s Final Four Sweepstakes, including complete contest rules visit www.cokezerosocialarena.com.

 About The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. The Company’s portfolio includes 14 billion dollar brands, including Coca-Cola, recognized as the world’s most valuable brand, as well as Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply and Georgia. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, juices and juice drinks and ready-to-drink teas and coffees. Through the world’s largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company’s beverages at a rate of 1.6 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that protect the environment, conserve resources and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate.

 For more information about our Company, please visit our website at www.thecoca-colacompany.com.

 About the Turner Sports Turner Sports, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is an industry leader in televised and online sports programming, airing championship level sporting events on TBS, TNT and truTV, and managing some of the most popular sports sites on the Internet. Turner Sports’ television line-up includes the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, NASCAR and professional golf. The company’s digital portfolio includes SI.com, NASCAR.COM, NCAA.com, PGATOUR.COM, GOLF.com and PGA.com, as well as an accompanying collection of mobile websites and connected device apps. Turner Sports and the NBA also jointly manage NBA Digital, which includes NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA LEAGUE PASS, NBA Mobile, the NBA Game Time App, NBADLEAGUE.com and WNBA.com. About the NCAA The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit http://www.NCAA.org and http://www.NCAA.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes. The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions — AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola — and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners — Enterprise, The Hartford, Infiniti, LG, Lowe’s, Planters, Reese’s, Unilever and UPS. NCAA, Final Four, March Madness and First Four are licensed by or trademarks of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Contacts Coca-Cola Refreshments Kirsten Witt, 404-676-0314

Corona and the Jimmy V Foundation

Chicago, IL, February 24, 2011) ~ Crown Imports announced a new text donation campaign for Corona Extra and Corona Light to help The V Foundation for Cancer Research raise money to find a cure for cancer. Since its inception in 1993, The V Foundation, foundedby legendary North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano and ESPN, has raised more than $100 million for cancer research and awarded 400-plus cancer research grants nationwide.

Beginning March 1 and running through April 5, the “Find a Cure” text donation campaign encourages consumers to text the phrase “DontGiveUp” to 85944 to donate $5 to The V Foundation, with 100 percent of the money raised going directly to fund cancer research. In timing with the popular March basketball tournament, patrons at thousands of partnering bar or restaurant locations across the country can present their donation “Thank You” confirmation text to their server to have their name and contribution put on display. In addition, some participating accounts (where legal) will also be giving away Corona-branded merchandise, apparel and more.

“Crown and Corona are committed to giving back to such a deserving cause, and it’s our end goal to reach as many consumers as possible – both on-premise and online – to contribute a sizeable donation to further cancer research,” said Bill Hackett, president of Crown Imports, Corona’s exclusive U.S. importer. “The ‘Find a Cure’ text donation campaign is just another part of our ongoing partnership with The V Foundation – helping to raise awareness and funds for such an important cause.”

In addition to donating through text, consumers can also visit the Corona Extra and Corona Light Facebook pages to contribute to The V Foundation directly, as well as share the “Find a Cure” promotion with their friends. In its first promotion with The V Foundation last December, Corona Light brand enthusiasts helped raise $20,000 for the organization as part of an awareness campaign via the brand’s Facebook fan page.

“We are so excited to be teaming up again with Crown and Corona to progress my brother Jim’s dream of finding a cure for cancer,” said Nick Valvano, chief executive officer of The V Foundation. “Although much has been accomplished during the last 17 years, it’s through collaborative partnerships like these that help raise the bar to putting an end to a disease that affects millions of people around the world.”

Corona’s “Find a Cure” text donation promotion will run from March 1 through April 5, 2011. To learn more about this promotion and Crown Imports’ ongoing partnership with The V Foundation, visit www.facebook.com/Corona orwww.facebook.com/CoronaLight. Direct donations can also be made by going to www.jimmyv.org/findacure.

About Crown Imports

Crown Imports LLC is a joint venture that imports, distributes and markets the Modelo portfolio and other fine beer brands across the entire U.S. The Modelo portfolio includes Corona Extra, the #1 imported beer in the U.S. and #6 beer overall, Corona Light, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, Pacifico and Victoria (Chicago only) beer brands. Crown also imports the St. Pauli Girl and Tsingtao beer brands in the U.S. For more information, visitwww.crownimportsllc.com.

Crown Imports is a 50-50 joint venture between GrupoModelo, S.A. de C.V. (MX: GMODELOC), Mexico’s leading company in the brewing, distribution and sale of beer, and Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE: STZ, ASX: CBR), a leading international beverage alcohol producer, importer and marketer.

About The V Foundation

The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, legendary North Carolina State basketball coach and ESPN commentator. Since 1993, The Foundation has raised more than $100 million to fund cancer research grants nationwide. It awards 100 percent of all direct cash donations and net proceeds of events directly to cancer research and related programs. Administrative and fundraising expenses are paid by the Foundation’s endowment. The Foundation awards grants through a competitive awards process strictly supervised by a Scientific Advisory Board. For more information on The V Foundation or to make a donation, please visit www.jimmyv.org.

Contacts

For The V Foundation
Ann-Marie Sales, 919-624-5733
ann-marie@intrepidmg.com

 

PATH: Know about it…

you heard it here first ladies and gentlemen…

https://www.path.com/home.html

Nike Gets London Running

Nike Turns London Into a Game Board to Get People Running

Nike asked Wieden+Kennedy to get young people excited about running. W+K said forget ads, let’s make a game.

Nike has turned the city of London into a game board for a two-week competition called the GRID which the shoe manufacturer hopes will ultimately encourage young people who already jog for exercise to start identifying themselves as “runners.”

The company has broken the city down into its 48 zip codes. Each zip code (or “postal code” as they say in England) has four traditional phone boxes. Players compete by doing runs, which they start by going to one of the phone boxes, dialing a specific number, entering their unique identifier, and then following the instructions they’re given, which send them to other phone boxes in the city.

The first GRID competition was held back in April, around the time of the London Marathon. In an essay that ran in a British advertising magazine, Graeme Douglas of Wieden+Kennedy, which developed the game, wrote that when Nike approached them with the task of getting young people engaged in running, they didn’t have a specific idea about how to do that. “It was evident from the start that a message-based campaign wasn’t going to be enough,” Douglas wrote. “We needed to get people out and active; and introduce to them a new way to run.”

Douglas goes on to say, “We decided the best strategic option to deliver this would be to augment the running experience; creating a layer of experience on top of the run that aimed to alter how the activity would be interacted with.” Hence the game. The current competition started last Friday and runs (no pun intended) for 15 days. Players, who can compete individually or in teams, get points, badges, and prizes for speed, routes, and “various unlockables,” Douglas writes, “that become apparent as the game unfolds.” As of this writing, the game had 2,834 players and 323 teams.

What’s particularly cool about the competition is the GRID website, where Nike not only tallies scores but is also serving up visualizations of the race. Since it’s collecting data all the time–every time a competitor makes a call from one of the phone boxes, it logs who they are, where the box is, and what time it is–Nike is turning that information into visualizations (powered by San Francisco’s Stamen Design) that illustrate various aspects of the race. In one of those visualizations (embedded below), the GRID pits men against women, plotting the competitors’ individual runs over time on a stylized map of London (in pink for women and blue for men), while tallying up their points on a scoreboard on the side. And, in the good-natured competitive spirit of the game, the video declares at the end: “Boys lead!” and urges their counterparts: “Get running girls!”

“GRID is part of a growing category of ideas that sits within, as Tom Coates of Yahoo! describes, the ‘real world web,'” Douglas writes, “connected things that blur the physical and virtual spaces–things that thrive primarily because they excite us as humans, rather than being a vehicle for demonstrating technical capability.”

A version of the game has also been played in Poland, but no word from Nike about whether it’ll be coming to the States.

For more on Nike and innovation, see our story on Nike CEO Mark Parker from the September issue of the magazine.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s New Nike Vapor: Snow Leopard Inspired Boots-Viral Promotion Video Soon!

 CR7 and Nike will be releasing their footage of Ronaldo’s first experience with his own specially designed boots. A soon to be Viral Hit…I think so…to be continued with footage to follow…

CR7’s new boots

These new Mercurial Vapor VI are to be worn by Cristiano Ronaldo himself. The design is inspired by the Snow Leopard. Perhaps Nike will run a new advertising campaign where Ronaldo will be likened to a cheetah and will be said to be unstoppable, which isn’t far from the truth. I know that the Mercurial range is known for it’s bright colours, but many will think that this may be going a bit too far from the American company. We also believe that these boots will be a limited release boot. As noted in the picture below, the boot has a sort of serial number that says 000001, to be worn specially by CR7.

Boots 000001, made for Ronaldo

Rajon Rondo and Red Bull Are Giving Back

http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/001242919326845

Together Red Bull and Rajon Rondo are giving back to the Boston Community.

For every steal Rajon Rondo makes in the 2010/2011 season Red Bull will contribute $500 dollars to help renovate Boston’s basketball courts. Red Bull and Rondo are using Social Media platforms for fans to vote where the money will be donated to renovate community basketball courts.

STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS

Fifa 11: Nash vs. Donovan Viral Ad Campaign Parts 1, 2, and 3

Part #1

Part #2

Part #3