PR People Should Offer Publicity Alternatives to the Super Bowl, Olympics

American football, concept of Super Bowl and American football

It’s too late to change plans for the Feb. 9 Super Bowl in New Orleans, but when all the results are in a PR rep should ask their clients, “Do you think the results were worth the millions of dollars you spent to say, 'proud sponsors?'"

Little Fish in a Big Super Bowl Pond

TV commercials for the Super Bowl cost as high as $7 million for a 30-second commercial, not including production costs, and the question debated among marketing specialists is are we getting our moneys worth by spending millions of dollars to advertise in one big event like the Super Bowl?”

This raises the question: Is it better for brands to be one of a dozen or more sponsors in a big pond, or is it better to be the sole sponsor in a smaller one?

Because of this, communicators in sports-related accounts should manage the account as if it was a corporate one, and remind clients about the positives and negatives of bankrolling a mega-event campaign, while suggesting other PR strategy options that might better help the client. Doing so shows the client that you have its best interests at heart, and that there are other sports marketing options available.

An Earned Media Traffic Jam

It's undeniable that events like the Super Bowl or Olympics are joined at the proverbial media hip during the weeks leading up to the event. And yet, negative media coverage is the norm.

Super Bowl and Olympic PR accounts are largely advertising-driven vehicles, making it difficult for PR people to generate earned media for client promotions. Pre-Super Bowl coverage is largely dominated by articles about players’ health and gambling odds, and non-athletic Olympic articles tend to focus on controversies and event preparation.

Even though as a PR person, I’ve been involved in both Super Bowl and Olympics campaigns, I’ve always favored a more targeted, varied, less expensive approach than one that just counts eyeballs.

The ideal would be for a brand to be the sole sponsor of a lesser or self-created but publicizable event and supplement it with a savvy PR publicity program that can continue indefinitely, unlike Super Bowl, Olympic and other sports mega events that have a short shelf life.

Differentiate Your Approach

It's also undeniable that all mega sports campaigns have the same things in common: Commercials featuring competing products and commercials featuring actors and athletes. (Athletes in commercials are so overused; many endorsing several products, that it has reached the point where it’s unable to tell the athlete from the brand without a Dun & Bradstreet scorecard.)

A major problem with Super Bowl and Olympic publicity programs is that they all look alike. In order to gain positive earned media coverage, PR people should develop programs that stand out from the pack, and that means replacing the much copied and hackneyed playbook programs with original thinking, which usually is done by ambush marketers. (See the Pop-Tarts Bowl, which featured an edible mascot.)

In my opinion, I would advise a client to split the budget on some of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S.—pickleball, volleyball, soccer, rugby and lacrosse, with the bulk of the budget being earmarked for a WNBA relationship. In addition to the WNBA, I would advise clients to consider affiliations with women’s NCAA basketball and the women’s FIFA World Cup. And now that Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League are scheduling games outside of the U.S., it’s also possible to create an international sports marketing plan without the costs and restrictions placed on sponsors and athletes by the International Olympic Committee.

Add in a well-constructed publicity program and sponsors of these sports can achieve major earned media year-round with sponsor identification, as well as the loyalty of a demographic that most brands want—young people.

Creating your own newsworthy, publicizable sports marketing program can achieve what every client wants from a PR firm—the positive earned media coverage that assures consumers remember who the sponsor is. Multimillion-dollar Super Bowl and Olympic brand campaigns are hard-pressed to deliver that.

 

Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was also a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller, and was responsible for restructuring, managing and playing key roles in national and international sports and non-sports programs.