SBJ Marketing: New age of signage risks congestion

"I always joke that lawyers are the real winners in COVID. There’s going to be lawyer conventions, where they’ll ask ‘Did you write the force majeure language in the Pepsi contract in 2020? That's genius'" -- Oak View Group Global Partnerships President Dan Griffis at last week’s SBJ Brand Innovation Summit.

We’ve often defended the aphorism that less is more, but when it comes to the surge of signage in, on and around the fields of play in pro sports -- not to mention the more recent abundance of ad logos on uniforms -- the immutable law of supply and demand informs us that more is less.

How much is too much? A COVID-influenced need for make-goods produced a surfeit of TV visible ads. Meanwhile, the NHL has jersey ads coming next year, along with helmets, which could be sold to different brands for home and away. We’d expect MLB to add one -- perhaps two -- ad patches, once the CBA is done. MLS has two available spots -- maybe three if the second-sleeve option remains.

Off uniform, things are even more congested. Witness this shot from a Red Sox-Yankees telecast this season. No fewer than nine camera-visible logos behind home plate, 10 if you count the Amica ad in the RSN’s score bug.

As for market impact, opinions are mixed. But incremental exposure is a siren song for any marketer spending on sports. "We tried out a few during COVID, just to see what the ROI would be. Some hit, some didn’t," said Constellation Brands VP/Sponsorships, Events & Field Marketing Rene Ramos. "Is it diminishing returns? Not yet. At least not the way we buy them. ... We probably need to wait another year or so to see how it pans out."

Publicis Sports & Entertainment Senior VP Jeff Garrant added: "It depends on your taste. Media-wise, there’s some more creativity maybe to be had in terms of, obviously, TV-visible or broadcast-visible signage. From a team side, the teams would love to see it continue because of the revenue."

The proverbial flight to quality catalyzed by COVID has top-shelf properties in good shape. Moving down the marketing food chain, “the message is getting diluted,’’ said Molly Arbogast, president of POV Sports Marketing. "Things like courtside signage are still valuable for brand building, and for them, TV visible is an easy decision. But fan engagement and executions are more valuable to established brands -- and they are most of what you see on TV."

"For the most part, things have been done tastefully, so I don’t mind," said OVG’s Griffis. "Those kinds of things are here to stay. ... If you do all the math across all the leagues, it’s $600 million to $750 million of incremental money that needs to be found from the brand community."

Excel Sports Management Senior VP & Head of Properties Jason Miller has enjoyed success selling NBA patches for the likes of the T'Wolves and Celtics, and some of the principal marketing assets for the MLS venues in Nashville and L.A.. Still, "there’s just too much out there," he said. "The Yankees and Red Sox can find someone to buy whatever they’re selling; for the others, it’s diminishing returns."

For those that have remained relatively clean, there has to be some pressure to join the branding party.

"We won't be adding any inventory to the market anytime soon," said NFL VP/Business Development Nana-Yaw Asamoah. "Could we do it? Yes. Are the impressions out of this world? Sure. But whenever you see something especially as close to the field of play and the game, for us, we want it to be that you see that logo for more than they just wrote a big check."

The UFC has had its best sponsorship year ever, and a big part of that has been all the branding added to its octagon. Where does that leave the ad-free WWE ring? "It’s something we’re looking at," said Claudine Lilien, WWE Senior VP/Global Sales. “We are a really clean space, so we’re evaluating in real time -- what the right way to do that is."

Sponsorship data and reporting startup Trajektory is in the market seeking $2-$4 million in a "pre series A" round of funding. The 22-month-old firm's early investors/advisers include Learfield CRO John Brody, Paragon Marketing Partner Tony Schiller and Integrity 9 President Wes Engram. "The question from partners to properties is always 'OK, we paid you X amount, so what are we getting?'’’ said Alex Kerr, a self-described data nerd and former Monumental Sports and Wasserman marketer. "That’s our solution -- filling in those metric gaps."

Trajektory already has 12 teams as clients, including the D-backs, Penguins, Philadelphia Union, NWSL Washington Spirit and a team that’s been around longer than all those combined, the Bears.

"We’ve been looking for better ways to value sponsorship and asset performance, and Trajektory has the most promise there," said Corey Ruff, a former MLBAM and NBA TMBO marketer who’s now VP/Business Strategy & Analytics for the Bears. "The dashboards are comprehensive and really easy to digest, even for non-data people, which means the people doing the activating can pull the data themselves. And they have ways to value things we never had. They’re helping us find gaps that have been missing and get valuation and exposure data to partners within 24 hours of a game."

Penguins Director of Partnership Marketing Kaitlin Donahoe added via email: "Their ability to aggregate data into a central dashboard and focus on a variety of data sources (social, broadcast, radio, in-game digital signage, email, app, web, etc.) rather than limiting us to purely social or only broadcast, gives us the ability to more easily and cleanly do a deep dive into proof of performance reports and recaps, all while utilizing a nice connecting thread: their consistent data valuation and methodology that’s applicable across all assets."

• NFL fans are the least likely sports fans to have bought -- or intend to soon buy -- cryptocurrency and NFTs, according to new Nielsen Fan Insights data examined by SBJ's David Broughton. Approximately 3.2% of the league’s fans currently use a trading platform like FTX to manage their crypto investments, compared to 5.5% of MLS fans.  Around 3.3 million NFL fans currently have investments in blockchain products or assets like crypto or NFTs.

• UFC has enlisted England-based The Memento Group to be its new global distributor of memorabilia, per SBJ's Adam Stern. The website will launch on Jan. 1. UFC’s licensing agency, IMG, helped set up the deal, alongside UFC Senior VP/Global Consumer Products Tracey Bleczinski. 

• Former minor leaguer Randall Thompson is behind a licensing success story in Winter Haven, Fla., where his company Dugout Mugs is growing quickly thanks to e-commerce and its relationship with MLB. The company’s business centers around unique, engraved beverage containers made from the barrel of baseball bats -- an idea Thompson came up with while coaching in the college ranks after his playing career came to a close. SBJ's Thomas Leary has the story.
  
  

• SBJ's Abe Madkour cleaned out his notebook from our recent Brand Innovation Summit, where he called Chipotle CMO Chris Brandt one of the most clear-speaking, relatable marketers he's heard. Madkour: "He so easily and simply articulated the brand and what it was all about, avoiding the traditional marketer speak and jargon. To this layman, he expertly defined Chipotle’s core and differentiator -- it’s the ingredients." Read more from Brandt here.