Dr Pepper
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge:
Dr Pepper is one of the larger sponsors of college football and has created several key sponsorships (Big 12, ACC and SEC) to drive activation in key regions of the country. While it has these Midwest, East Coast and Southeastern programs in place, the company was looking for a Western Regional property to leverage and build upon its major equity in college football.
Solution
With its two participating teams being selected from the PAC 10 and Big 12 conferences, the Holiday Bowl draws focus from 22 key Western Regional markets as well as the national football audience. Additionally, this bowl game is played in Southern California, which is the focal point for Dr Pepper’s business in the Western Region. Sports Strategies developed an integrated program allowing Dr Pepper to cost effectively leverage an involvement with the Holiday Bowl. Sponsorship assets including category exclusivity, in-game execution of a $1,000,000 football toss in to an 8’ Dr Pepper can, 50,000 branded seat bags and prime hospitality served as programming cornerstones. Account-specific consumer promotions and trips to the bowl anchored retailer merchandising programs while product placement at all bowl events kept the Dr Pepper flowing!
Results
Dr Pepper’s sponsorship of the Holiday Bowl has become an anchor property in the brand’s college football portfolio. A host of significant promotional elements drive the Dr Pepper branding, while successful retail partnerships have been leveraged with key regional and national trade customers across multiple channels.
Duke’s Mayonnaise
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge:
Duke’s Mayonnaise is a regional brand with its roots and distribution in the Southeast for over 90 years. With smaller budgets than its large CPG competitors, Duke’s was looking for a promotional campaign that could impact multiple layers (consumers, trade customers, employees, public relations, etc.) while leveraging the brand’s wholesome family essence. This Southeastern staple needed a hook that could help demonstrate Duke’s support of key Southern communities, while also stimulating trial and purchase of the brand.
Solution
Duke’s primary selling season (and biggest opportunity) occurs over the summer months. Looking to capitalize upon summertime family fun and hometown favorites, Minor League Baseball sponsorships were the perfect answer for Duke’s on many levels. Combining multiple factors (Duke’s key markets, targeted retail customer presence, popular and cooperative teams), Sports Strategies aligned Duke’s with 14 Minor League Baseball teams throughout the Southeast. These sponsorships delivered strong branding (Duke’s Picnic Area, outfield fence signage, radio, etc.) opportunities to the family audience as well as the chance to let consumers even get Duke’s from the concessions stands and enjoy it’s smooth and creamy taste while they’re watching the ballgames. Duke’s Family Nights helped add-value to the brand by offering free tickets to consumers who purchase the brand at retail. Most importantly, these sponsorships all were leveraged with key retail customers by offering co-branded sponsorship assets in exchange for incremental merchandising activity.
Results
While this was a Minor League Baseball program, it delivered Big League results for Duke’s. The brand was effectively able to use these sponsorships to become a visible supporter of these teams that are such an important part of their local community. As a result, Duke’s was able to inexpensively make the desired impact in key target markets, with its targeted customers and activate during its peak seasonal period.
Logitech
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge:
Logitech had made a significant investment to sponsor the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. While this sponsorship provided quality assets, Logitech was not fully capitalizing upon this program or activating it effectively. The bottom line was that Logitech had bought too big of a sponsorship for its needs and was not getting the most out its investment.
Solution
Sports Strategies was brought on board to evaluate this sponsorship, recommend areas to improve and execute a new activation plan. We immediately developed and launched a plan to fully leverage this sponsorship with improvements including:
- Re-designing signage to increase visibility on TV broadcasts
- Created value-added consumer promotion offering free tickets with Logitech purchase
- Developed account-specific programs to leverage key retailers
- Incorporated Logitech products in to arena operations, press area and media broadcast booths
- Initiated hockey-themed employee recognition program using Sharks assets as rewards
- Re-negotiated contract to reduce investment and secure desired assets for moving forward
Results
Sports Strategies dramatically increased Logitech’s return on investment for this sponsorship. Our involvement now provided consumer, trade and employee programs that allowed this sponsorship to deliver results that had not been achieved before. Additionally, we were able to re-negotiate Logitech’s sponsorship contract moving forward and deliver a well structured and fairly priced program that suited their needs.
Snausages – NFL
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge
Snausages is a leader in the dog snack category. It has a very successful base product (shape/flavor) and has introduced several rotational products to spurn incremental seasonal sales. The brand was looking for an exciting promotion to help drive one of its rotational products: Snausages Footballs.
Solution
Since the Snausages brand is all about having fun and humanizing the dog, we developed a program that would let owners and their dogs celebrate together when their team scores a touchdown by treating with Snausages footballs. Sponsorships of targeted NFL teams were created to make an impact in important markets for the brand and key retailers. Team logos and trademarks were used to create limited edition packaging and display materials that helped draw attention to the products in-store. An added-value program encouraged consumers to send pictures of their dog dressed in team regalia for their dog’s chance to be shown as an MVP (most valuable pooch) on team websites and stadium video boards. Charitable tie-ins, co-branded advertising support and hospitality opportunities rounded out the program and helped secure retail merchandising support.
Results
This NFL promotion created big opportunities for the Snausages brand. It delivered a high profile program that could leverage the power of the NFL to draw attention to Snausages Footballs.
Duke’s Taste Tour
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge
Duke’s Mayonnaise is a Southeastern regional brand and has an impressive share in its core markets. Quite simply, Duke’s Mayonnaise tastes better than the competition. Focus groups have shown that if we can get people to sample the smooth and creamy taste of Duke’s, they’ll make the switch from their current brand and put Duke’s in their kitchen. The challenge was to help introduce Duke’s to new consumers and gain penetration in to growth markets.
Solution
To grow the brand, we needed to reach consumers in targeted opportunity markets. Cross-referencing a list of desirable markets, Sports Strategies created a mobile sampling tour that leveraged Duke’s involvement in major sporting events (NASCAR races, SEC Football) as well as heavily attended community events such as festivals, fairs, women’s shows and the like. These sponsorships helped to build brand equity, but most importantly they created the opportunity for people taste foods made with Duke’s, take home samples and learn more about the brand. In addition to attending these large events, the Duke’s Taste Tour also visited local retailers and impacted consumers at their point of purchase.
Results
To date, the Duke’s Taste Tour has visited dozens of major community events introducing the brand to new markets, new consumers and influencing key retailer customers. During an average 10 week span, we’ll distribute approximately 60,000 wet samples so consumers can sample Duke’s taste on the spot. We’ll also distribute up with 200,000+ mini-jar samples and coupons so they can try Duke’s in their own kitchen and save when they go to buy it in the store. The Duke’s Taste Tour has been such a success that it has hit the road for four consecutive years.
Culligan
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge
Hey Culligan Man! Culligan was a highly recognized brand that had lost some of its luster. Additionally, this water company was mainly operated by 1,500+ independent dealers throughout the country who had gone through several corporate ownership takeovers during Read more
Warner Home Video
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge
Thousands of movies hit the home video market every year. While some are extremely popular and sell over a million copies, others struggle mightily to make an impact. Warner Home Video’s MVP 2 was one of those challenged titles that needed help cutting through the Read more
Snausages – Baseball
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge
Snausages dog snacks are all about having fun with your dog. Our challenge was to help bring the brand to life while helping generate awareness and trial.
Solution
Baseball is the National pastime and what better way to watch the ballgame than with your trusty dog by your side. Thanks to Snausages, our program allowed dog owners to not just watch the games at home on TV, but now they could actually bring their dog to the ballpark and cheer on the hometown team….together! Based upon market relevance for the brand, targeted retailer presence and the popularity & cooperativeness of the teams, Sports Strategies aligned Snausages with key Major League and Minor League Baseball teams.
Each team hosted a Snausages Dog Day in the Park (where dogs could attend) and included appearances by Snocrates (brand mascot), doggie contests, a doggie bag of goodies for the dogs and more. Partnerships with local animal shelters were developed to extend the program’s reach and donations were raised to support their efforts. Also, consumer promotions offered prizing and discounted tickets to help activate with retail customers.
Results
Snausages Dog Days in the Park were a big hit! Hundreds of dogs (and their owners) attended each of our events. The wonderful imagery of dogs at the ballpark and the charitable tie-in resulted in tremendous media coverage for the brand. Retail partners were secured in each market and led to an 18% increase in case sales. The combination of all factors led to a post event surveys of brand perception showing 76% responding “more favorably”…..woof!
Snausages – Youth Soccer
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge
Snausages is a leader in the Dog Snacks category and was looking to increase its reach to kids….who play and exercise with their dogs. The brand wanted to develop a test program in either of its two HQ Markets (San Francisco or Pittsburgh) that could help determine if local marketing through youth soccer would deliver quality results, and if so, could a template be developed to extend the program nationally.
While there’s no doubt that youth soccer drives a huge following from millions of participants and their families, its mainly volunteer-based infrastructure creates many operational challenges for cost-effective local- market activation. Sports Strategies needed to uncover the right opportunity.
Solution
After weighing the opportunities available through AYSO, US Youth Soccer, local professional teams and other related properties, we identified that the Pittsburgh stop on the national Sports Illustrated for Kids 3v3 tour could deliver the platform we were seeking for our test. This option offered a quality event (5,000+ participants/families) in the right market, an attractive cross-promotional partner (Sports Illustrated for Kids), on-site execution by a professional agency with accountability…and the opportunity to extend in to 50+ events as part of a national tour if the local test was deemed successful.
We partnered Snausages with the event which delivered pre-promotion and on-site visibility to build equity. Interactive games, Snausages temporary tattoos, appearances by the Snocrates mascot and logoed premiums helped integrate the brand in to the event. Additionally, a consumer program offering tournament registration discounts helped leverage the program at retail.
Results
This program successfully delivered a viable national youth soccer marketing platform for Snausages. It effectively tapped in to the local youth soccer market and delivered retail activation. Additionally, local and on-site execution was reliable and professional. Finally, the 50+ city tour and attractive Sports Illustrated for Kids umbrella sponsor delivered a cost-effective template to extend the program on a national basis.
Universal Pictures
February 25, 2010 by Chris · Leave a Comment
Challenge:
After a successful run in theatres, Stephen Spielberg’s movie Catch Me If You Can was releasing on video. Wanting to keep the momentum going, Universal Studios was looking for a promotion that it could execute on the May 12 release date while helping drive visibility and sales for this title.
Solution
Capitalizing upon the “Catch” and “Steal” themes of the movie, Sports Strategies created Catch Me If You Can Nights with 13 Major League and Minor League Baseball teams playing in key markets. In order to help create a buzz, all of these events were scheduled to run concurrently on the May 12th release date for the video. Sponsorships with targeted teams and radio cross-promotions loaded the bases with elements such as:
- Pre-promotion supporting video release
- On-field “Catch Me If You Can” pop-up contest
- Radio promotions offering consumer entry in pop-up contest and DVD giveaways
- Movie trailers and themed features on stadium video board (Catch of the Night, Caught in the Act crowd feature, DVD giveaway with stolen base, etc.)
- Hospitality to host retail customers
Results
Catch Me If You Can’s baseball promotion was a hit on many levels. For a relatively minimal cost, we were able to deliver a campaign that leveraged an association with Major League Baseball, impacted targeted consumers who were actively spending money on family entertainment and effectively showcased the title to retail customers. This program helped Catch Me If You Can top the charts as the #1 selling DVD for its release week.
