The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) plans to make Tour de
France winner and USPS Cycling Team member Lance Armstrong
"a highly visible postal figure in the next few months,"
according to T.R. Reid of the WASHINGTON POST. In reviewing
the company's team sponsorship, USPS VP/Tactical Marketing &
Sales Development Gail Sonnenberg said the goal of it was
"brand-building." Sonnenberg: "It's about making people
feel good about you as an organization." USPS officials
"say they weren't even thinking of the European races when
they began sponsoring the team," but rather the "big races
in America." Also, the USPS "saw in cycling all sorts of
parallels to delivering the mail: Climb every mountain. Get
it there on time. Use teamwork." USPS Corporate Relations
exec Margot Myers, on the bike team deal: "You know what we
like about it? It's not stodgy." Reid writes that because
of "regular gripes from some corners of Congress, the USPS
is touchy about promotional spending." However, Sonnenberg
counters, "People probably pay more for ads on the Super
Bowl than we pay for the whole team for a year" (WASHINGTON
POST, 7/27). Trek PR Coordinator Nate Tobecksen called
Armstrong's victory "as big as it gets for us" because the
Tour de France is "like the Super Bowl 21 days in a row."
Trek "is likely to use" the fact that the USPS team "rode
stock, out-of-the-box bicycles" -- already available in bike
shops -- "in post-Tour marketing" (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/27).
TOUR DE TV: David Letterman, on Armstrong: "If you talk
about inspiration in the world of sports, does it get any
better than Lance Armstrong?" (CBS, 7/26). Armstrong and
Scott Hamilton, who both fought testicular cancer, were
profiled by ABC's Timothy Johnson on "20/20" last night
(7/26). NBC's "Nightly News" reported on Armstrong's win 19
minutes into its broadcast. Tom Brokaw, on Armstrong, who
received a congratulatory call from President Clinton: "The
ultimate comeback kid gets a call from a president who likes
to call himself [the] comeback kid" ("Nightly News," 7/26).
