Marketplace Roundup

Pennsylvania Lottery again selling scratch-off games featuring Phillies

In Philadelphia, Ed Barkowitz reports the Pennsylvania Lottery "again is selling instant scratch-off games featuring the Phillies and Phillies-related prizes." The $5 game, which also has a Pirates version, will "have cash prizes of $10 million and second-chance drawings for items ranging from Phillies season tickets to team merchandise." Lottery officials "expect the games to generate" $10M in profits (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 3/23).

PLAYING A FEW MORE ROUNDS: In Miami, Van Smith & Kaufman report Sony Ericsson "recently signed a three-year extension to remain the title sponsor" of the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament through '14, and Sony Ericsson Global Head of Marketing Steve Walker said the company considers the event to be "our flagship event." Walker: "Rather than just broadcast about our new products, we can interact with fans and introduce new products here" (MIAMI HERALD, 3/23). Meanwhile, MARKETING WEEK's Lara O'Reilly reported Sony Ericsson "will use its sponsorship of sport and tennis events to push its soon to launch PlayStation smartphone, the Xperia Play." Head of Global Marketing Partnerships Stephan Croix: "Our sport sponsorships allow us to promote our phones in a subtle and authentic way to our fanbase. Our promise to fans is to enrich their experience during the game but also before and after" (MARKETINGWEEK.co.uk, 3/22).

IMPLICATIONS OF ACQUISITION: In N.Y., Stuart Elliott noted the "advertising implications for the acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T will take some time to unfold." Publicis Worldwide, Seattle, creates advertising for T-Mobile, and the agency is "owned by the Publicis Groupe of France." T-Mobile's current campaign "mocks the quality of the service that AT&T provides its iPhone customers, borrowing the format of the recent campaign for Apple that made fun of Microsoft." Meanwhile, advertising for AT&T is "created by the Atlanta and New York divisions of BBDO North America, part of the BBDO Worldwide division of Omnicom Group." Elliott noted when companies combine, "one area they often look at to save money and become more efficient is in ad spending." But it is "unclear at this point how much an AT&T that includes T-Mobile would reduce its spending on advertising" (NYTIMES.com, 3/22).