Marriott is launching a "Greatness on the Road" player of the week award to support the second year of its NFL corporate sponsorship. The program for Marriott’s Courtyard brand, the league’s official hotel, will be supported with an ad buy across NFL Network’s expanded Thursday night TV package. Associated marketing efforts include a guest road warrior of the week, to be awarded with frequency/loyalty points; an appearance on Courtyard’s Facebook page; and a chance to win a trip to Super Bowl XLVII, where the final '12 Greatness on the Road winner will be named at the NFL Honors show. An additional Facebook sweepstakes offers a top prize of trips and tickets to each of the winner’s favorite NFL team’s '13 regular-season road games, an instant-win scratch-off game at Courtyards and a special Courtyard NFL Fan Package for weekends during the season. IMG Consulting handles marketing for Marriott (Terry Lefton, THE DAILY).
COMPANIES PREPPING FOR KICKOFF: In N.Y., Stuart Elliott notes several marketers are prepping their NFL-based ad campaigns, and P&G's Tide brand will mark its first year as the league's official laundry detergent by launching "national elements like a video series online and in social media, and local elements like Tide bottles decorated in team colors.” The campaign will be “centered on team colors, with ads proclaiming, ‘They’re not just colors. They’re your Sunday best’ and, ‘When colors mean this much, you can only trust them to Tide.’” P&G North American Fabric Care Marketing Dir Sundar Raman said that all 32 teams are "taking part in the agreement.” Saints QB Drew Brees will serve as a spokesperson for the campaign. Meanwhile, Elliott reports GM is “planning a season-long campaign for 2012-13 with the theme ‘never say never.’” The effort will include ticket giveaways; a weekly contest; a two-day event next week in Times Square; “ads on television, in print and online; and outreach on Twitter and other social media, with posts from players" including Panthers QB Cam Newton. Additionally, New Era for the first time is making caps worn on-field by NFL players, and to "usher in the five-year agreement, New Era will introduce a tongue-in-cheek campaign by the Brooklyn Brothers agency that is centered on a mythical Laboratory of Headwear Science and Capology." The lab creates caps for players like Bills DT Marcell Dareus and Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones (N.Y. TIMES, 8/29).
