Marketplace Roundup

In N.Y., Natalie Kitroeff wrote the Victoria's Secret store at Cowboys Stadium is "emblematic of a broader marketing effort by the NFL to engage female fans, who make up a rising share of the league’s base." Nielson data shows that the NFL in recent years has "surpassed" the NBA and MLB in the share of its regular-season viewers who are female. More women last year "watched the Super Bowl -- 43 million -- than the Grammy Awards or the Academy Awards." The NFL's marketing includes "overt gestures, like the ubiquitous pink lining the field and accenting uniforms to commemorate breast cancer awareness month in October." But the league also has "made more subtle changes in how it reaches its female audience." Long gone are "the days of 'pink it and shrink it,' the decades-old approach to women’s NFL apparel." Spokeswomen such as tennis player Serena Williams have "appeared in Vogue and Cosmopolitan wearing the new gear, sandwiched between ads for high-end perfume and designer jeans." NFL TV commercials this season have "also featured women in prominent roles" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/6).

WARM IT UP, CHRIS: AD WEEK's Sam Thielman wrote Clippers G Chris Paul's recent State Farm commercial provides "yet another example of how much fun Paul can be." Paul represents Nike's Jordan brand, "among other endorsements, and he's easy to watch -- to the extent that one wonders if he'll eventually try his hand at something beyond commercials." The State Farm spot is a "very slick ad -- it's a good example of how to pack a lot of story and branding into a single minute, with a controlling pun (assist vs. assist), a linear progression the audience can follow (the two characters aging simultaneously), and a quality punch line" (ADWEEK.com, 1/3).

PORTLANDIA: MARKETING WEEK's Sebastian Joseph reported Nike has "taken management of its social media marketing in-house and away from its digital advertising agencies in an effort to get closer to its fans." The company’s internal social media teams now will "manage all online communities from its Portland, Oregon headquarters after previously outsourcing the responsibility to agencies such as AKQA, Wieden & Kennedy, Mindshare and R/GA." The move follows a review by Nike Global Dir of Social Media Marketing Musa Tariq, who "pushed for the brand to assume full control of its social media offering following his arrival from Burberry last October" (MARKETINGWEEK.co.uk, 1/3).