The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Nathalie Tadena reported an Allstate campaign centered around a social media-savvy burglar that debuted during last week's Ohio State-Alabama Allstate Sugar Bowl broadcast has "emerged as a winner, at least when it comes to online buzz." The company aired eight Leo Burnett-created ads during the game, "depicting the brand’s Mayhem character breaking into the house of a couple that posted on social media that they were away for the weekend to watch the game in New Orleans." Allstate said that its site "received 6,000 to 8,000 hits per second immediately following each of the Mayhem commercials that aired on TV ... compared to the 2,000 hits per second a typical retail site with a TV campaign receives" (
WSJ.com, 1/2).
TAX MAN: In Jacksonville, Don Coble noted NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Friday drove his TaxSlayer-sponsored Xfinity Series car to midfield at EverBank Field "for the third consecutive year to be part of the pre-game coin flip" in the Tennessee-Iowa TaxSlayer Bowl. Earnhardt said, "I’ve learned a lot of how they cross-market." Coble noted Earnhardt "was doing the same Friday" by working with TaxSlayer and Daytona Int'l Speedway to promote the Feb. 22 Daytona 500 (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 1/3).
LENGTHY LAYOVER: In Orlando, Matt Mauney noted in a new TV spot for Disney Parks, Oregon's and Ohio State's respective mascots "are seen waiting at an airport terminal for a flight to The City Beautiful." When a pilot "questionably states, 'they're still here,' an airport employee sighs and says, 'yeah, we still don't know who's going to Walt Disney World.'" The ad "is the latest commercial in the famous 'I'm going to Disney World!' campaign" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 1/4).
BIT BY BIT: In N.Y., Richard Morgan reported while BitPay, the "so-called PayPal of bitcoin," used the digital currency to pay ESPN for its sponsorship of the Dec. 26 Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl, ESPN "converted it to dollars immediately." The move by ESPN "proved to be very smart." Since the game, Bitcoin "has fallen" 3.9%, to $314.59. That means ESPN, "if it sat on a $500,000 rights fee, it would have lost about $20,000 over seven days" (N.Y. POST, 1/4).
