Four brand marketers talked about the intersection of branding, engagement and technology during a panel last week at the ’15 Veritix Sports Facilities & Franchises conference. Here are some highlights from the session:
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Manuele said it was important to have a presence
in Silicon Valley
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GETTING THE NAME OUT: Avaya VP/Global Cloud Services Joe Manuele said of signing for the naming rights to the Earthquakes' new stadium: "The whole discussion started about a year ago. It's the first time we've done anything like this. We moved our headquarters from New Jersey to Silicon Valley. Having a presence in the community was a big part of it. The other part of it was the way we incorporated it as a showcase for our customers. We're a privately held company, 15,000 employees, $4.5 billion in sales. We're not a small company, but we're not a name brand, per se. So getting our name out there is a big thing. Creating a brand for Avaya is a big deal. It's a combination of the (stadium) technology with the branding. Direct ROI for us is the hospitality associated with these events. If it helps close a $20 million deal, then naming rights isn't a big deal."
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Burton believes fans want a spectacular experience
when attending games
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ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? SAP Group VP/Global Partnerships Chris Burton said, "Some people still think we're the Spanish channel on TV. I don't think branding should ever be the overall end-all. It's all about the experience. The brand plays a very important role to understand what happens in an arena and a stadium, wherever you are. One good example is I bought an Apple watch. I flew from New York earlier this week and checked in using the bar code on my new watch for my American Airlines flight. That's radically different than it was 20 years ago, and that same thing is happening in venues across the world. Many of today's fans that are coming online are digitally native, so as a result of that, they expect more, and that experience has to be spectacular. We do have a metric to engage customers ... we have suites in every venue, it's more about the experience."
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Having energy efficiency in a facility is something
Wells thinks will help customer experience
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ENERGY EFFICIENT: Schneider Electric Senior VP/Marketing, North America Tony Wells said of becoming a founding partner for AEG/MGM's new Las Vegas arena, "We are the global leader in energy management. For us, Las Vegas became a great platform to tell that story. From a venue perspective, we talk about ROI. The energy costs that you are responsible for paying as a facility manager will be one of the most costly things that you have. So we really believe by putting some focus on efficiency there, we can really have a benefit on cost and customer experience. We also strategically saw Las Vegas as important, with all the trade shows there. It becomes a platform for us to talk about everything from solar to electric vehicle chargers to access control. Our partnership with AEG is global in terms of sustainability. We have saved them millions of dollars since that relationship began in 2012."
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Cordova said Coca-Cola failed to drive fans to
ballparks through its marketing efforts
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LOCKED IN DURING LOCKOUT: Coca-Cola Group Dir of Sports Management John Cordova said, "A lot of people look at we what we do in sports and harken back to what they see in San Francisco and Atlanta with the (large Coke) bottles at their ballparks. What people forget is those were all activations born in the late '90s. All that came out of research we did coming out of the baseball lockout in 1994. We stayed on that track for several years. What we missed on is we failed to do a better job of delivering the ballpark experience to fans, getting them to come to the ballpark through some Coke marketing program outside the four walls of the stadium and provide that entree to come to the game and enjoy it on behalf of Coke. That's what brought about the adjustment in what we've done over the last 15 years. The activations we do right now are all about taking that intellectual property and that connection with Coke out to the marketplace (with coupons for free game tickets, hot dogs and Coke products). What we have got laser focused on is to get our local market units to look at what's going on and pick the best things that resonate with their consumers. Let the rest of the stuff fall by the wayside. It forces them to put all the assets in a marketplace on the table and figure out what the most important things are."
