Toyota's New Campaign To Tie Into Its Various Sports Sponsorships, Slogan
Toyota is going "all in on sports this fall with a new brand campaign designed to unite its sports advertising from pro football to NASCAR," according to Michael McCarthy of ADWEEK. The campaign kicked off during Thursday night's Steelers-Patriots game with a spot called "Anthem" via Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A. The spot is the "first of four new sports-focused brand commercials coming this fall." The campaign "will likely culminate with an in-game spot during CBS' telecast of Super Bowl 50." Thursday night's ad shows players and fans "going the extra mile for the teams they love." There is a group of fans "driving to a game wearing their lucky playoff beards -- including one young woman who wears a fake one." A voiceover says, "Let's go playoffs." In another vignette, there are "fired-up football players stopping to ritually slap one player's ample gut before charging onto the field." A voiceover says, "Let's go superstitions." The copy "plays off the automaker's longtime tagline, 'Toyota. Let's Go Places.'" The campaign "will feature the Toyota Camry sedan" as well as the Corolla subcompact and Tacoma pickup truck (ADWEEK.com, 9/10).
OTHER SEASON DEBUTS: Under Armour during Thursday's game unveiled a 30-second spot featuring Patriots QB Tom Brady that is part of the brand's Rule Yourself campaign (Under Armour). In Baltimore, Jeff Barker notes UA "emphasized its continuing commitment" to Brady with the spot, which "depicts what appears to be an army of Bradys stretching and working out on multiple fields, closing with the message: 'You are the sum of all your training'" (Baltimore SUN, 9/11). Meanwhile, adidas on Thursday also debuted a new spot entitled "Create The New Speed," which features Eagles RB DeMarco Murray, Seahawks TE Jimmy Graham, Bills WR Sammy Watkins and Texas A&M football coach Kevin Sumlin (adidas).
DAILY STRUGGLE: On Long Island, Neil Best writes amid the start of the NFL season, the sports media marketing industry has seemingly "been overrun in a bloodless coup led by a pair of fantasy sports sites: FanDuel and DraftKings." Best: "Where have you gone, Anheuser-Busch? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you." The sheer volume of advertising this week from daily fantasy sites "has crossed a line from promotional to just plain annoying." Best: "How do these companies have anything left for winners' payouts?" (NEWSDAY, 9/11).
PUTTING A STAKE IN THE GAME: AD AGE's Anthony Crupi cited Kantar Media estimates as showing that sports programming in '14-15 generated $8.47B in sales for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, "accounting for more than one-third (37%) of the Big Four's overall ad revenue for the period." That "marks a 35% increase from five years ago, when sports contributed $6.27 billion to the networks' ad sales kitty." For the third time in the past five broadcast TV seasons, CBS "booked the most sports bucks, raking in" $2.8B, up 11% versus last year's $2.51B. Fox "took second with a $2.64 billion haul, while NBC took the bronze with $2 billion in sports spend." ABC generated $1.03B, but ESPN "handles sports sales" for its sister network. Crupi: "Toss in the cable channel's $2.44 billion in sales and ABC wins in a rout" (ADAGE.com, 9/10).
