ADWEEK's Patrick Coffee noted the results of an internal audit of the U.S. Army’s budget "question the effectiveness of the hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars the organization spends on marketing and advertising each year." The conclusions "call many of these programs 'ineffective,' claiming that the majority do not justify the costs." A series of government documents also appear to "indicate a conflict of interest" involving the Army Marketing Research Group and McCann, N.Y., which has been the Army’s agency of record since '05. The aforementioned documents "concern a portion of the Army’s events marketing work," including the All-American Bowl and Tough Mudder (ADWEEK.com, 1/3).
LASTING IMPACT: Baltimore Sports & Novelty Owner Jeffrey Katzen said that sales of Ravens merchandise "dropped sharply" after the team's national anthem protest in London. Since that game, Katzen said that he has seen a "decline in people following the store's social media accounts, and he has talked to other apparel retailers experiencing the same thing." Katzen: "It negatively affected our sales in October, November, December. It has to do with the protests. It’s a little bit of the internet that’s killing small business. But I think that the protest is the big factor" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 1/3).
NO CURB APPEAL: MOTORSPORT.com's Jim Utter wrote any NASCAR team would "welcome an international sponsor but all of the races (in Cup and Xfinity) are held in the United States and the vast majority of the TV audience is U.S.-based." There would be "virtually little incentive for an international company to what to get involved if they didn't have a presence in the U.S. market" (MOTORSPORT.com, 1/3).
