Menu
Marketing and Sponsorship

SportsNet LA using Dodgers stars, history in campaign

Less than two weeks before one of the most anticipated network launch dates, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ network, SportsNet LA, is rolling out its biggest marketing push yet around the channel.

The campaign breaks in full this week and includes TV, radio, digital, billboards and print. The campaign soft launched last month with some billboards in the Los Angeles area. It uses Dodgers stars Clayton Kershaw and Yasiel Puig to create awareness around the channel, which launches Feb. 25. The campaign is slated to run through mid-March.

“It’s an informational campaign,” said Lon Rosen, Dodgers executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “We need to make sure our fan base knows where to find the channel. We need to inform the fan base as much as possible.”

The marketing campaign is similar to the one the Lakers used two years ago when they launched TWC SportsNet with Time Warner Cable. TWC spent millions of dollars on that effort, and this one is believed to cost as much.

The campaign focuses on current Dodgers stars, though it also will highlight big moments from the team’s history, such as Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run in the 1988 World Series and Fernando Valenzuela’s 1990 no-hitter.

One of the Dodgers’ biggest stars, longtime broadcaster Vin Scully, provides voiceovers on the TV and radio spots. For one TV spot, which shows Kershaw getting ready to pitch, Scully says, “Once in a generation, you see a player who truly transcends greatness and commands the trust of a team. The comparisons will come and go. But the moments will define the legend.”

The screen then shows, “Great moments live forever,” followed by “Great moments live here.”

Each of the marketing messages sends fans to a website, INeedMyDodgers.com.

The channel is fully owned by the Dodgers through American Media Productions, which tabbed Time Warner Cable to handle programming and distribution for the channel. The campaign could put pressure on distributors like DirecTV that so far have refused to carry the channel. Negotiations are not expected to heat up until late March, as Opening Day approaches.

“We know it takes time to build these things,” Rosen said. “Time Warner Cable takes the lead on these negotiations. We’re confident they will get this done and distribution will be in place.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2014/02/17/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Dodgers.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2014/02/17/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Dodgers.aspx

CLOSE