SportsNet New York’s annual tune-in campaign for “SportsNite,” its New York-centric version of “SportsCenter,” is always compelling, and this year’s is no exception. Breaking this week via cable news and sports buys as well as digital are four spots from agency
Spork, New York, featuring the “House of Fans,” a motley collection of nine New York sports addicts, each representing a major New York stick-and-ball team.
In one a comely blonde with a thick Boston accent asks to borrow a “hammah”; another sees the resident Jets and Mets fans placing the Yankee fan’s hand
in a glass of water as he sleeps.
“The idea is to have some New York edge and speak to New York sports fans in their own
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This year’s tune-in campaign for SNY’s “SportsNite” features the “House of Fans,” which puts New Yorkers’ fierce sports allegiances into a “Big Brother”-style house setting. Themes in the spots include pranking the Yankees fan and the appearance of the Boston blonde.
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language,” said
Marie DeParis, SNY vice president of programming.
Added SNY President Steve Raab: “We’ve got two objectives here — getting your attention, and driving home the message that we’re the only channel that will cover every team.”
The campaign is running now and will appear again in October after the baseball season. Social extensions will include actual New York fans doing their own sports rants from sports bars.
> HOLE IN THE MIDDLE: Call it the doughnut Super Bowl RFP. Earlier this year, the NFL sent potential business partners an RFP, seeking bidders for retail merchandising rights for Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona and Super Bowl LI in Houston, but not Super Bowl L. Why the San Francisco-area Super Bowl was not part of the multi-Super Bowl bid was unclear, even to some bidding on it.
The RFP invited respondents to bid on NFL-branded stadium retail, a store at the NFL Experience, and at area hotels. Bidders are asked to enumerate “quality of services and design of retail spaces, distribution capabilities, in-store merchandising, consumer marketing and advertising initiatives and social media outreach.”
A decision is expected in June.
> FOAM, SWEET FOAM: Anheuser-Busch, an original sponsor of Lincoln Financial Field and a longtime sponsor of the Philadelphia Eagles, has renewed for an additional five years, even with a year remaining on its existing deal. With the Linc converting to digital signage, A-B’s fixed signage will change over as well.
Another new element is the addition of a Bud Light bar on the east side of the concourse level. A-B will activate with a fantasy football event at Lincoln Financial Field in August and by providing on-premise accounts with co-branded Eagles/Bud Light collateral allowing bars and restaurants to host their own fantasy drafts.
Also back in the fold for the Eagles is veteran Eagles sponsor Dunkin’ Donuts, which returns after a resoundingly successful digital promotion that resulted in 120,000 downloads of the Dunkin’ mobile payment app and the distribution of 600,000 cups of free coffee.
> LIFE’S A BEACH: In a World Cup year, everyone’s looking for a piece of the soccer world. Accordingly, figure skating impresario Steve Disson has put together a beach soccer match that will pit American and Brazilian players in a five-on-five match at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel in Hollywood, Fla., which will also serve as title sponsor. Members of the Brazilian and U.S. national teams will vie in an Aug. 14 match that will be played on a “beach” built from tons of imported sand.
NBC Sports Network will air a one-hour version of the game twice in September, and it also will be shown by Fox Sports in Brazil. Disson noted that beach soccer will be a demonstration sport in the 2016 Olympics and said he hopes to grow the game into a beach soccer tournament. Other than the Hard Rock, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau is in as presenting sponsor, hoping to entice Brazilians to vacation in Florida at resorts outside of Miami Beach.
> COMINGS & GOINGS: With Super Bowl XLVIII in his rearview mirror, Host Committee senior vice president Mark Bingham is off to be a partner at Remedy Analytics, which says on its website that it “identifies significant, quantifiable savings for the payers of pharmacy benefit management services using proprietary analytics technology.” Oh.
In any case, Remedy Analytics’ board of directors includes New York Giants Chief Marketing Officer Mike Stevens and former NBA coach Mike Dunleavy. The company is based in Milwaukee, but Bingham will continue to work out of the New York area. Bingham, a former Octagon president and New York Mets senior vice president of marketing and broadcasting, has been working in the Meadowlands for seven years, having been senior vice president for MetLife Stadium from 2007 to 2011.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
