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Events and Attractions

Parties change with the times, but still crank it up

This will likely be the last year DirecTV will celebrate its brand at the Super Bowl. The AT&T acquisition has most betting that the DTV brand will disappear, but its 9-year-old party, which has grown from a beach bash on Miami Beach to a series of ticketed concerts this year, will undoubtedly live on, even if the brand is subsumed by AT&T.

Guests take in ESPN’s Super Bowl party last year in Arizona.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
“We’ve built something big enough that we don’t worry about other parties,” said Alex Kaplan, senior vice president for DirecTV, which is behind a series of concerts including the Dave Matthews Band and Pharrell. While the competition to have the top-rated party of the Super Bowl can be intense, “This isn’t about competition, but putting on a great show and extracting as much value as possible,” Kaplan insisted.

DirecTV is able to pay for about 80 percent of its events through sponsorships with the likes of Pepsi and Showtime. But in an industry forever struggling to substantiate ROI, what are the analytics for a successful Super Bowl fete?

“The amount of PR and buzz we generate is hard to calculate precisely, but it way more than pays for the event,” said Kaplan,who has worked on DirecTV’s Super Bowl party since its inception. “To put on the biggest entertainment event and spectacle at the Super Bowl outside of the game itself is really what we’re all about.”

ESPN’s massive Friday night affair is on a diet. The guest list has been reduced this year from 4,000 to 2,500 people.

“It was getting a little crazy,” said Lauren Robinson, associate director of sponsorship activation. “And we wanted to make it more exclusive.”

Sponsors have to buy across ESPN media. This year, they include Mercedes-Benz, Ketel One, Coors Light, Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC. Assaying the value can be tricky; basically, it’s “does it have a cool factor, is everyone safe and comfortable and is the entertainment good?” said Robinson, who’s working on ESPN The Party for the eighth consecutive year.

As evidenced by ESPN cutting its guest list, the trend at the Super Bowl, where cost is not a prime consideration, is toward parties that are smaller. Smaller, at least, by Super Bowl standards.

NFL cap licensee New Era is hosting a Saturday night party for the first time. The payoff?

“We’ll never compete with a Bud Light or ESPN party,” acknowledged Piper McCoy, New Era’s director of public relations and entertainment marketing. “But we can build better connectivity with our consumers and we’ll have a social media story and a hashtag we can point to afterwards.”

CAA Premium Experience is handling the Friday night “Bleacher Ball” for Turner’s Bleacher Report, sponsored by Verizon Go90, Bose and Jim Beam. “Those of 3,000 and 4,000 have huge scale obviously, but they aren’t necessarily big draws anymore,” said Jason Zinna of CAA.

Engine Shop CEO Brian Gordon said that big and splashy affairs have become less important, as social media has become more vital. “Before, you needed to be called ‘the big party’ because you were PR-reliant for buzz,” he said. “With social media, you don’t need that anymore.” Engine Shop clients include that ESPN party and Mercedes.

A party that is seeking more scale is the annual Giving Back Fund benefit. Last year, it cracked the $1 million raised mark — a first for any Super Bowl benefit. Given Silicon Valley’s riches, the target is $3 million this year, with the organization’s Big Game Big Give affair at a private estate in Atherton, co-hosted by local heroes Matt Williams and Joe Montana. Tickets are $3,000 apiece.

“Montana will be throwing balls into the audience at one point,” said Marc Pollick, Giving Back Fund founder and president. “If you catch a ball, it costs $5,000. If you drop it, it means a $10,000 donation.”

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