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Leaving a lasting impression

Backdrops used at team news conferences morph into valuable real estate for sponsors

Most sponsors of the New England Patriots weren’t happy about Deflategate. The controversy raged over 18 months, tarnishing the championship brand, for which Pats corporate patrons were paying top dollar. Still, one of the Pats’ newer corporate sponsors found unexpected value in the scandal, since it focused more eyeballs than ever on what was already a bellwether NFL team.

App developer Zudy Software began a Pats sponsorship during the 2015 NFL season. Zudy’s deal includes branding on the team’s press conference backdrop.

Zudy COO Trish Kennedy acknowledges that there are surely other reasons for her 21-month-old brand’s 400 percent growth over the past year. Still, “the first time we went live with our name on that backdrop, it was [Patriots owner] Robert Kraft live on CNN telling the world that the team hadn’t done anything,” Kennedy said.

Since Zudy is a business-to-business brand, it’s an unusual tactic.

App developer Zudy Software has made the most out of being featured on the backdrop used for news conferences by the New England Patriots.
Photo by: Getty Images

“We got millions of eyeballs there, so while we’re not a consumer product, we’re experiencing exponential growth through this marketing partnership,” Kennedy said.

Press conference backdrops have been around for decades. The Patriots are one of only three NFL teams using digital backdrops, instead of vinyl, cloth or other material.

In the case of Zudy, the team’s digital imaging allowed the Patriots to market the press conference imagery as a tech play, making it relevant to Zudy and its target audience of business and technology decision-makers.

The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins also use digital imaging for backdrops at their postgame and training center press conferences. So far, they are the exception; the overwhelming majority of NFL teams use cloth banners for home and road pressers.

It’s more about maximizing revenue than aesthetics. None of the digital backdrops can claim to look any better than a static banner under the harsh light of TV. Murray Kohl, Patriots vice president of sponsorship sales, acknowledged that while the team has been using digital backdrops for more than a decade, the technology is still clunky enough that when the Patriots travel to road games, a cloth backdrop suffices. At home, Zudy shares the press conference backdrop with Dunkin’ Donuts and Gillette, naming-rights sponsor for the Pats’ stadium.

Still, when it comes to dividing up the pie, “digital is better, because we can rotate through sponsors and campaigns,” Kohl said. “An NFL coach’s press conference has a long life these days, with national outlets, along with digital and social. Our pressers are getting millions of eyeballs and we figured out a way our sponsors can benefit. Zudy was a new company, so this was a way to get instantaneous branding and credibility.”

So what’s preventing wider adoption of digital backdrops? The ease and aesthetics of cloth banners have made them a fixture for decades. It’s telling that more than 15 years ago, Redskins owner Dan Snyder backed VideoDrop, a venture to sell a system for projecting sponsor logos onto screens. The business failed and the Redskins now use a different digital backdrop.

For pressers from its new Frisco, Texas, training facility, The Star, the Dallas Cowboys use a 16-by-9 wall of video monitors, with a display area of more than 143 square feet, designed and installed by AT&T. It has a rotating sponsor list that runs with two sponsors per presser, including AT&T, Dr Pepper, Alberstons, Pepsi, Tostitos, Bank of America, Papa John’s, Panasonic and Ford.

“Just the fact those particular teams [Dallas, New England and Washington] are doing it tells me you’ll see more,” said Brian Lafemina, NFL senior vice president of club business development. “They’re all expert about knowing how to monetize new inventory. It’s less about looks and more about flexibility. Teams are going to offer this so that multiple partners can all get a bite of that apple.”

How the inventory is sold

Whether they are cloth or electronic, the appeal of NFL backdrops is unique. In a league where camera-visible signage is limited to eight-figure sideline sponsors such as Gatorade, Microsoft and Bose, backdrops offer sponsors local and national visibility at the price of a local NFL team deal.

“In the NBA, you get courtside signage visibility; with MLB, you get behind-the-plate signage. This is the one element with an NFL team you can reliably tell sponsors will have a lot of eyeballs, including national ones,” said Brent Schoeb, San Francisco 49ers vice president of corporate partnerships.

Levi’s and SAP, respectively the 49ers’ stadium and practice facility naming-rights sponsors, are on the team’s fabric backdrop. Like the 49ers, many NFL teams practice the “less-is-more” philosophy, reserving their backdrops for top sponsors.

“It’s an extremely visible branding platform,” said Steve Ryan, vice president of business development for the Arizona Cardinals, whose backdrop carries the University of Phoenix Stadium logo. “You get an implied endorsement from every player and coach standing in front of that backdrop.”

Generally, the team’s stadium naming-rights sponsor has a prominent, if not exclusive, position on their backdrop. When they don’t, it’s usually a sign that the sponsor has stopped activating its original deal, or that others have stepped up with bigger offers, or both.

Instead of divvying up the backdrop with technology, some NFL teams sell different backdrops to different sponsors. For example, the Philadelphia Eagles have Ricoh on their postgame backdrop at home games, and NRG (which also appears on the Houston Texans’ backdrop) on their postgame backdrop for road games. Toyota has Eagles non-game-day pressers, while The Sports Authority ruled the training camp backdrop, at least until its recent bankruptcy. Even so, Ari Roitman, Eagles senior vice president of business, said those assets are reserved for the team’s biggest sponsors: those paying between very high six and seven figures annually for sponsorship rights.

“The rule is, there is no short-term deals,” Roitman said. “The last thing we want is a lot of turnover with that investment.”

Since stadium naming-rights sponsors are easily the largest group of backdrop sponsors, the length and size of naming-rights deals are other factors delaying a transition to digital backdrops. If a deal is locked in for 15 years or more, what’s the impetus to do things differently?

“We haven’t found a need to change,” said Mike Stevens, senior vice president and CMO of the New York Giants, whose home backdrop has MetLife on game days, Toyota for road games and during training camp, and a combination of Quest Diagnostics and Hackensack University Medical Center during the week.

Similar sentiments were voiced by the New York Jets, who share not only a stadium, but backdrop sponsors with the Giants in MetLife (game day) and Toyota.

“The only reason to go digital is if you wanted to introduce more partners,” said Ian Lasher, Jets senior vice president of corporate partnership. “It’s a marquee asset we reserve for our biggest and best partners.”

As perhaps the original proponent of digital backdrops in the NFL, the Redskins have an abundance of sponsors rotating through. Redskins home-field nameplate FedEx gets the postgame presser. Road game backdrop sponsors are Comcast SportsNet, ReMax, FedEx and FanDuel. At the team’s training facility, the backdrop is sponsored by Loudon County Economic Development, Comcast SportsNet, FedEx, Eastern Automotive, ReMax and FanDuel.
Training camp backdrop sponsors are FedEx, Window World, Performance Food Service Group, Comcast SportsNet and the city of Richmond.

“Sponsors get excited over this, because it’s exposure outside of our normal D.C. footprint,” said Terry Bateman, Redskins executive vice president and CMO, “but we are cognizant about not oversaturating. We won’t go over six or seven partners.”

Of course, what’s acceptable changes from team to team.

“You can argue there’s a way [with digital backdrops] to extract more revenue out of the same asset,” said the Eagles’ Roitman, “but we’re about doing more with fewer partners.”



NFL teams and their backdrop sponsors

Arizona Cardinals: University of Phoenix*
Atlanta Falcons: Verizon
Baltimore Ravens: Advance Business Systems; Under Armour; M&T Bank
Buffalo Bills: Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo
Carolina Panthers: Bank of America
Chicago Bears: Verizon
Cincinnati Bengals: Medical Mutual; Toyota

The New York Jets are one of five NFL teams that have a backdrop deal with Toyota.
Photo by: New York Jets

Cleveland Browns: University Hospitals; PNC Bank; Value City Furniture; FirstEnergy
Dallas Cowboys: AT&T*; Albertsons; Bank of America; Dr Pepper; Ford*; Panasonic; Papa John’s; Pepsi; Tostitos
Denver Broncos: UCHealth
Detroit Lions: Quicken Loans
Green Bay Packers: Associated Bank; American Family Insurance
Houston Texans: Verizon; BMW
Indianapolis Colts: Lucas Oil; Anthem; Arby’s; Kittle’s Furniture; Toyota
Jacksonville Jaguars: EverBank
Kansas City Chiefs: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City; The University of Kansas Hospital; Mosaic Life Care
Los Angeles Rams: Cornerstone OnDemand
Miami Dolphins: Hard Rock Cafe*; AARP Foundation; Baptist Health South Florida
Minnesota Vikings: Hyundai
New England Patriots: Dunkin’ Donuts; Gillette; Zudy Software
New Orleans Saints: Ochsner Medical
New York Giants: MetLife*; Toyota; Quest Diagnostics; Hackensack Medical Center
New York Jets: Toyota; MetLife*
Oakland Raiders: Den (real estate app)
Philadelphia Eagles: Toyota; NRG; Ricoh
Pittsburgh Steelers: PNC Bank; KraftHeinz*
San Diego Chargers: National Funding
San Francisco: Levi’s; SAP
Seattle Seahawks: Boeing
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Dex Imaging; Florida Hospitals
Tennessee Titans: Nissan; Pinnacle Bank; Xfinity; Saint Thomas Medical
Washington Redskins: FedEx; Comcast SportsNet; ReMax; FanDuel; Easterns Automotive; Loudon Economic Development; Inova Sports Medicine*

* Backdrop includes a logo of the team’s venue, which incorporates a naming-rights partner’s moniker.
Source: SportsBusiness Journal research



Exposed

Nielsen Sports conducted custom analyses on six teams total in the NFL and NBA through the entire 2015-16 season to track the exposure of the presentation backdrop in peripheral programming. Depending on the club, the logo comprised 1 percent to 16 percent of the total media value for the team-owned sponsorship assets shown during television broadcasts.

The highest value this asset had for one team was $4.8 million for a season, which included exposure during the games, ESPN “SportsCenter,” “Football Night in America,” “Monday Night Countdown” and pregame and postgame coverage. The majority of television sponsorship exposure on the backdrops came from outside the live play coverage. In terms of media value, the backdrop ranked eighth out of 35 sponsorship locations tracked for those six clubs.

Nielsen would not reveal the six specific teams studied.



Getting noticed

Nielsen Sports monitored sponsorship assets of all NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL broadcasts during each league’s most recently completed regular season. Presented here is the ranking of sponsorship assets for average duration per exposure. For comparison, Nielsen said that while most sponsorship exposures last about five seconds at a time, the presentation backdrop runs for an average of 18 seconds.

TV sponsorship locations, ranked by average duration per exposure
1. Backdrop
2. Television on-screen graphics
3. Broadcaster apparel
4. Microphone
5. Broadcaster activation signage

Source: Nielsen Sports

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