Names & Faces: Brand Affinity Matches Athletes With Advertisers
ADWEEK's Brian Morrissey profiles California-based Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), which is "matching celebrities with advertisers for display ads at a low cost." BAT has signed deals with over 1,400 [pro] players from various sports," and advertisers "can find what areas of the country the star is hot in through a celebrity-ranking algorithm that combs online sources for buzz." For example, a 10 million impression campaign for Saints QB Drew Brees "would cost $25,000." Morrissey notes StubHub has "used the system to run display ads for local events," and the ads featured Bears WR Devin Hester and Baseball HOFer Brooks Robinson, among other athletes. Celebrities can "accept or reject all offers and creative" (ADWEEK, 3/16 issue).
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Morales Among Cuban MLBers
Featured In Video Game |
HAVANA NIGHTS: In California, Bill Plunkett reported a video game adapted by the Havana Univ. of Information Science and a Cuban sports radio program "includes several Cuban natives ... who defected from the country in order to play" in MLB. "MVP Cuba 1.0" features 30 virtual teams "vying for the Cuban championship," and the game includes free agent P Orlando Hernandez, Mets P Livan Hernandez, White Sox P Jose Contreras and Angels RF Kendry Morales. Morales said he was unaware of the game, but added that it "didn't bother him that his image was being used." Morales: "Hopefully, it's true. That would be like history." Morales was "jailed for a time after eight unsuccessful attempts to defect as a teenager" (OCREGISTER.com, 3/13).
FROM WAY DOWNTOWN: In N.Y., Lynn Zinser reports Knicks G Nate Robinson "is reveling in his new popularity" since winning the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest last month. He is currently featured on a new 80-foot Nike billboard in Manhattan and his career is "taking off under the first-year Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo style." Also, Robinson's No. 4 Knicks jersey is "in the top five in sales" at the NBA Store in N.Y. and at NBAStore.com. Robinson: "I always told my mom, that's what I want, people wearing Nate Robinson jerseys" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/17).
DOUBLE STANDARD: SI.com's Arash Markazi writes if ESPN The Magazine was "trying to create a buzz with their current cover" featuring WNBA Sparks F Candace Parker, they have "certainly succeeded." Parker "wants to be a bigger crosser star" than either tennis player Maria Sharapova and IRL driver Danica Patrick, two female athletes who "didn't mind flaunting their respective cup sizes in order to garner attention." But Markazi writes the magazine's story on Parker, "more than anything I've ever read in a mainstream sports publication, drove home the difference in the way men and women are not only covered in sports but, really, how they are allowed to cover sports" (FANNATION.com, 3/17).
SOUL OF THE GAME: Tennis players Nadia Petrova and Ivo Karlovic have recently signed shoe endorsements for Babolat footwear (Babolat).
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