Marketers today have virtually limitless ways to reach consumers, but with that flexibility comes the challenge of finding the right ones for their brands. Four marketing leaders discussed how to approach such a wide-ranging media landscape during a panel discussion on Day One of the ’14 Intersport Activation Summit. Yahoo! Senior VP/Brand Creative Bob Stohrer summed up the issue, saying, “One of the things I think I’ve personally had to work through a lot is, ‘How do you continue to drive a brand narrative through such a disintermediated media landscape?’” PVH Corp. Heritage Brands Senior VP/Creative Service Anthony Trama: “It’s all about focus. ... The brand story, the brand narrative, the brand voice, you figure that out first. The next part is which mediums will help you amplify that sound, that voice that you want to get out there, and then stay true to it. Trying to stay true to it for as long as you can so that you can start to see the results. Because if you keep changing -- bob, weave, turn right, turn left -- you never really get to track the performance. You just get this disparity of information back." Tracking the ROI of individual campaigns and initiatives has proved to be as difficult a task for marketers. Deloitte Consulting Principal Jonathan Copulsky added, “It’s very hard for us in our model to say, ‘Because somebody participated in an event that was tied to Deloitte where we were a sponsor, therefore they spent $10 million on our consulting budget.’ That just doesn’t happen. What we can do, and what we do do, is we do a lot of surveys, a lot of attitudinal things. We know that on campuses where we bring our road show with the USOC that the acceptance rates have gone up pretty dramatically, and we know exactly how much it costs us.” Stohrer: “In terms of ROI, we’ll look at things; we get fantasy registrations and some of the hardcore metrics, but I think at the end of the day ... one of the big priorities for us is to maintain sports credibility and leadership, and having an affiliation with teams and properties and venues is one of the things we’re going to continue to look really hard at.”
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Karkos wanted TD Ameritrade's tie-in to Games to
be authentic
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AUTHENTIC MESSAGE: TD Ameritrade CMO Denise Karkos discussed how her staff managed to find a tie-in between financial services and the Olympic Games as part of its partnership with the USOC. Karkos: “The struggle that I have is to be really authentic to the spirit of the Games. The messaging is a lot softer for us as a brand. ... In interviewing these athletes, we talked about how they got to where they are in their athletic career. Almost all of them had this notion of marginal gain theory of the little things: shaving a second off your time. ... How you get there is just that small little tweak to your performance. And what a great analogy to financial services. ... Just deposit 100 bucks a month, and just get started and overcome that inertia. ... It was just a really great way to connect the two things.” She added, “My media mix model isn’t necessarily telling me, ‘Should I amp up that message, you’re going to get a higher return.’ I just know that from 21 years in marketing.” Copulsky stressed that what other people say about a brand says more than what a brand says about itself. He said that his staff strives to find the people who influence others about their brand and tries to influence those people directly in “a genuine way.”
DEAR MR. FANTASY: Staying true to the conference’s S.F. locale, Stohrer discussed Yahoo!’s partnership with the 49ers in integrating fantasy football into the new Levi’s Stadium. Stohrer: “Fantasy football is really important to us. ... Users did 23 billion minutes on our products with fantasy. Not only do you get scale with that, but you get real engagement.” He noted that the 10-year partnership with the 49ers includes an 11,000-square-foot space in the stadium offering “a really deep, immersive experience.” He stressed that the company wants to achieve stadium-wide integration of fantasy data, as well. Asked whether the constant introduction could dilute the live game aura, Stohrer said the goal of the partnership is simply to enhance the cherished live sports experience.
