ESPN has sold seven sponsorships for approximately $3.5 million each for its "ESPN25" platform, commemorating the network's 25th anniversary next year.
McDonald's, Gatorade and MasterCard have joined previously announced sponsors Bud Light, Toyota and T-Mobile, picking up advertising across several platforms and promotional rights to an ESPN25 logo to be developed. A men's hair care product also has signed on as a sponsor, a network source said, rounding out the sponsorship roster.
The source pegged the deals at $3.5 million each, but noted that the price grew higher in some highly competitive categories because of bidding wars.
ESPN25 will include about 30 hours of programming leading up to a prime-time celebration on Sept. 7, 2004, ESPN's actual 25th birthday.
Packages include commercial units in all programming related to ESPN25, but sponsors indicate they plan to use the program not only as a media and advertising play, but as a promotional tool similar to league sponsorships.
"ESPN25 will be a large component of what you see from Gatorade in the marketplace in '04," said Cindy Alston, vice president of equity communications at Gatorade, a division of PepsiCo. "We are looking to leverage it across a wide variety of our marketing mix. We'll go well beyond the media buy."
She said that will include retail components such as point-of-sale displays or promotions, and that tying ESPN's anniversary into advertising creative is being considered.
While it's unusual for Gatorade to incorporate a television network into its branding message, Alston said ESPN is treated differently than any other media outlet.
"When I think of ESPN, I think of sports first," she said. "Just as we've leveraged NFL in-store or Mia Hamm, ESPN is another sports property."
McDonald's director of sports marketing John Lewicki said ESPN25 will be used to target men ages 18 to 34, one of three primary target audiences for the fast-food chain. "We are looking at all the different things they [ESPN] are developing and how we can leverage them in restaurants," he said.
The sponsors met at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., two weeks ago to discuss ways to maximize their affiliation and explore cross-promotional opportunities.
ESPN, meanwhile, is planning other brand extensions, including a coffee table book to be published by Hyperion. Hyperion, like ESPN, is owned by the Walt Disney Co.
Other than the two-hour anniversary show in September, ESPN25 will be less about the history of ESPN and more about how sports has evolved during the last quarter century. The tag line for the platform is "An Era That Changed Sports."
Approaching the project in a manner similar to its highly praised "SportsCentury" series that counted down the top 100 athletes of all time, ESPN developed a ballot with 15 categories and asked experts to select the most memorable moments of the last 25 years, as well as the best team, best play and even "biggest flop."
A total of 100 ballots were sent to ESPN staffers as well as sportscasters and historians from outside the company. The process was completed in the last few weeks, and ESPN already has begun production for some programs.
The top 100 moments will be counted down through daily vignettes, the first of which will hit the air 100 days before the anniversary, on May 31.
ESPN will air a two-hour block of weekly retrospective shows starting on June 8. "Who's Number One?" will count down the top 25 in each category on the ballots. There also will be a special called "Then and Now," comparing sports in 1979 to 2004, and another called "Headlines" that will examine the biggest stories of the last quarter century.
ESPN Classic executive producer John Dahl, 39, is heading the project.
"I've seen both eras," he said. "I can appreciate what it used to be like before ESPN went on the air."
While he would not disclose how much ESPN was spending on the project, he believes that advertising sales and other business opportunities should offset the cost.
"I do believe there's going to be an opportunity for a profit," he said.
