Having taken its licensing efforts in house from parent Disney, ESPN is attempting to build a program more in line with what you would expect from one of the top sports brands.
Industry sources peg ESPN's licensed retail sales at $40 million to $50 million. For a top property, $100 million is generally a benchmark of success.
Without revealing specific figures, Rick Alessandri, senior vice president/general manager of ESPN Enterprises, acknowledged that from a licensing perspective the brand is underleveraged. Accordingly, he is looking to hire before the end of the year a vice president of consumer products and a staff of 10-12 to set a new and aggressive licensing strategy.
Ninety percent of the licensing now has been for X Games (largely hard goods), with about 20 licensees signed up. Alessandri sees opportunity for ESPN itself, along with the network's Bassmaster and College Game Day properties. Other than the usual T-shirts, caps and sleeves, "We need a strategy for some product that makes the user a better and smarter sports fans or sports participant," Alessandri said. "Something that gets to the heart of the brand."
The company claims that 88 million consumers touch the ESPN brand each week.
GREEN FOR THE GREEN: There are almost 23,000 chain drugstores in the United States, yielding about $134 billion in sales last year, according to Chain Drug Review.
Despite those impressive numbers, there's precious little sports sponsorship from the category, which is what makes the Boston Celtics' newest corporate sponsorship intriguing. The Celtics have inked a three-year deal with Rhode Island-based Brooks Pharmacy.
While the 330-plus store chain doesn't quite measure up to Walgreen's 4,227 stores — not to mention CVS (4,120), Rite Aid (3,400) or Eckerd Drugs (2,720) — the activation is impressive enough and raises the question of whether this is an untapped category.
With chain drugstores moving into full-line general retailers, there are certainly other brands, including soft drinks, snack foods, payment cards and razors, that could help pay or pass through or combine their rights.
Brooks' first pro sports sponsorship, believed to be in the high six figures, gets the retailer title rights to a 1,600-seat family section of $10 seats at every Celtics home game, hospitality and media on local Celtics broadcasts.
Meanwhile, the Celtics garner incremental exposure with tags on Brooks' TV and print ads, spots on the chain's in-store radio network, logos on 4 million weekly Brooks circulars, and on all bags at checkout throughout the Warwick-headquartered chain's New England stores.
UNRETIRED ADMIRAL: David Robinson retired earlier this year after 14 years and two championships with San Antonio Spurs. Despite cutting more than 15 national TV ads during his days in the NBA, he's not a spokesman one would consider overexposed and his credibility is unquestioned.
That's why we are positing that Robinson will live longer as a post-NBA endorser than Michael Jordan. Robinson's 4-year-old ad with Tim Duncan for SC Johnson's Edge shaving gel is back on air and BBDO, New York, shot a new ad last week in suburban New York featuring the Admiral for Cingular, which has generally eschewed the use of sports celebrities in creative. Robinson is also due to appear on the cover of a Wheaties Box for Black History Month in February. Octagon handles Robinson'smarketing.
ISOTONICALLY COOL CATS: More than a year before the Charlotte Bobcats play their first game, the expansion NBA club is close to its first corporate sponsorship deal.
Gatorade has agreed to terms with the club, and the Pepsi-owned brand gets isotonic (but not water) rights, along with its usual sideline branding tool kit of Gatorade-embossed cups, coolers and towels. A branded Gatorade section of about 20 seats a game is also included. The deal makes Gatorade the isotonic of choice of 27 of the NBA's 30 clubs.
The seven-year term of the deal seems unusually long. Bobcats vice president of corporate partnerships Tod Rosensweig said the team is seeking long-term partnerships, especially at the more expensive founding-partner level, to accommodate plans for branded sections in the team's yet-unfinished arena, which is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2005-06 NBA season. The Bobcats will begin play in the Charlotte Coliseum next season.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
