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Volume 1 Case Study 10IN SPORT MANAGEMENTCase STUDIES

This content is copyright © Human Kinetics, Inc. and is not to be distributed, disseminated, or reproduced without permission.

Michael Olejniczak is an account executive at GMR Marketing. Thomas J. Aicher is a professor of sport administration at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH.

Leveraging Sponsorships to Meet Organizational Marketing Objectives: A Case Study of a Consumer

Packaged Good Product With the Super Bowl

Michael OlejniczakNorthern Illinois University

Thomas J. AicherUniversity of Cincinnati

Keywords: marketing, sponsorship, activation, NFL, Super Bowl, North America

The sponsorship landscape has become increasingly cluttered, making it difficult for brands to stand out amongst ubiquitous sponsors. The National Football League (NFL) and the NFL Super Bowl have exemplified the marketing opportunities, business potential, and sponsorship challenges present in large-scale sporting events. In this case study, we present a fictitious consumer packaged goods beverage company, Staz, and their sponsorship of the NFL Super Bowl. Through the case study, we outline the objectives Staz is attempting to attain through its partnership with the NFL Super Bowl, as well as the activities they employed at national, local and site specific levels. Throughout the case, we present challenges brought on by Staz’s competitors, shortfalls in Staz’s hospitality activities, and the under-utilization of social media during their Super Bowl sponsorship campaign. The reader’s goal is to recognize the activities Staz executed well, while idealizing solutions for the brand’s less effective activation efforts.

In a relatively short period of time, sponsorship marketing has exploded, as global spending has grown from $2 billion in 1984 to $46 billion in 2010 (Cornwell, 2008; Ko, Kim, Claussen, & Hee Kim, 2008; IEG, 2011). Sport accounts for an estimated 87% of sponsorship spending (Fenton, 2008), with the projected North American sport spending in 2011 at $12.4 billion. Due to vast reach and high exposure levels achieved by premier sporting events, much of the sponsor-ship market is comprised of promotional rights to market with elite sport properties (Ko et al., 2008). Consequently, the sponsorship landscape has become increasingly cluttered, making it more difficult for brands to stand out amongst ubiquitous sponsors.

Ko and his colleagues (2008) have diagnosed the two main reasons for the increase in the level of investments for sponsorship and the quantity of opportunities to partnership with sport organizations as (a) sports’ ability to reach large and diverse audiences, and (b) Liberman’s (2003) research documenting three of four corporate sponsors have been satisfied with their partnerships with sport leagues, teams, and organizations. Despite continued price increases for promotional rights in sports, the industry may continue to grow, as sponsorship has offered great avenues for companies wishing to increase brand awareness, improve their image, and accomplish diverse business objectives.

The National Football League (NFL) and the NFL Super Bowl have exemplified the marketing opportunities, business potential, and sponsorship challenges present in large-scale sporting events. The level of investment needed to partner with the NFL and Super Bowl is comparable to other mega sport events such as the Olympics and World Cup, which makes it an interesting context to evaluate an organization’s strategies for reaching its objectives. The following

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case study will display how sport sponsorship, specific to the Super Bowl, has been leveraged to activate brands’ pro-motional rights, and achieve various business objectives.

The following case will follow Josephine Hart, a sports marketing executive for a national Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) corporation, and NFL sponsor, as she reviews her company’s Super Bowl marketing plan. Reviewing this case, readers take the position as members of Josephine’s brand marketing team, first developing an understanding of last year’s efforts, and then discussing how to improve their brand’s Super Bowl XLV marketing shortfalls. It is the readers’ responsibility to understand the various sponsorship objectives and supplemental marketing activities executed in order to uncover last year’s activation plan shortfalls.

Theoretic Background

Common Objectives for Sponsors

Teams, players, leagues, and media coverage have had the ability elicit considerable excitement and emotional attach-ment in sport’s consumers, which is capable of being exploited by sponsoring brands (Copeland, Frisby, & McCar-ville, 1996). Three categories of objectives have often been identified in an abundance of sponsorship literature, and are acknowledged as (a) increasing product and brand awareness, (b) enhancing brand or corporate image, and (c) increasing purchase intent and sales (Cornwell & Maignan, 1998). DeGaris (2010) discussed these objectives as being interdependent, as sponsorship awareness can be linked to brand favorability and image, which is often transferred to purchase intent, which then achieves the ultimate organizational objective of increasing sales. To achieve these objec-tives, most brands face strong resistance and competition from competitive brands. In order to combat the challenges associated with elite sport sponsorship, brands must effectively activate their sponsorship through diverse marketing efforts around the event.

Challenges with Premium Sport Sponsorship

Early sponsorship literature cited ‘communication in a low-cluttered environment’ as an advantage for sponsors (Gardner & Shuman, 1987). However, this benefit no longer resonates, as more recent sporting events have many distractions interfering with communication of brand messages (Crompton, 1994). Cornwell and her colleagues (2000) uncovered the negative influence clutter had on a consumer’s perception of and ability to recall and recognize a sponsor. Noise and clutter brought on by multiple brands around sport may diminish the exclusive and prestigious images previously asso-ciated with sport; therefore limiting the effectiveness of sponsorship (Seguin, Lyberger, O’Reilly, & McCarthy, 2005).

One of the greatest sources of noise in the sports business landscape is ambush marketing. Ambush marketing has been described as a company’s intentional effort to weaken a competitor’s official sponsorship by aligning with a property without securing the official rights to do so (McKelvey, 2006). By forging an unofficial tie-in with a prop-erty, ambushers form a perceived association without paying the expensive rights fees necessary to become an official sponsor (Nufer & Buhler, 2010). Cornwell, Weeks and Roy (2005) explained this competitor interference likely has negative effects on the true sponsor’s ability to achieve objectives. Although the ethical implications of ambushing, due to its aim to confuse the buying public, have been covered in detail (McKelvey, 1994), ambushers rarely cross legal lines in their strategies (Cornwell, 2008). With little help from the legal system, it is up to the sponsors to ensure their sponsorship messages stand out amongst intruding attempts from ambushing brands.

Activating the Sponsorship

In order to receive the most from sponsorship investments, properties have been required to effectively activate their partnership. In sponsorship literature, the terms ‘leveraging’ and ‘activation’ are often used interchangeably in describ-ing the marketing and promotions brands implement to enhance sponsorship effectiveness (DeGaris, West, & Dodds, 2009). Activation has been defined as “communications that promote the engagement, involvement, or participation of the sponsorship audience with the sponsor” (Weeks, Cornwell, & Drennan, 2008). These communication efforts include advertising, sales promotions, public relations (DeGaris et al., 2009), and other forms of brand marketing that supplement a sponsorship.

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Stotlar (2004) conceptualized a sponsorship model which displayed components of sports that could be activated. This model’s components included (a) venue signage, (b) hospitality tents, (c) in-game promotions, (d) broadcast and media advertising, (e) sales kiosks and point-of purchase displays, and (f) ticket access. In sport, of activation can be seen when brands air commercials during game broadcasts, design in-store displays and product packaging utilizing sport properties’ logos, develop customer sweepstakes to attend premium sporting events, and place signage around stadiums.

Fahy and his associates (2004) proposed that a company’s financial resources are by far the most important tangible asset to consider in sponsorship activity. Brands having the financial means and organizational backing certainly may have an advantage in activating their sponsorship over low budget sponsorship brand. Although there is no industry standard, some practitioners recommend spending two to three times the cost of the sponsorship in promoting corporate partnerships (Farrelly & Quester, 1997), while some have spent as much as four times the cost of rights on activation (IEG Sponsorship Report, 2009).

Oftentimes, sponsors fail to activate effectively because they are unable or unwilling to invest more dollars into supplementary marketing activities (O’Keefe, Titlebaum, & Hill, 2009). However, with the growth of online capabili-ties and social communities, sponsors can now activate and engage fans at lower costs. Paul (2007) explained how implementing interactive promotional campaigns on the internet is a cost-effective way to increase advertisers’ reach. Further, new media has been suggested to enable brands to communicate more effectively and more often with potential consumers to develop brand awareness, enhance key customer relationships, and provide relevant opportunities and content (Roberts, 2006). Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms have utilized new marketing platforms, integrating marketing activities with new media as a way to increase publicity and sales (Hambrick, 2012).

Super Bowl Sponsorship: The Case of Staz

Staz’s Profile

The morning after Super Bowl Sunday, Josephine Hart arrived at her office to an assembly of her coworkers discussing the game, the big plays, and other events, which led to the Lombardi Trophy’s return the Green Bay Packers. After a brief conversation about the game, the best and worst commercials, and the immaculate play of Aaron Rodgers, Josephine made it to her desk to reflect on something more important than the game. As a brand director for sports marketing at a large CPG beverage company, it was Josephine’s responsibility to plan and execute a Super Bowl activation program for their brand, Staz, making their NFL partnership come alive to end its 2010 official sponsorship campaign.

Focusing on a potential customer base broken down by consumption behavior, rather than demographic informa-tion, the primary target market for Staz includes individuals who consume their product, or a similar product, six or more times a week. The group falling within this consumption market, and the target market Josephine is tasked with reaching, includes prominently males aged 21-29. Representing a valuable audience for Staz to reach in alignment with their target market, in 2010 the NFL fan-base was composed of nearly 60% males, and having 30% of their fans being between the ages of 18 and 34 (Fan Demographics, 2010).

Feeling constant pressure from upper management to find more effective ways to generate and improve return on investment (ROI) from Staz’s $20 million per year sponsorship of the NFL, Josephine must recap Super Bowl XLV’s objectives and activation execution to illustrate the value of elite sport sponsorships for Staz’s Board of Directors. Further, Josephine and her team must present the challenges and shortfalls from Super Bowl XLV, and show upper management how these issues will be resolved for next year’s big game. As part of Josephine’s team, it is your task to understand the objectives of sponsorship marketing and activation, realize the threats affecting a sponsorship campaign’s success, and identify methods to more effectively activate Staz’s NFL Super Bowl sponsorship. Following is a review of the strategies implemented by Staz, and methods taken by its competitors to detract from the sponsorship.

Staz’s Sponsorship Rights

With their official NFL partnership, Staz had access to leverage all 2010-2011 league events, including the NFL Draft, NFL Kickoff, the Pro Bowl, and the Super Bowl. Also, with their exclusive deal with the NFL, Staz was allowed exclusive rights to utilize league trademarks in their own marketing material. Staz leveraged this right on product

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packaging, advertisements, and point-of-sale (POS) retail stands, by using official verbiage and logos no other brand in their category could use, such as the title ‘Super Bowl’, the official Super Bowl XLV logo, and the NFL Shield. Further, being an official league partner, Staz was allocated a number of Super Bowl tickets and merchandise, which the brand was entitled to use for sweepstakes and promotions. Because NFL sponsorship does not include marketing rights for individual franchises, Staz held no official marketing partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Green Bay Packers, the two teams who played in Super Bowl XLV.

Staz’s Marketing Objectives

On a broad level, Staz had three objectives. First, Staz wanted to build awareness of the NFL and Super Bowl partner-ship on a national level. Secondly, the brand concentrated its presence in the local Super Bowl market, and executed marketing programs through targeting bars, retailers, restaurants and other areas of purchase. Lastly, Staz wanted to leverage its league partnership and rights to drive national retail sales on the biggest consumption day of the entire year for the product category, while also using the day to spark greater sales from already-established distributors and buyers.

Build awareness and enhance image. Staz first acquired official NFL rights in an effort to position their brand in a way making them appear to have a great amount of market share. Using the national media platform, Staz sought to build greater basic brand awareness of their NFL and Super Bowl partnership to influence a shift in consumer mindset regarding what was then a relatively regional brand, often falling in top-of-mind consideration behind two other category giants. Similar to a decade ago, when Staz first entered into their agreement, maintaining and enhanc-ing awareness of the NFL partnership remained a crucial objective. The brand has used concentrated national retail, media, and out-of-home (OOH) marketing in high traffic areas to draw attention its NFL affiliation.

Execute marketing programs in local market. Specific to the Super Bowl, another main objective for Staz was to execute heavily in the Super Bowl host market, Dallas-Fort Worth. Aligning with the Super Bowl through NFL and game-themed retail displays, on-premise promotions at restaurants and local shopping centers, Staz used their marketing activities and brand’s presence in buying situations to drive success and sales in the host market.

Drive national sales on biggest consumption day of the year. Much like many food and beverage CPGs, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest days for consumption in Staz’s product category. Accordingly, Staz attempted to capitalize by driving nation-wide sales before and during the game. With this objective in mind, Staz attempted to provide creative and exciting ways to build their retail partnerships, and increase sales for not only their brand, but also the outlets carrying Staz’s products.

Build relationships with consumers and partners. Thought to be one of the most desired sporting events to attend, Staz also sought to provide customer incentives through engagement marketing programs. This objective was two-fold. Staz wanted to provide indirect customers (consumers) opportunities to win trips, tickets and Super Bowl merchandise through purchases of their product. Secondly, Staz wanted to utilize its official NFL partnership to enhance their direct customer (distributors) relationships by providing their best and biggest customers tickets to the game, hotels, and hospitality, and other premium access for the weekend.

Staz’s Super Bowl Activation Strategies

Staz executed a number of activation strategies to communicate its NFL and Super Bowl partnership. The objectives were to effectively communicate the Super Bowl partnership on the national scale, execute heavy marketing activities in the Dallas-Fort Worth local market, and to provide hospitality access to the brand’s best and biggest customers.

National activation. In December of 2010, Staz began placing both the NFL Shield and Super Bowl XLV logo on their packaging. Further engaging customers, Staz offered a chance for average consumers to gain exclusive Super Bowl access by taking a picture of a ‘Staz Tag’ (similar to a QR code) on the brand package, and sending their pic-ture to a specified number. Taking a picture of this package ‘Staz Tag’ entered fans into a drawing to win access to such prizes as tickets to the Super Bowl, roundtrip airfare to Texas, Cowboys Stadium tours, invites to official Super

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Bowl parties, and autographed and official Super Bowl merchandise. Staz used the slogan ‘Win unthinkable access to the NFL Super Bowl” on its packaging and many retail displays driving traffic to its products. Along with placing ‘Staz Tags’ on all brand packaging, beginning in December of 2010, the brand also placed the tag on nation-wide billboards, national marketing pieces, and other out-of-home advertisements.

Due to the high costs associated with placing a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl, Staz did not utilize the event’s broadcast to nationally activate their partnership. Instead, the brand maintained a season-long and post-season presence on media outlets covering the NFL to communicate its league association. Employing advertising space during pregame, in-game and post-game shows on major national networks broadcasting NFL games, and sponsoring a weekly segment called “Staz’s Ice Cold Facts” on the elite national sports-centered channel, Staz promoted their league association on many NFL-centered platforms leading up to the Super Bowl.

Local activation. Executing on local platforms, Staz covered retail stores, signage around Dallas-Fort Worth, restaurants, and Super Bowl-specific events with their brand displays leveraging the Super Bowl XLV affiliation.

Retail stores. At some of the larger supermarkets and retailers in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, Staz promoted its NFL and event association by using end-cap posters at the end of each shopping aisle, and billboard-sized ceiling ban-ners throughout the store, communicating the partnership. At the supermarket directly across from Cowboys Stadium, Staz had the entire store covered with their brand, even in areas not selling their product. More frequently, Staz setup and executed POS stands strategically in retailers selling their product. These POS displays often included a televi-sion running Staz’s NFL and Super Bowl themed advertisements and NFL video loops, surrounded by stacks of their products. Attempting to stand out amongst its competitors, Staz was concentrated and deliberate in using Super Bowl symbolism, wording, and imagery to influence buyers who came into targeted stores to buy for the game. Positioned amongst other brands using deceptive Super Bowl POS initiatives in retail outlets, Staz attempted to leverage its rights to use Super Bowl wordage and imagery to stand out as being the authentic brand for the game.

Super Bowl specific events. The NFL Experience has been part of Super Bowl weekend since 1992. Described as the NFL’s interactive theme park, the NFL Experience houses historical exhibits, appearances and autograph sessions from NFL players, and games to be played by kids and kids at heart. The 2011 NFL Experience included a designated area for those interactive games, entitled the “Sponsor Zone.” Of the 26 league sponsors, 13, including Staz, used this space to activate their sponsorship (Lefton, 2011). Staz attracted NFL Experience ticket holders to their exhibit through a game testing participants throwing accuracy, handing out branded prizes and free MP3 gift cards for high scores and participation, running a sweepstakes each day to win $500, and encouraging fans to take pictures at a green-screen photo booth branded with Staz and Super Bowl images. Throughout the 9-day NFL Experience, 170,000 people were in attendance, 32,000 individuals participated in the football toss game, nearly 8,000 people were engaged by the green-screen photo booth, and Staz handed out over 50,000 branded giveaways. However, post-event surveys indicated some fans were disappointed with the long lines and lack of friendliness they experienced with various staff members who were mostly volunteers.

Cowboys Stadium on game day. Around the stadium on game day, Staz’s brand was present in a number of areas. First, there was an official Staz tailgate party in one of the main parking lots. Although this event required a ticket, Staz used the area as an opportunity for signage and branding, as there was a Staz-branded bus, and other signs surrounding the outskirts of the tailgate area for fans to see as they walked by. Also, inside the NFL Tailgate (to be subsequently covered) Staz was available to attendees to drink for free. When fans arrived at their seats, they found a complementary seat cushion. Inside this cushion’s pocket, Staz sponsored the Super Bowl XLV fan code of conduct, generating more awareness to their NFL affiliation, and improving the brand’s image. Also inside the stadium, the NFL dedicated two sections during the event to thank official NFL sponsors. By placing brand logos on the jumbo-tron inside the stadium, the 100,000-plus fans in attendance were shown the official NFL and Super Bowl sponsors, influencing Staz’s aware-ness and image objectives.

Hospitality. In 2011, the corporate hospitality and party scene was said to be back to where it was in the pre-recession economy (Star Search: Super Bowl, 2011). With their best clients, distributors, and partners in mind, Staz invited an Official Super Bowl party consisting of 250 critical stakeholders to North Texas for Super Bowl weekend.

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Accommodations. Members of Staz’s official party were placed in a premier hotel in Downtown Fort Worth. Upon arriving, guests of Staz were given a jacket branded with their logo and the Super Bowl XLV insignia, and a Super Bowl travel briefcase as presents from the brand. Also, to give guests an original taste of Texas, these clients were fitted, sized, and given authentic leather cowboy boots from Staz. The gifts were very well received by these individuals.

Official Super Bowl parties. On top of providing members of their official party numerous tickets to the previously discussed NFL Experience, Staz also treated their best and biggest partners to three official Super Bowl parties hosted in Dallas and Fort Worth during the week of the game. One of which was the Official Super Bowl party for Staz on Friday before the game, another was the official party of one of Staz’s sister brands on Saturday night, and the last was the NFL Tailgate hosted by the league on Sunday before the game. Staz’s official party was hosted at the region’s larg-est, and most notorious honky-tonk bar. With a live concert from three well-known country music performers, Staz’s official group was treated to an authentic Texas-style party. Members of the official party were given VIP access to an exclusive area, just for Staz personnel and guests. With free drinks and food all night, as well as frequent appearances by NFL players and celebrities: the Staz party provided a true VIP NFL experience.

On Saturday, Staz’s sister brand’s official party was hosted at a trendy nightclub in Downtown Dallas, headlined by a concert from a hip-hop music star. As an indication of guests’ enjoyment at Saturday’s party, most members of the official Staz group were on the first shuttle back to the hotel. Complaints of the music being too loud and being at a venue not conducive to conversation led Staz’s personnel to realizing they may have planned an event not matching their stakeholders’ interests. Additionally, areas of the nightclub where NFL personnel and celebrities gathered were off limits, even though Staz’s group had a VIP status for Saturday night’s party. Since guests of the party were used to being treated as VIPs throughout the weekend, restricting them from certain areas may have alienated some members from the group.

NFL Tailgate. For their biggest partners, the NFL organizes an official Super Bowl tailgate prior to the game. The NFL Tailgate was held in a two-floor indoor building just outside Cowboys Stadium. Requiring a ticket for entrance, the NFL controlled and allocated the Super Bowl Tailgate tickets to their own partners. NFL Tailgate ticket holders gained access to complimentary beer, soda, gourmet appetizers, and a concert by three popular music acts. Just weeks before the Super Bowl, the NFL contacted Staz, asking them to return 50 of the allotted tickets to the NFL Tailgate. With no influence in the matter, Staz was required to contact some of the brand’s best clients that had been invited, explain the situation, and ask for NFL Tailgate tickets to be returned. As one can imagine, these were difficult calls to make, potentially damaging previously strong relationships.

Further problems with hospitality at the NFL Tailgate occurred the day of the game. An event held for exclusive partners of the NFL, ticket-holders became increasingly irritably after unexpectedly waited nearly 90 minutes in line to enter the tailgate. Making matters worse, many of the ticket holders, who happened to be powerful business people dressed nicely for the occasion, were tracked through mud while in line. Staz personnel and their invitees not only missed some of the entertainment value of the NFL Tailgate, but missed out on valuable time to talk business and network to capitalize on the potential business benefits associated with this hospitality event.

Host city hospitality failures. Super Bowl XLV’s host city was often criticized for its perceived logistical shortfalls, and lack of preparation. For one, professionals from Super Bowl sponsors were spread out all over a 50-mile radius around Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington. Staz’s professionals have loved the Super Bowl because it is similar to a busi-ness convention, where executives use the weekend to meet with other powerful brand decision makers and hold business functions. However, the distance between many of these professionals made meetings difficult to plan. Moreover, when 6 inches of snow fell in Texas during the week of the Super Bowl, the region became nearly impossible to navigate by car. The city was not prepared for the snowy winter weather, and Staz suffered because of it. Staz executives, located in Fort Worth, needed to cancel numerous meetings throughout the week due to an inability to travel outside of walking distance from their hotel. Without snow-melting ice trucks ready to clean the streets in Texas, the highways between Dallas-Fort Worth became covered in sheets of matted-down snow and ice. These circumstances left Staz questioning why nothing was done preemptively or reactively to help solve the logistical nightmares in Texas during the week.

Social media activation. To begin its social media campaign around the Super Bowl, Staz introduced its ‘Staz Tag’ promotion to the brand’s Facebook followers at the beginning of January. Afraid of overwhelming followers

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with constant posts, and thus negatively impacting the brand, Staz only communicated the ‘Staz Tag’ promotion a total of three times throughout the month leading up to Super Bowl XLV. After the promotion ended, Staz leveraged Facebook by posting photos of their sweepstakes winners online, showing the winners of the ‘Staz Tag’ promotion experiencing their exclusive Super Bowl prizes.

Instead of using Facebook as an advertisement, Staz used these mediums more to spark interaction and conversa-tion. Posting generic messages and questions, such as asking followers “What’s your pregame ritual?” and “What is your prediction for the game?”, Staz attempted to subtly associate its brand with the game, and non-invasively commu-nicated to customers. As one measure of success, Staz generated 1,500 Facebook ‘Likes’ and over 650 Facebook-user comments during the month preceding the Super Bowl. Staz made one Facebook post with the intent to drive sales. During Super Bowl Weekend, the brand sent out a link to followers, leading them to a site to print out Super Bowl specific coupons to be used for the game.

To further activate its Super Bowl Sponsorship to their online community and followers, Staz created a Facebook event for the game. Inviting all Facebook followers to attend their Super Bowl Party, Staz drove awareness to not only the brand’s own online community, but also may have achieved a residual impact, as the Facebook event would also show up on attendees’ page, on display for their friends.

Noise and Ambush Marketing Against Staz

All around Super Bowl XLV, Josephine and her team witnessed numerous ambush marketing activities from its competi-tors. They were cognizant of this because in Staz’s product category more than any other, it seems ambushing occurs more frequently and aggressively. Like Staz, the brand’s competitors recognized the congruence in the NFL’s fan base, and the influence this platform could have on the product’s target market. Further, seemingly endless media space surrounding the Super Bowl and countless opportunities for brand integration in retail outlets and other sites that sell Staz provided non-official brands diverse ways to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the weekend. Due to the amount of ambush marketing and the competitive brand environment in the NFL, only 20% of NFL fans surveyed identified Staz as an official sponsor of the league, where as Staz’s largest competitor was incorrectly identified by 50% of the survey’s respondents (Broughton, 2010). Thus, Josephine faced constant challenges in communicating the partnership while implementing measures to protect her company’s investment, maintain the value of their sponsorship, and stand out amongst multiple brands not paying for the official NFL and Super Bowl rights.

Advertising in Super Bowl team’s local market. One of Staz’s competitors advertised in Milwaukee’s leading news-paper, communicating their official status with the Green Bay Packers, while also forming an artificial association with the Super Bowl. Several times throughout the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLV, this brand ran newspaper ads telling fans they would “Win a trip to the Showdown in Texas.” Since this brand was an official sponsor of the Pack-ers, they had the right to use the Packer logo in the ads, but could not use any official NFL verbiage. However, even without the NFL Shield, the brand capitalized on the passion and pride Packer fans possess by playing in the Super Bowl, aligning their brand with the event without using the specific terms. Further, after the game was over and the Packers were crowned Super Bowl XLV champions, the competing brand launched new packaging. On this brand’s container, the ambusher stated “Brand X celebrates 2010 World Champions” with the Packer logo below. Activating their sponsorship with the Packers, this ambushing brand leveraged the partnership to dilute some of the NFL alignment impact Staz generated with its Super Bowl sponsorship.

There were also ambushing attempts by competing brands holding no affiliation with the NFL or the Packers. Using creative wording, one unaffiliated brand purchased a full-page advertisement in the biggest Wisconsin newspaper, which read “We want ring number 4…Good luck today.” Without owning the rights to an affiliation with the Green Bay Packers or the NFL, this advertisement artificially created an association with the league and the playing team in the passionate Wisconsin fan base.

National retail store and media ambushing. Another ambushing strategy observed by Staz was point of sale (POS) displays using creative wording to form an association with the Super Bowl. For example, ‘Brand Y’ employed the phrase “The road to the Brand Y Bowl” through its entire POS and advertising campaign in retail outlets. Attempting to

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combat the effectiveness of Staz using Super Bowl trademarks and symbols, Brand Y has forged an unofficial associa-tion with the event to direct traffic in stores and influence buyers’ decisions leading up to the game.

Due to the high cost of advertising space, the company decided that Staz would not buy television commercials during Super Bowl XLV’s broadcast. Brand Y, however placed five advertisements on the game’s broadcast, and in the past had been awarded as having some of the best commercials from media coverage on the days after the Super Bowl. Comparatively, only 18% of advertisements during Super Bowl XLV’s broadcast were from official NFL partners, as only five NFL sponsors advertised on national television (Who’s in, who’s out, 2011).

Conclusion

As Josephine and her team critically examine their marketing program from Super Bowl XLV, many shortfalls of their activation plan became apparent. During Super Bowl weekend, Staz’s brand found great success in their strategies, but was negatively impacted by controllable and uncontrollable aspects effecting travel, hospitality offerings from the NFL, and one of the brand’s two official Super Bowl Parties. Also, Staz struggled with under-utilization of social media, and its ability to connect with fans and potentially drive sales. Lastly, there were numerous and effective ambushing efforts by competitors. With one more year left on their NFL sponsorship deal, Staz’s leadership will need to present solutions regarding how to improve on the mistakes from last year, while also outlining how they will activate their Super Bowl partnership in their last year.

Putting together a presentation for Staz’s Board of Directors, Josephine has asked each team member to answer the following questions to facilitate more solution-oriented discussions about hospitality, ambush prevention, and social media implementation:

What objective(s) did our (Staz’s) hospitality offerings seek to achieve? What did we do to achieve these, or what didn’t we do to prevent us from achieving these goals? Are there any negative consequences when implementing a strong hospitality offering?

How can we utilize Social Media more effectively? Benchmark one CPG product Facebook and Twitter page; how do they generate fan conversations, how often do they post? How can these benchmark lessons be applied to Staz’s brand in terms of communicating their NFL partnership?

What is the biggest ambushing threat to our brand: competitions strong presence in the playing teams’ local market media outlets; competitors buying advertising space during the Super Bowl broadcast; competitors confusing the customers at the point of purchase with confusing verbiage aligning nonofficial brands with the “Big Game”? Can we prevent ambushing, and what steps can we take?

Staz is in their final year as an Official NFL sponsor. Assuming the brand will always target the NFL fan base, is being an Official NFL sponsor the best way to market to this group? If yes, justify the value. If no, identify and explain another strategy of NFL alignment.

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