This week's podcast looks at Pete Rozelle, the National Football League Commissioner from 1960-1989, who is largely responsible for turning the NFL into the brand it is today. Rozelle started his career in the NFL as the public relations director for the then Los Angeles Rams. He left briefly to work on the Melbourne Olympics but found himself back with the Rams as their general manager in 1957. Then, in 1960, after 22 candidates for commissioner were voted down by the NFL owners, Rozelle was voted to become commissioner, essentially by default. An interesting side note is that while waiting for the votes to be tallied, Rozelle was in the basement bathroom of a fancy hotel rather than more conventional places such as the lobby or a suite. Somewhat symbolically, Rozelle literally started in the outhouse and moved to the penthouse as the commissioner of what quickly became the most successful professional league in the United States. Tagliabue certainly held his own, and the jury is still out on Goodell, but it's clear that Rozelle laid the foundation for a league that is now America's most popular sport.

All of this begs the question, was Rozelle the greatest sports marketer of all-time? If not, who is?

Posted by Ben Shields at 15:24 | Comments (0) |

Because of the popularity of the Top 10 Best Sports Brands episode, this week's The Elusive Fan Podcast counts down the Top 10 Worst Sports Brands. Here is a sample of our list. To find out the rest and who's number one, check out the podcast at http://www.theelusivefan.com/podcasts.html. And when you disagree, make sure to post your own list on our blog.

Number 10: The New York Knicks.
There hasn’t been a more laughable NBA franchise in the last five years than the New York Knicks. Besieged by questionable personnel decisions, scandals, and coaching controversies, the Knicks have become the model for mismanagement in professional sports. After all, they are by far the highest paid team in the league, but their return on investment is absolutely embarrassing, with their last trip to the conference finals in the 1999-2000 season. They’re the basketball equivalent to the Yankees, except they don’t win. It’s classic case of brand mismanagement, and it has taken place on the biggest stage for basketball in the world: Madison Square Garden.

Number 6: Starter Jackets
In the mid-1990s, there were two sports products that transcended sports and became “cool” in pop culture. The first was the Nike Air Jordan, on which kids to this day still spend hundreds of dollars. The second was the Starter Jacket, which turned rooting for your favorite team into a fashion statement and part of your persona. It was also one of the first products to be worn in music videos by rappers such as Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube, who sported the iconic silver and black Raiders version. At its peak, there was a jacket for every team and it became a pastime just to collect them. They’re on our list today because unlike the Air Jordan, they weren’t able to transform to stay cool in the marketplace. Maybe its time for Snoop to dust off his old Raiders gear.

Number 2: Tour de France
The most famous cycling event in the world is not on the list because of it lacks excitement, beautiful scenery, and Frenchness. It’s on the list because it at this moment in time it lacks credibility. For any brand to connect with customers, credibility must be at its very core, and the Tour de France has been the subject of probing questions about the legitimacy of its riders. This year’s winner, Floyd Landis, whose underdog storyline appeared to resurrect the Tour de France’s reputation, became the symbol of the ills the sport faces. To its credit, the Tour has been vigilant in testing and suspending riders, but until it can sufficiently rid performance-enhancing drugs from the sport and perhaps make changes to the format, it will remain on our list.

Posted by Ben Shields at 09:52 | Comments (0) |

The fifth episode of The Elusive Fan Podcast went live today. The subject of this week's show is fantasy sports, and we talk about their humble origins as labor-intensive amateur hobbies and about their transformation into a billion-dollar business. The Commissioner of the CRAS fantasy football league, Adam Grossman, spends a little time revealing the ins and outs of this league, demonstrating that the game itself is far from the only thing that drives the obsessive behavior of some fantasy sports fans.

In light of this week's show, there was a small piece in this weekend's USA Today sports section about Rick Kamla, the NBA's new fantasy television guru. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-10-12-nascar-announcers_x.htm
Kamla was a financial advisor but decided to fully devote himself to fantasy basketball. He began writing about fantasy full-time and his production and insights ultimately led to the NBA hiring him. As Kamla's story suggests, there are careers in fantasy sports that were simply non-existent even five years ago. And as the industry continues to expand, the job opportunities promise to increase, as will the demand.

But it's not just in the working world where fantasy sports are becoming legitimate. There are new school curricula being developed to teach math and decision making through fantasy. For example, Fantasy Sports and Mathematics was developed for grades 5-12 as an alternative teaching module for students. Here is their website: http://www.fantasysportsmath.com/index.htm. I wish my middle school math teacher could have used this program.

What was once a home-bound leisure activity is now invading work and school. It's a real sea change in how society is viewing spectator sports activities, and this trend will only become more permanent in the future.

Posted by Ben Shields at 14:31 | Comments (0) |

The Elusive Fan Podcast #4 launched this weekend on theelusivefan.podshow.com. The topic of the show is thrill marketing, and we talk with Jeff Zaltman, Founder and Managing Director of Aero-GP, a new plane racing motorsport based in Europe. The sport has three main events: a traditional race, a target bombing contest, and a one-on-one dogfight. Think motorsports meets extreme sports meets videogames.

Aero-GP is an interesting case of thrill marketing because of the relatively low participation rates. There really isn't an equivalent to sandlot baseball when it comes to one-on-one plane dogfights. To help compensate for lower particpation levels, Aero-GP is capitalizing on technology to establish a connection with fans. In the book, we call this the vicarious experience connection, where sports products enable fans to get close to the action, as if they were a flying the plane or driving the car themselves. Aero-GP has multiple cameras in the planes that show close-ups of the drivers and the circuit is considering other technological experiences that will enhance fan involvement. These strategies have the benefit of not only bringing the fan inside the sport but also communicating the thrill of the competition in a personalized fashion.

Managing and understanding how thrill operates in sports is a critical strategy in today's elusive fan marketplace. To hear more about the strategy, log on to theelusivefan.podshow.com and click "Thrill Marketing".

Posted by Ben Shields at 11:19 | Comments (0) |

The Terrell Owens saga reached a new level this week. Rumors that he attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers spread in every major media channel and throughout the blogosophere. Owens had been a daily source of news for ESPN for several years now, but this event catapulted him and his baggage onto a national stage.

The story itself, if not compelling, is certainly attention-getting. A multi-millionaire professional athlete, who is on the surface perhaps the most egotistical and confident player in the NFL, is exposed as being vulnerable and even insecure. It was another chapter of controversy in Owens's career, which seemingly every sports media outlet took the opportunity to recap after the event first occurred.

Whether they love him or hate him, people at the very least pay attention to Owens. Why? He is sports' very own tabloid newsmaker. Like Tom Cruise, Anna Nicole Smith, Kate Moss, Michael Jackson, and others that flood the celebrity worshiping channels, TO has the storylines and the willingness to attract attention to himself even when the games aren't being played. He is a form of branded entertainment, promising his fans unpredictable, often outrageous behavior every day of the year. The initials "TO" represent much more than a person; they serve as the brand name for a daily soap opera star that just so happens to play football.

TO has become the symbol for what's right and wrong with professional sports. Owens is highly talented and arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL, but he is infamous for complaining about his salary, feuding with teammates and coaches, and showboating on and off the field.

Despite his mixed brand image, his controversial persona differentiates him from most football players, and while many fans may be turned off by his actions, the attention factor is undeniable. The NFL benefits from TO not only because he fills valuable media time between games and between seasons, but he also is their star-crossed, headline performer that fills seats and attracts eyeballs no matter if he plays or not. Will there ever be too much TO? Only if the storylines fail to remain fresh.

Posted by Ben Shields at 06:27 | Comments (0) |

Episode #2 of The Elusive Fan podcast launched this week on theelusivefan.podshow.com. Here's a sample of our list:

10. Southlake Carroll High School football team, outside of Dallas, Texas - This football program is not your ordinary high school team with rickety stands and bake sale fundraisers. Its branding strategy has been to benchmark professional and college teams and apply a similar formula to the high school level. In doing so, the school has built a $15 million facility that even pro teams in Dallas have used, developed a sophisticated sponsorship package that includes stadium naming rights for 10 years and $1 million, and branded the Southlake Carroll logo on virtually any product imaginable. High school sports are exploding across the country, and Southlake Carroll is the avatar.
8. National Professional Paintball League (NPPL) - Paintball? Why paintball? The NPPL is on the list for its ability to industrialize a sport formerly thought to be played only by adolescent males with emerging testosterone on remote fields somewhere in the forest. Today, 10 million particpants spend $400 million on paintball sporting goods, and the sport is also beginning to grow as a spectator entertainment on ESPN and on the Internet. Paintball brings to life video games and has capitalized on innovations in new technologies to drive fan interest.
5. NASCAR - This racing circuit is the best practice example of merging sports and entertainment. It has transformed from a rural, regional sport with moonshine-drinking drivers to an urban, national entertainment with polished, articulate stars. Marrying sports with soap opera, NASCAR embraces controversies on the track, promotes the access its fans have to their drivers, and benefits from the inherent danger element of the sport. If you watch a NASCAR race on television with the sound off, you will understand how important branding is to the sport...

...To find out the other 7 rankings, listen to The Elusive Fan podcast on theelusivefan.podshow.com.

Posted by Ben Shields at 08:11 | Comments (0) |

The U.S. Open has begun and Andre Agassi has rightfully received the majority of media attention. But as Harvey Araton in the New York Times suggested yesterday, lost among the Agassi tribute is the recognition of the best player in the world - Roger Federer.

This problem is not unique to this year's U.S. Open. Federer has been on one of the most remarkable runs in tennis history. With the exception of Rafael Nadal on clay, no one has been able to beat him, yet his name in America at least is hardly celebrated like other international superstars such as Woods, Beckham, and James.

Why isn't Federer a star? It certainly isn't because of a lack of winning; he already has eight majors. An answer is that Federer has no clear brand identity. Who is Roger Federer? What is his type? What is his character? What does he stand for? Unlike Tiger Woods, Federer lacks the dramatic storyline, communication skills, and crossover pop culture appeal that is so critical to building a strong brand. In order to capitalize on his winnings, Federer needs to be humanized - his personality must come to life in interviews, his storyline of how he made it to where he is must be refined, and his identity must be differentiated from his competitors through his distribution strategies. It may be that Federer has no desire to be an international superstar with a strong following in the United States, but the struggling sport of tennis could certainly benefit from his achievements by transforming him into an international icon.

The case of Federer demonstrates a critical issue in sports marketing - winning isn't everything. There are other examples of strong star brands such as women's golfer Annika Sorenstam and IRL driver Dan Wheldon who are top athletes in their sports but have not been able to break through a cluttered sports marketplace like fellow competitors Michelle Wie and Danica Patrick. What can separate these kinds of stars is transformation, a process that includes targeting fan markets, establishing the star's identity, defining his or her type and character, and refining core communication skills. The difference between someone like Federer and an athlete like David Beckham is not necessarily their achievements but their understanding of global fan expectations and their willingness to be branded.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/sports/tennis/02araton.html?_r=1

Posted by Ben Shields at 07:47 | Comments (2) |

Reversing his historically negative image probably wasn't New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury's primary motivation for endorsing a $14.98 basketball shoe, but it will certainly help. Throughout his career, Marbury has been typecast as a "cancer," causing the breakup of a potential championship duo with Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, losing with essentially the same group of Phoenix Suns that Steve Nash won with, and sparking controversy with former Knicks coach Larry Brown in his only season on the bench. The new line of "Starbury" shoes and apparel at discount clothing store Steve & Barry's is flying in the face of conventional industry practices and redeeming Marbury in the process. Not only is the price unprecedented, but Marbury and his team of managers are relying only on free media to publicize the launch, avoiding the multimillion dollar services of someone like Mars Blackmon.

Critics have said that it may be a major business risk of Marbury's to try to sell cheap shoes to the youth market, which is often persuaded by price as a determining factor of "cool." But in the business of credibility, Marbury's counter position is well-executed. The managers of the Starbury brand understood the prevailing perceptions about Marbury and NBA athletes and generated a brand that differentiated him from every other NBA player and attracted attention to a seemingly reborn and rededicated star. While Marbury apparently didn't have many offers from the major shoe companies, he did take advantage of the opportunity to break out of the shoe market clutter, at least temporarily. His new "brand-forming moment" has been generated, but whether he can capitalize on it remains to be seen.

Posted by Ben Shields at 08:34 | Comments (0) |

Is it me, or does the anticipation for the opening kickoff of the NFL season seem greater than ever? Meaningless preseason games are easily winning the Nielsen sports ratings wars, even though stars are playing limited time, if at all, and coverage of the NFL is dominating local and national sports news outlets despite compelling baseball playoff races. The NFL barrage has begun (perhaps it never even stopped) and the football intensity will continue until the Super Bowl champions come back from their trip to Disney World.

While it doesn't account for everything, a major driver in the unprecedented anticipation of the NFL season is the explosion of fantasy football. Under the pre-fantasy model, fans generally would begin the season with the hope that their hometown or favorite team has been regenerated and will take them to the championship. Today, the anticipation for the opening kickoff is not as much about whether their favorite team will win the Super Bowl, but whether their own fantasy team will beat their buddies and win the sometimes inconsequential pot of money. As a $1.5 billion industry, fantasy sports are redefining the ways that the football fan interacts with the sport and the media they use to do so. The DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket option that showcases multiple games on one screen at one time, ESPN Mobile's instant fantasy updates, and CBS Sportsline's extensive GameTrak system are all redefined media experiences designed for the statistics-hungry fantasy fan. It’s no surprise fans are watching preseason games in large numbers; they’re doing research for the diamonds in the rough that they can steal in the 12th round of their fantasy drafts.

The fantasy football phenomenon begs the question: Would you rather your favorite team win the Super Bowl or you win your fantasy league?

Posted by Ben Shields at 06:49 | Comments (3) |

Behind a sophisticated bull breeding infrastructure, the Professional Bull Riders tour is fast becoming a formidable competitor in the sports industry. Sunday's New York Times reported these figures for 2005 alone of this emerging professional sports circuit:

Value: $40 million
Attendance: 1.1 million at 156 events
Television viewers: 100 million
Prize money: $10+ million

Why would a formerly on-the-farm sport draw these kinds of numbers? One explanation is that the sport has fundamental appeals to nature and animalistic instincts, which are in sharp contrast to the increasingly technological and wired lives of many Americans. Watching bull riding helps fans travel back, perhaps nostalgically, to less industrialized and urbanized times when land wasn't paved over by condo developments and new media didn't consume one's life 24 hours a day. The sport is also somewhat of a vicarious thrill ride for fans watching the fearsome bull compete against a sometimes helpless, always flailing rider. The danger of bull riding is no different from the hits in football or crashes in NASCAR, both of which help drive viewership in their sports because fans can enjoy the danger but do not have to suffer the consequences. The riders themselves are an additional attraction. Unlike some professional athletes, who may appear to be using performance-enhancing substances, bull riders have the persona of the ever-effective everyman and also are consummate tough guys like Russell Crowe in Gladiator.

The success of the sport turns upside-down the traditional notion that sports participation leads to spectatorship. It is unlikely that many of the millions of bull riding fans have ever stepped foot on a bucking bronco, except for the mechanical bulls at Tex-Mex bars and restaurants. But if the sport continues to grow and capitalize on its differentiation in the marketplace, those mechanical bulls might soon be seen in fitness clubs, high school gyms, and television infomercials.

Posted by Ben Shields at 08:20 | Comments (0) |

For the last decade, NASCAR has been building tracks near big cities such as Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and Las Vegas, attracting corporate sponsorship from blue chip companies, and promoting the the increasing diversity of its core of drivers--all to transform the circuit from a regionally based niche sport in the south to arguably one of the four major sports in the U.S. market. NASCAR's strategic repositioning as a mainstream American entertainment is no more evident than in the release this weekend of the film Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, starring former Saturday Night Live comedian Will Ferrell. Ferrell plays an aspiring NASCAR driver who represents the sport and its current stars in a self-deprecating fashion. Whether Ferrell gives an Oscar winning performance is probably irrelevant. What is important is that NASCAR will likely benefit from the cross sector exposure in an industry other than sports, a strategy that has the advantage of connecting with a much wider audience. In this case, the choice of Ferrell, who appeals to the coveted male 18-34 market because of his past roles in Old School, Anchorman, and Wedding Crashers is a principal driver in the cross sectoring strategy. It remains to be seen whether these types of films will emerge as a trend across all sports, but because of the fragmentation and competition in the marketplace, the use of film to generate exposure in popular culture may likely be worth the investment.

Posted by Ben Shields at 10:28 | Comment (1) |

Playing videogames has become more than just a favorite pastime among prolonged-adolescent males. It is now a spectator sport, complete with marquee events, leagues, and sports stars. The World Cyber Games, the videogame World Cup, is preparing for its 6th annual tournament of players from across the globe. A professional league called Major League Gaming now has about 150 players and sponsorship support. And a powerful star culture of videogamers has emerged in places like South Korea, where players are treated like global soccer stars, and in America, where Jonathan Welden, aka Fata1ity, has started his own lifestyle brand with gaming products and potential plans for a clothing line.

The emerging professional videogame industry demonstrates the ways that technology is reconfiguring the sports industry. Not only are videogames a version of participant sports but they are also generating a fan base. In light of the performance-enhancing drug scandals all over the sports world, the most celebrated sports stars in the future may not be the athletes on the field but the people that control the athletes in videogames.

Posted by Ben Shields at 10:14 | Comment (1) |

Welcome to The Elusive Blog. We will use this space to discuss the latest issues in the business of attracting and engaging The Elusive Fan.

One of the points we emphasize in the book is how competitive and fragmented the marketplace has become. The most recent example of this increasingly pressurized environment is last night's premiere of The World Series of Darts on ESPN. Following the formula of its successful World Series of Poker brand, ESPN is combining innovations in television technology and proven star power strategies to launch its newest venture. Suddenly, the game of darts you played in a friend's basement or in the backroom of a bar was thrust onto national television and garnished with dramatic music, enthusiastic announcers, and light fixtures reminiscent of a rock concert.

While the darts experiment could very well fail, it is an example of the ways that media is creating new opportunities for previously little known sports (ESPN is also developing a new series based on dominos.) The launch of the WSOD also means that the traditional sports on the professional, college, high school, and club level now face yet another competitor in this volatile and fragmented market. How long will it be until the high school darts team outdraws the basketball squad? On the surface, this may seem like a nonsense question, but it could one day demand serious attention, especially when considering the new realities of The Elusive Fan.

Posted by Ben Shields at 17:40 | Comments (0) |

TheElusiveFan.com launches this week. Check back soon for up to date insights into the modern sports world.

Posted by Ben Shields at 11:31 | Comments (0) |