Monday May 23, 2022

In this case, during the game’s second intermission, a Chipotle branded Zamboni pushed out a giant burrito bowl and fork to the middle of the rink before a giant hockey glove burst through the ice, grabbed the bowl, and submerged itself back under the ice. Cynopsis Sports spoke with Jon Slusser, Owner & Partner at The Famous Group, about the activations and his company’s approach to marketing.

Slusser on his approach to the marketplace: Engaging the live audience, in venue or on broadcast, and reaching new fans is increasingly reliant on technology, and so our business has changed dramatically over the past decade from a traditional production company into what we call a “creative technology” company. Whether that’s mixed reality, projection mapping or video streaming platforms, we’re simply obsessed with the fan experience and creating “wow moments” for our clients.

On trends: Things are changing very quickly, and the two biggest trends we’re seeing are video streaming experiences and Mixed Reality activations. People are realizing that we can transform the environment within the venue to entertain, inform and create unprecedented sponsorship opportunities. We can manipulate structural elements within the venue that create new ad inventory or create virtual product placement that’s realistic and subtle. We feel like our Mixed Reality partnership with Chipotle last week was just the tip of the iceberg for sponsors, brands and agencies to take advantage of this completely undiscovered opportunity. We also built Vixi Live™, which is a live video platform that allows fans to scan a QR code and instantly stream video to the jumbotron. This new technology is already being used by sponsorship groups within the NBA, NHL, and MLB teams, and fans and sponsors love it.

On the Chipotle activation: Chipotle is a very forward-thinking brand and they realized that this type of technology could be used to truly break through the clutter of traditional sponsorship. This was a live commercial and used broadcast commercial time for this moment. It worked well as we’re seeing that clip go viral on social media. It was a lot of fun!

On reaction: Although we’ve been doing successful Mixed Reality for a few years, we think the Chipotle activation showed the marketing world how you could use this technology in a new way for brands and sponsorship. Lightbulbs went off in marketer’s heads about how they could use this technology to really push the creative possibilities.

PROGRAMMING

ESPN’s coverage of the opening round of the PGA Championship on Thursday averaged 1.5 million viewers for the company to mark the largest first-round viewership for the tournament in 20 years with average viewership up 23% over the first round of last year’s tournament. The debut of the new alternate telecast hosted by Joe Buck and Michael Collins averaged 684,000 viewers in its first hour on ESPN and then 96,000 viewers between 2-5p on ESPN2. Las Vegas led all markets with a 1.4 metered market rating.

Game 2 of the 2022 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, in which the Celtics topped the Heat, became the most-watched Eastern Conference Finals Game 2 since 2018, according to Nielsen. The ESPN telecast averaged 6,049,000 viewers and was up 59% over last year’s Eastern Conference Finals Game 2 between the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks. Game 2 generated a 12.6 rating in the Boston market and a 7.5 rating in the Miami market. In addition, Thursday’s edition of the NBA Countdown pregame show was the most-watched in four years on ESPN. The show generated an average audience of 1,873,000 viewers, the most since the pregame show for the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Speaking of shows, NASCAR Race Hub, the nightly studio show, is currently up 32% in average viewership over where it was at this point last year (131,000 vs. 99,000). Hub is also pacing 19% ahead of 2020 and 14% ahead of 2019, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Tomorrow is the CMO Exchange! We’ve put together a lineup of marketing royalty, all you have to do is show up (and its free). Hurry, hurry, hurry and get your tickets now by clicking here.

June 16 will see FIFA will make its announcement about the staging of the FIFA World Cup 2026 across Canada, Mexico and the United States. Twenty-two candidate host cities are currently vying for the right to stage matches for the 48-team tournament hosted by three nations – both firsts for a FIFA World Cup. “In line with the previous stages of the FIFA World Cup 2026 selection process, any announcement will be made in the best interests of football, taking into consideration the needs of all stakeholders involved, as we aim to lay the foundations for the tournament to be delivered successfully across all three countries,” said FIFA Vice-President and Concacaf President Victor Montagliani. “We can only reiterate our appreciation to all the cities and the three member associations for their efforts and dedication to this process.”

DirecTV is serving up seven separate channels of action from the Roland Garros French Open tennis tournament. The company also announced plans to carry one women’s semifinal and one men’s semifinal and the men’s final and women’s final in 4K ultra high definition produced by NBC Sports. On-demand enhancements incude up-to-the-minute match results; an onscreen ticker with real-time scores; the updated women’s and men’s tournament draw; individual player bios; and recent results.

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UPS reportedly cut ties with long-time spokesperson Lee Westwood, after he’d applied for a conflicting-event release to play the first LIV Golf event, per SI.com. In addition, the global courier and logistics company also cut ties “as of now” with Louis Oosthuizen, a member of the South African’s management team told GolfChannel.com. Oosthuizen has also been linked to the LIV Golf series although the field for the first event, which is set to be played June 9-11 at the Centurion Golf Club in London, has not been announced.

Meanwhile, golfing legend Sir Nick Faldo is partnering with scotch whisky company Duncan Taylor and their Black Bull blend that will result in a content play. The Tale of Two Legends series “will celebrate Sir Nick’s illustrious career and the whisky’s highly acclaimed heritage in a series of exceptional whisky releases.”

Austin FC named KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as an official Club partner. The airline becomes the first official airline partner for Austin FC, and as part of launching the partnership, the Austin FC Academy plans to use KLM’s non-stop flights from Austin to Amsterdam for European-based competition this upcoming Summer. “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Austin FC,” said Boaz Hulsman, Head of Commercial, Air France-KLM North America. “As the first official airline partner of Austin FC, KLM looks forward to providing unmatched transatlantic connectivity and seamless travel direct from Austin to Amsterdam and beyond. With the great news we are extending service year-round, Austin FC will be able to easily travel to all their European games aboard KLM’s exemplary fleet.”

The Kansas City Outlaws announced Bad Boy Mowers as an official team sponsor as they compete in the PBR Team Series. The Outlaws are based at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri where the team’s inaugural homestand will be held August 5-7.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

Amid fluidity in the NFT marketplace, Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot surpassed $1 billion in sales. Some of Top Shot’s best months were in early 2021 with the all-time high of monthly sales coming in February of last year when the platform saw $244 million exchanged.

ESPORTS

FACEIT announced the launch of the Gucci Gaming Academy, a new initiative with the Gucci brand designed to support the development of up-and-coming gaming talent and help accelerate their career path. Launching with CS:GO, four “promising” players were selected from FPL to take part. Players will receive full-time mentorship from coaches, mental health support, hardware and access to other programs which help enhance in-game performance and well-being. Also representing the platform are ambassadors, commentator James Bardolph, pro CS:GO legend Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey. “Gucci is at the forefront of the luxury industry’s foray into the world of gaming and as part of our mission to build meaningful relationships with communities in a genuinely authentic way, we are dedicated to supporting the up-and-coming generations of players to help manage the challenges they may face as a result of participating in esports,” said Nicolas Oudinot, EVP New Business and Gucci VAULT CEO. “Understanding the issues that are relevant to them and learning about these from the people they affect are at the core of this collaboration.”

DreamHack is going for another round of the all-digital, at-home, interactive experience DreamHack Beyond beginning May 27, continuing through June 2. The week-long online celebration of gaming will feature tournaments, contests, streams and challenges to complete. “DreamHack Beyond continues to be part of evolving DreamHack into a year-round gaming lifestyle brand for the community,” said Shahin Zarrabi, VP of Strategy & Growth at DreamHack. “The goal for all of us at DreamHack is to provide great experiences for our fans, which have traditionally thrived by bringing communities together for these shared and beloved DreamHack festivals all around the globe. This is a week where we will celebrate gaming and the gaming community with activities and tournaments for everyone, every day of the week.”

FaZe Clan is continuing its music injections as FaZe Kaysan releases his second single “MVP” featuring Sheck Wes & Fivio Foreign. The track, available via FaZe Clan/UnitedMasters, was co-produced with WondaGurl. The release of “MVP” is the follow up to Kaysan’s debut single “Made A Way” which gained over 21 million streams within its first three months.

Ubisoft is opening the doors to its new tournament licensing platform. The initiative is available directly on the Rainbow Six Esports website with an eye toward streamlining the process to grant licenses to organize Rainbow Six Siege tournaments “faster than ever before.”

We want to honor you or a colleague at this year’s Top Women in Media Awards. But we can’t if you miss the deadline to enter: Wednesday, June 1st!

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IN THE KNOW
In bowling, how many strikes in a row does it take to first get a bagger? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city).

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question
Name a pro quarterback who appeared in one of the Cannonball Run movies. Answer: Terry Bradshaw/Joe Theismann. Kudos: Cory Angerthal-AMC Networks/NY; Rick Ramage-UTA/NY; Rob Casalaina-ITN/NY; Michael Ritz-Lenox Advisors/NY; Art Salisch-Nielsen/New Jersey; Louis Lewow-FITE/Atlanta/Willy Gibson-WTG Sports/Columbus; Joe Lyons-ESPN/Dallas; Will Allmendinger-WLEY-FM/Chicago; Jason Brist-Outdoor Sportsman Group/Chicago; John Kukla-KDFW/KDFI/Dallas; Brian Robin-South Coast Repertory/Costa Mesa; Scott Brofman/LA; Sean Devlin-Netflix/Hollywood; Nick Monroe-Monroe Photography/San Diego