A giant thank you to everyone who entered, attended and presented at the fourth annual Cynopsis Sports Media Awards Breakfast on Thursday, April 16 at the Athletic Club in NYC.
An additional thank you not only to all of our judges as well as our presenters: James “JB” Brown, Sportscaster for CBS Sports; Maggie Gray, Host, Sports Illustrated’s SI NOW + Pro Football NOW & Co-host of CBS Sports Radio The Moose & Maggie Show; EJ Hradek, Analyst on NHL Network; Dana Jacobson, Sports Anchor on CBS Sports; Pierre McGuire, NBC Sports Hockey Analyst; Jane McManus, Reporter & Columnist for espnW; Paul Rabil, Multiple-time Lacrosse MVP/All-Star + Whistle Sports Athlete; Jimmy Roberts, Reporter for the Golf Channel on NBC and Host on NBC Sports Update; Frank Shorter, Olympic Gold Medalist/Universal Sports Network Commentator; John Skipper, President of ESPN; and Keith Turner, President, Sales & Marketing for Univision Communications, Inc.
Also, we honored four executives who have changed the way their sports entities connect with fans around the country. Sean McManus, Chairman of CBS Sports received this year’s Legacy Award; recognizing a career that changed sports media, Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the National Hockey League received the Vision Award as Sports Executive of the Year. Juan Carlos Rodriguez, President of Univision Deportes at Univision Communications Inc. received the Navigator Award as the Sports Network Executive of the Year and Morgan Flatley, Chief Marketing Officer for Gatorade received the Gem Award, which pays tribute to the Consumer Brand of the Year.
The awards honored outstanding work in the sports media industry over the past year and had categories that included television series, radio and live events as well as digital and marketing campaigns.
From multi-year partnerships such as the Allstate Sugar Bowl and Cheez it’s College Gameday sponsorship, to creating a digitally led content partnership for Jim Beam with the Bleacher Report, Starcom and Sam Sussman were able to connect brands and consumers with their passions on a visceral level.
The NASCAR Fuel for Business Council has evolved into a full-day award winning platform that’s been called “one of the best assets in professional sports” by The Wall Street Journal.
Winner: NBC Sports Agency – 2014 Premier League Uber
NBC Sports partnered with Uber in New York City during the week before the Premier League season, offering free rides around the city in special Mini Coopers supporting all 20 teams.
Throughout 2014, U.S. sports fans visited ESPN digital media products 9.97 billion times, consumed 82.8 billion minutes of content and spent 28.5 billion total minutes on ESPN mobile apps.
Arnie was Golf Channel’s three-part television event and became the most-watched original premiere ever on the network, seeing 1.9 million unique viewers across its premiere week.
After 26 years, Madden NFL needed to find new ways to appeal to a younger audience and launched a campaign that would be enjoyed by young digital natives and consumed where they get their content – online and through social.
This campaign led to yet another successful Sunday Night Football season ultimately making Super Bowl XLIX the most watched show in US Television History.
Winner: NCAA Digital – 2014 NCAA March Madness Live
NCAA March Madness Live set a new record for video consumption during the 2014 NCAA tournament with 69.7 million live video streams collectively across all platform and up 42% over the previous year’s tournament.
Sharon’s responsibilities include the development of national marketing programs across the portfolio of brands for the Company’s premier partnerships with American Idol, NASCAR, NCAA, Olympics, top Colleges and Universities, ESPN College Gameday and more.
Winner: Turner Sports – NBA Regular Season on TNT: HOME
TNT aligned itself with Kendrick Lamar and his smash single, “i.” for its campaign, which utilized the slogan “Home” as the central theme for their promotions to mark the channel as the home of the league and its players.
To launch SEC Network, ESPN and the Southeastern Conference featured a series of 14 SEC school-specific creative spots and print ads as well as social and digital activations across all member institutions in the SEC.
CBS Sports made television history with We Need to Talk when it launched in September on CBS Sports Network, drawing national acclaim with its deep roster of journalists.
WWE’s 10-person Social Media Team utilizes 11 major platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube, totaling more than 430 million combined followers.
Winner: Fox Deportes – Hispanic Heritage Spot-Oscar de la Hoya
Fox Deportes created a fresh and compelling campaign for Hispanic Heritage Month and beyond and saw Oscar de la Hoya showcasing his positive, empowering and inspirational side while seamlessly embodying his Hispanic heritage.
Scott serves as managing director at DKC and has been with the company for 20 years, working with fellow nominees SI Swimsuit, The Players Tribune, Friday Night Tykes and Turner Sports as well as the US Tennis Association, NYC Marathon, Delta Airlines, Yahoo! and New Era among others.
Winner: MLB Productions – PETE FRATES: BATTLING ALS
MLB Productions helped shine a spotlight on ALS awareness by providing a specially produced video for air on FOX, as well as on the Kauffman Stadium video board, giving baseball fans everywhere an introduction to Pete Frates.
Award Description: Sports Illustrated systemically executed a cadence of nearly two dozen PR beats over a 5 week rollout generating massive coverage across entertainment, business, sports, news, and fashion that brought in nearly 2 Billion media impressions.
New York’s morning show hosts, Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton, put on an entertaining and informative show that ranked No. 2 in the Nielsen Audio ratings for Fall 2014.
Unilever partnered with GQ and Target for an unprecedented grooming and apparel lifestyle mash-up that appeared in Target stores nationwide utilizing All-Star sports talent.
FOX Sports Midwest achieved unprecedented audience growth, raised the quality of its productions to new heights, and engaged viewers and the community in innovate ways in 2014.
Award-winning fantasy sports writer Jay Clemons scored a hit for FOXSportsSouth.com, offering baseball and football advice, analysis and rankings for loyal readers.
Winners (A Tie): NBC Sports Agency – Stanley Cup Playoffs: Under Pressure + SportsNet NY – :30 Spot
Award Description: Rather than focusing on checks or screaming fans, NBC chose to focus on the intense pressure felt by players competing for the Cup, and the spot helped lead NHL Stanley Cup Playoff viewership to new highs.
The creative and entertaining on-brand spot aired close to 650 times in a span of six months on SNY, while garnering over 2.3 million views online.
Incorporating a 3D image of the trophy that did not yet exist, this spot included images of some of best moments of the year from award nominees and helped make the first-ever Awards show a success for the company.
THE NFL TODAY scored one of its most successful years ever in 2014. Featuring a revamped line-up, the show averaged 3.9 million viewers in 2014, up +8% vs. 2013.
Back of the Shop offers an unfiltered look at conversations between some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment set in the back of Jordan Sport Barbershop.
Winner: Univision Deportes– Univision Deportes Technology During 2014 FIFA World Cup
A 360 degree set, with more than 5,000 LED lights, 10 cameras, 30 HD monitors; and Augmented Reality graphics helped the channel stay connected to the 80.9 million total viewers that watched the World Cup on their outlets.
Turner Sports tapped Breaking Bad’s own Bryan Cranston to be the face of TBS Postseason promotions and saw Cranston putting on a self-produced, live, one-man show in tribute to the past and present of the Major League Baseball Postseason.
Winner: National Basketball Association (NBA) – Facebook Live during NBA Finals
The Facebook Live streams garnered over 2.1 Million video views combined and set NBA record totals for number of fans reached on Facebook during The Finals, including over 71.7 Million on Facebook Live posts alone.
Winner: Pac-12 Networks – Chevron Human Energy Stories
Pac-12 Networks captured stories of student-athletes on each campus celebrating the talent and versatility of Pac-12 student-athletes, who are achieving on the fields and courts, as well as accomplishing great things in classrooms and labs around the Conference.
Camping out all through Sunday, the design in this spot was put together to capturing the entire experience of football, from the fan perspective to the players and coaches, and visualizes those areas that come together to create the show.
Winner: XFINITY from Comcast – #SignMyTweet from XFINITY
Over the course of 24 hours, @XFINITYSports received nearly 4,000 tweet submissions on the #SignMyTweet hashtag. #SignMyTweet also saw a 450% increase in positive social sentiment compared to average XFINITY brand sentiment.
Winners (A Tie): FOX Sports Digital No Filter with Katie Nolan + Weber Shandwick with Milk Processor Education Program – Mission Apolo: Built with Chocolate Millk
Shared across FOXSports.com, YouTube, iTunes, and social media, No Filter with Katie Nolan, launched in 2013 as a web-exclusive series featuring Nolan’s unusual spin on the day’s happenings.
This campaign featured former Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno and saw adult exercisers aware of the campaign become 54% more likely to agree with the benefit of chocolate milk helping them to recover after exercise than those who were unaware.
PGA TOUR’s primary role is to provide authentic and accurate information around professional men’s golf, offering all things related to TOUR events and players.
Honorable Mentions:
Bleacher Report
ESPN
Pac-12 Networks
Sports Illustrated
Questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us: Jenn Ocampo, 203.906.4603
