Cynopsis: Sports
09.23.13

Good morning. It’s Monday, September 23, 2013, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

After taking part in two of the most popular franchises in football this season via NBC’s Sunday Night Football (boosting fan engagement and overall experience via the Social RV) and ESPN’s College GameDay (on behalf of both Coke Zero and The Home Depot), CSE is continuing a growth trend that has put the agency in the thick of some of the highest-profile activations in sports. Founded by CEO Lonnie Cooper 28 years ago, the company has swelled from 52 people at the end of 2011 to 180 now with a new standalone HQ in the works in Atlanta.

As the company continues to add new practices as well as new targeted areas, Cynopsis Sports spoke with Adam Zimmerman, President of Marketing for CSE ahead of its sports marketing symposium next week in NY, to talk about the growth of the agency, the evolving needs of a client and the road ahead.
 
Zimmerman on the state of the company: We have continued to anticipate client needs and have been quick to move to where we need to go. Our roots are in being an agent (although sometimes that may seem like a negative word), but to be someone’s agent is a very powerful thing as we act on their behalf and think about them day in and day out. While we certainly have that as part of our DNA, it carried over for our corporate client. I think being privately held allows us to be very nimble and to executive quickly. Our growth is coming from across the board. While our digital business has gone crazy, we’ve also added a lot of people in or experiential group and lot of people in our creative group. We have focused hard on developing a deeper digital practice, as well as Hispanic and multicultural and now cause marketing.

On takeaways from recent activations: Success right now is about really being able to use social and then leverage that so you can react in real-time. The emphasis on real-time marketing and what that does to your social strategy is just transformative now.

On talent: Our talent practice continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It’s really thinking about what are the needs of the athletes and celebrities in 2014. So we are not only doing contracts for them, we are also helping them build out their brands. What are they passionate about? We help them build out social media. How can we help shepherd them into other aspects of the sport. For example, John Smoltz went from an incredible pitcher to an incredible broadcaster.

On CSE in ten years: I think we are going to continue to digitize and socialize all of our efforts. We are going to be heavy in helping brands and unlock affinity in sports, in music and in cause for the benefit of a marketer. We are going to strive to be marketing technologists. We’ll be doing a lot more production, because CMOs now have the opportunity to go the traditional route, and buy a 30-second spot on a network. Or I can challenge some people to think about my brand and the things that I support and some key triggers for my target and see what I can come up with from a content piece. That’s been successful for us and you are going to continue to see us do more of that.

On the Air

Andy Reid facing his old team drew interest nationwide as NFL Network scored the highest-rated Thursday Night Football telecast in network history with the Chiefs’ win over the Eagles last week. The contest drew a 6.0 household rating with an average of 9.4 million viewers, not counting local over-the-air broadcasts. Compared to the week three TNF game a year ago, the contest was up 34% in viewership and 30% in rating. Through two games, Thursday Night Football on NFL Network is averaging a 5.7 score and 9.1 million viewers.

ABC’s Saturday Night Football hit a 3.1 overnight rating over the weekend, to mark the highest-rated college football game of the night, according to Nielsen. The game, pitting Michigan/Connecticut, won the timeslot with 5.216 million viewers and a 1.5 score among adults 18-49.

The Washington Capitals are officially playing host for the 2015 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1, 2015, according to the league. The team’s opponent and location of the game will be announced at a later date. The 2015 game will mark the seventh Winter Classic and will be the second time in history the Capitals will play an outdoor game. The 2011 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic between the Capitals and Penguins aired in primetime on NBC and was the most-watched NHL regular season game ever in the U.S. with an average of 4.5 million viewers.

M.I.A.’s one-finger salute at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show in 2012 could cost her a cool $1.5 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The league claims that the rapper/singer breached her performance contract and tarnished the league’s reputation with the act in front of a TV audience of more than 100 million. Last week the league pushed for a resolution, requesting that she be ruled liable on summary judgment before going to trial.

ESPN’s 30 for 30 returns with its second volume on Oct. 1 with Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau at 8p. Each 30 for 30 film will be available on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video the day after its broadcast premiere.

Lakers Spanish TV announcers Adrian Garcia-Marquez and Francisco Pinto were named winners of the “Best Live Call” category at the NBA broadcast meetings in NY on Friday for their call of Kobe Bryant’s play in a win over Toronto. Last season marked the first for the duo for Time Warner Cable Deportes. 

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Sponsorship & Promotion

Fox launched a Super Bowl pregame ad contest on Friday dubbed the Social Bowl, with a shot to have a 30-second spot broadcast during the Super Bowl pregame, valued at $850,000. Marketers and advertisers can enter the contest on YouTube or the Fox Sports site, while football and ad fans can vote on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for the best ad.

NASCAR is bringing fan fave NASCAR After The Lap sponsored by Ford and Coca-Cola back for another go-around in Las Vegas. The fifth consecutive event will take place will take place at the Pearl Palms Concert Theater inside the Palms Casino Hotel on Thursday, December 5 at 5p. NASCAR fans can enter a sweepstakes via www.NASCARafterthelap.com where two winners will receive an all-inclusive VIP trip to the event and either one trip to the 2014 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway or one trip to the 2014 Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. One winner will also be taking home the ultimate grand prize  a 2014 Ford F-150 Tremor.
 
espnW revealed that Michelle Kwan will give this year’s keynote address at the fourth annual espnW Women + Sports Summit held on October 9-11 in Dana Point, Calif. The theme of this year’s Summit, Make an Impact, will focus on the role women are playing in the sports world. Other speakers are set to include Sharon Byers, SVP, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Partnerships at The Coca-Cola Company, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, Burton’s Donna Carpenter, Women’s Sports Foundation’s CEO Kathryn Olsen, Starcom Media Vest CEO Laura Desmond, Digital Royalty CEO Amy Jo Martin, ESPN President John Skipper and ESPN Executive Vice President & CFO Christine Driessen.

Team USA sponsor Citi revealed its roster of ‘Team Citi’ athletes for the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Team Citi includes the likes of Julie Chu, Billy Demong, Erin Hamlin and Dan Jansen.

Digital & Technology

YouTube and Fox Sports agreed to jointly sell ads on the sports network’s YouTube channel, according to the New York Times, and have already locked in Burger King as the initial sponsor. The deal will see Burger King branding and ads run on the fantasy football-themed section Inside Fantasy with branding also appearing within the videos.

Last Wednesday, Rotoworld nabbed its best day ever in uniques (621,700) and visits (803,700), following the news that the Cleveland Browns traded Trent Richardson to the Indianapolis Colts.

Learfield Sports is launching a new mobile app, College Football 2Go, with an eye to offer fans a vehicle to follow all of college football and connect with their favorite team on their mobile device all season long. The app features live game audio of Learfield’s partner universities as well as play-by-play coverage from the Learfield Sports Studios. 

The Main Event

Orioles/Rays duke it out for a post-season spot on MLB Network at 4p.

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ON THIS DAY in 1970: Gary Muhrcke wins the first NY Marathon.

In The Know: What team did the Atlanta Braves play the last time they won the World Series? Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What is the only NFL team to switch conferences twice in the post-merger era? Answer: Seattle. Kudos: Lewis Blaustein-Lewis Brand Solutions, Inc./NY; Cindy O’Connor-HRP/Cox Reps/NY; Robert J. Morgan-Scripps Networks Interactive/Knoxville; Brian Quinn-Comcast Spotlight-Washington D.C./Bethesda; Rich Dubroff-CSNBaltimore.com/Baltimore; Doug Drotman-Drotman Communications/Commack; Steve McNair-The KUBE Ch 57/Houston; Bill Adusei-Comcast SportsNet/Houston; Derrick Stasica-KHOU/Houston; David Hauptman/Denver; Miriam Aardahl-OMD/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions Inc/Santa Monica; Alan Perris-The Television Academy/North Hollywood.

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Cynopsis Future TV Summit:
Content Innovation & Next Gen Advertising Models
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This all-day conference bringing together expert speakers on topics including measurement, the Second Screen, the New Networks, a unique “5 People on Chairs: Meet the Millennials” guerilla Focus Group, and much more.

Sponsorship: Mike Farina (203) 218-6480 | Registration: Pete Romas (203) 899-8483

Gold: ABC Family | Silver: A+E & Rhythm | Participating: NCC, BrightLine & TruthCo. | Media: IAB

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports
09.23.13

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