Hasta La Creative!

It was a good day in golf. The good guy, Phil Mickelson, shot four birdies through the last six holes today to win the British Open at Muirfield, an historic course and one that eats lesser men alive.

It was also a good day for KPMG the global audit, tax and advisory firm with headquarters in the Netherlands. As you may have noted, Mickelson is sponsored by the Big Four auditor. The firm’s call letters are in fact emblazoned across the man’s visor, as is the custom today.

KPMG’s interest in golf also extends to Golf Business Community, a site the firm maintains for “individuals within the golf industry who are interested in building and maintaining relationships, and accessing golf research and golf industry news.”

This isn’t Nike Golf or Puma Golf mind you, this is a buttoned down firm of auditors who come in and look at your firm’s books to see where the leaks are. Scary suits, these guys are. No doubt, that’s why they work to cultivate a friendlier image via clear and liberal support for the great game of golf (which happens to be played by lots of rich white men in need of consulting services).

KPMG also added LPGA champion and #2 ranked player Stacy Lewis to its roster of sponsored players last spring. As part of the agreement with KPMG, Lewis will now wear the KPMG logo on her golf shirt and shirt collar during all of her golf-related appearances.

The post KPMG And Phil Mickelson Make History and Headlines Together appeared first on AdPulp.

People love sports and will pay good money to watch sports on TV, at a pay-per-view event, on their iPad or mobile handset and so on. Hence, this craptastic TV ad from DISH:

Time shifting is about consumer empowerment, so I am all for it. But “the Hoppah”? What are we, a nation of bunnies?

According to Time, people who want to view their sport on their schedule are increasingly paying to watch games on YouTube. Willow TV–a cable channel focused on cricket–has a live-streaming package hosted on YouTube that costs $14.99 per month. And YouTube is brokering deals with leagues as varied as PGA Golf Academy and the Badminton World Federation.

YouTube’s user base, now more than 1 billion strong, is massive and global in reach — and not all its users can be reached on television. According to Nielsen data from March, YouTube reached more Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 than any cable channel, including ESPN.

Previously on AdPulp: What Happens When You Cross Schoolhouse Rock With ze frank

The post Sports Leagues Find Paying Viewers On YouTube appeared first on AdPulp.

If you’re a Major League Baseball fan, step up to the plate — the league, and every team in it, is serving up all-you-can-download buffets of content for the social stream.

Instagram.
Twitter.
Facebook.
Pinterest.

Pick your poison.

Of course, sports fans are not typical customers. They’re avid, loyal and deeply immersed in every little detail of their team, its players, coaches and front office staff.

Concepts like an active and vocal community can be a bit shaky for brands, because brands have customers first, and if they are exceptional, fans second. Sports teams and sports brands are in another category, and it is a category particularly well suited to social media marketing, supported by real time content production.

Copywriters and art directors used to hole up in a room for days, sometimes weeks, working out their concepts for an ad campaign. No doubt, some continue to do so. However, that’s not how Social Ads are made. Social Ads — the ads we see in Nike Golf’s social stream, for instance — are pulled together from the resources available. In other words, no photo shoot is being scheduled to fulfill the creative’s team concept for these kind of quickie comms. The makers use what’s at hand to fashion a stream of timely, hopefully on-point, messages.

@mlb has their content game dialed| even the teams Twitter handles are perfect @tigers @twins @angels @royals

— David Burn (@davidburn) April 3, 2013

The post @MLB Is Seriously Committed To Content for the Social Stream appeared first on AdPulp.

I couldn’t help but to express my utter annoyance of brands that put all their hard earned money into sponsorship options without that sponsorship/product placement being truly relavent. 

Key example: Watching the NBA Finals you have Gatorade’s “G-thing” plastered all over the bottom of the screen and courtside. I wonder, how much did they pay for that lil’ splish splash?

What was there? Oh, just the logo no deeper relavance to the finals than that. Yeah, yeah, I know your saying well Gatorade’s a “sports” drink and it’s a “sports” playoff, it should be there. I totally agree but that’s Marketing 101, it’s time for brands to go deeper. 

Like EA Sports for instance is present during these same finals but they integrated their brand in a smooth, non-”G”akward way. The commentator was placed virtually onto a court while a computer EA Sports generated Kobe Bryant was playing against commentator as he shows how to play defense against Kobe , gives pointers, things to watch for, etc–all in this virtual world–NOW THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ BOUT!!! Woohooo imagine that, complete relevance, showing the brand goods, and not pandering to me–it’s no dream world, that’s real branding baby! 

This is the way to integrate brands beyond the mind numbing (in frankenstein voice) “we will repeat…repeat…repeat…repeat…and you will buy…buy…buy !”

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Jinean Robinson is a CCIO (Chief Creative Infections Officer) who has been in the communications industry for over 8 years, specializing in creative strategy and implementation, 360 branding communications, and brand development. Join her at http://twitter.com/germllc or her firm’s website at http://germonline.com/

I’m not an NBA fan, but this Ad Age story is wild:

According to a new survey of 907 people released exclusively to Ad Age today, more than one-third (37%) of respondents believe that the National Basketball Association somewhat or very likely alters the outcomes of its games.

The YouGovPolimetrix Omnibus Poll found that among “casual” or “avid” fans, an even higher number, 41%, think it’s either very likely or somewhat likely that the NBA alters the outcome of games. Couple that with the fact that only 46% of the poll was aware that an NBA referee was recently investigated by the FBI for receiving cash payments in return for passing inside information along to friends and gamblers, and it’s clear the NBA has a lot of cynicism to overcome.

Is there any legitimacy to this poll? Do we, as a society, trust anything anymore?