Should Sports Stars’ Spots Spur Sales?

Historically, heroes have always appeared as natural Brand spokesmen. This is never truer than with athletes. Whether it is tennis great Jack Kramer lending his name to the iconic wooden racket, Ben Hogan and golf clubs, or the ubiquitous Michael Jordan with both Hanes underwear and Nike’s Air Jordans. Strategically selected sports stars certainly spur sales – when properly executed, that is.

Here are three very current examples from the YouTube archives. Chicago Cubs manager Lou Pinella for Aqua Fina water; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels for New Era baseball caps; golfer, and serial dater, Tiger Woods for American Express.

In our assessment of advertising, the first question is always, “is it on strategy?” In this case, we should be able to infer the brand’s strategy from the execution. Another key advertising assessment question, “is there an Idea, is it ownable – uniquely ours, and does its implementation force recall of the Brand?” Basically, when office workers gather around the proverbial water-cooler on Monday morning, are they compelled to mention the brand name when recalling their favorite commercials from the weekend past?

Let’s apply these questions to our three commercials. First, fiery Lou Pinella.

On the inferred strategy question, it is frankly difficult to infer a communications strategy from the execution beyond a basic “drink water to relieve stressful situations”. However, there is clearly an Idea. It is a classic “twist” – the visuals and audio are not “in sync”. Lou appears to be vehemently arguing an umpire’s decision, but is actually complementing the arbiter, while giving the outward appearance of arguing.

The Idea is clever, certainly consistent with Pinella’s public image, and fits nicely into summer sports programming. However, we could easily substitute almost any brand into the commercial and still have it flow logically – Lou and the umpire could be making dinner plans, talking about a great new mattress for more restful sleep, even the comfortable ride of a new sedan. To prove this point, stop the :40 commercial at :30 and ask any viewer what the advertisement is for. It is impossible to tell at that juncture.

So, we have spent 75% of the execution reinforcing Lou Pinella’s fiery managerial style and engaging the viewer’s attention with a clever “twist” communications Idea. However, we have told the viewer nothing about our product, certainly nothing that makes it unique from the vast array of other bottled waters and sports drinks available. Not a great investment from what is certainly an expensive commercial production budget. This might spur Cubs’ ticket sales, but it is doubtful Aquafina could trace any sales bump to this messaging. Water is certainly not the beverage of choice in Wrigleyville.

Next, the pride of the fight’n Phils, pitcher Cole Hamels for New Era Baseball Caps.

Importantly, there is a clear linkage between the commercial’s star and the product advertised. Always a good start. Moreover, we can infer a clear strategy – “real sports fans wear the authentic team merchandise”, in this case the same cap as the on-field players.

The execution has a clear Idea and it is again a “twist”. What appears to be the Phillies’ manager or pitching coach – certainly less well-known than their Cubs’ counterpart Pinella – is actually an authentically uniformed fan. His hat and jacket match the Phillies team regalia, only his summer shorts and flip-flops detract from the “look”. That and Cole Hamels’ quizzical, “Who are you?” The embarrassed reaction of the father’s two boys pays off the action in a believable fashion insightfully familiar to rabid sports families. New Era has moved to aggressively market their authentic team merchandise and this type of execution should certainly continue to build their franchise.

Now to golf’s franchise athlete. While Tiger Woods is one of the most recognizable personalities in the world, his famous features can also prove detrimental. Once at the pinnacle, the public is equally interested in the fall and later redemption of such highly visible figures. Additionally, advertising agencies and agents are equally to blame for over-exposing, and thereby blurring, the messages promoted by world-class athletes. Most advertisements tend to draw additional attention to the athlete rather than the brand advertised. For example, you know you have seen David Beckham in advertising, can you recall what the advertising was for?

Any frequent flyer has certainly seen the ubiquitous Accenture poster campaign in every major airport globally. That campaign does a great job promoting Tiger Woods. However, even the supposed “target audience” for that campaign – the frequent business traveler – ironically would have difficulty discerning Accenture’s strategy and how Accenture differs from any number of other strategy consulting firms.

In the American Express commercial, it is impossible to infer a communications strategy.

This commercial is clearly an “homage” to the iconic and psychotic groundskeeper so brilliantly portrayed by Bill Murray in “Caddyshack”. Arguably Murray’s signature cinematic role, Tiger Woods gives a “dead-on” cover to the character. Tiger is fun, engaging, without pretense, and demonstrates the “little boy” charm which so endeared him to his advertisers and public alike.

However, the commercial tells us nothing about American Express, is not even remotely related to American Express, and we are hard-pressed to even know American Express’ relation to this commercial until the final five seconds of this sixty second execution. Someone clearly wanted to remake “Caddyshack”, star Tiger Woods as their Bill Murray, and do it all at American Express’ expense. This commercial will look tremendous on someone’s creative reel, but will do nothing for American Express card sales or usage. Plus it stands in stark contrast to the Master Card “Priceless” and Visa “It’s everywhere you want to be” campaigns.

Lessons learned. Sports stars are no different from any celebrity spokesperson.
• First, do you have a clear, concise communications Strategy?
• Does your execution possess an Idea? Is that idea uniquely yours or could your competitors easily appropriate it?
• Does your spokesperson “fit” both the Strategy and the Idea, or are they being “shoe-horned” into an execution for the benefit of someone’s creative portfolio?
• Finally, are you compelled to mention your Brand in the retelling of this commercial?

Check back frequently for new additions to “What We’re Watching”. We’ll be looking at some new Diet Soda commercials next and see what’s bubbling on that front.