Pierpont Communications, Inc.

In an office full of women, you’d be surprised by the level of sports enthusiasm and attendance we have here at Pierpont. Sure, part of it is due to allegiance to our alma maters (perennial powerhouses like the University of Texas, Louisiana State University and others), or even the fact that we grew up in the great football-loving state of Texas, but what’s really interesting is our combination of work and play.

The discussion of sports marketing and communications comes up often around our lunch table – what we would do to improve attendance, correct a player’s image problems, etc – but some of the most interesting conversation comes in terms of leveraging the sponsorships in which our clients have invested hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of dollars, and countless man hours.

While many companies have cut down their sports sponsorships and marketing efforts, successful ones carry on the tradition despite the economic roller coaster. Sports, as a communication tool, are unique in their ability to break down traditional cultural and linguistic barriers and are a competitive, creative and fruitful business product that is suitable for achieving different marketing objectives. What’s more, fans look to sports for an outlet – an escape from daily life and a time for relaxation, fun and bonding – especially when the stresses of a tight economy are bearing down on them. Companies that realize this will emerge from the recession with not only a strengthened brand image, but also a more loyal customer base through linking your company to a favorite sport or team.

There are a number of ways to leverage sports marketing and sponsorship opportunities – it all depends on your company, its brand, the sport or team you’re working with and the end goal you wish to achieve. From Riccardo Taff’s article “Sports Marketing and the Evolution of the Sponsorship Format,” here are the top three ways to effectively leverage a sports marketing and sponsorship deal:


One thing to remember when engaging in sports marketing is this – keep your messaging and brand identity consistent. Although your company may be engaging in a non-traditional, youthful and more “relaxed” environment for the first time, it’s important to remain true to yourselves and keep your target audiences (customers, investors, employees, etc) top of mind.

There have been a couple of recently posted articles that have really stood out to give us some more insight into the potential of using social networks.
 
The first is a study conducted by the authors behind Groundswell, who have developed yet another way to measure the influence of social networks and blogs. According to the study, people in the U.S. create 256 billion impressions on each other via social networks every year (62% of which come from Facebook), and we also create 1.64 billion impressions on each other via blogs, blog comments and forums. Another interesting part of this study is that a very small minority of people generate the bulk (80%) of these impressions. You can view the entire article here: http://bit.ly/bkFJY8.
 
Another great article posted this past week is Mashable’s Top 10 YouTube Tips for Small Businesses. Because YouTube is free, easy and has a tremendous audience, it has a lot of potential for small and large businesses alike. These tips are great to keep in mind when developing a YouTube channel, and will help you (or your client) get the most out of it.

On Tuesday night, I, along with 13.7 million other viewers, tuned in to watch the season two premiere of Glee on FOX – and loved every minute of it. Stop judging me.

Love it or hate it, Glee has become a pop culture phenomenon since its introduction in the fall of 2009, introducing millions to the world of show choir theatrics. Whether it’s the students’ powerful ballads or the teachers’ snarky comments, the show has something for just about everyone – that is, if you watch television.

Recently, TechCrunch reported a noticeable drop in cable subscriptions – approximately 800,000 cancellations with predictions of more than 1.6 million by the end of 2011 – as a result of the economic downturn. And it’s not as if consumers are simply opting for analog cable – they’re cutting out traditional television all together, opting to view their favorite shows on sites like Hulu.com or the network’s official website.

As consumers continue to cut out the “luxuries” – such as premium cable subscriptions, meals out of the house and extravagant vacations – marketers are faced with an increasingly hard-to-reach audience. The one-two punch of less discretionary income and a shrinking target audience make having the right marketing and communications tactics now more important than ever.

Many have been slow to adapt to the change in consumer behavior, continuing to spend millions of dollars on traditional advertising – television, radio and print – rather than following the consumers in the transition to online media. For example, $62 billion was spent on television advertising last year, while just $1 billion was spent on online advertising – was that money well spent if the audience is dwindling in record numbers?

As online content becomes more rich, giving consumers the information and programming they want in a preferred format, non-traditional outreach will become increasingly critical. Tactics such as social media marketing, corporate blog creation and online advertising campaigns have already begun the transition from second thought to first response.

At a recent interactive marketing event, I learned that HP saw considerable consumer-facing sales revenue through its social media marketing – something they’re admittedly only just learning to leverage properly. HP is just one example of a company that understands today’s investment is tomorrow’s profit – and the bigger the risk, the greater the reward.

So don’t be left behind – pay attention to where you consumers are spending their time and money, and how you can reach them in creative ways. After all, it’s a lot easier to keep a customer than to chase new ones.

Status updates are so 2009.

The next big thing in social networking is location sharing – showing your online friends where you are.

Location-based social networking allows a user to “check in” at a specific location, like a restaurant or bar, marking their position on a map and sending out a message to friends using the service. Users can then interact, share, meet up and recommend places based on their physical location which can lead to increased traffic and revenues for “tagged” businesses. 

The most buzzed about location-based social networking sites are Austin-based Gowalla and FourSquare. Both services boast a wide array of consumer focused features. However, these two platforms will soon be facing some stiff competition as big dogs Twitter, Facebook and Google begin to add their own location sharing features later this year. These larger social networking sites will be focusing their features on small businesses to capitalize on hyperlocal advertising opportunities. 

Small businesses experienced the benefits of location-based marketing during this year’s South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival in Austin. As attendees traveled all around the city doing check ins, local businesses could see who their most frequent visitors were and offer incentives to drive sales. For example, Buffalo Billiards offered free beer to people who checked in five times and Alamo Drafthouse offered free movie tickets to visitors who had earned mayor status on Foursquare (Mayor status means you have checked into that venue more than others in your city). In addition, several local restaurants and bars, such as Kenichi, Emo’s and Molotov, partnered with CauseWorld, a location sharing service that donates money to charity when you check in at participating locations. 

As location sharing services, become more widely adopted, business will have plenty of opportunities to market to their customers. Businesses can offer coupons to people who check in nearby to drive them into the store in addition to using these networks to communicate and engage customers. 

If you are interested in utilizing location sharing for your business, check out Mashable’s articles 9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing and HOW TO: Make Your Small Business Geolocation-Ready.