Entertainment

Lesson 2.3

Sports ARE Entertainment

1. 
   Comparing and contrasting sports and entertainment
   
   1. 
      There are many similarities between sports and other forms of entertainment as each activity is one that entertains or occupies our time
      
      1. 
         Watching a Broadway show
         
      2. 
         Listening to music on an mp3 player
         
      3. 
         Watching a movie
         
      4. 
         Watching a football game
         
      5. 
         Playing a game of soccer
         
   2. 
      According to Peter Guber (Chairman and founder of Mandalay Entertainment, Co-owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and former studio chief at Columbia Pictures and chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures whose films have reportedly earned more than $3 billion in worldwide revenue and have been nominated for numerous Academy Awards):¹⁰
      
      1. 
         “I believe sports is entertainment. I know there’s athletic excellence. But when I watch a game-let’s say I’m watching Charles (Barkley’s) show on (TNT)-it’s not just for the athletic excellence. Every piece of information is available in that telecast: scores, highlights, standings, analysis-0-right? I watch it because it’s entertaining. It’s about being entertained. It’s about being consumed. You’re a consumer, and you’re consumed by the entertainment, you’re engaged by the entertainment.” ¹¹
         
      2. 
         ESPN broadcasts a number of events such as the national spelling bee and a hot dog eating contest. Because ESPN is the broadcaster, would you define those events as sports or entertainment?
         
         1. 
            Click here to see ESPN’s intro/promo for the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog eating contest staged annually on July 4^th, comparing eating champion Joey Chestnut to some of the most iconic, legendary athletes of all-time
            
   3. 
      There are several key differences between sports and entertainment
      
      1. 
         Unscripted
         
         1. 
            Consumers of sports do not know the outcome of the event in which they are participating
            
      2. 
         Emotional attachment
         
         1. 
            Traditionally, consumers of sports products have an emotional investment or interest in the outcome of the event (winning vs. losing, close games vs. “blow outs”)
            
      3. 
         Differences in customer loyalty
         
         1. 
            Customer loyalty is a customer decision to become a repeat consumer of a particular product or brand
            
         2. 
            Entertainment consumers lack the desire to be team or brand loyal, but rather want only to satisfy their own entertainment needs
            
         3. 
            If a company’s movie, book, sitcom, amusement ride, video game, magazine, CD, DVD or video does not deliver the expected level of entertainment, it is likely that the consumer will turn to a competitor’s product
            
      4. 
         Despite the differences, sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between sports
         
   4. 
      Integration of sports with entertainment and entertainment with sports
      
      1. 
         Cross promotion is the convergence of two entertainment properties working together to market products or services
         

1. 
   Justin Timberlake performing at half time of the Super Bowl and Kendrick Lamar’s performance at the first-ever College Football National Championship Game halftime show in 2018
   
2. 
   Major League Baseball partnering with HBO to cross promote with the hit series, ‘Game of Thrones’
   
3. 
   FOX Sports partnering with The Simpsons for the Daytona 500 to help amplify marketing efforts with the hashtag #DaytonaDay
   
   1. 
      Click here to see one of the commercials
      
4. 
   ESPN’s ESPY awards
   
5. 
   Minor League Baseball’s Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp partnering The ECHL (minor league hockey) Jacksonville Icemen playing as the “Frozen Shrimp” for a game as a cross-promotion with another area team, Minor League Baseball’s Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp for a “Shrimp Night” promotion
   
6. 
   To help promote “Stadium Series” game at Coors Field, the NHL Network cross-promoted the event with MLB Network when on-air personalities from the NHL Network appeared on MLB Network programming and vice versa
   
   1. 
      MLB Network also built the “Rink at Studio 42” which appeared on-set during some MLB Network programming ¹²
      
1. 
   Cross promotion can be an effective sales and branding tool for all parties involved
   
   1. 
      In promotion of the arrival of ‘Cars 3’ in theaters, Disney/Pixar teamed up with NASCAR
      
      1. 
         The cross promotion included widespread activations to generate excitement for the 2017 race season and other NASCAR programs
         
         1. 
            ‘Cars 3’ had a presence at various NASCAR races and events with physical displays and co-branded merchandise
            
         2. 
            NASCAR used the ‘Cars 3’ partnership to help promote NASCAR Acceleration Nation, its youth program, as well as the NASCAR Hall of Fame
            
         3. 
            ‘Cars 3’ incorporated the voices and characters of several young and upcoming NASCAR drivers
            
   2. 
      In 2017, The NBA Finals partnered with Sony and the box office release of ‘Spiderman: Homecoming’ for a cross-promotional short film that starred key personalities representing both the movie and the league (Robert Downey Jr., Stan Lee, Magic Johnson, DJ Khaled and Jon Favreau)
      
      1. 
         According to forbes.com, the cross promotion successfully drove “a substantial amount of online engagement to both the NBA and the film”
         
   3. 
      Variety.com reports that a significant factor in ESPN’s successful launch of its Chicago-based website on all things Windy City was cross promotion, suggesting the cable company used “plenty of cross-promotion as a way to attract listeners to the site” ¹³
      
      1. 
         It took just six months for ESPNChicago to become the city’s top sports site, attracting about 590,000 unique visitors in the month of June alone while the city’s historic newspaper company’s (Chicago Tribune) online sports section drew just 455,000 unique visitors ¹⁴
         
   4. 
      Some cross promotions occur between unlikely partners, like the 2018 partnership between the NFL and Cirque du Soleil who teamed up to create the “NFL Experience Times Square”
      
      1. 
         Click here to learn more about how and why the two properties collaborated on the project
         
2. 
   However, not all cross promotions are successful
   

1. 
   20th Century Fox engaged in several cross promotional efforts, including a tie-in with TNT and the NBA playoffs and an advertising campaign with Farmers insurance, to promote the release of the film "X-Men: First Class”, yet the film was largely underwhelming at the box office, yielding around $36 million less in its opening weekend than 3 of the other 4 installments of the film’s franchise (the third film, “X-Men”, did just as poorly)
   
2. 
   A badly botched a Spider-Man 2 promotion in which MLB had planned to feature the Spider-Man logo on each base during the All-Star Game provides a cautionary tale to marketers considering cross promotional strategies. The league received such opposition from fans and baseball purists that the promo was eventually pulled. ¹⁵