Damon Dons Tigers Uniform

In addition to hearing about it on ESPN and various radio shows, I read an article from Yahoo! Sports talking about the latest Detroit Tigers deal with outfielder Johnny Damon. Not only will Damon be filling the role of a well-needed outfielder, he will also be filling the empty spot as lead-off hitter now that Curtis Granderson has been traded to the Yankees. Having spent $8 million on Damon, it is certain that the Tigers will be milking their newest big name for all he is worth. Because this is so, I would say we can expect to see a lot of marketing moves geared towards Damon this upcoming spring and summer. For example, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Detroit jerseys with Damon on the back of them, various memorabilia promoting Damon’s presence on the team, and maybe even Johhny Damon bobble heads someday. Additionally, I expect that Detroit will do promotional events focused on Damon. For example, the Tigers may hold on the field clinics where kids can learn from Damon before games and other promotional events that would extensively involve Damon’s presence. Overall, I think it is safe to say that the Tigers’ promotions will be shifting towards focusing on Damon, in order to make sure the $8 million spent on him will be well worth it.

To read the full article at Yahoo! Sports, please visit the following link: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-tigers-damon&prov=ap&type=lgns

Tiger Speaks Up

I recently read an article from ESPN.com that informed me that Tiger Woods plans to hold a very small press conference this Friday, addressing the recent revelation of his extramarital affairs. This press conference will only be for a small group of friends, colleagues, close associates, and three wire services. Also, Tiger will not be answering questions afterwards. In my eyes, after a major sex scandal is uncovered from one of the most beloved heroes in sports, that hero needs to take some form of action in order to protect his or her brand and image. And that is exactly what Tiger is doing. While Tiger's personal brand has already been tarnished, I think this attempt to address the media is Tiger's way of maintaining the best brand he possibly can at this point. It has been said that he will apologize for his actions, which shows he wants to continue being seen as a respectable, honorable man. Also, he is not allowing any questions, which show me he wants to have control over every last detail of what is talked about. Therefore, he can more easily manipulate how people are viewing him. Clearly, having gone through a major scandal such as Tiger's, he will most likely be changing his personal brand from this point forward. While he might preserve his credibility for being hard working, strong, courageous, etc., he will undoubtedly have to figure out how we wants the world to see him, now that he has lost a great deal of respect, honor, and adoration.

To read the full article at ESPN.com, please follow this link: http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=4921899&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Super Bowl Ads Shake Down

For those of us who have difficulty watching four to five straight hours of football, we watch the Super Bowl largely for the 30 second advertisements that cost millions of dollars. An article from Mashable.com showed the results of two sources that each followed social media sources and tracked how often various commercials/companies were mentioned before they even aired during the Super Bowl. They ranked the companies in terms of a) how frequently they were talked about and b) how favorably they were talked about. I found it interesting that the companies that people seemed to favor the most were cheap, instantly-consumed items, such as Anheuser Busch, Doritos, and Pepsi. On the other hand, the companies that were the least favored were those that cost the public more money, such as Honda, Motorola, and Universal Studios. It makes me wonder if possibly, in this economic hardship, people's opinions of advertisements are subliminally affected by their looming budget constraints and stresses about the economy.

One aspect of the ads worth mentioning is that I found many of them to be less entertaining than in previous years. It seemed as though some of the advertisements were from companies I had rarely heard of, rather than the big name companies I would expect. My guess is that the reason for this has to do with the belief that many companies truly are shying away from spending the big bucks on cable television advertisements. Instead, they're using those funds to advertise via social media. This seems to be the current trend, and I think it'll be interesting to see if this continues and if one day, people will no longer watch the Super Bowl for the amazing, overly-anticpated commercials.

To read the full article at Mashable.com, follow this link: http://mashable.com/2010/02/08/super-bowl-advertisers-results/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader