Campaign Centered on Stanley Cup Lures Casual Fans, Lifts NHL Ratings

A sustained social-media push and a comprehensive ad campaign around the iconic Stanley Cup — all geared to help lure the casual fan — has helped the National Hockey League forge record TV ratings through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Now, despite a drop in ratings in the conference finals, the league is hoping the potential matchup of teams from the two biggest media markets in the country will cap the most-successful season in NHL history.

“There’s a unique opportunity there. That could be unbelievable,” NHL chief marketing officer Brian Jennings told Ad Age of a possible matchup between the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. “But we’re very realistic. We just want to be opportunistic in what that represents.”

At press time, the Rangers were tied with the New Jersey Devils, 2-2, in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference Final while the Kings have already advanced out of the Western Conference. The Rangers have won the Stanley Cup just once in the last 72 years — that happened in 1994 — and the Kings have never won it.

Although the conference finals ratings have fallen – Saturday’s Game 3 Rangers-Devils was off 13% compared to last year and Sunday’s Game 4 Kings-Coyotes was down 15%, according to Nielsen – the first two rounds of the NHL playoffs were the most-watched first two rounds since 1994, when cable programming data began. Overall, playoff ratings are up 14% year-over-year, Nielsen said, adding that ratings for the conference semifinals (the second round of the playoffs) were up 28% year-over-year. (www.adage.com)

Netflix: OK, Maybe We’re Cannibalizing Something

Sitting on the same panel at The Cable Show in Boston on Wednesday as top executives from Time Warner, Cox Communications and News Corp., Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos finally admitted the streaming-video provider could result in some form of cannibalization.

CNN host Piers Morgan asked Mr. Sarandos whether Netflix is more like Mother Teresa, who gives to all, or Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter.

“We have billions of hours of viewing, so we are going to take away from something,” Mr. Sarandos said. But he stopped short of saying that something would necessarily be linear TV. “It could be another activity,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a black or white answer to what role we play in the industry,” he added. Depending on the content, Netflix can be a little bit of both, he said. (www.adage.com)

Fairchild Fashion Media Revives Men’s Fashion Title ‘M’

More good news for the 1 percent: Fairchild Fashion Media, the Condé Nast division responsible for publishing Women’s Wear Daily, is relaunching men’s fashion title M as a quarterly magazine beginning this fall. The original M, which launched in 1983, was helmed by Jane Lane and, later, by onetime Adweek editor Clay Felter. M shuttered in 1992, a casualty of the recession at the time.

Now, with upscale titles like W and Departures reporting strong ad sales gains, publishers are showing increasing confidence in the power of affluent consumers. (Forbes recently relaunched its luxury supplement ForbesLife, Bloomberg announced an increase in the frequency of Pursuits, and Niche Media is gearing up to launch Du Jour, whose target audience includes consumers with a net worth of $5 million or more.)

The new M will have a starting circulation of 75,000 copies when it officially launches Sept. 24, Fairchild announced. Issues of the magazine will be sent to men with a $200,000-plus household income and menswear industry insiders. Common folk can pick up a copy at the newsstand (including those in fashion capitals like Milan, Paris, and London). (www.adweek.com)

How An Upstart Culinary Festival Cooked Up New Sponsors

A sales strategy that focuses on helping sponsors enhance the attendee experience has long paid dividends for Superfly Presents, the producer of the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and other high-profile events. The strategy has helped Superfly secure more than 25 partners for its newest event, The Great GoogaMooga food and music festival in Brooklyn, N.Y. Partners for the May 19-20 fest included a mix of traditional and non-traditional sponsors ranging from Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A, Inc. (www.sponsorship.com)

State Farm Takes Music To A Better State

With a portfolio that ranges from Coachella to Lollapalooza and other high-profile festivals, State Farm Insurance Cos. has long used music as a platform to build loyalty among the next generation of insurance buyers. And the company continues to expand its portfolio to reach a broader segment of consumers. Case in point: State Farm in July will kick off a summer music tour co-headlined by Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez to build its presence in front of Hispanics. (www.sponsorship.com)

The Gap Tees Up New Sponsorships

With its stock on the rebound, a new ad campaign and renewed excitement in its stores, The Gap, Inc. is using sponsorship to keep the momentum going for its namesake chain. The retailer best known for khakis and casual apparel this year is sponsoring three music properties: Lollapalooza, the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and the four-stop Wanderlust music and yoga get-together. The Gap—which saw its fortunes plummet in the 2000s due to management mishaps and merchandising blunders. (www.sponsorship.com)

When Marketing Links Web and TV Dramas

IN the season finale on May 31 of “Touch,” the Kiefer Sutherland drama on Fox, AT&T takes an unusual approach to paid product placement: showing characters using a mobile phone app that does not, in fact, exist.

The app, Air Graffiti, is being developed by AT&T but is still a twinkle in the eye of developers, who say it is a long way from being available to consumers. The app will enable users to leave location-based messages for one another in a street-view map. In the episode, Mr. Sutherland points his smartphone at a building and sees a message — a series of numbers — that was written by his son.

Highlighting what is only on the drawing board, which the company also does in some television commercials, helps promote AT&T as an innovation-driven company — and the message is aimed not just at consumers.

“Our business is certainly with customers, but our business also is with Wall Street, and with the ecosystem of technology developers,” said Esther Lee, senior vice president for brand marketing and advertising at AT&T. (www.nytimes.com)

Chevron commits to New Orleans Super Bowl

US oil and gas company Chevron has signed on to sponsor the host committee of next year’s NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans.

As part of the deal, which takes the host committee past the US$5 million mark in its quest to raise US$12 million in sponsorship, Chevron will serve as the host committee’s volunteer services partner.

In partnership with Chevron, the New Orleans host committee aims to recruit 8,000 volunteers for the event, which will take place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdrome on 3rd February 2013. (www.sportspromedia.com)

Pfizer Launches Lipitor Mobile App

Pfizer Inc. is launching an app tied to its Lipitor prescription medication and is partnering with Meredith Corp.’s “EatingWell” magazine.

The Lipitor For You “Recipes 2 Go” app is aimed at helping consumers manage their heart health on the go. The launch marks the first time Pfizer has released a consumer mobile app for a prescription product in the U.S.

The app is available for free from the App Store on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and for Android phones and tablets from Google Play.

The “Recipes 2 Go” app offers consumers a variety of resources that can help to manage heart health anytime, anywhere. The app includes access to healthy recipes for appetizers, entrees, side dishes, snacks and desserts; a shopping list feature; and tips on portion sizes and exercise. (www.mediapost.com)
Humorous AAMCO Campaign Makes Engine Noises

Transmission service chain AAMCO is extending its “We Hear You” campaign to encompass the company’s 50th anniversary this year. The campaign, where an AAMCO customer comes in and tries to recreate the sounds of his troubled powertrain using only his voice box, has a noise-making AAMCO customer doing his thing through the decades. A second ad contrasts AAMCO trustworthiness as a go-to place for all engine needs with vile people you’d never trust for anything.

The anniversary spot, the third iteration of “We Hear You,” follows a family from 1963 through today, in time-appropriate ages, hairstyles and apparel as they visit AAMCO dealerships. The couple vocalizes noises, hoping to obtain an expert diagnosis from the technicians. In the last image, where he’s a middle-aged guy today, the punch line is he’s just trying to clear his throat.

In the second ad, the images leading up to a woman walking into an AAMCO store with implicit trust that the shop will be able to fix anything, are pretty grodie: a woman approaches her cubicle to find a guy sitting there, impassively licking her computer keyboard. Another cringe-worthy moment asks: “Would you trust this guy to hug your mom?” The guy — corpulent, hirsute, dissipated, and half-naked — hugs a mom. Then, there’s “would you trust anyone to give you a massage,” as a professional masked wrestler leaps from a credenza onto the “patient’s” back.

Says Jack Bachinsky, VP marketing: “We decided to extend [“We Hear You,”] and this is the perfect next-generation ad.” He says the “Trust” campaign reflects the importance of the issue based on consumer research. “We have a long history of creating humorous ads going back to campaigns we have done in the past like one using Zsa Zsa Gabor, or one where monkeys are beating on a transmission. It plays to our history.” (www.mediapost.com)
Ford And Yahoo Home In On Electric Focus

Ford is launching its first electric car solely online, and solely on Yahoo Screen’s custom content online program, “Plugged-In.” The program, launching May 29, features people like David Arquette, Adrian Grenier, Jenna Bush Hager, Emily Procter, Alicia Silverstone, and J.R. Martinez, and the cities in which they live.

The spotlight is on Ford’s new Focus Electric car, which is the automaker’s first vehicle in a tiny-but-growing segment dominated by Nissan’s Leaf.

The weekly online reality competition features two-person teams competing against each other in a series of challenges. In the inaugural show, Arquette guides contestants through challenges in Los Angeles. Later shows have other actors and celebrities doing likewise in their respective hometowns.

In addition to being about the teams’ efforts to complete challenges, the episodes spotlight each town. The winning teams in each city will move on to participate in the finale event in Los Angeles, where they will compete with teams from other regions for the chance to win a Ford Focus Electric. The finale is on Aug. 7. (www.mediapost.com)