hawkeye Sports and Entertainment

Mixing Business and Pleasure

Because hawkeye sports and experiential (hse) works with national active lifestyle brands, the majority of our clients' events take place all over the country; being a part of last weekend's Rock 'n' Roll Dallas Half Marathon close to home was a nice change of pace for our team. Some were able to participate in the expo and the race itself, while others made sure client activation was flawless as usual. hse clients, Gatorade and Michelob ULTRA, had a presence during the event and provided products that athletes craved on a warm, beautiful day in Texas.

Finish area at Fair Park in Dallas, TX

Friday afternoon, we visited the Health and Fitness Expo at the Dallas Convention Center to pick up race packets and get a sense of what some brands are doing in the experiential space. hse team members Nate DeMercurio and Michelle Sparks ran the full 13.1 miles through the streets of Dallas, while Kate VanHee and Carly Mathews teamed up to run the relay. hse Managing Director, Amanda Dempsey, and Account Director, Jamie Schneider, were there with their little girls at the finish line to congratulate the runners. Jamie oversees the Michelob ULTRA account for hse, which is a series-wide partner of the Rock 'n' Roll Race Series, and was there to lend a hand to hse Client Associate Malisa Sirucek, responsible for quenching lots of thirsty palates in the beer garden.

Rock 'n' Roll Health and Fitness Expo, Left to Right: Michelle Browning, Kate VanHee, Weston Gouger, Michelle Sparks, Becca Ellinor, Carly Mathews

Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon finish area, Left to Right: Jamie Schneider, Carly Mathews, Kate VanHee, Nate DeMercurio, Amanda Dempsey

As the official Celebration Partner of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series, the most rocking run on earth, Michelob ULTRA activates at all 24 U.S. races as well as the Montreal event in Canada. The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series brings over 10,000 runners to all 24 of their half marathons across the nation. At the Rock 'n' Roll Dallas event, Michelob ULTRA was able to reach over 5,000 consumers with an ice cold Michelob ULTRA on the warm Texas weekend. Over 14,000 runners participated in the event this weekend bringing out family and friends totaling approximately 25,000 spectators for the event weekend.

Runners enjoying ice cold Michelob ULTRA at the finish area

Runners posting photos on Facebook from the Michelob ULTRA Finish Line

The Michelob ULTRA activation footprint at the finish area

Going on 8 years, the Michelob ULTRA sponsorship continues to bring an impressive Post-Race Party footprint. The footprint consists of a 24' Michelob ULTRA stage, 50' inflatable dome, 16' inflatable image columns, tents, interactive kiosks with the ability to post race photos on Facebook and, of course, ice cold Michelob ULTRA. The Race To The ULTRA tour consists of 80+ events through out the year, including running and cycling events, such as AMGEN Tour of California and staple events, such as OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini Marathon and ING Miami Marathon. Each year, the Race To The ULTRA tour reaches over 6 million spectators and participants and distributes over 300,000 samples of Michelob ULTRA throughout the United States.

Having expanded Race to the ULTRA to two teams that travel the nation for the 80+ events, hse's role is to evaluate and negotiate partnership contracts, manage tour travel, communicate with local wholesalers and event partners, and manage all day to day activity of the tour. hse is focused on  providing Michelob ULTRA with the promotion and activation needed to become the leading superior light beer in the beverage market. 

Gamification

In January 2012 we reported on the 10 marketing trends to watch and trends #6 (experiential embraces technology) and #7 (Gamification) were taken to the streets in late 2011 for Gatorade at the Nike Women's Marathon and Half Marathon in San Francisco.

The challenge: Provide athletes with a memorable experience that set the stage for their upcoming race and helped them understand the importance of sports nutrition while running.

The solution: We created The G Series PRO Sports Nutrition Zone race simulation and connected runners to the brand through gesture control technology ("GestureTek Cube") that allowed athletes to step into the screen and test their sports nutrition knowledge in an interactive way.

GestureTek Cube running the G Series Pro simulation

Gatorade products are heavily rooted in science, and as such, hawkeye designed and programmed the simulation to have a sleek, realistic feel with a link to the scientific principles behind sports nutrition. To begin, runners would be introduced to a Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) representative and tap the "Start" indicator on the floor mat.

Start Screen

Screens detailed instructions for the simulation as well as the "gesture" technology

Once they had received the instructions, the simulation started with a pre-race scenario that prompted runners to select they would eat/drink prior to running by tapping their foot. The zone meter on the right side of the screen would register the appropriate relative amount of carbohydrates, electrolytes and fluid.

Pre-Race selection screen

After selecting an option before the "race," the screen would change and the runner would step into the shoes on the starting line to begin the race simulation.

Athletes would step onto the (Nike) shoes to begin the race

The road began moving and nutritional items slowly moved toward the runner, whose task was to select the appropriate products with the necessary nutritional elements to keep the zone meter on the right at optimal levels. For example, selecting only water would raise the blue fluid meter, but the carbohydrates and electrolyte meters were unchanged; if the athlete selected G Series PRO Endurance Formula, all three meters rose to reflect the nutritional benefits provided by that product during the race. During the entire simulation, which was timed to be a "sped-up" 3:30 marathon, the GSSI representative provided sports nutrition insight and recommendations based on what the athlete was selecting.

Sports nutrition items began moving toward the athletes, who could step on them to select

The zone meter on the right of the screen reflected certain nutritional levels of the selected items

Once the race ended and the athlete crossed the finish line, the Post-Race screen displayed items for athletes to choose as they would for race recovery. 

The post-race selection screen offered items to choose to begin the recovery process

A final screen would show totals of consumption before, during and after the "race", at which point the athletes briefly received a valuable, overarching sports nutrition consultation from the GSSI representative.

Summary screen displaying what the athlete consumed during the simulation

As you can see from the photo below, the simulation was popular. Gatorade was able to present the science of sports nutrition to athletes through an innovative, interactive and personal medium, while providing the athletes with advice and information from experts on the topic. 

Runners lined up to watch and take part in the simulation

Can You Reach Me?

Well, can you?  I'm referring to 90% of the brands that exist today.  You send me your credit card applications.  I return them to you.  You make the boring creative and expect me to say "wow."  I think not.  You ask me to sign up for XYZ promotion.  I will most likely pass, unless you can offer me something "now."  Call it - instant gratification.  Maybe I'm a millennial.  You know, the name that "marketers" call my generation (born between 1980 and 2000).  Call it what you want, but a lot of young adults my age do not subscribe to anyone's rules.  Including your brand. 

I demand a real brand experience.  How hard would it be for someone from your company to pick up the phone and call me?  Ask me how I feel about your product or service.  Get to know me.  In return, I will get to know your brand.  Maybe I'm a outlier.  Maybe I'm not.  That's something you as a brand have to figure out.  Get your "marketing team" in a room with the following question in mind.  How do we reach the outliers?  Do that and the average will follow.

The brands that make up the 10% that I am loyal to are transparent and have provided me with a great experience.  They focus on the customer.  Point blank.  They are not worried about the competition.  Think about it.  Focus the majority of your attention on your customer and the competition will fall by the wayside. 

Now go round up your marketing team with their "cool" ideas and attempt to reach me.  I just might talk back. 

Aaron Wade

Brands Leverage Cycling To Reach The Active Culture and Beyond

It's been an interesting week for cycling with two players stepping in to support professional cycling teams in a very big way.

1.  Columbia Sportswear has signed on as the title sponsor of Team Highroad
2.  Garmin is now the title sponsor of Slipstream Pro Cycling

Both groups are planning to use their sponsorships as platforms to reach the Active Culture and to gain international scale.  The teams will debut their new colors on July 5th at the start of the 2008 Tour de France.  These groups know the power of the sport and the tremendous value of the audience.  Way to go...

-Simon Essl

COLLEGE KIDS ARE HOT FOR MUSIC...

As the music industry puts a squeeze on universities and college kids, the appetite for more music continues to grow. Music is a major part of the college culture. Gaining access to music is part of the current technology culture and the music industry wants to hold someone accountable.

College kids will account for more than 1.3 billion dollars in illegal music downloads this year. More than half of all college kids acquire music illegally. The recording industry has decided to make both the students and their respective universities accountable – and they have taken their battle to Washington D.C.

The industry wants universities to shut down computer networks that provide access to online services where pirated music is illegally traded. Tough call - are the universities to blame? I assume those same university networks provide some educational value?

Maybe we should shut down bookstores that sell “cliff-notes”?

Anyway, the real opportunity lies with that incredible college appetite for music! As a marketer my mind races with ways to satisfy their appetite. There are some very cool solutions just waiting to end up at a college near you – give us a ring.

Merrill Squires

Good News! Buyers Market for Branded Music

Labels and acts are more eager than ever to find exposure through marketing partnerships, given that the recording industry is down overall 16% in the US in First Quarter 2007.

What’s going on, don’t people listen to music anymore? Yes they do, and in huge numbers. 117 million albums and a record 280 million digital tracks, converting to an additional 28 million albums, were sold in the first quarter of 2007. The 16% overall decrease is occurring due to seismic shifts in distribution.