In case you missed this memo while watching CNN bash President Trump in every story or opting for Fox News’ overt love for the President in every story, let me remind you that SPORTS MATTER.

They mater because they generate revenue.
They generate jobs.
They generate passion.

Now with the return of the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball—all at once it seems—sports will generate billions in advertising revenue. This is exactly what the country needs. And right now.

At the four-month mark where every major professional sports league went on hiatus due to COVID-19, the return of live sports is just what we all need. Live sports signals an important return to normal for the country and spark a television advertising sales marketplace that was left in a disparate place. During the last full season, each sport played, the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL produced nearly $7 billion in ad revenue for networks across the United States. That’s not to mention the billions produced overseas and the remaining parts of North America.

Don’t think that sports matter? Here is exactly how much national ad revenue the big four sports leagues added to the networks’ gross sales during their last full seasons (*according to Kantar Media):

• NFL—Regular Season: $3.3 billion, Playoffs: $1.3 billion
• NBA—Regular Season: $528.2 million, Playoffs: $877.5 million
• MLB—Regular Season: $144.7 million, Playoffs: $338.5 million
• NHL—Regular Season: $35.9 million, Playoffs: $102.2 million

Seth Winter, EVP of sports sales for Fox Sports says that “the reopening of live sports is “a very symbolic and real indicator of the move forward to whatever the TV ad industry’s new normal will be post-pandemic.”

Jo Ann Ross, president and chief advertising revenue officer, ViacomCBS domestic advertising sales says that, “There is a thirst and a hunger for live sports.”

All you have to do is look at the few live sports that aired recently to demonstrate how thirsty advertisers and audiences are for any sort of live sports:

• UFC 251—1.3 million people purchased the event on pay-per-view That’s among the highest in the sport’s history. UFC has generated this many buys only four times previously with the the most recent coming in 2018, when Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated Conor McGregor at UFC 229. That event generated a record 2.4 million buys.
• The Match: Champions for Charity golf tournament, which aired on May 24 and featured Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning vs. Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady drew 5.8 million viewers across TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN. WarnerMedia reported that this telecast was the most-watched golf match in cable TV history. The WarnerMedia’s ad sales team sold every spot a month in advance with the expectation of this type of outcome. 
• When NASCAR races resumed on Fox one May 17th, over six million viewers made it the most-watched NASCAR Cup race on any network (outside of the Daytona 500) in 2018.

All of this comes of devastating news that U.S. advertising revenue plummeted 31% in May due to only those few events take place due to the pandemic. What makes this worse is that the Standard Media Index reports that majority of major ad categories reduced their media spends drastically—by 10%-20% or more. Only pharmaceutical manufacturers spent more in May than they did in the same 2019 period.

Two media companies saw ad revenues deteriorate as a direct result of the absence of NBA games when the playoffs take place in May, broadcast by Walt Disney’s ABC and ESPN and WarnerMedia’s TNT. WarnerMedia saw ad revenue decline by 45.5%, while Disney saw it tumble by 39.6% for the month of May.

First up is MLB on July 25th followed by the NHL on August 1st. I can wait to see what advertisers have in store for us…

Michael Jordan: The gold standard of sports advertising.

The post Sports Are Back to Save the Ad World appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

I mean tickets to the Golden Game? Super Bowl 50? In San Francisco? Club Level? Running elbows with the bourgeois of the world like Beyoncé, Pres. Obama, The Mannings, and Katy Perry? I mean who wouldn’t want that?

But then “$3K PER TICKET” smacked me on the brain like an errant elbow from your girlfriend who’s tossing and turning in bed after a 10-tequila-shot bender at 4a in Vegas or Monte Carlo.

Three thousand dollars? And six thousand dollars for two? Face Value? Who would pay $6,000 for Super Bowl tickets and feel good about themselves while drinking $15 beers in their plush club level seats while behemoths slam into each other while involving concussion protocols that can only truly be determined after death? I mean $1 a day helps a whole family eat three squares in Southern Sudan right?

C’mon NFL, really? Are you donating a part of this to some kind of charity? Sheesh! So right there I made my Stub Hub commitment to scalp these suckers and help out the world. Final result ended with an $8,000 donation to a local food bank.

Will I regret it? No way. It’s not like it’s a Kings-Capitals Stanley Cup Final ticket, right?

Okay, so where am I?

I’m at home waiting for my chili to finish cooking so I can have my Hebrew Nationals (a package of seven cost me $3.99, while a single hot dog at Levi’s Stadium would have run me $8.00; I think I made a good choice to sell my tickets and watch at home, don’t you think?).

Based on one of the best Super Bowl commercials (there weren’t many), I should have stuck with Heinz condiments. Heinz’s clever blend of America’s love of a dog commercial and blended it with a time-honored brand and a dash of quirk. The Heinz’s Wiener Stampede jumped from the field and into our hearts. It also proved that if you had a big hit in the 70s, then you can make money in 2016 (ala Harry Nilsson’s “Without You”).:

I think I may have stumbled on my true calling: Athlete fixer. Last year, I reached out to Seattle Seahawks’ running back Marshawn Lynch to be his media coach. Before that, I detailed how to eliminate your stage fright. This year it’s Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton who needs a little Media Guy help. His post-game presser was a personal disaster. For a guy who makes $10 mil annually in endorsements, he sure needs a lessen in humility. His three-minute talk to the media included nine answers that were three words or less. Someone should have taken him aside before walking into that room. Where was his Jerry Maguire? Where was the Panthers’ PR person to protect their most valuable player asset? C’mon Panthers! You’re better than that!

So Cam, as I told Marshawn, next time you ready yourself to Superman into a press conference after a humbling defeat, give the Media Guy a ring…or just email me.

(BEST) AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
Anheuser-Busch

After Helen Mirren’s commercial scorned us not to drink and drive, but then winds up drinking a beer and says, “This is suppose to be fun,” Peyton Manning slipped in the most effective commercial of them all. With everyone hanging on his post-game interview, pondering if he will announce his retirement, he instead listed his top priorities right now, saying he was going to drink a lot of Budweiser.


Holy ad messaging contradiction!

(RUNNER UP) AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
Baldwin Bowl

(WORST) AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER
Mountain Dew’s puppymonkeybaby

Creepy and disappointing! When that ridiculous thing hit the screen with its bad Godzilla-like stop motion CGI and started licking the guy’s face somehow inspiring him to drink the new Mountain Dew drink, I wanted to punch the television. But what do I know?

The abomination of a commercial was trending on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all day. The ad garnered Mountain Dew almost 70,000 mentions** Good, bad or ugly, viewers wouldn’t stop talking about this nightmare.

Dude on Twitter said it best:

*- According to Market Watch
**- According to Amobee Brand Intelligence

The post At first I was like, “Holy F#%king Super Bowl Tickets, Batman!” … appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

“I’m here so I won’t get fined…”

With a $500,000 fine looming, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch made a bizarre appearance at Super Bowl Media Day. The famously tight-lipped running back gave a big eff you to reporters and the NFL who forced him in front of a microphone for the leaque minimum five minutes by responding to 25 straight questions with the same answer: “I’m here so I won’t get fined.”

All of this begs the question: Why not hire a media trainer?

Last year I detailed how to eliminate your stage fright. But for some, reading a column and taking a bit of advice isn’t enough. I mean, even kings need special exercises ala Colin Firth in his Academy Award winning turn in the “The King’s Speech” …

“I’m a thistle-sifter. I have a sieve of sifted thistles and a sieve of unsifted thistles. Because I’m a thistle-sifter.”

Whether giving an interview to CNN, speaking to an audience of 1 to 1,000 or facing a camera, getting the proper training enables the comport you need to help you avoid the mistakes that everyone makes.

In my early media days I was given a guide to conquering the media. I still have it an it’s been invaluable for decades as both a speaker and a trainer. I call it the Holy Grail of Media…perhaps that’s a stretch…

• Don’t be afraid of the interview.
• Keep in mind that the great majority of reporters are cordial people who are not out to harm you. They just want to get a story that will satisfy their editors and go home to their family.
• Reporters hate when someone misleads or lies to them. Reporters don’t like it when their stories have to be corrected through no fault of their own and because of inaccurate information provided to them.
• Don’t “wing it.”  Come prepared with notes  regarding the topic. 
• If you don’t know the answer to a question, tell the reporter that you’ll get back with an answer. 
• An interview is not a legal hearing. It’s okay to tell a reporter that some information is proprietary.
• Just because a reporter puts away a notebook or turns off a tape recorder doesn’t mean the interview is over and you can say anything without it being used. 
• If a reporter makes a statement that you do not agree with, say so. Remaining quiet may give the impression that you agree. 
• Don’t answer if you are not sure of a reporter’s question. Always ask for a clarification.
• Never say anything negative about an individual or company.
• Don’t stray from the subject of the interview to comment on the day’s news. That might open up a new line of questioning.
• If a print reporter signals that the interview is over but the client wants to provide additional information, it’s okay to ask the reporter for a few more minutes.
• Reporters like facts and figures. Instead of just voicing an opinion, back it up with facts and figures.
• Prior to departing, let the reporter know how you can be contacted if additional information is needed.
• And most important, never lie to a reporter.

The post Fined appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Andrew Luck, the prince who replaced the king, takes center stage this weekend after staging one of the NFL’s greatest playoff history. Before taking on the New England Patriots, he took a few minutes to hang with the Media Guy.

MEDIA GUY: What do you think about this Patriots defense and what can you take from last year’s game and your experience, or is that all by the boards at this point?


ANDREW LUCK: I think obviously the game has no bearing on this year, but I do think there is merit in going back and watching it and seeing certain things. I think it’s a great way to re-familiarize yourself with what Coach [Bill] Belichick does, but we put way more stock in the film from this year and what they’ve done. It’s a phenomenal defense – they get after the quarterback and have studs all around. 

MG: What are some of the things that stand out from last year’s game? 


AL: Yeah, you know I thought it was one tough, tough defense. I don’t want to dwell too much on last year. They do a great job of forcing turnovers, getting to the quarterback. We know it’s going to be a dogfight. 


MG: Schemes don’t necessarily change too much with teams from year to year. Do you think that you are more mentally prepared to handle the scheme of the Patriots this year than you were last year? 


AL: Yeah, I think so. I think I’ve improved. I am nowhere near perfect, but I think I’ve improved. They do such a great job of disguising and making everything look the same and then lo and behold it was different and, shoot, you did something stupid. So, I do feel like I’m better equipped to handle this. 


MG: I know it’s not really about you versus Tom Brady this weekend, but as a young quarterback in his second season, is it tough not to use the accomplishments and the arc of Brady’s career as something to strive towards? 


AL: He has definitely set the standard for success at the quarterback position. The way he handles himself, watching from afar, the competitive nature and basically all the right things he does. Yeah, I guess he is a barometer and he is the standard. 


MG: Have you sat down with Deion Branch yet and picked his brain? 


AL: It’s been a quick morning. I definitely will pick his brain. He is going to be a great addition to our team, but I haven’t had a chance to sit down. We’ve been rolling in and out of meetings. 


MG: Have you worked out with him at all? 


AL: I haven’t yet. 


MG: Speed and athleticism is great, but can you talk about the growth of T.Y. Hilton as a wide receiver versus an athlete? 


AL: Yeah, I mean phenomenal. I think everyone knows he’s a great athlete. It’s awesome to see him do so well this year because he’s worked at his craft so hard through the offseason through last year and this year. He’s always in Reggie [Wayne]’s ear about how to get open, what tricks of the trade to use. So, he’s a special football player, he works every day to get better and deserves all the success he gets. 


MG:  I think you’re 14-2 in games decided by seven points of loss, and the vast majority of those games have been fourth quarter comebacks. What would you attribute the success to in those close contests? 


AL: I think of it as more of a team statistic. Ever since I’ve been a part of this team guys have played hard for 60 minutes. I know in most of those games the defense has made an unbelievable stop or forced a turnover or the special teams makes a huge play or [kicker Adam Vinatieri] Vinny kicks a huge field goal to win it or you get a big momentum changing special teams play and offensively we manage to put some decent drives together. I think Coach [Chuck] Pagano and the attitude he sets is to play hard for 60 minutes and overtime if necessary, and we all buy into that. 


MG:  I know you enjoyed the victory last weekend, but how quickly did the conversation turn to, ‘Hey, we can’t keep falling behind like this in games?’ 


AL: We understand we can’t survive our mistakes forever, especially against a good, quality playoff football team. So, we’ll work at limiting those mistakes and then hopefully giving ourselves a fighting chance. 


MG: One of the things that you and Tom Brady have done this year is to adjust to a lot of different personnel around you. What’s been the most challenging aspect of that for you, and how have you been able to overcome it? 


AL: I think it is a challenge in different phases, but it is a great opportunity for everybody to come in, and guys have made the most of their opportunity, whether it’s wide outs or linemen or whoever it may be. I understand that it’s sort of the climate of the NFL and injuries are a terrible thing, but they do happen. We’ve been very fortunate, I think, to have great guys step up into those roles, whether it’s been for the whole season, or for a game, or for a quarter or whatever it may be. Everybody prepares like a starter and the next man up theme is a bit unfortunate, but it is real and it is part of the locker room. 


MG: How about for you personally – has it helped knowing that you can adjust to all these changing parts? 


AL: I haven’t really thought about it like that. I figure it’s part of being a professional – making sure you do your job no matter the circumstances surrounding it. [Quarterbacks Coach] Clyde Christianson and [Offensive Coordinator] Pep Hamilton have done a great job of making sure we all go out there feeling comfortable and no one is going out there feeling out of their element or unable to handle the load that’s given to them. So, I think a lot of credit [goes] to Pep for making it all work.” 


MG: Does it help that your offense is fluid? Bill Belichick said that it’s really a game plan type of offense based on what he’s seen, in that it can change from game to game. 


AL: Yeah I think it does. I think Pep has really done great job of giving us our best shot each week based on personnel and everything else. We go in feeling like we have a fighting chance to win each game if we can limit our mistakes. So, it’s been good. 


MG: You’ve had a league low number of penalties and you only had 14 turnovers this year. Is it a point of emphasis going against a team like New England that sort of craves winning those turnover battles? 


AL: Yeah, you know it’s an emphasis every week, and that’s something Coach Pagano has talked about from day one. Along with running the football and stopping the run, it’s turnover margin that he preaches day-in and day-out. We took that to heart this year and managed to do a decent job. Obviously we weren’t great at it last week, but we know we can’t do that when we play the Patriots. 


MG: Do you come back to that a little more after last week’s outing? 


AL: Oh yeah, you know you’re definitely aware of it, absolutely. They do such a great job. I think they’re plus-nine throughout the season. They do a great job, from what I understand, if you turn the ball over offensively they do a great job of getting points like that, obviously with a great quarterback. We definitely have to come back to it. 


MG: How much of the success that you’ve had in the no-huddle is attributable to the fact that you know the guys around you a little bit better? How much is timing and how much is just a schematic thing? 


AL: That’s a good question. I don’t know if I could put a percentage on everything, but it’s worked at certain times, at big times. Also the other tempos of offense have worked for us, so I think it’s great to have all those options. 


MG: I know you didn’t want to throw the interceptions last week, but I know on two of them you came right back and led the team to a touchdown. Could you speak to your ability to even the score so to speak? 


AL: I think you’ve got to have a short memory. When you playing with guys who trust you and you trust them it’s a lot easier to go on the field and right your wrong or atone for your sins, if you will. So, I think like any competitor you want to go out there and rectify it. I’m glad we could. 


MG: The Patriots defense took another hit this week when they lost another starter. What do you see form this defense that you’re preparing for? 


AL: They’re going to be tough. It’s going to be physical. They do a great job of disrupting timing and rhythm. They’re relentless and they’re well coached. They’re rarely out of position, so we know we’re going to have our hands full. 

The post MGS Chat: Andrew Luck appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.