USATF lands new marketing firm

[Trackshark]

I'm not sure if this was already posted as it was a press release from April 9.

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Los Angeles, Calif./Colorado Springs, Colo./Indianapolis, Ind., April 9, 2007 - Wasserman Media Group (WMG) has entered into long-term exclusive partnerships with USA Gymnastics, USA Swimming and USA Track & Field to represent the trio in the marketplace for sponsorship, events and marketing opportunities, and develop digital platforms to broaden distribution and original programming. Through this first-ever partnership with WMG, these national governing bodies (NGBs) are joining forces to promote their sports, attract commercial partners, and better serve their athletes, coaches and fans with the support of one of the world's leading sports marketing and media companies.

http://www.sportnet.com/press0407a.html

[tafnut]

Re: USATF lands new marketing firm

represent the trio in the marketplace for sponsorship, events and marketing opportunities

develop digital platforms to broaden distribution and original programming

promote their sports

attract commercial partners

As Jean-Luc said, "Make it so."

[TrackCEO]

According to news reports, USATF may be getting a lump of coal in its stocking:
http://masterstrack.com/blog/001940.html

K E N

[TrackCEO]

According to USATF director of communications Jill Geer, the WMG deal is all good:
http://masterstrack.com/blog/001948.html

K E N

[The Kitchen Cynic]

According to USATF director of communications Jill Geer, the WMG deal is all good:

Almost nothing in the world is all good.

[Smoke]

This is great news. From nothing to something. Go Casey go!

[marknhj]

The most significant skill possessed by marketing companies is marketing themselves, in my experience...

[gh]

Yeah, I often cringe whenever I hear the word "marketing." Not only for the spot-on reason you cite, but also because of the number of times I've heard people say that there's nothing wrong with the sport that "proper marketing" wouldn't cure, as if there's some magic formula that the IAAF and USATF are just too blind to recognize.

[tafnut]

I've heard people say that there's nothing wrong with the sport that "proper marketing" wouldn't cure, as if there's some magic formula that the IAAF and USATF are just too blind to recognize.

Better marketing won't CURE the sport, but I have yet to see a bold visionary effort made by anyone but Nike. We keep trying to fix what we have, but that's like replastering the same wall over and over. We need to put up an entirely new wall. The NFL and the NBA did it back in the day, by creating hype and shoving it in your face all the time. We (IAAF/USATF) just don't have the capital resources to do that, but we CAN be CLEVERER than we are now, which is essentially 'more of the same'. I realize it's easy for me to take pot-shots from my little desk in Bumf*ck, Egypt, but when, since the Dan and Dave Show in 1992, have you seen imaginative thinking brought to bear? The answer is to create and then hype rivalries. First domestic (X-Man vs. whoever) ones and then int'l ones (Gay-Asafa).

We have the personalities in our sport - Tyson, Spearmon, X, Dix, JW, LMerritt . . . all the way to Breaux and Clay. USATF focuses on our guys and then IAAF brings out the int'l rivalries. They abound!

[malmo]

The most significant skill possessed by marketing companies is marketing themselves, in my experience...

Brilliant .... and so very true.

[BCBaroo]

All I can think is about the remarkable job Mixed Martial arts has done in the past few years...and it's all about targeted "marketing". They focused on a network (spike)...and a reality show "Ultimate Fighter"...which introduced personalities. The biggest problem (but not really a problem) was the show made newer fighters bigger stars than some very experienced fighters. The show was also chock full of product placement.

IMagine what a reality show would be like showing some of Nike's best athletes living together.

Heck, there are already houses out there with the athletes - we just need the cameras. In this day and age, exposure is everything. The reality is - you can't afford to live your life privately if you want the sport to grow. Anyway - I'd watch it.

Heck, put swimmers in the house, too. As long as Natlaie Coughlin's one of them.

[gh]

The combat sports (real or phony) have gone through cycles of enjoyment for a century now. One major reason TV embraces them so is because the field of play (the ring) is a perfect fit for the TV screen (i.e., same shape, basically), so there's no wasted image. And they're also terrifically cheap to produce, requiring a minimal number of camera positions. (The miles of wire that have to be laid to get track done right are staggering.)

[tafnut]

As gh once said (and changed my mind about the whole issue)paraphrasing)
T&F will never be anything but a niche sport, and we wouldn't want it to be anything else, or it wouldn't be what we love about it so much.

All I ask is what WCSN said it was going to do: affiliate with a cable network (like Vs.) to host track meets live. I just need two meets a week from March - Mt. Sac - through the last Asian meet in late Sept. Is that really too much to ask? When my unknown uncle dies and leaves me his 1000 shares of the original AT&T IPO, I will BUY the freakin' network and make it so!!! And gh can even be the talking head (But he has to let D-W-I-G-H-T do the field play-by-play)!

[333]

Good marketing is like getting a good start out of the starting blocks. It doesn't solve all the problems, but at least you're in the race.

[BCBaroo]

The combat sports (real or phony) have gone through cycles of enjoyment for a century now. One major reason TV embraces them so is because the field of play (the ring) is a perfect fit for the TV screen (i.e., same shape, basically), so there's no wasted image. And they're also terrifically cheap to produce, requiring a minimal number of camera positions. (The miles of wire that have to be laid to get track done right are staggering.)

Good point. AND - people like to see people beat the snot (real or phony) out of each other.

Maybe all races should be inside one of those balls the motorcycles drive around in the circus. I keed.