NFL Sacks 'Power' Ploy; MLB Aims for One Voice

Brandweek, July 31, 2000 by Terry Lefton

The NFL is pulling the plug on "Feel the power," its four-year-old ad campaign that developed into an overall promotional theme for the league. In a memo to NFL staffers, Roger Goodell, who now heads NFL Properties as evp-business properties and club services, said the "Feel the power" tag would be kept as an asset (some clubs have incorporated it in local marketing efforts), but added that a new ad campaign was heading in a different direction. Coincidental with that new direction: the recent dissolution of NFL Properties' power axis of six years with the departure of NFLP prez Sara Levinson and svp-marketing Howard Handler, who crafted "Feel the power."

In the absence of a CMO, the new campaign is being engineered by a committee that includes vp-pr Greg Aiello, vp-club marketing Jesse Ewing and senior director of marketing John McCauley.

The new strategy calls for a campaign with less emphasis on a brand message and more on specific marketing objectives: building the TV audience, boosting visits to NFL.com, pushing sales of licensed product, boosting attendance, stimulating youth interest and expanding participation in football, and enhancing players' image, which should be an interesting assignment after an off-season in which a pair of NFL players were accused of murder.

New creative, again done in-house, will carry the "NFL 2000" thematic and is expected in late August.

Meanwhile, the NFL's other big annual creative effort, a campaign supporting its affiliation with the United Way, has a new agency after 20-plus years with California-based Vita Productions. Young & Rubicam, New York has picked up the pro bono assignment. The new campaign begins on NFL air with the start of the regular season Sept.3.

Across Park Avenue, Major League Baseball is looking to consolidate its advertising tasks, apparently at a larger agency, before next season. Recently work has been handled on an assignment basis with The Lord Group, New York, creating ads for the relaunch of MLB's Authentic on-field apparel collection.

Burnett's Vigilante, New York, has been handling a campaign to boost attendance and push MLB's family values. However, industry sources say MLB has contacted a number of agencies, including TBWA\Chiat\Day and McCann-Erickson (perhaps not coincidentally, the shop of record for MLB corporate sponsor MasterCard) about a larger assignment that would include the launch of MLB's Web site next year, along with the usual branding assignment.

While she would not comment on any agencies involved, MLB vp-marketing Kathy Francis said the future direction was to find an agency--not necessarily a big one--that could "speak with one voice about Major League Baseball."

"We seem to have the right message as far as positioning, but we could be a little stronger on some of the executions," she said. "Overall, we're not changing where we're going in terms of marketing."

Shops are preparing their pitches, but it could not be learned whether incumbents Vigilante or Lord Group will be included in the review.

Since Octagon has the Gravity Games and Gorge Games and ABC/Disney has the X Games, SFX decided it was its turn for an alt-sports programming play Thus, it has hatched R 660, a property scheduled to launch in November with a magazine from Hearst and a mag-style TV show via time buy along with the obligatory Web site. So what's distinct about this attempt to reach the under-25 set? "We're coming at sports from the lifestyle side, rather than the other way around," said SFX svp David Paro. "We'll deal with the biggest action sports athletes, but it won't be a sports property as much as one that's about music and fashion." Oh.

MLB has been operating with neither a top sponsorship exec nor a No.2 since the exit of Tom Worcester to the NBC/Quokka Olympic venture last year and the subsequent defection of David Ball to Pogo.com. While McKinsey (hired to consult on building MLB's Internet operation) recommended a separate sales force for online and offline efforts, MLB execs are now leaning toward a combined sales operation, where one new exec would oversee both areas. "We need to be speaking with one voice," said evp-business Tim Brosnan. Hmm, do you sense a theme here? He offered no timetable for filling the position.