Local promo whiz ready for two minutes of fame: ESPN's Siegel sends quiz show on ten-city tour

Cable World, March 11, 2002 by Christopher Schultz

In December 1996, when Jeff Siegel left a marketing manager position at a CBS affiliate station in Orlando, Fla., for ESPN, local promotions were no big deal. Together with longtime ESPN executive Joan Wilson--now a consultant in Washington, D. C.--he composed a two-person division which, as Siegel describes it, would "sit in a room and come up with stuff."

Now, Siegel, the network's VP-affiliate ad sales and new business, talks about keeping up with rapid change in the promo business as enthusiastically as young snowboarders watched Ben Hinkley pull a Rippey Flip in the Winter X Games Big Air competition on his network.

Thirty-year-old Siegel, who became a father in January, oversees a staff of 20 and a budget that's increased ninefold in the last five years.

Event-driven local ad sales promotions are now more market-focused, more accurately measured and more widespread than they've ever been, Siegel says.

"Five years ago we produced mass appeal materials and promotions. Now, with market consolidation and more networks competing for shelf space, we're focusing on the specific needs of each market," Siegel wrote in an e-mail.

In 1995, ESPN and ESPN2 generated $304.2 million combined in local advertising revenue; Siegel estimates that in 2002 the four ESPN Networks (now including ESPN Classic and ESPNews) will generate $643 million.

That money is important to operators, who haven't exactly enjoyed watching ESPN's license fee rise 20% a year since it became the exclusive cable carrier of the NFL.

Operators can recoup as much as 50% to 70% of the cost of ESPN through local ad sales, Siegel said. "If we can justify that affiliates can make money, we can throw some serious money" at promotions.

One such promotion is the "2-Minute Drill," which ESPN will launch with Cox Communications on March 17. The local ad sales campaign features a mobile replica of the set used for SportsCenter anchor's Kenny Mayne's recently canceled trivia show.

"This isn't something with two chairs in the middle of a mall," he says. "We built a high-quality set that can go around the country. Cox jumped all over this thing." It will travel to ten cities, plugging Cox and ESPN in each market.

Cox marketing and promotions manager Michael Hargreaves says Cox "wanted a promotion like this because we've found that we're having success with event-based marketing," adding that "there's a lot of equity" in the ESPN brand. Event-based marketing offers more lucre to local systems than, say, sweepstakes, because of the multiple-level sponsorships it offers: Various businesses sponsor the venue, make T-shirts and other merchandise, sponsor the advertisements promoting the event and festoon the venue with signs.

In San Diego, where the promotion launches on St. Patrick's Day, Cox sold the venue sponsorship to Hooters, a restaurant which, Hargreaves notes, had been off the air for several years. Beachside Hooters hosts a daylong party, where the 2-Minute Drill is the marquee event.

The first 100 people to show up in each market vie to be contestants, and each gets an ESPN/Cox T-shirt. One winner from each market--ten in all--gets to choose a VIP trip for two to ESPN's ESPY Awards, Outdoor Games or X Games.

The live performances of the show in each market will not air on ESPN, but Siegel says local operators can record them and air them either on local-access channels or during ESPN2's local sports break. Siegel added that ESPN is also entertaining the idea of airing a champion tournament on ESPN, pitting regional winners against one another and airing the contests.

According to Siegel, the genesis of the 2-Minute Drill traveling promotion was ESPN's successful "Tailgate With the Truck" promotion. During 2001, the Truck generated $23 million for 450 participating systems--all told, according to Siegel, NFL on ESPN last year generated $225 million in local ad sales revenue for all affiliates.

ESPN wanted to offer a promotion around an ESPN show, but options for one that would travel were few. According to Siegel, 2-Minute Drill "was the one thing that we could best replicate and transport to affiliates," because "everything else we have is a living, breathing thing--studio shows, games, etc., that become difficult to replicate in local markets."

Although Cox's Hargreaves wouldn't discuss money, he said that within the first month of peddling the promotion to local businesses in the ten markets, Cox had exceeded its 2-Minute Drill sales goals by 50% and is still selling. Sean Bratches, ESPN's SVP-affiliate sales and marketing (and Siegel's boss), says that Cox has generated over $1.5 million in sponsor revenue so far. After San Diego, the 2-Minute Drill set goes to Phoenix, New Orleans, Hampton Roads, Va., Wallingford, Conn., Las Vegas, Wichita, Kan., Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach, Fla., Oklahoma City and Orange County, Calif.