Smart Marketing Idea

Below is an interesting blurb from an Ad Age article:

"Put a compelling commercial on YouTube and watch it take off without spending a penny--that's the lesson from Dove's 'Campaign for Real Beauty.' The 75-second viral film, 'Dove Evolution,' has reaped more than 1.7 million views on YouTube as well as free coverage from talk shows such as 'Ellen,' 'Entertainment Tonight' and 'The View,' and 'Today.'

The successful coverage on multiple media fronts of 'Dove Evolution,' which chronicles (at speed) the digital transformation of a pretty woman into a stunning supermodel, drove record traffic to Dove's site CampaignforRealBeauty.com, reaching three times as many people as the beauty care brand's expensive Super Bowl ad last year, according to traffic measurement firm Alexa.com."

Sports teams or leagues in general need to develop fun and innovative commercials to post on YouTube. Even a bloopers real might generate interest and over the long term could draw fans to the stadium or arenas, which is the ultimate goal. In the commercial is interesting and people forward it to their friends, the team will have seen significant ROI from their production costs.

In previous blogs, I have expressed concerns with fans creating commercials for corporations to run during the Super Bowl. I don't know if you will see a lot of ROI from purchasing ad time to show the commercial.

On the flip side, locally, teams should have fans create commercials. The teams can generate interest within the community, generate media exposure and possible have other fans vote on which commercial will win. These commercials will not be seen on a national stage. The commercial selection process can be drawn out over a month or so. There are endless possibilities to increase fans interest and ticket sales over the long run. Will a team take advantage of this idea? Nah…that would be too easy.