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Kiran Aditham
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Kiran Aditham is a Business Management grad from the University of Central Florida, Aditham earned his stripes as a freelance writer in music/arts publishing.

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NFL Gives Playoff-Hungry Fans a Lift on Web-Based “Bandwagon”

Written on
December 27th 2006
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by Kiran Aditham  |
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The authenticity of the Bandwagon is no doubt spurred by the presence of Kalas, the legendary commentator for NFL Films who modernized his usual catchphrases a bit. Clarke gushingly notes, “One of the greatest assets they gave us was Harry Kalas to come in and record all these lines. He was such a great sport, because if you go through some of the questions like ‘bling or no bling’, he starts talking in hip-hop language. That’s part of the fun because you’re used to hearing him talk about ‘frozen tundras’ and here he talking in a way that’s very colloquial and tongue-in-cheek. Just being able to record with him and get all this in, that was really fun.”

Riding high off the kids-oriented NFL Rush promotion in August, the league hopes the Bandwagon solidifies its interactive initiatives that have culminated throughout 2006. “From an overall perspective, our campaign all year what we’ve done has been much more about driving fans to engage with us across all the possible channels that they can,” states NFL Director of Marketing Peter O’ Reilly. “If you’ve seen the campaigns throughout the year, they’ve driven online for the most part and driven to different initiatives we’re doing at NFL.com.”

But the Bandwagon itself marks a unique step for the NFL, especially when it comes to playoff-time marketing. “As we have looked at the playoffs, the campaigns that we’ve done over the past number of years have been more traditional,” O’Reilly admits. “So in the past, we’ve really focused on the TV campaigns around the playoffs, leading into the playoffs and doing campaigns that highlighted the big moments of the playoffs and how this is the exciting tournament leading up to the Super Bowl. But this year, we started with ‘how can we create an online experience that really engages people and then create a media plan around it that sucks them into this really engaging, immersive experience.’

While banners are currently running on NFL.com and CBSSportsline.com, along with an email blast to the NFL’s database, it’s the viral component that essentially fuels the Bandwagon campaign, which Atmosphere’s Clarke says will run all the way up to the Super Bowl—even with the teams so narrowed down. “When you get down to 4 teams, it [obviously] doesn’t need the full 5 questions to tell you which of those teams to root for. You can even use it when there are a few teams left.” As for updates and enhancements to the initiative, Clarke adds, “We may be doing a version for kids for NFL Rush, and we also may just do an off-season version depending on how [the campaign] takes off.”

With numerous Q&A permutations creating new encounters each time the game is played, chances are that continuing traffic and a built-in audience should keep the Bandwagon riding the Web trail for a while. “This is about a really fun, tongue-in-cheek experience that allows people to go through and figure out what team matches their personality,” O’Reilly posits. “I think it just started with that premise of ‘how can we plan something really engaging that will hook them in as the run to the playoff starts?’ From that online idea, we’d figure out how we can drive people to it, so it’s just a reversing of our typical mindset.

He concludes, “We’ve done a number of different pieces throughout this year that have been viral in nature, but this is the deepest, most immersive experience we’ve done along these lines this year.”



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