It’s well documented that Ben Franklin was a big sports fan, ok he was a great swimmer, which is a sport. Anyway, ESPN recognized our passion for sports and the modesty that comes from living in the greatest sports city in the universe to hire us for several seasons.
BASSMASTER
The Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society (B.A.S.S.) was acquired by ESPN to add depth to their professional sports league coverage and gain access to a new audience. The B.A.S.S. “Superbowl” is called the Bassmaster Classic and it is the most anticipated annual event for elite professional fishermen and their core fans. ESPN needed to build a new television and live event audience from this existing group of passionate B.A.S.S. fans. A brand transformation of how the sport was positioned, the messages that were created, and a broadening of the potential audience target were necessary to meet ESPN’s goals.
INSIGHT: Competition, skills, rivalry, the pursuit and above all the final score: The B.A.S.S. product offered all the core elements that appeal to ESPN sports enthusiasts, so consumer willingness to trial (at least from their couches) was deemed relatively high. But a key insight that came out of our interviews with pro fisherman, was that the true competition was not the other angler, but rather the fish itself. Yet since their inception, B.A.S.S. had been pitting angler against angler, forgetting that potentially new consumers would lack familiarity with the basics of the sport and overlooking the true contest at hand.
SOLUTION: The Fort Franklin team would use “The Bassmaster Classic” as the springboard from which ESPN would create awareness of the sport nationally. The message had to begin here, where the stakes were highest. It would also be the first work for B.A.S.S. to leverage the true calling card of all sports fans: Competition. An integrated campaign with TV, print, social and audio, pitted man against the ultimate competition, an unpredictable wild creature (yes, we know bull riding and shark fishing can be dangerous, but you could get a nasty little cut if you don’t lip a bass correctly). The tag line The Competition is Wild, helped to make this point and let prospective viewers know that there is a new sport that delivers what they love about all sports. Men in NASCAR style jumpsuits driving 85 miles an hour on a lake to catch a fish and hoist it above their heads in front of 95,000 fans.
RESULTS:
INCREASED NETWORK TUNE-IN BY 72% compared to previous televised tournaments on other networks.
300% increase in engagement on the B.A.S.S. social channels. Event attendance beat all previous years with 95,000 fans.
THE NHL
By introduction through ESPN we were invited to work directly with the NHL to promote the league during the off season. Once the Stanley Cup finals were complete, we began to engage fans with a new idea. “You too could play in the NHL, all you need to do was take this online course and show up to your favorite team’s training camp with your certificate”.
Off season brand awareness was the highest it had been since the lockout in the 2004, except we delivered a 58% increase in net positive sentiment, which is exactly what the NHL needed. The above video takes you through the entire course.
ESPN the magazine had a great 21-year run, the thing about doing print is that you need to be able to write amazing headlines. It’s a lost art among a lot of agencies today but by remaining agile, we have transferred our talent for writing a great headline that gets you to feel something into our posting copy, tweets, blogs and animated type that gets you to feel something. Below are some “old school” print work examples for the NHL.
ESPN GOLF SCHOOLS
Attendance at ESPN Golf Schools around the country was low and the program was losing money. We needed to devise a plan to promote the schools with limited budgets at both national and local levels, inspiring consumers to apply online.
Our challenge was that consumers thought ESPN Golf Schools were for highly skilled golfers only. Many average golfers felt as though they weren’t good enough to participate, given the stature of the instructors (ex-coaches of Tiger Woods!) and the ESPN brand association. We needed to change that perception and make it feel more accessible to the average player.
Fort Franklin created a fictional, instructional product called the “Eggsuit.” which was to remind all of us that golf is supposed to be fun. The on-air promos directed people to a mini site where people could sign up for the school at a local course.
As a result of the campaign, ESPN Golf Schools realized a significant attendance increase at locations across the country, turning a profit of $3.5M as opposed to a previous year’s loss $500,000.