Schupp Company Blog

Maximizing your Sponsorship

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

With the tightening of purse strings comes the serious evaluation of overall marketing strategies, sponsorships and, of course, spending. There is also an increased clamor for ROI like never before.

Years of experience tells us that when it comes to sponsorships, there are a few ways to maximize the opportunity and get the most bang for your buck. As we partner with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to do just that, we thought this topic was more relevant than ever to share with all of our clients, vendors and friends. Please enjoy the following tips on leveraging your sponsorship:

Select Smart
Matching your brand with the right consumers in the right environment is the first key to a successful sponsorship. Red Bull, another Schupp Co. client, is an example of a brand that has successfully selected events that appeal to their thrill-seeking audience – raves and extreme sports. Keep in mind that sponsorship, like advertising, cannot create an advantage for your product. It can only convey it.

Integrate Your Brand
In a playing field with hundreds of sponsors vying for attention, being “the official sponsor” is no longer enough. Instead you must fully integrate your brand into your sponsorship and prove your connection to the sponsorship audience. This is especially important in sports-specific sponsorships and the very personal relationship the fan audience has with the sport, teams and players. Your brand must show that it knows and loves the sport as the fan does. You prove this by creatively weaving your brand into the story of the sport. Fall short, and a real fan will see right through it.

Think Long-Term
No sponsor can expect to win the affection of consumers in an instant. A relationship of trust and affiliation must be built over time. Your sponsorship dollars will always be best spent if you stick to a single strategy and to a sponsorship that best supports that strategy for multiple years.

Leverage Your Investment with Activation
Once you’ve creatively integrated your brand into the sponsorship and committed to the cause, pull it together with a comprehensive activation program. According to research firm Real Feedback, a well-chosen sponsorship followed by a strong activation can result in a 30- to 40-percent increase in consumer openness to trying a product.

The most effective brands support their sponsorship with a marketing campaign that helps activate them, including advertising, direct marketing, promotions, interactive, public relations, social media and more.

William Chipps, senior editor for IEG Sponsorship Report, once put it plainly: “For every dollar a sponsor spends on the sponsorship, it should spend another $1 to $3 to activate and promote that sponsorship.”

An Example in Action
Enterprise Rent-A-Car has selected Schupp Company to support them in their quest for proper sponsorship activation and maximization. We’re currently in development of a fully integrated television commercial for their National Hockey League sponsorship as well as print and online efforts to support their NCAA sponsorship package. Keep an eye out for these materials in-market early 2010.

Want our help maximizing your sponsorship? If so, e-mail us.

Posted in Holiday 2009, e-newsletter | No Comments »

Miller Lite 2009 Holiday Program

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

For nine years, Schupp Co. has partnered with MillerCoors to develop on-premise promotional programs for Miller Lite. This holiday season, Schupp Co., along with partner agencies, has created a Miller Lite holiday-themed program to be used in bars and restaurants that will encourage consumers to “Toast to Great Taste” while connecting with their friends and family. The program features multiple components, including an interactive table top game, a national sweepstakes and an innovative, post-bar digital component featuring augmented reality.

While consumers are waiting for their friends to join them, or waiting for their meal, they can play the interactive table top game, Holiday M-L-R. This game is designed to encourage friendly competition among consumers with the use of special dice and player chips.

The program also includes gift items such as the limited edition Taste Activator™ glassware and the national “Toast to Great Taste” sweepstakes. Sweepstakes prizes include a $4000 travel voucher and 1,000 limited edition Taste ActivatorTM glassware gift sets to toast in the New Year.

Additionally, Miller Lite brand ambassadors will get consumers into the spirit of the holiday season with the Classic Cards program. They will take pictures of consumers toasting with friends wearing holiday-themed props (e.g., reindeer antlers) holding a photo card. When the picture is uploaded to the Miller Lite holiday Web site, the design on the photo card is recognized by software and acts as a canvas for consumers to digitally customize their photos, using augmented reality.

What is this trend of augmented reality, you ask? Well, augmented reality is the blending of real world photographs or video with digital content. It has many wide-ranging applications; the most common includes the yellow first-down indicator lines shown during NFL games on TV. For the purpose of the holiday program, when consumers see their photos online, the unique design on their photo card represents a pre-determined image that is inserted into the picture (Miller Lite bottles, holly, mistletoe, snow men). This image can be still, animated or three-dimensional. After customizing their photo, consumers may choose to print the photo, e-mail it to friends or post it on Facebook.

The Miller Lite holiday program came to market nationwide November 1, 2009. Be sure to look for it when you meet up with old friends and new over the holiday season and toast to the Great Taste of Miller Lite!

Posted in Holiday 2009, e-newsletter | 2 Comments »

Get Up-to-Speed on Q4 Media Happenings

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Around this time of year schedules get hectic and free time is anything but abundant. That being said, we’ve decided to approach the Schupp Co. Media Minute in a way that gets you up-to-speed on multiple timely media subjects in a flash.

You might think of these as “media seconds within the Media Minute.”  Here it goes…

Difficult Holiday Season Predicted for Retailers
Recent trade articles in Brandweek and Adweek focused on the difficulties that retailers are anticipating this coming Holiday season. This expected bad news for retail could possibly translate to some good news for media sellers, however. For example, 56 percent of retailers surveyed expect to advertise more aggressively this holiday season relative to last year. Further, 66 percent plan to offer greater discounts to the consumer. Both of these responses portend an uptick in media demand. Yes, Virginia, perhaps Francis Pharcellus Church was correct, at least for media sales.

Take Notice of Increased Magazine Readership
While a decline in magazine newsstand sales has grabbed the spotlight, a somewhat opposite trend of increased magazine readership has gone unnoticed. That’s the case at least for leading consumer magazines: MRI has reported an increase of 8 percent in total readership over the last decade based on an analysis of 81 top titles. It could be a case of reported behavior (MRI) not reflecting actual behavior (declining newsstand sales). Or, maybe more people are looking for news and entertainment, but are just not willing to pay for it. Either way, the result is the same for the publishing industry: more reliance on advertising revenue and less on subscription and newsstand sales.

Women & Social Media
Recent research indicates that a significant portion of women don’t find information found via social media all that helpful and credible. Is this a function of the medium or perhaps of the low quality of the content?  Regardless, marketers need to make sure that social media efforts are meaningful to the audience – or don’t go there.

Video Consumption Rising
The latest Nielsen “3 Screen Report” (TV, Internet and Mobile) indicates that video consumption on all three platforms continues to increase. For traditional TV, this includes both an increase in the total number of viewers (+0.9% vs. YAG), as well as an increase in average time spent viewing (+1.5% vs. YAG). To paraphrase Mr. Twain, it appears that the reports of TV’s death were greatly exaggerated.

Influences on Purchases
According to Mintel, 34 percent of U.S. Internet users who purchased a product or service based on a recommendation got that tip from a friend or relative. Another 25 percent based their decision on advice from a spouse or domestic partner. Lower on the list were bloggers and chat rooms. While bloggers may bring buzz to a product, converting the buzz to sales is another matter – unless, of course, the blogger is a friend.

Ad Spending on the Decline
U.S. ad spending declined for the fifth consecutive quarter during Q2, 2009, with the biggest declines experienced by radio (-24.6%) and newspapers (-24.2%), according to TNS. There is a little bit of good news for some of the media, however, with internet display advertising realizing a 6.5% increase and newspaper FSI’s increasing 4.6 percent.  Does anyone else see the irony of increased FSI spending while newspaper readership and revenue continues to trend down?

Online vs. Traditional Media
It’s interesting how the trade media continues to give the headlines to online, even when the real news may be regarding a more traditional medium. Example: 9/25 MediaPost article regarding latest Opinion Research Corporation’s survey of where people get their news. The report states that both TV and dailies have declined in terms of where consumers get their news…and that radio and online both realized increases.  In fact, radio as a news source is now tied with the daily newspaper – with both representing 19.4 percent of total news consumption.  However, the subhead of the article reads “Changing Times: Online Trumps Newspapers.”

St. Louis Moms & FOX
A recent look into the St. Louis Scarborough research indicates that St. Louis Moms love their FOX.  79 percent of them regularly tune-in to KTVI, and 24 percent regularly visit MyFoxSTL.com. Just think how high these numbers would be if Gossip Girls aired on Channel 2.

By the way, if you like this “news bite” version of the Media Minute, let us know. We’d like to hear from you. Give us feedback.

Posted in Holiday 2009, e-newsletter | No Comments »

A Jolly Good Time at the Schupp Co. Holiday Party

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Last-minute trips to the mall, never-ending lines and visiting the in-laws. Sometimes the holiday season can leave much to be desired.

Fortunately, the Schupp Co. Holiday Party is full of desirable fun!

To get us all in the holiday spirit, here are Top 10 reasons why the Schupp Co. holiday party is always a good time.

10. Free cocktails.
9. Free food.
8. There’s usually a psychic, tarot card reader or some other crackpot on hand, not including Mark Schupp.
7. Partying with people you work with is much better than working with people you work with.
6. You get a chance to see how Schupp Co. blows through its already thin margin.
5. You can finally get an answer to the age-old question “Does Schupp Co. make shoes?”
4. It is the one day of the year the entire creative team doesn’t wear black.
3. Seeing the sweet holiday sweater is a present unto itself. It will be back again this year!
2. The party is your only chance to see the account team drunk on something other than power.
1. Mark’s paying for something when he doesn’t have to…it’s a truly a Miracle on 4^th & Pine.

Posted in Holiday 2009, e-newsletter | 1 Comment »

Schupp + Wine + Dine + Trip = Party Pix.

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

This fall the entire company loaded up on a bus and headed west to Chandler Winery. Here is the photographic evidence of the fun.

Posted in Holiday 2009, e-newsletter | 1 Comment »

Sex Sells, But is it the Easy Way Out?

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Although a regular point of discussion in our industry, the latest eyebrow was raised by Fox 2 News in St. Louis due to a sex-infused ad for Hardee’s biscuit holes. The team invited our president, Mark Schupp, to share his two cents.

As you’ll see them discuss in this clip, Hardee’s uses sexual innuendos to describe the name of their newly launched breakfast food. According to Schupp, they definitely didn’t take the high road when it came to strategy.

“Using sex appeal will turn some heads and will obviously get some buzz going on a viral level,” Schupp commented. “When it all boils down, however, using sex to sell exposes more than meets the eye. I personally feel as though it exposes a lack of creativity and effort. To put it simply, it exposes the fact that they’re taking the easy way out.”

What do you think? Click here to watch the clip and decide for yourself.

Posted in Holiday 2009, e-newsletter | No Comments »