ESPN/ABC

Teams are constantly looking for new ways to engage fans, build brand and create added value and access year round. The problem is in this challenged economy, and with all the options out there to draw a fans attention, especially ones that are free, how do you find something that will work and keep someone engaged that will also have enough value to turn them into a new customer or keep them as a repeat customer with their discretionary dollar. One alternative that seems to be more cost efficient and has a bit of a wow factor is outbound personalized calls and video.

There are many cynics that may say President Obama can spend his time, and the countries’ dollars…doing better things than glad handing the MLS champion Columbus Crew at the White House before heading off to throw the first pitch and hang out in the FOX booth at the All-Star game. However, the man who the Washington Times called this week the “Sports Fan Chief” , was astute enough with his team to recognize early on in his run to the White House that sports is a common bond for those on the fence about anything political, and gave him, more than any other candidate, another link to a demo that may or may not have voted or listened to him at all.

As we head into mid-July, what has normally been a slow season for sports brand activation has unveiled a host of positive programs and good signs for sports on all levels. Starting with Mixed Martial Arts and the hundreds of brands and thousands of fans that have descended on Las Vegas for UFC 100 this weekend. The LA Times had a good look at the UFC’s success and its ability to build fans around the experiential platform that they have created and can execute for their followers, both on site and on pay per view. Great weekend for the UFC, which continues to be the only true national brand in the sport.

As we head into mid-July, what has normally been a slow season for sports brand activation has unveiled a host of positive programs and good signs for sports on all levels. Starting with Mixed Martial Arts and the hundreds of brands and thousands of fans that have descended on Las Vegas for UFC 100 this weekend. The LA Times had a good look at the UFC’s success and its ability to build fans around the experiential platform that they have created and can execute for their followers, both on site and on pay per view. Great weekend for the UFC, which continues to be the only true national brand in the sport.

One of the most elusive searches for traditional sports and entertainment properties is the quest to get younger…to identify with and activate against that very active audience that may have already grown tired of the traditional and looks elsewhere for its thrills. For an audience more interested in the half pipe and BMX than baseball or football, the ways for brands to reach them have changed in some ways, but in many ways remain the same.

One of the most elusive searches for traditional sports and entertainment properties is the quest to get younger…to identify with and activate against that very active audience that may have already grown tired of the traditional and looks elsewhere for its thrills. For an audience more interested in the half pipe and BMX than baseball or football, the ways for brands to reach them have changed in some ways, but in many ways remain the same.

As we inch closer to NFL Training Camp, two interesting notes popped up again in the football world over the weekend, both showing what it will take for the casual fan to take notice of football outside of college or the NFL. The first was up north in the CFL, which incidentally has done a good job of rebranding itself and working with, not against the NFL in many ways. This past week, Toronto receiver Arland Bruce took the Ocho Cinco route by doing a “touchdown tribute” to Michael Jackson, complete with acting dead after a score.

As we inch closer to NFL Training Camp, two interesting notes popped up again in the football world over the weekend, both showing what it will take for the casual fan to take notice of football outside of college or the NFL. The first was up north in the CFL, which incidentally has done a good job of rebranding itself and working with, not against the NFL in many ways. This past week, Toronto receiver Arland Bruce took the Ocho Cinco route by doing a “touchdown tribute” to Michael Jackson, complete with acting dead after a score.

Speaking with one voice, whether it is to a business partner, the media, or to fans is always important, especially in the alphabet soup of niche or second tier sports. With the limited dollars and eyeballs available for the casual fan, splitting the marketplace with alphabet soup of organizations usually leads to confusion and can ultimately drive partners on to a platform which is much more simple to understand. The latest example of split markets being a killer is in indoor soccer, which despite the huge success the outdoor game is seeing in the US, just fell further off the roadmap this week.

Within a 24 hour period this week, the brand value sport of professional soccer in the United States took a huge jump.

The drama of horse racing has always been well…on the horses. Rachel Alexandra’s Derby win was the cover of Sports Illustrated and spark a host of stories about what is good in sports. Last year Big Brown’s almost Triple Crown gave UPS a new marketing platform for over a month and the drama of Barbaro and Smarty Jones in past year’s has always been good theater and a boon to ratings. Sp this year the Belmont Stakes is challenged to draw eyes and attendance, with not just a challenged field and no real favorite but a switch from the promotion-driven NBC to the one-off coverage of ABC for the Triple Crown Series.

It started with mic’ed up athletes and coaches, evolved to Helmet cam and driver cam and on and on until we get Tweets from Charlie Villanueva and others in the lockerroom all in the name of trying to give fans unprecedented access to the athlete in a time when the media are getting less and less access on a daily basis. So the ways brands have to look and think about what is still available and what is next remains a growing challenge for a demanding public, demanding brands and a shrinking traditional media field. The folks at Sprint, through their NASCAR Partnership, have come up with yet another piece of an insiders look, and found the perfect way to use their distribution methods to their subscribers to provide it.

As we move into the weekend extravaganza that has become the NFL Draft, it is interesting to see the continued activation, both print and digital, of the NFL machine as fans look to where the future stars will come from. No other off-season “event” has the power for two days that the NFL Draft does. And into the draft cauldron goes some pretty interesting stories, some of which received little attention on the national stage before now. Case in point is the NCAA’s leading rusher, Connecticut’s Donald Brown. While Brown was a key member of the Huskies building a solid Big East football power, the team was hidden in the spotlight of two mega-power college hoops teams and a market trapped between New York and Boston.

The NHL postseason begins in earnest this week, falling at a good time after the Masters, just ahead of the NBA playoffs, before the NFL Draft and following the hype of opening day for baseball. It also helps to have many of the major markets where hockey has a strong brand presence…New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Detroit and Philly especially…all playing with intriguing matchups. The new digital platforms the NHL has pushed so hard to create and offer to fans (as reported in Sports Business Journal this week) also draw more brand attention, so the opportunity to capture the casual fan, especially in major markets seems to all be in place.

Prior to the drop in the economy, major brands were making smart spends across all platforms to find ways to activate and grow marketshare with the growing Hispanic audience in North America. Like the female decisionmakes, the Hispanic audience has become more powerful and more brand loyal in the past five years than ever before, and the rise of powerful entities like ESPN Deportes and Telemundo and Univision support that growth. However with the cutback in spending, a good deal of that activation in the Hispanic community was curtailed, with the thought that many brands had to spend where they knew they would get immediate results as opposed to where they could build from.