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Name That Bowl Game

 

The college football bowl season is in full swing, which means we get to feast on a smorgasbord of corporate sponsorships. And some of the menu items are stranger than others.

 

Like most years, this newest group of patrons is all over the map. You can tune in to the Capital One Bowl, GoDaddy Bowl, BBVA Compass Bowl, Outback Bowl, Chick-fil-A Bowl, and Fight Hunger Bowl (not to be confused with the Hunger Games…) just to name a few.

 

Some of the sponsorships make sense, like the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Kind of a long name, but a sports bar sponsoring a sporting event is something I can wrap my brain around. Another good name is the Russell Athletic Bowl. Football and athletic apparel seems like an obvious match.

 

Others are a bit more of stretch. The Belk Bowl has a nice ring to it, but a department store chain seems like a strange namesake for a football game. My personal favorite is the AdvoCare V100 Bowl. Never have I seen a bowl named after a vitamin product. And with a name as jargon-y and dry as that, I hope I don’t see it again.

 

Bowls with more heritage are not exempt from flying the corporate flag. Several games have co-branded their traditional name with a title sponsor, resulting in some pretty interesting and awkward combinations. We have the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl here in Jacksonville. Fort Worth hosts the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. And who could forget the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl in Nashville.

 

The names may be funny, but these games generate serious coin. And none creates more cash than the mother of them all, the VIZIO BCS National Championship. Last year’s title sponsor Discover received a whopping $194 million in exposure for the big game, according to Ad Age. And how much did the credit card company have to fork over to get it? Typical estimates hover around $15 million to $20 million. That’s not a bad ROI.

 

The bowl season is a corporate feeding frenzy because football draws a humongous audience. It’s the closest thing to ubiquity since the Golden Age of Television. Everybody wants a piece of the action.

 

But despite the wide reach of the sport, I’d be hesitant to slap my trademark on some of these games. The product on the field can be pretty atrocious for some of the more obscure bowls. The exposure might be good, but the poor quality of the game could be associated with the brand of the sponsor. However, with so much money at stake, companies will happily accept that risk, and ESPN will happily cash their checks.

 

 

Smellcome to Manhood

 

Smellcome to the latest—and perhaps creepiest—ad from Old Spice.

 

Wieden and Kennedy has done it again with another bizarre and amusing video for the legendary fragrance brand. In a new twist, this latest effort examines Old Spice Re-Fresh Body Sprays with a song from the perspective of mothers.

 

Though you may question its sanity, you can’t deny its creativity. Or its shareability. I learned of the ad through college students and watched it on YouTube before seeing it on television. That’s why this style of commercial has been so successful for Old Spice. It gets people talking. And, more importantly, it gets people buying. Previous campaigns have boosted sales.

 

The Old Spice story is remarkable. Procter & Gamble has taken a 75-year-old household product and built it into a social media machine and pop culture phenomenon. Even with the word “old” in the name, the brand has never been more relevant.

 

That’s the power of branding.

 

 

The Art of Branding

 

Sometimes an ad can stop you in your tracks, even when you’re about to dash out of the room for a fresh beer before the game comes back on.

 

When I first saw the newest iPad ad, I thought it was brilliant. If it’s not great branding, it’s a valiant attempt. It features a powerful combination of images, music and writing. It seeks to inspire rather than convince. It implies. It doesn’t tell. The salesmanship is subtle, but the message is bold and creative. It relies on emotion more than logic. It stirs up a warm feeling and attaches that feeling to the brand.

 

The ad—titled “Your Verse”—manages to put the iPad front and center without making it the focus. Apple is selling a lifestyle of exploration, discovery, and creativity. The iPad Air is the bridge to help you get there. The product is not the star. The user is.

 

“Your Verse” is not exactly original. Stylistically, it’s a rehashing of “Here’s to the Crazy Ones,” part of Apple’s groundbreaking 1997 campaign, “Think different.” And the narration has been lifted from the 1989 film Dead Poets Society. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be fresh and innovative. The message and tone are a stark contrast to typical tablet commercials.

 

Did it feel a bit contrived and pretentious? Well, maybe. And not just because it's Apple. At the heart of branding is manipulation. That doesn't mean that it can't be authentic to some degree. But branding is not art. It masquerades as such, communicating ideas or feelings. But those feelings are means to an end, a ruse designed ultimately to grease the wheels of a financial transaction. Branding can tell the truth, just not the whole truth.

 

For that reason, people will always be skeptical, and they should be. But branding still can be beautifully well-crafted. Sure, it may have an ulterior motive. On some level, you could say it’s phony. But the emotions it can stir up are real. Like art, it can say something that speaks to the soul. That must give it some merit.

 

So instead of shrugging off the new Apple ad as a deceptive sales pitch, let's admire the attempt to say something more than product features.

 

 

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