Download Development of Sports & Entertainment Marketing

History of
Sports & Entertainment Marketing
Questions
What are the connections between
sports & entertainment?
What do you know about the history of sports &
entertainment marketing?
Can you name the people who were instrumental in the
fields?
What do disco & beer have to do with the history of
sports & entertainment marketing?
Brief History of Leisure
Sports & entertainment marketers have
always sold participation in sports and
entertainment events to consumers.
Consumers are the people who use the
product.
The growth of the industries has relied
on consumers with free time,
discretionary income, and a desire
for recreation.
Pastime….
In America, organized sports and entertainment
used to be a pastime just for wealthy consumers.
In the mid- to late 1800s, only the wealthy had the
time and $ needed to go to the theater, ballet, horse
races, or tennis.
The working classes had little time away from
daily labor.
Entertainment for Everyone
Thanks to public
transportation, working
class families could go
across town to see an opera
or game.
Thomas Edison invented the
KINETOSCOPE in the late
1890s.
William “Bill” Veeck
(1914-1986)
(Veeck as in “wreck”)
Key figure in the development of
sports marketing.
In the 1940s, he owned baseball
teams…
 Can you name them?
Also drafted the first AfricanAmerican player to the American
League…
 What was his name?
Answers
The teams were the
Cleveland Indians and the
Chicago White Sox.
The American League hired
Larry Doby in 1947, weeks
after Jackie Robinson joined
the Brooklyn Dodgers of the
National League.
Veeck’s Innovations
Bill Veeck was best known for his sports marketing
innovations.
Believed the consumer wanted to be involved in more
than just the final score.
Master of non-price promotion
Inventor of “bat day”
Themes like “ladies’ day”
Veeck as in “wreck”…
“Everyday was Mardi Gras and every fan was king.”
He recognized the need to market something other than
the core product.
Give-a-way days had problems!
 May hinder souvenir or concession sales.
 Cap day should have a cap that doesn’t resemble the
souvenir.
Ill-conceived promo event
Veeck created a 10¢ beer night in Cleveland in 1974.
The Story:
 Drunken fans consumed an estimated 60,000 cups of beer -sold for 10 cents each.
What was the result in that promotion?
The Result
Drunken, unruly fans stormed the field during the game
Ultimately led to the forfeiting of the game!
Disco Demolition Night
Bill Veeck, who owned the White Sox from 1958-61,
bought the team again in December 1975 and tried
every gimmick in his vast repertoire to lure people to
the ballpark.
 The players wore shorts on the field.
 Showers were installed in the bleachers.
 And then, of course, there was Disco Demolition Night.
 This promotional event was held on July 12, 1979, at
Comiskey Park.
Disco Demolition Night
The Sox would sell 98-cent tickets to any fan bringing
a disco record to Comiskey Park and between games
of a doubleheader, the records would be burned.
It resulted in the White Sox forfeiting the second
game to the Detroit Tigers as about 6,000 fans
poured onto the field, drinking beer, ripping up the
turf, and improvising fires.
The field was destroyed, thirty-seven fans were
arrested, and Bill Veeck quit his job in
embarrassment.
This disaster is still remembered!
His other ideas…
Fireworks
Dazzling scoreboards
Special-event nights
Grandstand Managers’ Day
Midget at the Plate
In 1951, his second year with the Browns, Veeck was
looking for something different to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the American League.
He thought this was the perfect time to send a midget
to the plate. Through a booking agency, he found
Eddie Gaedel, who was three-foot-seven-inches tall
and 65 pounds.
He actually signed Gaedel to a contract and paid him
$100. It would be a one-time deal and then Gaedel's
baseball career was over.
Early Days of TV and Marketing
Nine TV Stations and fewer than 7,000 working TV sets
after WWII.
In October 1945—25,000 people came to Gimbel’s
Dept. Store in Philadelphia to watch the first
demonstration of TV.
In the same year, the American Association of
Advertising Agencies (AAAA) encouraged TV
advertising.
TV changed marketing in a BIG way.
Light up!
Cigarette manufacturers were one of the first
industries to advertise widely on television.
They had deep pockets and could afford to
gamble on a new advertising medium, footing the
bill for a host of early classic television programs.
Ironically, in just a few short decades, they were
cast away from the medium they helped create.
Did You Know?
Tobacco companies are spending
more than $12.5 billion a year on
advertising and promotion but U.S.
sales actually fell nearly
5.5 percent from 2000 to 2005.
Every day, 2000 kids light up for
the first time.
Who is this?
Vendors
Vendors are the sellers of
products.
They compete for a share of
the money people spend on
recreation.
Sports has…
Produced TV channels, movies, books, video
games, theme restaurants, fashion trends,
and magazines
This blurs the line between sports and
entertainment industries