| EVENT REPORT 08.27.09 3:41 PM |
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DirecTV and ESPN Court Consumers With U.S. Open Promo
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 | John McEnroe appeared at DirecTV and ESPN's stunt.
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
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As the fourth and final competition of the Grand Slam tournament, the U.S. Open gets a lot of play, with top players such as Roger Federer and Dinara Safina in town to promote sponsors like Nike and Heineken. Yesterday, to publicize their televised coverage of the forthcoming tennis matches, DirecTV and ESPN trotted out former champions John McEnroe, Serena and Venus Williams, and James Blake for exhibition games in Bryant Park. For the daylong publicity stunt, which also included three hours for the public to hit balls with U.S.T.A. pros, the organizers built two regulation-size courts behind the New York Public Library.
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DirecTV, ESPN, U.S. Open |
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| NEWS 04.30.09 3:14 PM |
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Upfront Update: Who's Doing What During the TV Networks' Big Sales Week
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 | The 2008 Fox upfront party
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash |
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Cable upfront presentations have been under way since mid-March, but May heralds the arrival of the network presentations, with their heavy delegations of out-of-town media buyers and—when it suits them—some fairly elaborate parties. Upfront Week itself is little more than two weeks off, starting with Fox on Monday, May 18, and concluding Thursday, May 21, with the CW. Although events look to be subdued once again, they’re looking up from 2008.
Last year NBC sent the already W.G.A. strike-addled upfront schedule into a tizzy by abandoning its long-established Monday presentation and opting for a series of meetings in early April. Sort of sticking to its guns, the network is still meeting with buyers early, but not as early as last year. After a small pitch at this year’s Super Bowl, NBC’s big sell takes place next week in its 30 Rockefeller headquarters, with a series of meetings and conference calls on May 4.
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Upfronts, Upfront Week, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW, ESPN, Turner Entertianment, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim |
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| TED KRUCKEL 12.17.08 9:00 AM |
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Lord & Taylor's Guys Shopping Night Had No Bar Nuts—or Much Branding
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 | At Guys Night Out, the latest cover of Details and a goodie bag display case
Photo: Jeff Skopin/1050 ESPN |
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I had high hopes for “Guys Night Out at Lord & Taylor,” so high in fact that I braved a fierce wind and rainstorm to get there. Last year I was there in January, returning something my mother had bought me—as usual—when something unusual happened. I spent more than the returned item was worth. Now normally I'd just chalk this up to being a shopaholic (I can find a number of items to buy at any gas station) but in this case it was a real sense of there being a newer, hipper feeling to the 10th-floor men's department.
There were shoes by Bruno Magli and Calvin Klein, and goods by Hugo Boss, all in a traditional woody setting that felt old world and classy. And the prices were reasonable.
Arriving on Thursday night, off the new and much appreciated express elevator, it was obvious that others had bitten at the 20-percent off plus free drinks offer; the place was mobbed.
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Lord & Taylor, Details magazine, ESPN |
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| ASK BIZBASH 09.08.08 9:00 AM |
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Who Can Produce a Cool Tribute Video?
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 | Stills from a variety of tribute videos.
Photo: Courtesy of Lifefilm (top), Courtesy of Madprops (middle), Courtesy of Raw Films (bottom) |
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Honoring a retiring exec or an award winner with a video about their life’s work is a great idea, but only if the piece doesn’t move guests to check their BlackBerries or sneak off to the restroom. Here are three companies that specialize in these types of films and, if asked, will travel to make it happen.
With more than 20 years of combined film and television industry experience, Lifefilm Productions co-founders Peilin Chou and John Brancaccio use the same production professionals they worked with at companies such as Walt Disney Studios, MTV Networks, ESPN, and Bravo to craft their celebratory docs. The firm prides itself on delivering broadcast-quality, story-driven films that are truly entertaining. Past clients include C-level execs from Hasbro and real estate developer S.R. Weiner. Rates start at $5,000, with longer and more intensive projects ranging from $10,000 to $20,000.
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RELATED TOPICS
Walt Disney Company, MTV, ESPN, Bravo, Academy Awards, Saturday Night Live, VH1, A&E, E! Entertainment, NBC, Clinton Global Initiative, Miramax, Hasbro |
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| NEWS 05.14.08 5:56 PM |
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Media Buyers' Diaries: CW Does What It Does Best, ABC Relies on Kimmel
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 | | A cell-phone shot of Maroon 5 at the CW party. |
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During Upfront Week, we've asked several media buyers to file reports from the various parties and presentations. Our anonymous correspondents were out on the prowl again yesterday, hitting up ESPN's morning presentation at the Nokia Theater, ABC's pared-down showcase at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, and the CW's concert-party-presentation at the Tent at Lincoln Center. ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson got laughs yesterday when, at the end of of the network's run-through, he thanked the CW for hosting their after-party. (For the past several years ABC has held its post-presentation party at the tent, a spot that the CW was quick to fill this year.) Here's what the media buyers thought.
"Kelly Kapowski," 30, is a senior media buyer in the broadcast department at MediaEdge CIA, where she has worked for nine years. She works with auto and retail clients in local markets; this is her seventh year attending the upfronts. Here's what she had to say about the CW party.
“When you start out being handed an apple martini without having to ask for it, you know it'll be a fun night. I have to admit that I had always loved going to Bryant Park for CW's luncheon, so when I realized this [year’s party] was on personal time, selfishly I took issue. But did I mention the part about the apple martini? The cocktail hour was nice; the food was a definite upgrade from the buffet of years past. I usually don't discuss bathrooms, but the trailer bathrooms were the nicest Porta-Johns I've ever been in. Maroon 5 was great—an appropriate and wonderful surprise. And the 20-plus-minute presentation was fast and direct—thankfully, as not all of us had seats. All in all, it was simple, quick, and fun. As most of the upfronts are changing design and landscape this year, I think the CW did what they do best: provide simple, mindless entertainment."
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RELATED TOPICS
Upfronts, Upfront Week, Media Buyers' Diaries, The CW, ESPN, CBS |
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| EVENT REPORT 03.17.08 3:18 PM |
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ESPN Magazine Marks Anniversary With Live Concert
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 | ESPN the Magazine's crowded anniversary
Photo: Joe Fornabaio for BizBash |
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For its 10th anniversary, the staff at ESPN the Magazine wanted more than just to look back on its past. The crew at the mag (from editorial to marketing to sales) wanted to bring just about everyone who had ever had a hand in the magazine—some 1,200 staffers, advertisers, sports stars, and friends—to a lively party that brought to life the cover and the concept of the anniversary issue. Wednesday night's event at Terminal 5 was certainly festive, with popcorn, candy, and beer, mixed with casino games, sponsor displays, and an energetic performance by Third Eye Blind. Starting at 9 p.m., the west side venue quickly filled with eager revelers, who lingered until midnight.
ESPN's in-house team for the party included Steven Binder, vice president of sales for ESPN Publishing; Blandine Reid, senior director of magazine marketing; and Tony Leake, assistant marketing manager of special events marketing. Binder brought title sponsor Porsche to the table—a first-time advertiser with the magazine—while Reid translated this into how the sponsors and advertisers could be integrated into the event, and Leake worked with Los Angeles-based Wendy Creed Productions to implement the design and production elements.
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ESPN, ESPN the Magazine, Porsche, Under Armour, Foot Locker, Heineken |
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| WHO'S DOING WHAT 11.15.07 2:06 PM |
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Rosenberger Leaves ESPN for the Sports Alliance
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Peter Rosenberger has left his post as vice president of special events at ESPN and is now a partner at the Sports Alliance, an event planning and marketing firm for sports- and entertainment-related events such as the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Prior to his seven and a half years at ESPN, Rosenberger spent six years at Madison Square Garden, working in a variety of roles including manager of special event sales.
"We plan to take the existing TSA portfolio and broaden the client base with our vast network of contacts in the field of sports and entertainment," he says. "A lot of corporations have mutual interests in marketing, and we're finding that more and more of these companies are willing to partner up with [other companies] that they wouldn't have expected to." —Lisa Cericola
RELATED TOPICS
ESPN |
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| GUEST QUESTIONS 05.31.07 6:33 PM |
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Media Buyers Like Shrimp, Debate Whose Is Best
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 | ABC opened its upfront with an Ugly Betty musical number.
ABC/Donna Svennevik |
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Every May, a swarm of media buyers, ad execs,
talent, and other assorted television-industry types hits New York for Upfront
Week, the broadcast networks’ yearly presentations of their fall schedules. In
the hope of snagging millions in advertising dollars, the usually hard-sell
presentations are star-studded, and often stat-studded. And the parties that
follow are staged to wow, with plenty of photo ops with network talent,
mountains of shrimp, and free-flowing booze. While both attendees and the press
noted some fiscal restraint on the part of the networks this year, the
broadcasters weren’t exactly serving Saltines and cold cuts. After all, Advertising Age called Upfront Week a
“$9 billion annual event that is the financial pivot of the prime-time TV
business.”
NBC kicked off the week at Radio City Music Hall, promising
to “skip the song and dance” and get people out in under an hour and a half
(they did). CBS showed its wares at Carnegie Hall, with help from CSI: Miami star David Caruso, who was
happy to make fun of his on-screen persona. Pushing the multiplatform angle,
the net also aired a YouTube video of Caruso’s over-the-top one-liners on CSI and had ad sales president JoAnn
Ross address the crowd as an avatar. At Avery Fisher Hall, ABC staged a boffo
opening musical number starring the cast of Ugly
Betty and wrapped the presentation by giving away a plasma-screen TV (a
tie-in to the net’s upcoming show National
Bingo Night) and filling the theater with a thunderous marching band. Fox
kept it short and sweet, enlisting Keifer Sutherland to pretape a presentation
addressing Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori as 24’s Jack Bauer. (“Keep it to an hour. ... You’re on the clock, Mr.
President.”) In possibly a record for any upfront presentation, that’s all the
network took. (Perhaps it was a mea culpa: Last year’s clocked in at an
agonizing three hours.) Among the other networks vying for attention and ad
buys were Telemundo, Univision, the CW, ESPN, and Broadband Enterprises.
So how did they do? Did the networks get their money’s
worth? Well, our opinions don’t really matter, so we sought out the ones that
do: those of the attendees who slosh through the overcrowded week each year.
(“If you cut my finger off,” one high-level ad buyer said, “you can count the
rings of how many upfronts I’ve been to.”) Here’s what they had to say,
sometimes on the record, sometimes under the cover of anonymity, and sometimes
as they spoke to another guest, not realizing we were listening.
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RELATED TOPICS
Upfront Week, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW, ESPN |
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| EVENT REPORT 05.09.07 12:00 AM |
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Hip-Hop Drive-in and DJ Spooky Boost Tribeca
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 | The popular Tribeca Drive-In returned, with three nights of free movies riverside.
Photo: Courtesy of Dalzell Productions |
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Sometimes it’s hard to remember that the Tribeca Film Festival was born out of the desire to help economically and culturally revitalize Lower Manhattan following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The festival just wrapped its sixth year, and for at least a week and a half, plenty seems to be going on in the downtown neighborhood.
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Tribeca Film Festival, Delta Airlines, ESPN |
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