Advertising Age - January 9, 2012

NEW ORLEANS REAPS $400M-PLUS FOOTBALL BONANZA

How big an economic driver can football be for a city? Put it this way: New Orleans is looking at nearly a half-billion dollars in a three-week span, a testament to the power of the pigskin.

Virtually all of that will have come in the last seven days. New Orleans hosted the AllState Sugar Bowl on Tuesday, Jan. 3, a National Football League playoff game between the hometown Saints and the Detroit Lions on Saturday, Jan. 7, and will be home to the BCS National Championship for all of college football’s marbles on Monday, Jan. 9.

Kelly Schulz, VP for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the last time the city hosted both a Sugar Bowl and college football’s national championship game in the same week was in 2008. The economic impact from that week was $400 million.

Throw in the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl that was played on Dec. 18 and was expected to bring in $25 million in economic impact, and the Saints’ playoff game on Saturday that was expected to reap another $20 million, and New Orleans will earn $445 million from four football games—$420 million of it just since the start of the new year.

Some economists dismiss the theory that big-time sporting events bring economic benefits to cities, claiming that tourists will still come and spend money. But the football numbers stack up pretty well against Mardi Gras, which brings in about $140 million.

“The vibe in the city is just awesome right
now,” Ms. Schulz said. “For us, the real value is in
the exposure—the message it sends about New
Orleans as a destination—and long-term
economic growth to the city is the real value to
us.”
Any fears that having Louisiana State
University—located less than 100 miles from New
Orleans—in the national championship game in
New Orleans against Alabama would hurt
tourism have been unfounded. According to Ms.
Schulz, virtually every one of the city’s 38,000

BLOOMBERG

NOPLACELIKEDOME

Three big games in the span of a week will have crowds packing the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

hotel rooms sold out over Jan. 7-8.

New Orleans will not only host the three football games this week, but has the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Final Four in April. It will host its first Super Bowl in 11 years in February 2013. A mainstay in the Super Bowl rotation since the game’s inception 45 years ago, New Orleans hasn’t been the site of a Super Bowl since 2002 because of the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Ms. Schulz said that, in many ways, New Orleans has been fighting a perception battle for the past six years.

“The NFL selecting us to host another Super
Bowl was a powerful message,” she said. “To
anybody thinking about bringing an event here,
it sends a message to businesses and
conventions that we’re back.”
And while it took three football games to see
that $420 million economic impact, Ms. Schulz
noted that the Super Bowl alone was worth
$292 million to New Orleans—and that was in
2002 dollars.

“It’s a totally different league,” she said. “So many corporate events, all of the sponsorships, the hospitality … it’s a completely different game with the Super Bowl in town.”

-RICH THOMASELLI

Network ad rules could hamper
GM’s alleged Super Bowl gambit

GM from p. 3

they intend to buy up a 30-second ad berth during the Super Bowl and then resell the time in five- or 10-second increments to others. The alleged GM plan would call for something essentially pretty similar.

At NBC, no one is looking to change the longstanding policy against reselling spots. Integrating brands into unrelated Super Bowl ads would require explicit NBC approval, according to Seth Winter, senior VP-sales and marketing at NBC Sports Group, who declined to comment on any advertiser’s specific plans.

“If someone is going to submit creative that has another advertiser integrated into the commercial that we have not approved,” it will not air during the Super Bowl, Mr. Winter said. “We don’t allow for the ‘co-opting’ of advertising.” Advertisers have tried to “game” the Super Bowl for years. In 2009, Mr. Winter threw cold water on an out-of-nowhere proposal from a relatively unknown ad agency that would have pooled eight advertisers during 30 seconds of Super Bowl ad time.

Heineken and Miller have tried to
get around Anheuser’s exclusive beer
sponsorship by snatching up local ad
time on TV stations broadcasting the
Super Bowl around the U.S., hoping
that a message shown during local time
would make the same pop-culture dent
that rival Budweiser and Bud Light’s do
each year.

Advertising Age | January 9, 2012 21

Target’s surprise split with Wieden
leaves all of adland licking its chops

TARGET from p. 1

Wieden, which had been on Target’s roster for years, got the ultimate vote of confidence in becoming the retailer’s first lead agency without a review. The move was made at the direction of former Chief Marketing Officer Michael Francis. Target has been without a CMO since he decamped for JC Penney in October.

Mr. Francis told Ad Age in 2010 that it was time to bring in a “more thoughtful quarterback.” Target felt it needed a partner to help align its messaging and approach across channels, he said. Before that, the company had relied on a group of boutique shops, such as Peterson Milla Hooks, and Mr. Francis appears to be using that approach at JC Penney, which just split with agency of record Saatchi & Saatchi.

The parting with Target leaves Wieden open in the retail category and hungry to replace any revenue lost. Some industry observers are already speculating that Wieden will follow Mr. Francis to JC Penney. But that would mean the agency’s once again having just a piece of the pie, and at a slightly smaller marketer.

According to the Ad Age DataCenter, Target is the No. 18 ad spender in the U.S., with a budget of more than $1.5 billion. JC Penney ranks No. 25th, with $1.32 billion devoted to U.S. marketing.

With neither a CMO nor a quarter-
back, it’s a whole new ballgame at
Target. Shawn Gensch, the company’s
VP-marketing and head of partner
management, said in a statement:
“Target is proud of what we accom-
plished with the Wieden & Kennedy
team during our six-year partnership.
Looking forward, we are focused on
continuing to identify fresh and inno-
vative ways to tell Target’s brand story,
and will leverage both our internal
expertise and our strong roster of
agency partners to help accomplish our
marketing goals in 2012 and beyond.”
Also in the statement, Tom
Blessington, an agency partner and man-
aging director in Wieden, Portland, Ore.,
said: “It is never easy to part ways with a
client. We are proud of our … history
with Target and wish them the best.”
Susan Hoffman, executive creative
director in Portland, added: “It was a
great creative opportunity to work with
such an iconic brand. We love the pace
and the dynamics of working in the
retail space.”
Wieden executives declined to com-
ment further, but industry executives
suggested that the relationship was
strained after Mr. Francis left. Wieden
had worked closely with him, and his
exit sparked debate over the company’s
marketing direction.

In the absence of a CMO, VP-cre-ative Liz Elert, an alumnus of such retailers as Gap and Victoria’s Secret, has been leading the effort, according to industry executives. Ms. Elert, a newcomer to Target, and Wieden are said to have butted heads.

“It’s safe to say there’s not a single
factor we would point to,” said Katie
Boylan, a spokeswoman for Target. “At
this point, we’re focused on trying to
innovate and tell the Target story in the
most creative way possible.”
It’s not clear whether the mass mar-
keter will look for a new lead agency or
return to a multiagency strategy. Ms.
Boylan said that Target would be rely-
ing on a mix of internal and external
talent. It has worked with a variety of
agencies, including Haworth, Olson,
AKQA, Huge and Mother.

college students could decorate their
dorm rooms. A few years into the rela-
tionship, the agency refined the mar-
keting message for a recession mental-
ity, evaluating the resonance of the
tagline: “Expect More. Pay Less.”
It took a few tries to get the tone
right. The short-lived “Collections,”
featuring actor Alan Cox, was not dis-
tinguishing. And some of the work
from Wieden for the 2009 holiday sea-
son lacked joy and warmth.

But the “Life’s A Moving Target” campaign that followed hit the right note, as did the “Christmas Champ.” Ms. Boylan said it would be premature to discuss whether either of those campaigns would remain a part of Target’s mix.

Wieden’s last output for the brand is still to be determined. The recent ad “Done,” which was part of the “Santa has Elves. You have Target” campaign, was ranked one of the season’s most effective spots by AceMetrix.