History of Sports & Entertainment Marketing

1. History ofSports & Entertainment Marketing

2. 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?

3. Brief History of Leisure • Sports & entertainment marketers have always sold participation in sports and entertainment events to consumers. • Consumersare the people who use the product/service. • The growth of the industries has relied on consumers with free time, discretionary income, and a desire for recreation. • Discretionary income - $ used to spend during your free time • Consumer - A person who purchases goods and services for personal use.

4. Brief History of Leisure • Thomas Edison invented the KINETOSCOPEin the late 1890s. • Kinetoscope – early motion picture exhibition device • First movie ever made • Cutting edge technology

5. 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 money needed to go to the theater, ballet, horse races, or tennis. • The working classes had little time away from daily labor.

6. Entertainment for Everyone • Thanks to public transportation, working class families could go across town to see an opera or game.

7. William “Bill” Veeck(1914-1986)(Veeck- pronounced VEK 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 African-American player to the American League… • What was his name?

8. 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 theNational League.

9. 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 – anything extra customers receive that is included with the purchase of a ticket • Inventor of “bat day” • Themes like “ladies’ day”

10. 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 that you would normally buy!

11. 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?

12. The Result • Drunken, unruly fans stormed the field during the game • Ultimately led to the forfeiting of the game!

13. 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. • Disco Demolition Night was held on July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park.

14. 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.

15. Disco Demolition Night

16. This disaster is still remembered! Disco Night Video

17. His other ideas… • Fireworks • Dazzling scoreboards • Special-event nights • Free giveaways • Fans Managers’ Night • Fans voted on who would start and could even vote on play calls during the game

18. Small person 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 small person 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.

20. 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 (over a three week period) to Gimbel’s Dept. Store in Philadelphia to watch the first large scale demonstration of TV • The show was various NBC shows • In the same year, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) encouraged TV advertising. • TV changed marketing in a BIG way.

21. 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.

22. 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. • In 2011, the tobacco industry spent $8.4 billion on cigarette advertising! • Every day, 2000 kids light up for the first time. Who is this?

23. Vendors • Vendors are the sellers of products. • They compete for a share of the money people spend on recreation.

24. Sports has… • Produced TV channels, movies, books, video games, theme restaurants, fashion trends, and magazines • This blurs the line between sports and entertainment industries