Archive for August, 2008
Tiger Woods Walks on Water in EA Sports Video
Tiger Woods has once again elevated his brand. EA sports put this video on You Tube to promote “Tiger Woods 09″. Last year, a video appeared on You Tube from Levinator25 about a glitch in the video game where Tiger can walk on a water hazard, and chip the ball into the hole. An Ad Age story states, “The new online EA Woods video begins with the set-up, “Levinator25, You seem to think your Jesus Shot video was a glitch in the game.” After showing off Mr. Woods’ water walk, it ends with, “It’s not a glitch. He’s just that good.” The video has received over 1.5 million views which proved to be a very effective marketing element to this campaign. Here’s the whole Ad Age story.
Tags: advertising, Tiger Woods
Michael Phelps to Host SNL and Has Cameo on Entourage
Michael Phelps with Entourage’s Kevin Connelly
Just saw this tidbit about Michael Phelps. “Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps has landed a cameo on hit TV show Entourage. The eight-time gold medal winner at the recent Beijing Games will appear as himself in the upcoming series, which debuts on September 7. Phelps has also agreed to host comedy show Saturday Night Live on September 13 and he’ll be among the presenters at the MTV Video Music Awards on September 7.”
Copyright World Entertainment News Network
Another tidbit: “Last week, the 23-year-old Phelps landed a book deal for his memoir, titled Built to Succeed.”
It appears that HBO, MTV & NBC all plan to boost ratings with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps at the height of his popularity. On the Today Show this morning, he casually talked about his public service of encouraging all children to learn to swim. He’s riding the wave of popularity and reaping the benefits of hard work and accomplishment and at the same time, giving back. He’s a class act!
Tags: Entourage, Michael Phelps, olympics
Viral Marketing: My Presidential Campaign News Video
Check out this ”viral marketing” presidential campaign news story about me. So I guess I’m running for president, at least this news story says so! Follow this link.
Tags: viral marketing
Olympic News Coverage – Phelps is #1
According to a new study that examined news coverage across TV, newspapers, radio and the web for the first nine days of the Olympics, Michael Phelps was far and away the lead newsmaker for these Games, accounting for 26.5 percent of all coverage during the first week of the Olympics. That was more than six times the No. 2 athlete, U.S. all-around gymnastics winner Nastia Liukin at 4 percent. Read the entire Media Life Magazine story.
“A look at this coverage suggests that much of this attention was about heroism and accomplishment rather than tugging emotional stories of sacrifice,” notes the study, released by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The report also found differences in the attention given to the Games on TV and other media, noting that newspapers and radio devoted far less space to them. Radio news gave 13 percent of time to the Games, while talk radio hosts gave it even less time, just 5 percent. Newspapers devoted 15 percent of their front-page space to the Olympics, and news web sites devoted 19 percent of their coverage to them.
Tags: Michael Phelps, olympics
Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway Athletic Hall of Fame at Memphis
Just announced by Athletic Director R. C. Johnson, Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway has donated one million dollars to the University of Memphis Athletic Department. The new Athletic Hall of Fame will be named “Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway Athletic Hall of Fame” at the University of Memphis. Tim Duncan and Alan Graf attended the press conference with R.C. Johnson and Penny Hardaway. All Tiger fans will appreciate Penny’s generosity. I bet we’ll see more involvement with the University of Memphis and the basketball team. We loved watching him play when he was a Tiger and are thrilled he’s back in Memphis! It was also noted that Penny was the first Olympic Gold Medalist from the University of Memphis. He played on the United States basketball team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Tags: Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway, Tigers, University of Memphis
Why Advertise in Olympics? Because It Works.
NBC released results of a Nielsen IAG study on the value of Olympics advertising. Brand recall of TV commercials in the Olympics reached levels that were 130% higher than those in other prime-time programs. Message recall in the Olympics was more than twice as high that of other prime-time programs. TV commercial likeability in the Olympics was nearly three times as high as performance in other prime-time programs.
The network also said that ads with Olympic themes have performed better in those categories than ads without them, and that ads running across multiple media platforms during Olympics programming perform better than those that do not.
And they are spending over a billion on these ads during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. On top of its $10 million in additional advertising sales NBC made since the start of the games, NBC has booked another $15 million in Olympic revenue–mostly coming from retail, movie, packaged goods and pharmaceutical advertisers. This $25 million was on top of the $1 billion in advertising sales NBC said it contracted for with advertisers before the Olympics began.
Here’s the whole story from MediaPost and Ad Age.
Tags: advertising, NBC, olympics
Memphis and the World Bid Farewell to Isaac Hayes
Yesterday, Sunday August 17, Isaac Hayes was laid to rest at a burial ceremony at Memorial Park in Memphis with family and friends. The Commercial Appeal reported that Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Richard Roundtree and Kelly Preston were among the friends in attendance.
Today, August 18, was Isaac Hayes Memorial Service at Hope Presbyterian Church in Memphis. All of Memphis media were in attendance. Their stories speak of clergy, celebrities and local folks who gave insight to Hayes personality, his tremendous contributions in the music world and his involvement in the community here in Memphis and around the world. WMC-TV WREG WPTY/WLMT WHBQ Commercial Appeal The New York Times also covered it. They estimate about 2,000 attended the service. His legacy will live on through the music and his charitable efforts.
This is a follow-up to the post on August 10, 2008. http://www.graberpartners.com/newsandnotes/?p=135
Tags: Isaac Hayes
Phelps Wins 8 Gold Medals Visa Commercial
Here is the commercial congratulating Michael Phelps for the 8 Olympic Gold Medals in 2008. Morgan Freeman narrates this commercial for Visa recognizing Phelps and his record setting wins. And Visa bought the first advertising position in the first break after the record setting performance. Well done to all!
Tags: advertising, Michael Phelps, Morgan Freeman, olympics
Visa Ad Congratulates Phelps for 8 Golds in 2008
Visa did it again. Michael Phelps just won his 8th gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics breaking an Olympic record for the most golds during a single Olympic games. Visa airs a commercial in the first break after the race where Phelps won the gold. Not just the first break, but also the first position. As soon as I heard Morgan Freeman’s voice, I knew they had bought this break to congratulate Phelps. If I can find the Visa commercial recognizing Phelps for 8 golds in 2008, I’ll add later. (HERE’S THE VISA / PHELPS COMMERCIAL IN MY 8/18/08 POST. http://www.graberpartners.com/newsandnotes/?p=144 ) Well done Michael…thanks for making this Olympics memorable for all of us back home. And thanks to Visa for the commercials and the media placement that raises the bar for all Olympic advertising.
Tags: advertising, Morgan Freeman, olympics, Visa
Steven Seagal Helps Memphis Police with Recruitment
According to a story on WMCTV.com, Steven Seagalwill appear in several television commercials to help the Memphis Police Department with recruitment. Police Director Larry Godwin says the TV commercials starring Steven Seagal should begin airing in the next 60 days.
Check out the MPD Recruitment TV commercials in a post on 10/14/08.
Here’s another commercial he did for Mountain Dew a while back.
Tags: advertising, Memphis, Steven Seagal