Playing In Their World
It figures that the captain of the U.S. Beer Drinking Team (USBT) is a rocket scientist. “Think of us as the beer version of MCI’s Friends & Family,” says Dennis Buettner, a NASA engineer and co-founder of the USBT, which sounds like an office joke but is really a national club with 40,000 members and an ambitious plan to swell its ranks to four million by summer.
Buettner and a few buddies started the “team” as a lark a few years ago, setting up a Web site at www.usbeerdrinkingteam.com. After constructing the Web page, Buettner came back from vacation to find 450 total strangers had registered at the site. Light bulbs began to go off.
With 90-million beer drinkers in the U.S., Buettner thinks the team has universal appeal. “Beer isn’t about the taste or getting drunk, it’s about the friends you hang out with,” he adds. USBT has hired Falls Church, VA-based marketing agency PlusSmith — an agency comprised of marketing veterans of the beer wars — to boost visibility.
To date, the team has used its site as a bulletin board to raise awareness of local bar promotions around the country. It’s now starting to field interest from national marketers, including the major beer distributors. “We probably wouldn’t have any one ‘official beer,’” says Buettner. “I think we’d lose the grass-roots, non-intrusive appeal of the team.”
The USBT is also shopping around its self-produced Beer Television to several networks and is exploring options for setting up headquarters at vacation destinations such as Orlando or Las Vegas. “Being at DisneyWorld is great and all, but Dad could use a break of his own,” says Buettner.
The USBT is just one of a host of brands targeting consumers through hobbies and recreation. What better way to conduct “relationship marketing” than to participate on a local level in the same interests as your customers? “You can’t just come in with your corporate stamp, you have to play in their world,” says Brad Nierenberg, president of Washington, DC-based Momentum Marketing. Credit card companies have offered cards specific to various member organizations from The Audubon Society to the National Rifle Association. Procter & Gamble spent much of last year on the road for its ThermaCare Tour, going “where people experience pain,” says North American brand manager Brian Nichol (October 2002 PROMO). Stops ranged from ski resorts to gardening clubs.
There are 54.4 million active and affluent Americans in the U.S., according to Boulder, CO-based Leisure Trends, with a median age of 37 and a household income in excess of $68,000. Marketing to consumers while they’re at play catches them in a different mindset. “People in the daily grind have a routine; they shop at the same places, they buy the same products,” says Nierenberg, who dubs the practice “destination marketing.” “This is about rewarding people for trying new things.” However, brands must be a logical fit.
Greenwich, CT-based Nestle Water — which encompasses brands such as Poland Spring and Ice Mountain — is targeting runners on the local level. In Chicago, Nestle Water has teamed with shoe retailer Fleet Feet to provide samples to joggers around popular lakefront paths during the 18-week training periods for the Chicago and New York City marathons. In Florida, Nestle Water conducts mobile tours with local running clubs, distributing samples and apparel. “There’s a loyalty inspired in your core consumers by something as simple as talking to them,” says Jodie Adolfson, marketing presence manager at Nestle Water.
Miami-based promotions shop Generation-A Marketing was founded in November to focus exclusively on the active adult market. The agency is an affiliate of the National Sports Network, a regional group of 18 recreational sports and fitness magazines. “This demographic uses events and activities as a social outlet,” says Generation-A executive director Ed Hinde. “[They don’t] really consume traditional media, they’re too busy. They do however, embrace vertical publications and activities that cater to their interests.” Generation-A client Subaru, Cherry Hill, NJ, identifies what it terms “rugged individualists” as one of its core targets and maintains a strong presence at sporting events such as mountain bike races and kayak outings. The Subaru Baja is the official vehicle of the National Sports Network for 2003. Subaru is also running the Baja Endurance Tour, through which consumers can win a three-year lease on a Subaru Baja Sport or products such as Dagger kayaks, and Nike shoes. “Our vehicles enable people to participate in life, and this allows us to explain it to them in person,” says Jeff Walters, Subaru brand strategy manager.
The Active Network, La Jolla, CA, is an online company that offers marketing and registration services for more than 50,000 events, 800 colleges, and one million recreational leagues and teams each year. The company’s Active Sports Marketing Group develops online and offline promotions. “We’re reaching consumers at the time they’re participating,” says vp Bernie Freeman. “In the past, if you wanted to reach runners, you had to take out an ad in Runner’s World. Now, when someone signs up for an event, they do it months in advance — that’s months of marketing opportunities.”
Active Network is catching the eye of mainstream brands. “The [sponsor] mix has changed,” says its CEO Dave Alberga. “Now the vast majority of marketing dollars comes from non-endemics.”
When Unilever repositioned its Ragu Express kids meals to a slightly older demographic last year, it tapped Active to develop the Ragu Soccer Express online game. Unilever took the game offline with a soccer skills contest and distribution of 1.2 million samples through 18 state soccer associations. “This target has been bombarded on all sides, so it’s hard to break through,” says Jennifer Karth, senior associate brand manager at Unilever. In 2003, Unilever plans a similar effort targeted to teens and college underclassmen.
Like the USBT, The Urban Challenge started as a lark. Phoenix-based entrepreneur Kevin McCarthy developed the game in 2001 as a high tech scavenger hunt for his daughter’s birthday. Friends convinced him he was onto something, and in 2002, McCarthy organized The Urban Challenge in more than 20 cities. Technologically savvy participants navigate their way across various urban landmarks, recording progress with a digital camera. Each race is the physical equivalent of a half-marathon, and last year’s challenge drew 3,800 people nationwide. Winners in each market squared off in Las Vegas to compete for the $50,000 grand prize.
While the Urban Challenge was sponsor-free last year, the event hopes to recruit marketers this year, particularly from the high-tech fields. “We’re selling ‘promotionships,’ not sponsorships,” says Urban Challenge’s Michael Weinstein. “When marketers see the word ‘sponsorship,’ they look at it as a money giveaway.” Title sponsorship is available for $200,000; six national sponsorships are open for $50,000, and local sponsorships start at $5,000.
About five years ago, Chicago-based Bally Total Fitness opened its doors (and four million members) to outside marketers for the first time in the company’s 40-year history. “This isn’t a cookie-cutter program,” says Jeff Gooding, director of marketing and corporate development. “We’ll work with the brands to develop the right campaign for them.” Colgate-Palmolive, New York City, is using Bally to sample its new Simply White toothpaste. Bally instructors wear Simply White T-shirts and hand out samples. This summer, Pepsi’s Aquafina brand will give away Bally memberships in a sweepstakes. “[The Bally audience] is a young, active demographic,” says Rand Eyberg, group manager, national sales. “That’s a perfect fit.”
Of course, sports aren’t the only recreational touchpoint, Market Connections International, Montclair, NJ, distributes samples through its Vacation Connection program, which targets everything from hotels to cruise ships to ski resorts. “When you get people away from their home environment, they’re in the ‘state of need,’” says president Brian Martin. One of Vacation Connections most successful samples? Laundry detergent. “We’re not saying go out and distribute 50 million samples to vacationers but you’d be surprised how open they are to brands they haven’t tried before,” adds Martin. According to a survey from South Brunswick, NJ-based National Research, 79 percent of respondents said they would be more open to trying new brand on vacation. More importantly, 62 percent of people who tried new brands while on vacation continued using that brand after they returned home. General Mills is including its Natural Valley granola bars in Vacation Connections programs such as the Winter Sports Pack. “We like to reach people when they’re doing things,” sums up Chris Brandt, Natural Valley’s marketing manager.
And just think of how many consumers are “doing things” out there.
