Super Bowl Giveaway Program Planned
Something new for direct marketers who never thought they could compete with traditional advertisers at major sporting events: LCC Sports and Entertainment Direct will hand out 100,000 giveaway bags to football fans as they exit Pro Player Stadium in Miami after Super Bowl XXXIII.
Bob Perlstein, president of LCC Inc. (formerly Lifestyle Change Communications) in Atlanta, said that although he’s not the first direct marketer to peddle wares at sporting events, he is the first to do it cooperatively.
Still in the process of finalizing participant deals, Perlstein– who set up the sports and entertainment division Jan. 1–is aiming to include an item from a car maker and one from a major consumer business magazine. Participants would not necessarily be touting Super Bowl- or football-related goods, said Perlstein, but would be pushing credit card offers and upscale apparel and sports catalogs, which would appeal to the people who can afford Super Bowl tickets.
The bag will have advertisements on it by Safe Kids International, an missing-children’s registry on the Internet, and the Florida Sports Foundation, the committee responsible for bringing sports into the state.
“I don’t think direct marketers realize the value of reaching fanatic sports fans,” Perlstein said. He denies that he’s worried about these enthusiasts being too inebriated (or angry that their team lost) to examine the giveaway. “I don’t think there’s a loser in the Super Bowl. When you have two of the best teams in football playing, there are no losers,” Perlstein said, envisioning fans calmly examining the bag’s contents in the car, train or plane going home.
After the Super Bowl launch, LCC Inc. plans to run exit programs with giveaway bags at “a minimum” of five major sporting or entertainment events this year. One might even be the Academy Awards, Perlstein said, where fans who turn out to spy their favorite celebrities could leave with a souvenir other than a blurry photograph of Tom Hanks.
