A Second Look June 2007

Fact: Home plate rotational signage in MLB ballparks easily provides the best opportunity for sustainable television exposure. Even the casual observer would know this to be true after only a few minutes of watching the home team. But what might come as a surprise to many is the discrepancy in exposure results from one local game telecast to the next.

Joyce Julius and Associates is currently in the second year of a comprehensive home plate rotational signage study, providing an index of comparative exposure data from each venue and a critique of each home plate opportunity in MLB.

Starting in 2006, Joyce Julius has monitored clear and in-focus home plate rotator sponsor exposure stemming from local broadcasts in every MLB venue. The broadcasts were examined using Joyce Julius’ proprietary computerized logo tracking system, Image Identification Technology (IIT). After reviewing the results of more than 100 hours of IIT scanned footage, it became evident to Joyce Julius researchers that some venues clearly provided their sponsors better potential to receive exposure from the centerfield camera shot.

Moving beyond just attributing exposure results to inning length, Joyce Julius researchers identified six categories that can drastically affect how often a sponsor’s identity appears clear and in-focus when the centerfield camera shot is utilized. The six categories considered were pitcher blockage, centerfield camera height, left-handed batter blockage, size, clutter, and the angled distance displayed from the pitcher’s mound to home plate.

All ballparks were graded on the six weighted categories, and then given an overall letter grade. An ‘A’ grade equated to the home plate rotator sponsors receiving almost all available exposure generated from the centerfield camera shot. In contrast, an ‘F’ grade meant sponsors where blocked or obstructed a majority of the time.

Results from the 2006 study provide exposure and grading results for every MLB venue. The data provides sponsors with a list of which ballparks provide the best opportunity for exposure, while providing the ballparks recommendations on how to improve exposure opportunities for their sponsors. Additionally, the results from the 2007 season will provide year-to-year comparisons for venues and sponsors.

Will Farrell, who took the practice of product placements in motion pictures to a new level last year with his NASCAR-themed comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, once again provided a platform for brands to take center stage with this past spring’s figure skating spoof, Blades of Glory.

While not enjoying the same box office success as Talladega Nights, Blades did manage to squeeze in more than 30 corporate logos throughout the 93-minute film.

One of the brands featured prominently was Orbitz, which sponsors the film’s mythical championship event. The Orbitz logo appeared for one minute, 45 seconds (1:45)—while the brand was also mentioned on two occasions—leading to an overall exposure value of nearly $1.5 million.

Other brands enjoying significant product placements during the film included Puma (1:37/$1,368,670), adidas (1:26/$1,213,460) and Nationwide (1:24/$1,185,240).

In comparison, Wonder Bread collected more than $14.6 million of exposure value—stemming from 11:32 of on-screen time and two verbal references—during Talladega Nights’ theatric run last year.

Joyce Julius calculates theatric exposure value by comparing the estimated number of people who saw the film, along with the on-screen time and mentions, to the cost of reaching the same size audience through traditional advertising.

Johnson’s Masters Final-Round Victory Garners Nearly $7.5 Million in Television Exposure for His Sponsors

Zach Johnson’s triumph at the 2007 Masters provided his sponsors with nearly $7.5 million of in-broadcast exposure value during CBS’ live final-round telecast from Augusta.

The name and/or logo of Johnson’s six corporate sponsors appeared clear and in-focus for a total of 18 minutes, 55 seconds (18:55) during CBS’ Sunday coverage. Additionally, Johnson mentioned three of his sponsors during the network’s live, post-event interview—a practice more commonly associated with the NASCAR winner’s circle than professional golf.

Aegon: Front of Hat	Exp. Time 3:46	Exp. Value $1,450,160
Mention (1)	N/A	64,165

Final Round Total: (1 Mention)	3:46	$1,514,325

Dunning: Shirt Sleeve	0:23	$147,570
Back of Shirt	0:19	121,905

Final Round Total:	0:42	$269,475

Foot-Joy: Side of Hat	3:03	$1,174,255

Final Round Total:	3:03	$1,174,255

RSM McGladrey: Front of Shirt	4:18	$1,655,485
Mention (1)	N/A	64,165

Final Round Total: (1 Mention)	4:18	$1,719,650

Titleist: Side of Hat	1:19	$506,905
Golf Bag	0:17	109,080
Hat Back	0:12	76,995

Final Round Total:	1:48	$692,980

Transamerica: Front of Shirt	4:40	$1,796,650
Shirt Sleeve	0:38	243,830
Mention (1)	N/A	64,165

Final Round Total: (1 Mention)	5:18	$2,104,645

While Johnson’s performance and willingness to mention his sponsors led to significant exposure for his backing brands, the results did not surpass Tiger Woods’ effort for Nike in the 2005 Masters. That year, the famous image of Woods’ Nike golf ball hanging on the lip of the cup helped the brand rack up more than $10.8 million of exposure value during CBS’ final-round telecast.

Yum Brands TV Exposure Up 70%

During NBC’s Kentucky Derby Telecast

Kentucky Derby Presenting Sponsor Yum Brands and its restaurant chains—A&W, KFC, Long John Silver’s, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell—received in-broadcast exposure totaling $4.59 million during NBC’s live Derby telecast in May. When compared to the $2.7 million collected throughout the 2006 broadcast, the restaurant conglomerate experienced a 70% increase in total exposure value from its inaugural presenting sponsorship effort of a year ago.

Altogether, the Yum logo appeared clear and in-focus for six minutes, 42 seconds (6:42) during NBC’s broadcast, while the presenting sponsor was also mentioned by the network’s announcers on 16 occasions. From this in-broadcast exposure, the Yum nameplate alone was credited with nearly $3.3 million.

While NBC’s graphics provided the bulk of Yum’s visual exposure (2:28/$863,335), signs containing the company’s logo in the paddock area saw the largest increase from last year, improving from 0:13 of on-screen time in 2006 to 2:16 ($793,335) this year.

Increased on-screen time garnered by Yum’s five restaurant brands during the telecast also contributed to the overall rise in exposure value. Additional graphics provided by NBC improved the results for each entity.

Entity	Exp. Time	Mentions	Exposure Value

Yum	6:42	16	$3,278,335
A&W	0:33	0	192,500
KFC	0:33	2	309,165
Long John Silver’s	0:33	0	192,500
Pizza Hut	0:33	2	309,165
Taco Bell	0:33	2	309,165

Total:	9:27	22	$4,590,785

Motorsports Sponsorship

Through the first seven events of the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, Lucas Oil led all brands with 245 verbal mentions during ESPN2’s telecasts, followed by POWERade (232), O’Reilly Auto Parts (108), Summit Racing Equipment (90) and Valvoline (70).

Who says a little rain is bad?... ABC’s seven-hour rain-delayed coverage of the Indianapolis 500 proved beneficial to sponsors in just about every exposure category. The total number of brands appearing during the race telecast rose from 222 in 2006 to 323 this year, thanks in part to a dramatic rise in interviews (46 to 86). Altogether, the clear in-focus time of all brands rose 62.3%, while cumulative exposure value was up an impressive 64.8%.

Ethanol, the alternative fuel of choice for many of the teams running in the 2007 American Le Mans Series, managed to land in the eighth spot among all non-team sponsors with 1:40:26, 22 mentions and $1,291,670 in comparable exposure value. When teamed up with the various forms of Ethanol fuel (E, E10 and E85) as well as Epic, the company which supplies the fuel to the series, the combined entities have garnered close to 2 hours of on-screen time, over 30 mentions and $1.8 million.

The Nextel All-Star Challenge marked the debut of the much anticipated and debated AT&T paint scheme on the #31 of Jeff Burton. In its inaugural run, AT&T collected $802,555, 9:42 of on-screen time and two mentions during Speed Channel’s coverage.

In real estate, it's all about "location, location, location." This also proved true during the Champ Car World Series' 2007 season opener in Las Vegas, as some of the businesses along the temporary street circuit gained a little extra exposure during NBC’s coverage. Some of the recipients of this incidental advertising were to be expected – as big-name hotels and casinos found themselves on the national telecast – but hitting an unexpected exposure jackpot were some less-than-household-names such as the Little Hotel (0:19/$15,865) and TNT Roofing (0:16/$13,360).

Eric Curran’s quick start to the Speed World Challenge GT Championship season has propelled his primary team sponsors to the top of the TV exposure charts thus far in 2007. Thanks in large part to Curran’s victories in two of the first three events, Whelen Engineering has amassed team sponsor highs of 20:56, 28 mentions and $60,035 of comparable value.

Mazda has dominated the Speed World Challenge Touring Car Championship season in 2007, with drivers Jeff Altenburg and Randy Pobst finishing one-two, respectively, in each of the first two rounds of action. Due to the duo’s commanding performances, Mazda has to date collected $175,910 of comparable value, tops among the 116 sponsors monitored thus far during Speed Channel’s coverage.

The month of May at Indy was a great one for Andretti Green Racing. Race winner Dario Franchitti, part of the Andretti Green Racing stable, collected more than $4.1 million in television exposure for his primary sponsor Canadian Club during coverage of qualifying and the Indy 500. Meanwhile, Motorola, the backing brand of Michael Andretti and Danica Patrick, collected nearly $8.9 million of exposure value during the 21.5 hours of qualifying and race coverage.

Going out with a bang… Busch is making the most of its final year as title sponsor of the NASCAR Busch Series, recording significant increases from a year ago in on-screen time (5:37:16 to 13:24:43), mentions (887 to 1,594) and exposure value ($28.7 million to $52.9 million) through the first dozen races of the season.

While the fever-pitch popularity of dot coms may have leveled off since the mid 1990s, Internet sites are still making noise during televised auto races, particularly in the ARCA RE/MAX Series. Through the first three televised races of the 2007, the names of 25 websites have appeared on-screen or been mentioned by the Speed Channel announcers. KansasSpeedway.com led the group with 3:30 of on-screen time, which translated into $14,700 of exposure value. Meanwhile, other top websites included lucasoil.com (2:12/$9,240), Speedtv.com (0:57/six mentions/$8,400), Panelite.com (1:02/$6,510) and racetickets.com (1:18/$5,460).

Mike Skinner and the #5 Toyota Tundra team have achieved great success in the early part of the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. With three victories, Skinner has bagged Tundra $2,040,590 of its $2,939,540 in year-to-date comparable value.

The competition in the 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series has been closer than ever, with five different teams posting victories in the first five events. Of all the team sponsors, restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday has pulled ahead of the pack with more than $1.8 million of exposure value. Along with backing the #23 Alex Job Racing entry, Ruby Tuesday also received valuable exposure time from the sponsorship of running order graphics appearing on Speed Channel.

Officials at the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series have employed a novel method to reach television audiences across the United States. During the 2006 season, USAR races were shown on 16 different regional networks across the country and the 30 races that encompass the season were broadcast a staggering 841 times to the viewing public, which based on each two-hour race translates into 1,682 hours of USAR coverage.

Crowd shots on the set of ESPN2’s NHRA Race Day each week – and the signs they wave – have been responsible for 14:05 minutes and $217,780 of comparable exposure through the first seven events of the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season. The majority of this exposure has gone to Jeg's Mail Order, which provides signs to the fans. The yellow, rectangular signs are blank in the middle to allow for the obligatory "Hi, Mom!" messages, and are bordered with the Jeg's logo, JEGS.com, and 1-800-CALL-JEGS. Altogether, Jeg's has netted 11:18 and $174,735 thanks to the distribution of these signs.

In the American Le Mans Series, Michelin dominates the post-race scene. Suiting up the winning drivers for their interviews with a bright blue Michelin hat at the conclusion of each race has garnered the tire brand 27:43 of on-screen time and $450,640 during television coverage of the first five races. Meanwhile, dancing around the winner’s circle, the delightfully bubbly Michelin Man has bounced into the camera frame enough times to collect an additional 1:25 and $85,050.

Lowe’s earned more television exposure value than any other brand during the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series’ Coca-Cola 600. Lending its name to both the speedway in Charlotte and Jimmie Johnson’s ride resulted in exposure totaling more than $13.9 million during the Fox prime-time telecast.

Sampling of New Clients for 2007

Joyce Julius and Associates thanks the following organizations who have recently joined our client roster:

Autozone	Grit Rock Rodeo
Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction	Jeg's High Performance
Circle Bar Racing	Kalitta Motorsports
CoolXposure	Momentum Sports Group
Crown AMG	National Hot Rod Association
Dallas Cowboys	Navigate Marketing
Enventys	R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Genesco Sports Enterprises	RSM McGladrey
Ginn Motorsports	Sports Dimensions - Pennzoil/Shell
Ginn Sports Entertainment	U.S. Figure Skating Association
GMAC Bowl	Wasserman Media Group - T-Mobile
Great American Insurance Co.	Zurich North America

A Second Look...

A Second Look is a newsletter published by Joyce Julius and Associates, Inc., updating recent developments, trends and happenings in the areas of sports, special events and entertainment marketing. All information contained in this newsletter is available for journalistic use, with all rights reserved.

Baseball's Home Plate Signage

Television Results Reveal Varying Success

for Sponsors from this Prime Branding Location