Vol. 16, October 2006

The Talladega Nights Product Placement Juggernaut Continues

Exposure Value Likely to Top $60 Million for Wonder Bread

With the summer comedy hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby nearing the end of its theatric run, and the movie's replica racing suits quickly becoming the hot item for Halloween this year, the unprecedented marketing boost Wonder Bread has received from its association with the film does not appear to be ending anytime soon.

Tabbed by the Talladega Nights producers as the iconic American brand to serve as Ricky Bobby’s (a.k.a. Will Farrell) racing sponsor for the film, Wonder Bread enjoyed  the product placement ride-along without any appearance fees.  That arrangement proved to be quite a coup for Wonder Bread, paying off even prior to the movie’s premier, as Farrell took product placement to a new saturation level when he made national TV appearances, such as on The Tonight Show, clad in an authentic Wonder Bread racing suit.  The buzz generated from the media blitz enabled Talladega Nights to claim the top spot at the box office on its opening weekend in early August, with Wonder Bread shining brilliantly in a co-staring role.

According to Joyce Julius & Associates research, Wonder Bread had realized nearly $16 million in exposure value (as of October 1), stemming from print articles, television news features and the product placements within the film.  When also factoring in exposure value from advertising promoting the movie and Talladega Nights-related merchandise (die casts, hats, jackets… basically all the offerings of a real NASCAR team), the profile of the Wonder Bread brand has certainly been elevated to new heights.

Also adding to this product placement fairy tale is the fact that Wonder’s parent company, Interstate Bakeries Corp., has been in Chapter 11 protection since 2004.  Yes, even the back-story here seems to have a Hollywood feel about it.

The Talladega Nights DVD is slated for release on December 12, just in time for the holidays and a whole new wave of Wonder Bread exposure.  Typically, the theatric run accounts for about 25% of a film’s total revenue, with DVD sales and rentals, along with pay-per-view, premium cable and eventual mainstream television broadcasts dwarfing (from a business perspective) what happens on the big screen.  Ricky Bobby’s audience is about to increase tenfold, and Wonder Bread's exposure could soon climb beyond $60 million before the sequel is even written.

The following table details the locations Wonder Bread was monitored during Talladega Nights, and the ensuing value accumulated through October 1, 2006.

Chase for the Nextel Cup:  Team Sponsor Results From the First Two Race Telecasts 

Image Identification Technology Provides Detailed Exposure Results for 2006 US Open Broadcasts

There should be no wondering why corporate sponsors were excited about partnering with the 2006 US Open.  Occupying center stage in New York – the media capital of the world – for two weeks each year, the US Open tennis tournament is the highest attended annual sporting event in the United States and this year, CBS, USA and CNBC combined to broadcast over 160 hours of tennis coverage.

Once again, Joyce Julius & Associates monitored every hour of US Open television coverage through the utilization of its proprietary computerized sponsor tracking system, Image Identification Technology (IIT).  The results provided data including in-broadcast exposure results, as well as a variety of additional information for each US Open sponsor, with a speed and accuracy only IIT could provide.

Joyce Julius researchers locate specific examples of logos they want to search for within a broadcast and virtually tell the IIT system what to look for by identifying, framing, and testing those examples.  IIT then breaks down the example logo into millions of pixels, and scans the provided footage for matching pixel groups.  The footage is fragmented into second-long frames, each of which is individually scanned for every sponsor selected.  When IIT recognizes a sponsor on a particular frame, it records, among other information, a second of exposure, its size (percentage of the screen), screen position or location, and overall quality, which is a percentage comparison of the identified sponsor against the example provided by the researcher.  IIT allows Joyce Julius researchers to provide its clients with advanced information about their sponsorship in a shorter period of time.

IIT data from the US Open was used for several comprehensive comparison studies investigating the quality percentages and position data collected.  For every frame IIT detects a match, the system tabulates results for that specific single match.  Averaging or grouping selected data can explain or justify why one sponsor may have outperformed another.  The first study compared IBM (serve mph) and Citizen Bank (match time), two companies that sponsor items on the back wall of all US Open courts.  Again, quality is measured by a comparison between the researcher’s inputted  examples and the selected match.  IBM’s logo outperformed Citizen’s in this particular category, recording 32% of its matches between 90-95% quality and 61% of its matches above 95%.  Citizen recorded 41% of its matches in the 90-95% range, but only 24% were above 95%.  A simple explanation for IBM’s success in this comparison is its logo displayed wider, bolder letters, which were more easily seen from the typical whole court, wide angled shot displayed by network cameras.

A second study examined the on-screen positions of two side court sponsors, American Express and Lexus.  Both sponsors benefited from several logo locations placed through the various courts comprising the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.  Lexus outperformed American Express for the coveted center screen position, with 44% of its exposure time occurring in this area, compared to 27% for American Express.  The following diagrams show the on-screen position percentages for each sponsor.  

American Express:                                                           Lexus:

The data provided by IIT also allows the Joyce Julius research staff to disseminate massive amounts of strategic data, which previously would have taken months to compile.  For example, by using the exposure totals for the back wall sponsors, researchers concluded that just over 53 hours of tennis was broadcast using the (main) whole court, wide angled camera.  When excluding commercial time, this 53:06:30 of coverage accounted for almost 42% of the entire coverage time afforded by the broadcasting networks.

Motorsports Sponsorship

  Valvoline's decision to sign on with Don Schumacher Racing just in time for the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis last month paid off handsomely for the motor oil brand. The multiple-car operation was largely responsible for supplying Valvoline (along with subsidiaries Zerex and Pyroil) with 21:01 of exposure time and 21 verbal references, good for $456,380 of comparable exposure value. In comparison, Valvoline earned just $132,230 during the 2005 broadcast of the U.S. Nationals. 

  The Sauter brothers – Jay, Johnny and Tim – raced against each other in 24 of the first 29 NASCAR Busch Series races this season.  Despite Johnny’s higher ranking in the standings (10th), Jay’s sponsor, Western Union, holds the edge among the brothers’ three primary supporters – Lester Building Systems (Tim), Yellow (Johnny) – in the amount of exposure received during telecasts devoted to those races.  All told, Western Union has appeared on camera for more than 42 minutes and has received 10 mentions for a comparable value total of nearly $2.3 million during races in which all three Sauters participated.

  In the race for television exposure among auto manufacturers in the 2006 Speed World Challenge Touring Car Championship, Mazda sits atop the standings with 2:58:06 of on-screen time, 316 mentions and $628,130 of comparable value.  Mazda –  which leads Acura by more than $200,000 heading into the Road Atlanta event – also ranks second overall in terms of exposure value among the 328 sponsors monitored thus far this broadcast season.

  Question:  Which of its four drivers has generated the most television exposure value for team sponsor Mobil 1 during Speed World Challenge GT Championship series telecasts on Speed Channel?  Answer:  Ron Fellows.  Thus far in 2006, the veteran road racer, who has carried Mobil 1’s colors in several races this year, has racked up $12,035 for the sponsor from driver-related exposure (i.e., vehicle identity, sponsor mentions), ahead of Andy Pilgrim ($12,010), Johnny O’Connell ($6,965) and Max Angelelli ($3,540).

  Call it the commentator effect...  Thus far in the 2006 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series campaign, Aaron’s has enjoyed more than 560 mentions as the exclusive sponsor of the Lucky Dog award.  When Michael Waltrip is in the booth, his sponsor-friendly conversations have proven to be far more favorable for the rental company than when he is not guest commentating.  The average number of mentions for Aaron’s for a non-Waltrip telecast is 17, good for $29,750 of exposure value.  Meanwhile, in races where Waltrip is commentating, Aaron’s collects an average of 47 mentions and a whopping $82,250.

  What’s in your wallet — graphics!  Capital One rode the power of graphics during telecasts of the IRL IndyCar Series this past season to rank fourth overall among all sponsors after collecting more than $14 million of in-broadcast exposure value.  Leaderboard, Presented By, Side-By-Side and Brought to You By graphics all led to significant screen time for Capital One.

  JeanRichard, the official timepiece and timekeeper of the 2006 American Le Mans Series, has parlayed that role into being the fourth-most exposed sponsor all year in the series.  Utilizing an effective and highly visible gallery of exposure sources, such as clock identity (0:54/$35,180), along with a rich assortment of graphics — such as running order (1:22:16/$3,007,065), Driver Identification (2:15/$121,940) and Battle for 1st  (0:30/$34,650) — have combined to push the sponsor to its elite status among all sponsors of the endurance road racing series.

  Utilizing one of the more unlikely sources for exposure — a T-shirt worn by a race fan — Gilley’s Bar & Grill has registered 3:59 of exposure time as well as a comparable value yield of $3,245 this season in the Hooters ProCup Series.  A highlight segment featuring the race fan wearing a shirt emblazoned with the logo “Lookin’ for love at Gilley’s” while standing in line at one of the Hooters ProCup souvenir stands has appeared in every telecast this year and is completely responsible for the watering hole's unlikely windfall.

  The tandem of Andy Wallace and Butch Leitzinger finished strong in the final two rounds of the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series — coming in second at the Sonoma 250 and third at the Discount Tire Sunchaser.  As a result, their team sponsor, The Boss Snowplow, earned $44,475 of comparable exposure value in the final two rounds, or 19% of the sponsor’s comparable value for the entire broadcast season.

  October may be Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but Ford used the Champ Car World Series event at Road America on September 24 to start their observance a little early this year. Between Katherine Legge's special "Warriors in Pink" paint scheme ($39,280), pink ribbon decals on all of the Champ Cars ($7,515) and a vignette focusing on the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation ($6,850), the automaker's effort to raise awareness carried an exposure value of nearly $55,000.

  SK Hand Tools, sponsor of the Crew Chief of the Race award in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, picked up nearly $25,000 of in-broadcast exposure from graphics devoted to the award during the first 13 televised races this season on Speed Channel.  All told, SK Hand Tools had received more than 2.5 hours of exposure through the Chicagoland telecasts, of which 4:20 has come from Crew Chief of the Race graphics.

  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.