Your client
at the NFL draft
The annual event is the ultimate experience in fan engagement
By Diego Vasquez
Jul 25, 2011
The NFL lockout is all but over, and just in time for training camp and the start of the 2011 season.
Throughout the four-month ordeal the best opportunity the league's sponsors had to interact with fans was April's NFL Draft, the annual event where the teams stock their rosters with college prospects. It's a good opportunity for out-of-home advertising, and now's a good time to think about getting clients involved in next year's event.
The draft is attended by thousands of football fans annually, but the true value for sponsors is in media and TV exposure, with more than 40 million people watching some part of last year's festivities on television.
To find out how to get your client at the NFL Draft, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Getting in front of football fans at the annual NFL Draft, which this year took place April 28-30 in New York City.
Who
The NFL handles league sponsorship, including a presence at the NFL Draft itself.
How it works
There are two main ways for NFL sponsors to get in front of fans at the NFL Draft.
The first is interacting with the fans who show up at New York's Radio City Music Hall, where the draft takes place. League sponsors set up booths and can do anything from sell merchandise to display exhibits.
But the main way for league sponsors to get in front of fans during the NFL Draft is through the media coverage, the most obvious being appearing on-screen during the extensive TV coverage by NFL Network and ESPN.
Sponsors can be creative.
Reebok supplied team caps with prominent Reebok logos worn by players selected in the first round as they walked onto the stage after their name was called.
Bud Light sponsored the entire second round of the draft and enlisted 32 former players to announce each team's pick, as presented by Bud Light. The beer company also ran a New York-area contest in which a fan won the chance to join a player on stage to announce his or her favorite team's pick.
Advertisers can also take advantage of the buzz surrounding the event to gain publicity for their merchandise. EA Sports announced that Cleveland Browns running back Peyton Hillis would appear on the cover of its hugely popular "Madden NFL 12" video game at draft weekend.
With hundreds of reporters there covering the draft, the announcement became big news, earning EA lots of free buzz.
Markets
The NFL Draft has been held at Radio City Music Hall since 2006, and the event airs nationally on ESPN and NFL Network.
Numbers
The league doesn't release attendance data for the NFL Draft, but Radio City Music Hall seats between 5,000 and 6,000, and the venue is almost always full.
This year's NFL Draft averaged 6 million total viewers on ESPN and 1.04 million on NFL Network for first-round (Thursday night) coverage. ESPN averaged another 2.39 million viewers for its Friday night coverage, while NFL Network averaged 566,000 viewers over the course of the three-day event.
The NFL says 42 million people tuned in to at least part of the draft on NFL Network, ESPN and ESPN2, second-most ever behind the 2010 event.
How it is measured
Attendance figures at the actual draft are used, and brands that appear within the telecast can use TV ratings to estimate impressions.
What product categories work well
NFL Draft sponsors include beer, auto, video games, athletic apparel, snack foods, credit cards and telecommunications.
Demographics
Among adults who are interested in the NFL, 59 percent are male and 41 percent female, according to Scarborough Research.
Twelve percent are ages 18-24, 18 percent are 25-34, 20 percent are 35-44, 19 percent are 45-54, 15 percent are 55-64 and 16 percent are age 65-plus.
Sixty percent have an annual household income of $50,000 or more, with 41 percent at $75,000 or more, and 24 percent at $100,000 or more.
Making the buy
A presence at the NFL Draft is part of a larger overall multi-year agreement with the NFL.
The league doesn't disclose how much sponsors pay, but multi-year deals have been reported to cost hundreds of millions of dollars for top sponsors.
Who’s already been at the NFL Draft
Recent brands that have had an NFL Draft presence include Reebok, EA Sports, Bud Light, Castrol, GMC, Mars, Papa John's, Pepsi, Verizon and Visa.
What they’re saying
"A major element of sport is the vicarious experience. What could be more fantasy based than role-playing the general manager of a powerful football empire? Audiences like this combination of game show and soap opera. Fans can stay glued to the event for hours as they judge, wish, and frequently believe they can out-fox the pros. It ranks among the most innovative ideas in the history of television sports." –
Irving Rein, professor of communication studies at Northwestern University and author of "The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace"
Web site info
NFL
http://www.nfl.com
NFL Draft
http://www.nfl.com/draft
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