• Promotions in Times Square during the New Year’s Eve celebration
• The opportunity to distribute handouts and flyers during all of December
• Advertising on the giant LED video screens in Times Square on New Year’s Eve and daily throughout the year
• VIP hospitality at New Year’s Eve party headquarters
• Continuous presence in Times Square year-round.
• Use of the Times Square logo and images and right to associate brands with the Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration for marketing
• Inclusion in the Times Square BID web site

    Sponsors appear year-round on the Discover Card sign for one minute of every one of the 16 hours a day that the sign carries advertising.
    On New Year’s Eve two giant LED screens also carry sponsors’ messages at a ratio of one minute to three minutes of programming. 
    Elements of the New Year’s Eve celebration include:
    5 p.m.--Revelers begin to gather.
    6 p.m.--A special bell ringing ceremony commemorating the Sept. 11 events will accompany the lighting and raising of the New Year’s Eve Ball. When Mayor Giuliani rings a bell at the countdown stage, people not in the square are invited to ring bells in their homes and communities.
    6:58 p.m.--The hourly countdown begins with two minutes of sound effects, music and a video that will be repeated hourly until midnight.
    9:30 p.m.--Pom-poms, balloons and confetti bags are distributed in Times Square.
    11:59 p.m.--The lighted ball begins its 77-foot descent. 
    12:00 a.m.--Confetti is released from rooftops throughout Times Square during a two-minute pyrotechnic display.
    Event organizers provide live feed by satellite to television stations around the world, though many broadcasters also bring in their own cameras. 
    Live coverage is also streamed to internet users via the Times Square BID’s web site.
    Year-round tie-ins with New Year’s Eve sponsorship include Times Square editions of products and promotions throughout the year. 
    “Waterford Crystal has designed a new ball every year during its sponsorship, and its licensing agreement gives it the right to sell related products,” Straus says. “So each year it comes out with a new product line based on the redesign.”
    Sponsor Korbel Champagne puts the Times Square New Year’s Eve logo on its labels during the holiday season.
    Product exclusivity is guaranteed, Straus says, to the extent that it can be in a public arena. “We control our cameras, but we do have to watch out for ambushing.” 
    Due to its uniqueness as a public event, sponsors of New Year’s Eve in Times Square don’t sell tickets or TV rights as do sponsors of sporting and other privately promoted events. “But while we can’t guarantee TV coverage, we find ways to build sponsors into the event,” Straus says.
    “You may not see Waterford’s name on the ball, but it’s made of crystal and everyone knows it’s Waterford. At the same time it's licensing crystal products with the Times Square logo.” 
    Organizers Countdown Entertainment and Times Square BID work with city officials and police to secure permits for special events and to organize clean-up the day after the celebration. 

Numbers
    Traditionally, over 500,000 revelers attend Times Square events on-site.
    Of those half-million people, 85 percent are from outside New York City, with 23 percent from foreign countries. “People come from Kenya, Germany, Brazil. From all over the world,” Straus says.
    Over 275 broadcasters worldwide carry the event with more than 300 million viewers in the U.S. and over a billion worldwide watching.
    Additionally over three million viewers log on to the official internet site.

How measured?
    Measurement is based on television ratings and crowd estimates.
    Several sources are used to document numbers. They include the NYC Police Department, Ernst & Young, YP&B Yankelovich & Partners, Nielsen Household Ratings, Trylon Communications, Video Monitoring Services and Burson-Marsteller Worldwide.

What product categories do well?
    “The opportunity to associate your brand with this event and to leverage that association for marketing works in certain categories and not in others,” Straus says.
    Products usually tie in with the New Year’s theme. For example, Waterford Crystal designs the official New Year’s Eve ball and Con Edison lights it.
    Philips has licensed a light bulb to enhance crystal that’s used to illuminate the ball, Straus says. “They set up miniature ball drops at Home Depots and increased sales 700 percent for the millennium.” 
    Panasonic provides the giant LED screens that are used in Times Square during the celebration. 
    Korbel is the official champagne served at the VIP party during the event. 
    DoubleTree provides a space for the VIP party.
    Other categories include food and coffee.

Demographics
    Of the half-million people who attend New Year’s Eve events on-site at Times Square, 70 percent are between 19 and 35 years old with 32 percent between 26 and 35.
   Television coverage broadens the demographic in terms of age and income.
    “Our usual demographic is 18- to 54-year-olds with a household income of $50,000 plus,” says Pete Cheyney, director of corporate communications for New Jersey-based Waterford Wedgwood USA. “But this medium allows us to reach all ages. The exposure is unbelievable.”

Making the buy
    The time to start talking about sponsorship for New Year’s Eve 2002/2003 is right after this year’s celebration, Straus says. “Get in early to plan. By summertime everything’s ready to go.”
    Sponsorships are negotiated for a minimum of three years, though most are five years, Straus says.
    Sponsorship fees have a “low six-figure base,” Straus says. “How a product is built into the event determines what the eventual cost is.”
    Companies don’t have to have a presence in Times Square to become a sponsor, Straus says. “A restaurant or chain could hold celebrations at its stores, practice parties where we actually bring the ball out. Or it can have a party on New Year’s Eve and use screens to show what’s happening at Times Square.”

Who’s already sponsoring the celebration?
    Discover Card, Waterford Crystal, Con Edison, Panasonic, Korbel Champagne, and DoubleTree Guest Suites.

What they’re saying 
    “We’ve never quantified it. We didn’t need to. It’s priceless. It’s the most successful promotion event in the history of Waterford here in the United States.”--Pete Cheyney, director of corporate communications for Waterford Wedgwood USA, headquartered in Wall, New Jersey.

Trivia
    The New York Times sponsored the first New Year’s Eve rooftop celebration when it opened its headquarters in Times Square in 1904. For the first three years it set off fireworks on top of the building and the ashes rained down on celebrants below.
    The first ball-lowering took place in 1907 and has continued ever since, though in 1943 and 1944 chimes were played instead of lighting the ball because of the wartime blackouts.
   Today’s ball is covered with 504 Waterford crystal triangles, each in the “Hope for Healing” design that features three candles surrounded by hands outspread in a gesture of healing.
    It weighs 1,070 pounds and is illuminated with 168 exterior lights, 432 colored interior lights and 96 high-intensity strobes. A computer controls the lights and 90 mirrors on the ball’s exterior that rotate and reflect the light to the audience.

Web site info
   Times Square Business Improvement District

Etc.
   Countdown Entertainment is the promotional arm of Sherwood Outdoor, which sells signage in Times Square including atop Times Square One, the former New York Times building that is the center of the New Year’s Eve celebration.

December 17, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising  for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.

Send to a Friend| Printer-Friendly Version
Cover Page | Contact Us