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Get In The (Super) Game
Jan 26, 2010
Get In The (Super) Game
By Sonja Carberry | Investors Business Daily
What's in a name? Put it on the site of the Super Bowl, and you have untold value. Next Sunday's National Football League title game will take place at the newly dubbed Sun Life Stadium, thanks to a $4 million-plus, five-year contract between the Miami Dolphins and Canadian firm Sun Life Financial.
Will the switch pay off?
Check the playbook on naming-rights deals:
• Meet your match. Miami Dolphins CEO Mike Dee says his organization was looking for a serious player to put on its marquee.
What he liked about Sun Life Financial (SLF) was its 144-year history, international reach and growing U.S. presence.
A particularly important factor? "The name had to fit," Dee told IBD. Sun Life was a natural for the endless summer state.
"The touchdown for us is that we found a blue chip partner," Dee said. "We hit on all aspects."
• Up your game. Another way Sun Life and the Dolphins organization matched, Dee says, is commitment to local involvement.
"Hosting big events is what we do," Dee said. "Being active in the community is who we are."
Sun Life will invest $250,000 annually in the Miami Dolphins Foundation and extend its at-risk youth program to South Florida.
"Sun Life has a long history of being very socially responsible," said Wes Thompson, Sun Life Financial U.S. president.
• Hog the ball. What attracted Sun Life to Miami was big-league exposure that will boost its name recognition in America.
"The breadth and depth this venue gives us is very unique," Thompson said.
The 75,000-seat stadium is home to one baseball (Florida Marlins) and two football teams (Dolphins and the University of Miami Hurricanes). It also hosts international soccer games and concerts.
Sealing the deal before this year's Super Bowl was an extra point.
"The timing obviously is great," Thompson said. "But we're in this for the long term."
• Build a blitz. How easily will fans adopt the new name, the eighth in the stadium's 23-year history? Much depends on public relations.
The effort kicks off with new stadium signage, logos on paper tickets and in-stadium announcements that shout the new handle. Full-page newspaper ads and Sun Life's first U.S. TV ad campaign will back up the on-site offense.
"There's a lot of noise being made," Dee said.
• Stay in the game. With any name change, "it's really key that you have a strategy and a plan to activate." So says Mark Winneker, senior vice president with The Marketing Arm. His sports and entertainment ad firm, owned by Omnicom (OMC), has handled several such deals, but not this one.
Cementing a stadium's title in the public lexicon is crucial, Winneker said, because if you don't, "what happens is people start to name the building."
He says the best way to head off the public's impulse to nickname or abbreviate — such as calling Dallas' American Airlines Center "the AAC" — is consistent, long-term communication.
• Mark your turf. Winneker calls the Sun Life deal unique because the corporation is relatively new to the region, not to mention the U.S.
"For the most part, these are local deals," he said, such as Miller Brewing Co.'s Miller Park in Milwaukee.
