Capitalizing on Local Success to Market Products

It should come as no surprise that sports are big business and advertising during a sporting event. Whether it’s a television commercial airing during the event or sponsorships at the stadium, businesses want to get their name seen by as many people as possible.

In a session with Brandon before the Super Bowl, one of the things he mentioned was to watch how businesses, even those who did not buy ad time during the game itself, would capitalize on the momentum and outcome of the Super Bowl to market and sell a product. With the 2016 Opening Day of baseball in the books, this brings to mind a local example of the idea mentioned by Brandon.

Hailing from Kansas City, using the Royals first World Series win in 30 years as a marketing strategy can be seen as theme in the city. Billboards throughout the city have the word Royals in big letters or images from the game for all to see. This is not limited to the team’s marketing campaign either. Three other companies that come to mind are Commerce Bank, HyVee (a Midwest grocery store chain), and Farmland. The billboards boast slogans like “Proud Sponsor of the 2015 World Champion Kansas City Royals” or “Forever Royal.”

The MLS team Sporting KC also has billboards up throughout the city with images of players capitalizing on the teams success in recent years. Several members of the team played for the United States in the World Cup and will likely be traveling to Rio for the Olympics as well.

For a city that has seen so much success when it comes to sports in the last few years, businesses have used this to tailor the marketing in Kansas City. While it may seem subtle, when someone drives passed the same billboard day after day, it starts to form an association in his or her brain. So the next time he or she is in the grocery store shopping for bacon or in need of a new bank, the brand or company on the billboard will come to mind.

It may be a tried and true method, but Kansas City is finally able to reap the rewards.