Congrats Doesn’t Equal Ad

Michael Jordan is in the news again – this time for court action of the legal nature, as he has file suit against a Chicago grocery store. 

Authors Tammy Brandt and Brian Socolow, of AdAge.com, explain that it was in 2009 that Sports Illustrated produced a commemorative edition of its publication, in which local Chicago businesses, among others, publicly congratulated Jordan on his election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

The “ad” from Jewel grocery store was a full-page, offering praise from “a fellow Chicagoan,” yet the judge in the case recently upheld their claim that it was not an actual advertisement; so congrats doesn’t equal an ad.

Jordan had argued that the congrats ad was an infringement on his business interests, as well as on his trademark, and sought to exploit Jordan for the store’s commercial gain – all without his permission.

With this ruling, it means that advertisers actually have some protection from the First Amendment regarding lawsuits filed by celebrities.  In this case, Jordan argued that the store, with its logo and slogan right there on the full-page, were intended to help its image, increase its value and ultimately serve as a promotion for the stores.

The judge explained that the presence of the logo and slogan were used to identify the congratulator and to personalize the wishes as being from a fellow Chicago entity.  He further explained that the congrats ad did not actually propose or invite a commercial transaction – which is what an advertisement normally does, and which helps distinguish “commercial speech.”

To further understand this case, we must note that the Jewel did not approach Sports Illustrated, they did not buy the advertising space, nor do they own the magazine in which the ad was published.  Now, if the ad had appeared in the store’s local circular or on its website or even its page on Facebook, it would have been a different story.

Ultimately, the case is not completely settled: there is still room for appeal.  However, it does mean that, while congrats doesn’t equal an ad, many other forms of content does – so the advertiser, or congratulator, must be very careful in choosing their messages, especially when tied to a well-known individual.

Two Girls Saved by Social Media

Earlier this month, Simon Dumenco wrote in Ad Age MEDIAWORKS about a marketing campaign that was almost over before it even got started.

It turns out that Fox Sports in Detroit decided to try to improve fan support and interest, so two young women were hired to act as “ambassadors.”  When the campaign with Lauren and Allison was launched in April 2011, the feedback that first month was not very positive. 

While there were only a few emails complaining about the campaign, there were some rather nervous execs, who were concerned about the negative opinions about the girls being nothing more than “mannequins.”  The complaints were taken seriously, but the campaign had not yet been put into full-action. 

Lauren and Allison started making appearances at various events, as well as reaching out to fans via social media, and then things started to happen; they became local celebrities as the fans started to enjoy the efforts being made by the Fox Sports team.

But, just to get a better feel for how this campaign was really doing, Fox Sports started working with a company that focuses on analyzing social media, Bluefin Labs.   There had been almost 6,000 comments about the Fox Sports Detroit Girls on various social media outlets (mostly Twitter and Facebook), and the results were much better than expected.

The breakdown of the comments includes the following: 16% mentioned actual sightings of Lauren and Allison; 13% stated that they loved them; and 53% were actual conversations with the girls on Twitter.  The overall results were, 26% neutral, 73% positive and only 1% negative:

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The Fox Sports team was very pleased, as this research showed that the effort to connect with fans was working, as the overall response was so positive. 

It was stated that, without the analytics from Bluefin Labs, there might have been an early end to the campaign, based solely on the few negative remarks received within the very first month.

Fox Sports is so buoyed by the results that there has been expansion to include just such ambassadors in an additional eight markets, with sights on even further growth of this campaign.