ESPN Lands LeBron Special, but Its Last-Minute Ads Aren't a Slam Dunk
ESPN will indeed air a one-hour special at 9 p.m. tonight -- called The Decision -- in which some guy named LeBron James will tell the world which NBA team he will sign with (after which, I assume he'll do something heroic like swing by the Gulf of Mexico and clean up the oil).
Now that ESPN has agreed to the special, can it sell some serious ads against it? It looks like it can, as Ad Age is reporting that the University of Phoenix and Microsoft's Bing will co-present the program, and that Coca-Cola owned VitaminWater and McDonald's (both of which LeBron endorses) will also sponsor. All proceeds, along with additional straight-out donations from Nike and Sprite (also LeBron endorsees) will go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
So hooray for ESPN for the quick turnaround on both getting advertising in the door and putting together a special. Or not.
I'd like to think that ESPN showed unusual savvy in putting together this deal, since so much of the world is real-time these days. Why simply report on a hot story, when you can completely own it? But the fact is the entire thing is the creation of LeBron's handlers -- who are to be commended for somehow pumping more heat into this over-heated story than already existed. Now that's a feat.
But the ad side of this equation, frankly, disappoints. No offense to the fine people of the University of Phoenix, but ... the University of Phoenix? Couldn't either ESPN's camp or LeBron's come up with a bigger name than that? Even though its ad budget is in excess of $200 million, it's not what you would call a marquee advertiser. The big boys -- like General Motors and Verizon -- spent more than $500 million in the first quarter alone. What about a quick turnaround Nike ad focused on his decision? Or a LeBron-themed "I'm going to Disney World" ad from ESPN's parent company?
My suspicion is that what we may be seeing, once again, is what a difficulty big media companies have with making hay off of last-minute scheduling -- that the proceeds, in this case, aren't going into ESPN's coffers doesn't really matter. One reason is that many of these "events" -- like assassinations, natural disasters and terrorist attacks -- don't make for a great advertising environment.
But the other big reason is systemic. As much as advertisers may want to be on this program, it's not just about will. Most advertising and programming is planned out months in advance -- even in sports -- and ad messaging, budgets and media buys are all exquisitely well thought out and timed.
More and more, however, this mindset of sponsorship and programming perfection will collide with our real-time world, one in which some Twitter trending topics have a brief, theoretically profitable, moment in the sun and then fade. Despite all of the excitement around real-time search, I've yet to see any advertiser or platform come up with a viable way of monetizing it.
Even if the LeBron situation is unique to some degree, quick burst, real-time attention from millions of people is not. I was hoping that, with this special, ESPN could help start the media industry thinking about how to profit from real-time, but I don't think it will.
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