Loss of Live Sports Changes ESPN's Marketing Plans
April 02 2020 - 11:38AM
Dow Jones News
By Sahil Patel
Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN has had to significantly revamp its
programming with the loss of live sports during the coronavirus
pandemic, and now it's altering its marketing as well.
On Monday, ESPN is introducing two new commercials addressing
the impact of covid-19 in different ways.
One features ESPN on-air talent such as Stephen A. Smith, Doris
Burke and former baseball star Alex Rodriguez delivering a message
of unity and advising viewers to practice social distancing.
Ms. Burke recorded her portion after announcing last week that
she has the virus.
The second ad continues the network's "There's No Place Like
Sports" campaign and features uplifting sports moments such as the
recent National Hockey League game in which a Zamboni driver filled
in as a last-minute goalie. It ends with the message "We miss it,
too."
The ads will appear 10 to 15 times a day each through late May,
said Laura Gentile, senior vice president of marketing for ESPN.
"It's a statement of how ESPN feels right now," she said.
"Sports is an escape -- that's what people are missing right
now, because there is no escaping the news and this situation," Ms.
Gentile said. "There is a sense of reinforcing that we are right
there with you, " she added.
The loss of live sports has left sports networks with hours of
programming time to fill every day. ESPN has used a mix of live
news coverage, old games and programming stunts such as bringing
back "The Ocho," a collection of offbeat sporting events and games
inspired by the movie "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story."
The pause in sports has also changed the work for ESPN's
185-person marketing organization, which now has to move more
quickly to promote new programming plans by the network.
"It's been the most intense two weeks of some of our careers,"
Ms. Gentile said. "We've had to reboot our entire marketing lineup
and stay lockstep with production, developing new promos and new
work to support all that."
"If you look at the magnitude of programming changes we've had
to make, marketing has essentially had to follow suit," she
added.
ESPN is also running promos for a documentary series about
Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and the NFL draft later in
April.
Audiences for ESPN have slipped since major sports leagues
stopped play. Prime-time viewership on ESPN's flagship network
averaged 550,000 viewers the week of March 16, down from 647,000 a
week earlier, according to Nielsen data.
The National Basketball League suspended its season on March 11.
The previous week -- the last full week ESPN had live sports -- its
main network averaged more than 1.04 million viewers in prime time,
according to Nielsen.
ESPN is considering responding by spending more money to promote
itself outside of the TV networks and digital platforms it owns,
Ms. Gentile said.
"We haven't 100% landed on the plan yet," she said. "In this
time, more than ever, you may very well have to spend off-channel
to reach the fans you have to reach, because you don't have those
massive [live game] NBA audiences to market to."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 02, 2020 12:23 ET (16:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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