In the football off-season, many Madison Avenue marketers turn to the NFL Draft and broadcasters ABC and ESPN have sold out the 2019 three-day Nashville event’s entire ad inventory at an average 30-second slot price in the mid-$100,000 range.
Not that surprising considering last year’s Draft – across ESPN, Fox and the NFL Network – draw an average audience of 5.5m viewers at any given moment and reached 45.4 million people in total: a 20% rise on the previous year.
With regular season ratings rising again, perhaps the NFL is genuinely becoming a bona fide year-round product.
As a marketing platform, the Draft (from the live picks to the accompanying festival) offers an opportunity to experiment with interesting advertising and activation ideas.
For example, in 2018, ESPN inserted Bud Light’s Bud Knight into a cutaway between picks by the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers that looked like a quick-hit player profile but was actually a paid Anheuser-BuschInBev commercial.
BREAKING: @TheBudKnight holds a press conference discussing his decision to join the @Ravens pic.twitter.com/IsiPUW95PT
— Bud Light (@budlight) July 29, 2018
From alcohol and auto brands, to movie studios and jewelry/watch advertisers and tech companies, there are a reported 30+ new advertisers leveraging this year’s Draft between 25-27 April: including Bridgestone,
Bud Light,
The true draught expert. #NFLDraftDay https://t.co/sLB79ziEg0
— Bud Light (@budlight) April 25, 2019
FedEx, Ford, Home Depot, Goodyear, Hyundai (see case study), Lowe’s (see case study),
Marriot Courtyard,
#MarcusMariota and @stefondiggs stopped by the Courtyard #Nashville Downtown to chat NFL Draft. Head over to our Instagram story for more quotes and #NFLDraft insights live from #Nashville. #OfficalHotelOfTheNFL #CourtyardNFL pic.twitter.com/ytnMLqYjSF
— Courtyard Hotels (@CourtyardHotels) April 25, 2019
.@richeisen knows the importance of loving what you do. Watch him in action on the all new episode of Courtyard: Unstoppable. https://t.co/CzCjFvIew1 #CourtyardNFL #OfficialHotelOfTheNFL pic.twitter.com/bivfagZ2ID
— Courtyard Hotels (@CourtyardHotels) April 12, 2019
Mars, Mercedes, Metro PCS, Nationwide,
Watching the @NFLDraft in #MusicCity? See one of our Walter Payton @NFL Man of the year winners announce a draft pick in Round 1! #WPMOY #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/PFtFTlMGEp
— Nationwide (@Nationwide) April 25, 2019
New Era,
It all comes down to this. 2019 NFL Draft Caps available at https://t.co/JTyPgB08AR pic.twitter.com/NBlRDmcUq4
— New Era Cap (@NewEraCap) April 26, 2019
Nissan,
Oikos, Old Navy, Pepsi, Pizza Hut (see case study), Sleep Number,
Happening live in our #NFLDraft booth: @kelsmontagueart is working on her latest mural which is all about #SmarterSleep! pic.twitter.com/6sqRXgeHAO
— Sleep Number (@sleepnumber) April 25, 2019
It’s #NFLDraft Day! Stop by our booth @NFLDraft Experience to see how quality sleep is impacting @NFL players. #SmarterSleep pic.twitter.com/128aGvt7eJ
— Sleep Number (@sleepnumber) April 25, 2019
Nashville and #NFLDraft fans: stop by our booth at the @NFLDraft Experience this afternoon to watch @kelsmontagueart complete this mural! #SmarterSleep pic.twitter.com/5CRFWYzcEB
— Sleep Number (@sleepnumber) April 25, 2019
Verizon and Visa (as well as Omnicom’s The Marketing Arm).
Where were 25 of the top prospects the night before the #NFLDraft? Here's a look at CHOSEN
2019. #TMAchosen pic.twitter.com/q5mfmWoL8o
— The Marketing Arm (@TheMarketingArm) April 25, 2019
This year’s tactics ranged from broadcast presenting partnerships, telecast commercials, streaming spots, social content, concert sponsorship and NFL Draft Experience activations (eg he Play60 Zone presented by Dannon’s Danimals, a Pepsi NFL Helmet photo opportunity and the NFL Shop presented by Visa at Draft).
Plus, teams themselves are getting in the act. The Miami Dolphins, for example, who will host Super Bowl LIV in Hard Rock Stadium staged the ‘Miami Dolphins On the Clock Draft Party powered by South Florida Ford’ in the stadium on 25 April.
Below we showcase three of this year’s stand-out Draft activations.
1: Hyundai ‘Rolling With The Rookies’
3: Pizza Hut ‘Fans On The Clock’
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