NEW YORK -- The National Football League, which produced what is arguably the most successful artificial American holiday, Super Bowl Sunday, has ambitions to create a similar festival of commercialism at the start of its season.
With the advice and consent of marketing partners such as Coors, the New York Stock Exchange, Pepsi-Cola, Reebok International and Sony, the league is seeking to transform its season-opening game into a marketing mountain from what had been a foothill at best.
"We want to create real buzz, so (people) feel if they're not engaged with the NFL Week 1, they're really missing something -- a big, iconic event," said John Collins, senior vice president for marketing and sales at the National Football League in New York.
"We're well on our way to our ultimate goal," he added, "to start the season as big as we end the season."
NFL Kickoff Live 2003 will be held in Washington on Sept. 4, a Thursday. After a $35 million promotional campaign -- on television and radio, online and outdoors, and in magazines and newspapers -- those consumers deaf to the buzz by a week from Sept. 4 most likely will be the same folks unaware that Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are, as Walter Winchell used to say, phfft.
Spears is serving as the face of the campaign, as she cavorts through commercials and advertisements in media outlets ranging from ABC-TV to Rolling Stone magazine.
Spears, who appears in the print ads and posters wearing at least parts of a football uniform, will be a featured performer in an hourlong concert that is to precede the season-starting game, the New York Jets versus the Washington Redskins. Among those scheduled to join her in the concert, to be broadcast by ABC at 7 p.m. Central time, are Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige and Aretha Franklin.
The event is patterned after the NFL kickoff festivities last September in Manhattan. This time, the ballyhoo is bigger, primarily because of the extent of the promotional campaign, much larger than last year's, as well as the participation of major marketers, far more extensive than last time.
For example, Pepsi-Cola North America paid $2.5 million for its new Pepsi Vanilla soft drink to become the "presenting sponsor" of the kickoff festivities.
"We think for the NFL to try to create a Super Bowl-type event at the beginning of the football season, to bookend the season, is credible," said Dave Burwick, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Pepsi-Cola North America. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be participating in it."
Coors Brewing Co. plans to run during the concert broadcast, and repeat during the game, a new commercial for its Coors Light beer.
"For us, the NFL is pretty much a year-round sponsorship, not just in the football season," said Lee Buxton, vice president for marketing at Coors. "So to have a major event like this, supported the way the NFL is supporting it, and have it around one of the key summer holidays, Labor Day, were the deciding factors for us."
Even so, whether shrewd marketers and entertainers can influence a nation to squeeze another advertising-generated day onto its calendar is unclear.
"I'm not usually a fan of over-the-top marketing," said Jonah Disend, president at Redscout in New York, a strategic consultant.
Nonetheless, a kickoff game "with hype built around it" could "make the football season feel more special," Disend said, "like the Olympics, which has clear opening and closing ceremonies."
Football may be able to generate Super Bowl-like anticipation among fans for the start of its season, he added, because "of all sports, it's the most larger-than-life, with the size and scope that gives it that rock-star quality."
Asked whether it would be better for the league and sponsors to try jump-starting anticipation among fans or continue letting interest build gradually from the summer into the fall to avoid overexposure, Buxton replied: "I have retailers all over the country calling us on August 1 to say: `We are ready for football. We want football-themed material in the stores.' They know their consumers."
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With the advice and consent of marketing partners such as Coors, the New York Stock Exchange, Pepsi-Cola, Reebok International and Sony, the league is seeking to transform its season-opening game into a marketing mountain from what had been a foothill at best.
"We want to create real buzz, so (people) feel if they're not engaged with the NFL Week 1, they're really missing something -- a big, iconic event," said John Collins, senior vice president for marketing and sales at the National Football League in New York.
"We're well on our way to our ultimate goal," he added, "to start the season as big as we end the season."
NFL Kickoff Live 2003 will be held in Washington on Sept. 4, a Thursday. After a $35 million promotional campaign -- on television and radio, online and outdoors, and in magazines and newspapers -- those consumers deaf to the buzz by a week from Sept. 4 most likely will be the same folks unaware that Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are, as Walter Winchell used to say, phfft.
Spears is serving as the face of the campaign, as she cavorts through commercials and advertisements in media outlets ranging from ABC-TV to Rolling Stone magazine.
Spears, who appears in the print ads and posters wearing at least parts of a football uniform, will be a featured performer in an hourlong concert that is to precede the season-starting game, the New York Jets versus the Washington Redskins. Among those scheduled to join her in the concert, to be broadcast by ABC at 7 p.m. Central time, are Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige and Aretha Franklin.
The event is patterned after the NFL kickoff festivities last September in Manhattan. This time, the ballyhoo is bigger, primarily because of the extent of the promotional campaign, much larger than last year's, as well as the participation of major marketers, far more extensive than last time.
For example, Pepsi-Cola North America paid $2.5 million for its new Pepsi Vanilla soft drink to become the "presenting sponsor" of the kickoff festivities.
"We think for the NFL to try to create a Super Bowl-type event at the beginning of the football season, to bookend the season, is credible," said Dave Burwick, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Pepsi-Cola North America. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be participating in it."
Coors Brewing Co. plans to run during the concert broadcast, and repeat during the game, a new commercial for its Coors Light beer.
"For us, the NFL is pretty much a year-round sponsorship, not just in the football season," said Lee Buxton, vice president for marketing at Coors. "So to have a major event like this, supported the way the NFL is supporting it, and have it around one of the key summer holidays, Labor Day, were the deciding factors for us."
Even so, whether shrewd marketers and entertainers can influence a nation to squeeze another advertising-generated day onto its calendar is unclear.
"I'm not usually a fan of over-the-top marketing," said Jonah Disend, president at Redscout in New York, a strategic consultant.
Nonetheless, a kickoff game "with hype built around it" could "make the football season feel more special," Disend said, "like the Olympics, which has clear opening and closing ceremonies."
Football may be able to generate Super Bowl-like anticipation among fans for the start of its season, he added, because "of all sports, it's the most larger-than-life, with the size and scope that gives it that rock-star quality."
Asked whether it would be better for the league and sponsors to try jump-starting anticipation among fans or continue letting interest build gradually from the summer into the fall to avoid overexposure, Buxton replied: "I have retailers all over the country calling us on August 1 to say: `We are ready for football. We want football-themed material in the stores.' They know their consumers."
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