As I type this, an end of an era is occurring. The final game in Yankee Stadium, a.k.a. The House that Ruth Built, is on ESPN and since I’m at 30,000 feet, I can’t tune in! Instead, I’m relegated to typing some randomly tangential thoughts about Yankee Stadium, and stadium advertising in general.
Having grown up just a Hudson river-crossing away from New York, and lucky enough to have an uncle who worked for a concession supplier to the Yankees and thus had a nice field level box, I attended many Yankee games as a kid and have some pretty fond memories as a result. I can list scores of baseball memories – from Reggie Jackson’s many playoff home runs to David Cone’s perfect game – but my favorite memories are attending games with my father, who passed away when I was a kid but always enjoyed taking my brothers and me to games, teaching us how to keep score, showing us how to give a loud Bronx cheer, or an even louder Bronx boo to the reviled Red Sox.
Turning this to business for a bit (I told you this would be random) - as I sat in The Stadium for the last time this year, I thought of all the advertisements that inundated me as a kid and that have subconsciously but certainly influenced me into my adulthood. The big billboard advertisers have stayed incredibly consistent over the years – e.g. Met Life and Hess Gasoline were all there in the 80’s and are still there today. I also remember the sponsors of promotions like Yankee Bat Day and Yankee Cooler day – my 1978 Thurman Munson bat was most definitely sponsored by Burger King.
Today at Yankee stadium, and in most other stadiums for that matter, there are many different advertising “mediums” available beyond traditional billboards and giveaways. You can place your logo on printed tickets, run a print ad in the game program or on a scorecard, sponsor an ATM location, advertise on the bathroom stall, put your logo on cup holder, or advertise on a pole wrap or trash can. In newer stadiums you can even sponsor a kids’ play area or (an adult) smoking area, which will presumably attract very different types of advertisers (i.e. I hope Marlboro or Budweiser isn’t allowed to sponsor the kids’ play area). The list could go on forever and is probably only limited by one’s creativity.
But, in today’s burgeoning media world, how can an advertiser decide if any form of stadium advertising makes sense relative to the many other alternatives? While advertising in a stadium certainly has its merits and upside for certain brands, at the risk of sounding polemicist, I’d argue many companies advertise in stadiums only to stroke some corporate leader’s ego and really aren’t justified through quantitative or objective means. Further, stadium advertising isn’t often associated with measurability or particularly well-defined metrics, and in today’s world of measurable advertising, deciding to advertise in a stadium comes with its risks relative to more measurable mediums.
In order to make a good decision, ultimately, an advertiser is going to have to compare alternatives across multiple mediums on an apples-to-apples basis – that is, utilize a like metric for all mediums being considered, like CPM (cost per thousand). Because it would be near-impossible to pull in data across all mediums in an efficient manner or in a similar format, at the risk of tooting our own horn, I really think Balihoo is the only tool that could allow an advertiser to make smart decisions in such a fashion. For example, with Balihoo Agency Edition, an advertiser could select many vehicles across many mediums (i.e. build a consideration set – fyi, there are about 500 stadiums listed in the Balihoo database), ask consistent questions of all media owners through the Balihoo RFP tool, and then analyze those responses in a single place utilizing Balihoo worksheets. Only then – comparing stadium advertising cost for your demographic versus benefits relative to other mediums – can a decision be made and justified. And of course, with Balihoo, all data can be saved for future reference or for sharing with clients or internal constituents, or even for later use in analyzing post-campaign performance.
Failing to analyze advertising alternatives in such a fashion will likely yield an advertiser similar results to the 2008 Yankees – a huge expense with little to show for it. (Note, the Yankees had the highest annual payroll in all of baseball – over $200Million – and will place either 3rd or 4th in their division this year. Ugggh!)
In closing – back to a personal view – I really hope the next Yankee Stadium stays just that, Yankee Stadium, and not something like “XYZ Widget Stadium at Yankee Park”. There are so many opportunities to build a brand within and around a stadium, and in the plethora of media associated with it, that I hope naming rights are reserved for the team and not the advertiser. Bank of America recently announced they were going to forge an advertising partnership with Yankee Stadium and I hope it’s through all those other mediums, and not part of the stadium name. Most importantly, regardless of who advertises at the new stadium, I hope the Yankees get back to their winning ways.
Our booth, as always, was packed with schwag, smiles and product information. 
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and well thought out. Balihoo makes it easy to create, manage and execute our advertising campaigns across the complicated media landscape of print, online, radio and television.” Wengerd went on to say, ”It’s a win-win for us: we are able to identify the best media mix - at the best price - to target potential customers.”
