Is Your Brand Recognizable? With Jason and Leah

During the word soccer games many brands could not display their logos. Join us as we talk about a few.

https://nerdbrandagency.com/podcast/

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/fifa-forced-levis-stadium-cover-014327812.html

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ABOUT THE PODCAST 
The NerdBrand Podcast is the intersection of nerd culture, branding, and marketing. Nerd culture is no longer a reserved sub-culture; it’s mainstream pop culture.

Listen as we discuss our views on branding and advertising, always with a touch of nerd — technology, movies, comics and novels, video games, and plenty more.

Find more at https://nerdbrandagency.com/podcast

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ABOUT NERDBRAND
NerdBrand is a data-driven branding, web design, and advertising agency based in Louisville, KY. From establishing your brand identity to guiding your day-to-day marketing strategies, we bring the "why" of your business to life.

Learn more at https://nerdbrandagency.com

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

And getting the pell mics. Welcome to this episode of the Nerdbrand Podcast, where uh we are going to be talking about all the behind the scenes stuff where we're talking about microphones and equipment because that's what Lita likes. And everyone else in the video case is just like, what do we need to make it work? We're going to talk today about the attention game sponsorships and costs for that. So we've had uh we've had an interesting run, as you can see on our screen. This is uh what's happened during the uh soccer games. So for us here then, there was uh a soccer tournament. And there were some things that happened during the soccer tournament because we can't say certain names. Um that were certain brands decided to sort of rebel, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yes, for sure. Props to them. I found it extremely entertaining the past two months um while the tournament was going on. So we've had a lot to talk about every time it gets brought up. There's always something new.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah, I think the Levi's um was the one that stood out the most because they even covered it on their stadium. And so when people go to watch the game, the stadium they've just completely took the logo, like covered it with a sheet, and then whoever's doing the marketing was brilliant because they took that across everything online, even their Instagram and and just everywhere. And I thought that was great, but they weren't the only ones. There was another one. Um, can't show that on the screen. I didn't think about that. Glad we don't have that on the screen because couldn't see, you know, can't see that one. Um, but yeah, my favorite is probably the some of these stadiums where you know, and you can't we'll probably try to figure out how to edit this in later so you can see it. Um, but yeah, all the stadiums just covered up the Levi's logo. They were smart enough though, if you'll notice in one of the photos, they cut it out to where it still resembled the icon.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yep. Tot um, I think it's a great example in the real world. Like this is one of the most, or like the biggest example that I could probably come up with in the past few years of how valuable brand recognition is. Um, and how a logo, even if like a logo should be recognizable even without the name on it.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah um yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

And they did a wonderful job making a campaign out of it along with other brands. Very interesting, very entertaining. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

I think a lot of it, a lot of people saw that and thought, that seems a little petty. I'm just gonna say it, you know, of them to say, like, oh no, we we're gonna we have all these sponsors, but we're not going to allow you to use your name, even though it's on the stadium of which we are playing our game in for our event.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Wild to me that they paid to have their name on the stadium. Yes. And the tournament did not include it. Um, and I know it's about the tournament, um, and they're not a sponsor of the tournament, but it didn't really make too much sense to me. It is a little bit too picky and petty.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah, especially with all the English people that came over here. I know we all seen the videos where everybody was like, this is a stadium. Like we flexed as a country without doing it. Stadiums, the stadiums and the way they're built to us. I mean, we all know they're like in like little cities inside, you know, which is great. Um, but I think a lot of a lot of people from Europe were like, This is your stadiums? So yeah, it probably would have been behooved them to like not make that move as an organization. Um, it is really hard to not say the words because by copyright reasons we cannot mention you know who um with the reference to uh the you know what for uh but we can't say soccer.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Famous tournament of soccer.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah. Um, but at the end of the day, it was like, yeah, it's like in the building. There's so much there inside. It's such an impression globally on the country and the brand and the you know, you know whose. And it's uh yeah, it was very, very ironic. Heinz, though, went a different route since they don't. I guess they have a stadium. I'm sure they do, but Heinz changed their um packets to look like penalty cards for soccer, which I thought was hilarious. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Very creative, very, very creative.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

So they too had to take their logo, but they took the logo as you can see in the in the photo. We'll try to maybe edit that in the video later. But in the photo, they took out the logo. So both the mustard and the ketchup don't have the Heinz logo on it, but it does have the shape. So to your point of recognition, you just know what that is. Um, so yeah, it kind of comes down to what what is the uh what is the rec can people recognize your branding without seeing the logo?

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Even if it's not the logo, um, especially for the Heinz ketchup, um, it's the shape of the bottle. It's a very iconic shape for them. You associate it with the brand. Um, it's just the elements that come together and it just it's so widely recognized that I wouldn't need I know I wouldn't need the name on it to recognize the brand or the company.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah, they did uh another ad. Again, we'll try to edit this in later, but they took I guess that's what a black electrical tape and they covered up even the copy, they made a a mark to look like tape to cover up the Heinz name. And so all you see to your point, you see the bottle and you go, like, you know that's a Heinz bottle, yeah, but then all you all you can read is tomato ketchup.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

So petty. That is the most petty thing I've ever seen. I wonder if they reached out about getting sponsored, and Heinz said no.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

I I really, you know, I never really did the research to see, but it's a good question because I I pulled up their brand guides for the event of which we cannot name. And um they they were very strict about like who could and could not put their branding next to their names. Now that's a normal thing in a brand guide. You know, you you do have people that want to co-brand or you want to have people that in the in the vein of sponsorship where that appears. I almost feel like with regards to these brands, these are big brands, these are not small shop mom and pop shops. I mean, we're talking about Levi's, it's it's Heinz Ketchup. Um, it just seems a little like I don't know, uh short-sighted on the event people side. Um I I don't think Heinz or Levi's would have been like, pay us $50,000 to use the name in your ads. It's on the building, and you know, they probably spent more money covering the sign than they would have spent on a sponsorship.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Yeah, I agree. Um, and it's such a big opportunity for these companies to have their name out there. Um, so I'm wondering if it was even an option because I know if I was running a Fortune 500 and this giant world tournament came to me and was do you want your name, I would 1000% say yes, unless it was unreasonable. Um, but the creativity has almost been more entertaining and it's grabbed even more attention um because you know they had all these restrictions and they were able to market regardless and make whole campaigns out of it and go viral on Twitter.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yeah, well that that falls under the the point of creativity under constraints. Like does it force better ideas? Uh and I think this is the evidence, you're right. This does, it forces it. Gillette, uh, they have a stadium. There was a game there, and they covered their stadium, but it this one's actually my favorite because it looks like shaving cream covering.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

I didn't even think about that. It does.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

They've even got like little splotches of shaving cream that's not a part of the sign, it's kind of on the sides and just kind of just sitting there. Um, may take a while for this image to load up for everybody to see in the studio, but it's just yeah, see these little splotches here, a little splotch there, a little thing there. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

I believe it was their page that posted it, but instead of the stadium and then Gillette over it, they put just a picture of a razor edited over it, um, kind of mimicking that it got covered up, but like you know it's a razor company.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, and you know the people that are there locally that go to that stadium to watch their favorite team play are probably looking at this going like, what in the world's going on?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Do you think when they put it into their maps to get to the stadium, they're still searching up, you know, Levi's Stadium?

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Oh, yeah, it has to be.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

I everybody still knows that it's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

That's what's so confusing about I mean, I understand the need for standards of branding. Obviously, as a brand agency, we would want to do the same. We actually had um some of that happen where we had to say no to somebody that wanted to use one of our customers as a sponsor and they just didn't use the right logo at all. Um, but it just seems like what are you gonna do? Reach out to Google and have Google Maps change the name? You know, that place over there that everybody goes to see football games.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

And then everyone's gonna type it in and not be able to find it. Every local going.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah. So it was a very weird time during that uh event, and there was a lot of good publicity uh for the country. There's a lot of fun, funny stuff to watch online. A lot of brands got a lot of exposure that nobody thought would, like Buckies.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Or ranch.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah, or ranch dressing. Apparently, we have been on a top of a gold mine. We're thinking like what, Bitcoin or oil, you know, whatever. Nope, ranch dressing, y'all. We need to start selling that in buckets to Europeans.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

I've been on that train. I've been on that train. When I went to Europe, they tried to make ranch for me, and it was it's not right.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

They probably look at you like, what the heck are you asking us to make? Yeah. Where did you go at in Europe?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Um, so we went to a couple different countries, but it was on the cruise ship. Yeah. So I guess they were trying to accommodate towards American tourists, but you could tell it was an American or non-American making the ranch. I go, No, this isn't right. So I get why it's going viral. I respect it. Yeah. I do the same.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Next time, if you do that again, leave the feedback saying, like, look, ass, just go buy some at the stores. Yeah. You know, just get a few, get a few gallons at Costco, which was another brand, by the way, I think that got got some news. Um, people were shocked. And I didn't know this either, that you could buy an entire meal to eat at Costco. Like I knew about the samples, but I didn't know you can get a hot dog as long as you're arm.

unknown 11:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

So that one was new to me and to a lot of people. So, you know, I think a lot of these people exposed a lot of brands that we kind of take for granted, a lot of things we take for granted, and uh introduced us into some new things too. Like I I was at Buh, I went to a Bucky's one time in Texas. I do like the barbecue, and the wall of jerky is like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

It's insane.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yeah, but I did not know about a lot of the other stuff. Um, I was on a road trip with friends years ago visiting them down there, so I wouldn't wanna I didn't want to be that one friend that was lingering, and you're like, where the heck are you? And you're like, You're in the back now on a wing, or you know, it would have been me. So I was trying to be nice and kind of get through there, get my stuff so I didn't keep them delayed from the where we were going. But uh, but yeah, Bucky's and then Wildley Waffle House.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

I was gonna bring that one up. Waffle House and Walmart were a big one. The free refills, free refills were a big thing. Um, it's made me appreciate the things that I have.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna show a tear. So ambush marketing. Um, this is uh this is something that they um I I think a lot of folks wanted to do. Um I don't know why I have that tab open. Uh we'll get to this in a minute. Um, but it it's basically when a brand is trying to connect itself to an event. So an event like what we're talking about, for example. I didn't obviously that a lot of people took it seriously about not being allowed to connect to it. And, you know, like no, you can only you can't. You can mention, kind of talk about it like we are. Like kind of what we're doing right now would be along those lines, though I don't expect our videos to go viral or anything. But at the end of the day, it's sort of like that. You're just kind of inserting yourself into the conversation. Did you see a lot of that with brands?

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Um, yes and no. I've seen a lot of people be more hesitant about bringing up this tournament just because they have been so particular about all of the branding with the stadiums. Um, I haven't seen anything that wasn't officially licensed by the tournament talking about it or trying to insert themselves into it directly. Um it was like it had to be very vague. Like it seemed like everybody was approaching it like it was like a hot stove, like they were worried to poke the bear too much.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah, I saw um the soccer ball. I don't know if it's a part of the branding or not, but it had a specific soccer ball made for the tournament. I saw a guy trying to get a display out of a Dick's sporting goods store. Um he eventually got one, but a lot of people were like, no man, you can't have the display. Like it would cover and fill the this table. It's big, right? And it's just kind of like sitting on top of one of the aisles in the store.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

So why did he want that?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Collections, just to collect it, basically. But uh, I was kind of like, well, in a way, isn't that associating dicks with that a bit? So um I thought that was interesting. Nobody seemed to come down on that. Uh I I just uh I just kind of think that that the ambush marketing, if you're out there, you gotta be very careful. Um the you could you could get a cease to desist. And uh that would be like your most lightest slap on the wrist, is that um because yeah, lawyers can be neat mean. So um, but yeah, so things to think about when sponsoring. We've done um we've had customers that want to do events, um, and I think we st we still do, and it costs money to do the event. Um you were at a chamber. Do you see changes and and about businesses wanting to participate in sponsorships more now, or has that died down?

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Um I'd say so from my experience in the chamber, I worked mostly with just one chamber. Um and the membership, we did have quite a few members um in the hundreds, but for the most part the brands that were deciding to show up, the businesses that were deciding to show up as sponsors, um, it was consistently the same four or five. I didn't really ever see smaller businesses making that step to be a sponsor. Um but they were big names in the whole. I mean, they're very notable, and I think it was beneficial for their approach because it was a lot of referral based. So the more people that knew about them, you know, people that did favors for them. Um but I don't know, that's a good question. Well, you know they've gotten more expensive too. So maybe that has kind of deterred people from doing it.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

That's a good point to bring up that that I was kind of driving at is cost. I think a lot of businesses look at how much it costs to sponsor that check that they write to the event organizers. Um there's costs that are more that are behind that. Um so the first thing though, I think that should be top of mind is where at the event you'll be placed at.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Uh I know you missed it because you were out of town, but um in studio, Danielle is here uh and is here today, and we were at an event and literally like at the front entrance, at least the temporary front entrance for a customer of an event. And it was a very busy booth because of it. Because you couldn't miss it, and they had an activity. So there's there's also a difference between another thing is it's like, okay, where am I going to be placed at the event? And if you're a business and you're going to do this, are you you really should think about spot like not just the whole sponsorship cost, but what do you want people to do when they get to your booth? Try to figure out an interactive thing. Basically, making your booth a feature is what we would call it. Because on the next episode, I'm going to be with Danielle and we're going to be talking about San Diego Comic Con and some of the crazy stuff there. Um, because a lot of things are coming with brands in that regard. And when you go to one of those conventions, that everything's a feature, not necessarily a booth. You're interacting. Uh, and that's sort of what our our customer had there was that. So I would recommend that. Um will they use your branding? Is one thing. I I see a lot of uh places that they want that that person to be there. You have to use their logo, but you have to use it in a in a good way. So I have seen that getting better. Um I don't know if, and maybe you have an opinion here, is if it's those that are handling the event are more sensitive now to how that logo is presented, or if it's the business owners that have now more awareness that I need my logo to be my logo and my colors and have it not be altered in any way for display.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Um, that's a really good point. To backtrack for one second, I do completely agree with you on the placement if you were to sponsor, because I would say there are some events you would not know that they're a sponsor of the event unless you look at the flyer or like unless you're looking at the promotional of the event. There's nothing at the actual event that says that they're a sponsor. Um, so you know, business owners have to be mindful of if it's worth their investment and if their company or business is even getting in front of the people that they're looking to get in in front of. Um, but with the logo, I think I'd say businesses, if they aren't already aware, um I'd say the people we work with are very good about being aware of, you know, not altering the logo, um if they are having it presented at an event, and I really appreciate that. Um but do be mindful of it because that's your branding, and your branding comes first even if you're working with another event or another business. Um it still has to align with your overall brand guide and your goals as a business. Um, so if you're changing the colors, it depends because Google, like they'll do the fun stuff every once in a while. Like they had the soccer ball going across for the Ozar, but that's also a known thing for them that they participate in, you know, making their logo. I I would still consider that part of their brand.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

So yeah, uh, there has to be acceptable standards of if we want to make a change to our logo due to a season event or whatever, that should be added to the standards.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

It should still be in the right direction. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I have as I I don't think it's hard to think about all the costs because there's one big cost about these sponsorships and these events that I don't think gets brought up, and that's your employees that are there. So whether you pay them by the hour, you pay them a salary, it doesn't really matter. Kind of still that's a cost for that event for you. So the sponsorship could be a couple thousand dollars, you could have a couple thousand maybe in your booth and materials, but then you have to then look at, oh, I've got a person there that's gonna be there for four to six hours.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Whether it's someone running the booth or you hire media or like say we're going to an event for you, um, that definitely is an additional cost.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Exactly. Yeah, we were there with cameras. We had two people. We had uh still photography for custom shots that we could use later for promotion, um, which a lot of our a lot of these folks they kind of use other businesses in the chamber, so it actually gets exposure to those people uh when we do that. I don't, you know, we're basically the media team for that person. I don't I didn't see a whole lot of others you would there there wasn't any. It was like just me and Danielle and Dixon that were there, and um, I didn't see a whole lot of other people. I saw maybe one or got one guy running around with the camera, and he may have been with the chamber.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Do you think the event had a media team there? Like the business hosting the event.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I haven't checked their social or anything. I would imagine they had to have somebody because on the front side they did get um exposure through some of the television channels, the broadcast television. Um but uh during the event I didn't see anybody setting up from the stations. Uh, usually those are pretty easy to spot. You know, you're gonna spot some guy with a tripod or unipod and with a 4K camera.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah, I didn't see any of that. So, but uh if you're thinking about all the costs, if you think about doing an event, I highly recommend take it out, pencil it out, plan it, get six months ahead of planning your event, planning your sponsorship. Um, does the event make sense even for you? I think that's the last thing we can touch on is that if it doesn't make sense, then don't do it. Um, don't do it for the sake of just doing it. So um, so yeah, I don't see an accounting firm doing an outdoor event, but then I don't know. Uh I know that we've talked about golf events, things like that. So there's a lot out there. So, but if you're interested in having a media team, go to nerdbrandagency.com. And if you enjoy this episode of the Nerdbrand Podcast, go to NerdbrandAgency.com slash podcast, like, subscribe, find this episode now on YouTube because we got videos. And interject the whoop whoop. So uh check us out, turn come back next week. Uh, and uh yeah, we're gonna listen to what uh you know, we're gonna talk with Danielle, see what she thinks about Comic Con and some of the brands, and then a recent development of a very popular brand. So remember, keep your brand strong.