Barstool "loses" bowl bid, but notches another PR win
Barstool Sports almost became the latest brand to sponsor a college football bowl game. Take a second and read that one again.
The particulars, as first reported by Sports Business Journal, are further detailed in this post at Awful Announcing. Barstool advanced far down the road before the deal fell through. Instead, The LendingTree Bowl will join the annals of iconic brand-hosted, hot ticket bowl games, along with Mobile bowl sponsor alums like GMAC, GoDaddy.com and Dollar General.
For those of us who’ve been around awhile, the notion of Barstool grabbing title sponsorship of an NCAA bowl game would’ve been crazy even a few years ago. That’s not the story here for me, though. The most interesting part is looking at this from a brand marketing and PR perspective. The bottom line ? Barstool’s “failed” bid is another brilliant example of PR strategy in action. It feels super-calculated. See founder Dave Portnoy’s tweet from early this morning:
Via @stoolpresidente
This particular tweet has garnered more than 31K likes, 2.7K retweets and 503 comments since it posted a few hours ago. I didn’t do months of background research, but those stats are HIGH even compared to some of @stoolpresidente’s more highly-engaged posts (I scrolled for awhile before I found numbers anywhere close). Why is that significant? Because it’s classic Barstool. The type of us-versus-the-world, f-the-establishment (particularly ESPN) rhetoric and rallying cry that galvanizes their brand community and has helped make Barstool Sports a legitimate media player.
Regardless of your personal opinions of Barstool, it’s difficult to deny their nose for PR. Sure, they are often in the cross-hairs of controversy. But that’s precisely where they want to play. Watch the 60 Minutes episode. Check out the Real Sports segment. Or just view a few of the “documentaries” that appeared on the site and chronicled its rise. Dave and team understand the hype machine. They have a a great sense of what buttons to push. Buttons that will predictably generate the reactions they want. Ones that drive news and conversation, activate their fervent fans and, ultimately, strengthen the Barstool brand (in spite of the haters).
So, back to their bowl bid.
I certainly wasn’t in the halls of Barstool Sports whenever they first discussed making a play to sponsor a bowl game. But just how calculated that move was is fascinating to think about. My guess is that it was undertaken following a great amount of thought and foresight. They targeted Mobile for a reason, probably leaning in on the same rationale that convinced Dave and Barstool to go whole hog on NASCAR more recently.
Price likely also played a huge factor. Despite Barstool’s media “empire” being valued at nearly $100M, the cost of a multi-year big-time bowl deal is still significant. However, I was shocked as I read that sponsorship for the Mobile bowl in recent years could be had for less than a $500K commitment.
Those factors may very well have led Barstool to assume (correctly, as it turns out) that the mere sponsorship attempt was a win-win. Let’s say Barstool Sports gets its bowl game. Big buzz all around. The news and social conversation value, as controversy would drive at least a few more media cycles, would make the ROI a slam dunk. Never mind the opportunity to bring a new type of approach and experience to college bowl sponsorship that could attract and engage new fans (and drive more news).
The brilliant part? The deal fell through. And who still won? You got it. Barstool Sports. The story of how close they came is out and picking up steam. Social media, mainstream outlets and regional news are all intrigued, particularly as more details “leak” about the role ESPN (who owns the broadcast rights) played in killing it. No worries. Portnoy and Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini are already out on the press circuit. ESPN, the longtime Barstool adversary, is again the villain of the people. It’s all pretty much according to plan.
Perfectly played. Perfectly on brand. As their fans might exclaim, uhhhh, Viva La Stool?