Is this a ballpark or a brokerage office?
While fans at Busch Stadium in St. Louis watch the high arc of slugger Mark McGwire's latest home run, they also can see a Bank of America sign out of the corners of their eyes. Or if the hit takes too long to come down, fans can check on how the financial markets fared that day: Locally based brokerage firm A.G. Edwards has a sign in left field that displays the close of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.New York Mets officials, meanwhile, must think the stands are packed with "day traders" and stock-market fanatics who can't get Wall Street off their minds even during the seventh-inning stretch. Why else would TD Waterhouse Group and Reuters Group co-sponsor not one, but two, stock-quotation tickers in the outfield at Shea Stadium?
Beer and food companies have long promoted their brands by plastering signs on the walls of sports stadiums and arenas. Now banks, brokerage firms and insurance agencies are getting into the game as the explosion in online investing has expanded the audience for Wall Street's pitch.
The Mets, who play less than an hour from Wall Street, depending on traffic, recognize that.
"Everyone is investing these days. . . . You have grandmothers on the Internet buying stock," reasons Mark Bingham, the Mets' vice president for marketing and broadcasting. Hence, stock tickers pop up in the ballpark.
During a recent game at Shea, the stock tickers seemed to be a hit with some fans.
"I was watching it to see how my stock was doing," said 34-year-old Jimmy Gray, dressed down by Wall Street standards in a summer tank top. The stock, Cablevision Systems Corp. (which is also his employer), was up for the day.
Fan/investor Don Miller, 60, said he is rarely influenced by advertising, but "if I decide I need somebody and I see Waterhouse, maybe I would pick it over someone else."
Sports viewers at home can be forgiven for feeling as though they have suddenly switched to CNBC by mistake. During a recent national broadcast on the Fox network, viewers were treated to the "ETrade Pregame Show," and later an ETrade ad was displayed behind the batter in both Dodger Stadium and, when the action switched to an update on Mr. McGwire, Busch Stadium, too.
But not all fans care to be bothered with financial information while they are relaxing at the park.
Carlos Mayorga, 29, who recently attended a Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards -- home to a prominent sign for brokerage firm Legg Mason in the outfield -- says he wouldn't invest his money in a mutual fund just because they sponsor his favorite team. The ads may have a bigger impact on "someone who is first entering the area of mutual-fund investing or just moved to the area," he says.
Legg Mason hopes that not all fans feel the same as Mr. Mayorga. The Baltimore brokerage firm has had its sign in centerfield since the famed ballpark opened in 1992. The sign has "helped us immensely with name identification," says Raymond "Chip" Mason, chairman of Legg Mason.
Chalk up some of the appeal of ballpark ads to the often-slow pace of the game itself. In other words, it can get a little boring when the home-run hitters cool off. And at such times, even a diehard fan's eyes need something new to look at -- like ads. Explains Lesa Ukman, editor of IEG Sponsorship Report, a Chicago marketing newsletter: "They are sitting there looking at your sign for three hours. It's a captive audience."
The brokerage firm Edward Jones -- like A.G. Edwards, based in St. Louis -- shows the stock prices of regional companies on their sign in right field at Busch Stadium.
This is all apart from the Wall Street firms that have taken the quest for brand identification a step further --spending millions to buy "naming rights" for new and existing stadiums themselves. Bank One is paying roughly $140 million over 30 years to sponsor the Arizona Diamondbacks and to have the field where the team plays called Bank One Ballpark. Raymond James & Associates is forking over roughly $27 million over 13 years to have the new stadium where football's Tampa Bay Buccaneers play called Raymond James Stadium.
Do the ballpark signs have a target audience beyond Joe Fan in his seat? Sure. Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser, a veteran on the sports-advertising circuit, says the goal is to increase a brand's visibility not only with the people at the venue, but also with fans sitting at home watching on television.
"We like to look at the signs that reach the people in the stadium and show up on television not only during the game but on ESPN's 'SportsCenter' and CNN's 'Sports Tonight,' " says Tony Ponturo, vice president for sports marketing for AnheuserBusch.
But sponsoring a team or a sport doesn't guarantee that fans will pledge their allegiance to the company.
Jeff Heisser, a 31-year-old Cincinnati Bengals football fan, says it doesn't matter to him that the Nasdaq Stock Market and its partner the American Stock Exchange sponsor pro-football telecasts; he still won't buy a stock simply because of what market it trades on. That said, he adds, "I am glad they are paying for us to watch football on TV."