{"id":1265,"date":"2024-04-10T15:04:52","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T19:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2024-04-10T15:05:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T19:05:45","slug":"branding-takes-to-the-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=1265","title":{"rendered":"BRANDING TAKES TO THE FIELDS!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KEN BANKS\u2019BLOG APRIL 2024<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"KEN BANKS BLOG APRIL 2024\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-Se1R1pJ4ig?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>PRESS PLAY&gt;&gt;TO VIEW THIS MONTH\u2019S WELCOME VIDEO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>BRANDING HITS THE FIELDS!<\/p>\n<p>Well, March Madness has come and gone and national champions were as predicted.\u00a0 The big news, however, centered around Caitlin Clark who not only led her Iowa Hawkeyes to the Final Four, but also brought more spectators and fans than ever before for not only women\u2019s basketball but for all college sports.\u00a0 The increase in viewership was significantly improved and not just for the championship game.\u00a0 Iowa games were featured more on national media than any other female sports events.\u00a0 It\u2019s likely this will translate to the pro\u2019s as Clark moves to the WNBA.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Athletics is no longer primarily a male activity.\u00a0 Female sports at all school levels have increased significantly in participation and fan support over the past several years.\u00a0 No sport has benefited from this trend than soccer.\u00a0 The growth at all levels of education has been phenomenal and only surpassed by the boom in amateur club soccer at all levels from age 3-18 years and beyond.\u00a0 While little league baseball has diminished, the soccer fields are more active than any other sports fields in the US.\u00a0 Research shows that there are over 810,000 soccer players at the high school level and over 10000 amateur teams nationally.\u00a0 And the numbers will significantly increase in the next few years.\u00a0 Evidence for this is the growth of public soccer fields throughout the major metro areas.\u00a0 While little league fields have diminished in popularity, they normally only have 2 or 3 fields per center.\u00a0 Soccer complexes now boast up to 20 fields and the tournaments bring participants from all over the state and nation to compete. Soccer is now the number one amateur participant sport in America.\u00a0 It has been that in Mexico (where it there are over 60 million soccer fans.\u00a0 Europe and Asia have long been soccer (football there) meccas.\u00a0 The participants are younger, being 54% younger than any other sport.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Olympics and World Cup games certainly has fueled this increase in popularity and with it comes increased branding opportunities for the sport.\u00a0 Nike has long been a major supporter and Reebok, Adidas and Under Armor continued to expand.\u00a0 Other brands like Capelli, Emirates Air, and many local marketers are featured not only on jerseys and shorts but also at the growing number of venues.\u00a0 I can remember my first little league team requires us 8 year olds to sell a uniform sponsorship to pay for my \u201cYanks\u201d team outfit.\u00a0 Fortunately, my uncle owned a local hardware store and I got my uniform.\u00a0 Now the national sponsors work with the clubs and schools to get new uniforms every year with logos on every one of them.\u00a0 It\u2019s an opportunity that starts with the toddlers and continues through the teens and beyond.\u00a0 Let\u2019s not forget the sports drinks, water jugs and mugs, as well as cleats and socks.\u00a0 There\u2019s gold in them thar fields and smart marketers will take advantage of this remarkable trend<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>GREAT CREATIVE.\u00a0 I am always on the lookout for marketing campaigns with great creative and here\u2019s one that caught my eye.\u00a0 In Belgium, here\u2019s an effective way to get more people out of their\u00a0 cars and on the bus systems.\u00a0 Well done spots that build a great brand. CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Belgian Bus Company Commercial 1\" width=\"1080\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W41UtzpSv5Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Ken<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KEN BANKS\u2019BLOG APRIL 2024 PRESS PLAY&gt;&gt;TO VIEW THIS MONTH\u2019S WELCOME VIDEO BRANDING HITS THE FIELDS! Well, March Madness has come and gone and national champions were as predicted.\u00a0 The big news, however, centered around Caitlin Clark who not only led her Iowa Hawkeyes to the Final Four, but also brought more spectators and fans than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1267,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions\/1267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}