This Is SportsCenter..
ESPN Ads Creatively Blend Anchors, Athletes And Humor
By Scott Robertson

Scott Van Pelt can remember the days when, as an anchor on ESPN's flagship SportsCenter program, the most often asked questions he faced were things like, "How's Maryland going to do in its bowl game?" or "Who do you think will win the Super Bowl?"

Now, he more often gets, "Hey, what time is dinner time?"

Or, "How did you fit in the trunk of that car?"

The more recent questions are the results of Van Pelt's comical appearances in ESPN's advertising campaign, "This is SportsCenter," a campaign designed to give viewers a somewhat offbeat look behind the scenes at ESPN's popular sports news show.

"I think the reactions people have had have been kind of bizarre," Van Pelt said. "It's a lot of fun to be involved in these things. They've become kind of a cult thing. The ads are so well done."

Van Pelt is one of numerous SportsCenter anchors, athletes, cheerleaders and mascots to appear in the popular ad campaign. The campaign got under way in 1995.

"We wanted to take sports fans inside our world," said Lee Ann Daley, vice president of marketing with ESPN. "We created a campaign that was kind of a mock documentary—a mockumentary, if you will, talking about what SportsCenter is and taking viewers behind the scenes.

"We (ESPN) consider ourselves sports fans. But in this campaign, we wanted to let people know that while we take sports seriously, we don't take ourselves seriously."

The ads have been immensely popular with sports fans and non-sports fans alike. The use of humor has created a sense of anticipation that has many viewers wondering what the next ad will be.

Popular Spots

Among the more popular are those featuring Van Pelt with Philadelphia Flyers' hockey star Simon Gagne. The two are having lunch and Gagne tells Van Pelt how important it was for Canada to win the Olympic hockey gold medal in 2002. Tiring of Gagne's nationalism, Van Pelt reminds him that his sandwich has a certain American flavor.

"What kind of cheese is that on your sandwich?" Van Pelt asks.

"American cheese," Gagne responds.

"That's right, American cheese," Van Pelt says with pride in an effort to end the discussion.

One of Van Pelt's favorites features anchor Kenny Mayne, dressed as a pimp, negotiating with longtime ESPN anchor Bob Ley.

"Kenny is wearing this fur coat and sunglasses," Van Pelt said. "Every time I see it, it just kills me. Kenny is priceless. He's got that outfit on and he looks like Kid Rock."

One of Daley's favorites features anchor Rich Eisen approaching the men's room, where he encounters the asexual mascot of Western Kentucky University. The mascot is confused about whether to use the men's room or the ladies room.

"Why don't you just go use the woods out back?" Eisen asks.

"I like that one because it was not supposed to happen that way," Daley said. "We were standing around waiting for something - I think we were killing time waiting for an athlete to show up and we just said, 'OK, let's do this.' We just kind of improvised it, but I think it is the kind of thing that shows what we are all about. The consumer who sees these ads realizes we're just in here having fun - and sports is about fun."

Maintaining Credibility

There is, however, a fine line between having fun with the sports they cover and going so far that the anchors are not taken seriously by the viewers.

"I think maintaining the credibility of the anchors is a very important part of the campaign," said Ty Montague, creative director with the New York office of Weiden & Kennedy, the advertising agency that put the campaign together. "While ESPN wants to stress that it does not take itself seriously, it is very important to maintain journalistic integrity. That's something that we are very careful about."

Van Pelt says maintaining journalistic integrity is critical to the anchors, but goes back to the theme of ESPN taking sports seriously, but not taking itself seriously.

"Let's face it, we're not talking about arms inspectors in Iraq here," Van Pelt said. "We're talking about football or the BCS, the kinds of things that are topical, but really are not worth worrying about that seriously. I think anyone who does these things is doing himself a disservice if he is not self-deprecating.

"We work hard every day to make sure that what we are saying is correct. I think most viewers give us the leeway to have fun—to make fun of ourselves. As long as they know you are poking fun, I think that makes it interesting. They also know that from 6 to 7 every day, we're going to do a show that appeals to the serious side of the sports fan."

Marketing 101

Cally Vennare, a strategic marketing consultant based in Pittsburgh, said the marketing campaign is successful because the network knows its audience.

"What they have done is strike an emotional core," Vennare said. "They have reached the audience and are continuing to relay their message. Frequency is very important. They get the message out with repetition."

Very few ad campaigns have been able to show the staying power of the ESPN campaign, which is approaching its eighth year. The campaign stays fresh because its title is simple and familiar and because, with the introduction of world-renowned athletes, ESPN can draw from current sporting events to keep changing things.

"The Hallmark ads are familiar to many people because they strike an emotional cord," Vennare said. "A lot of the Super Bowl commercials you see every year are funny - they help viewers recall the company and the message. When you think of the FedEx ads you remember FedEx because of the line that it 'absolutely positively has to be there overnight.'

"I don't recall any campaign lasting seven years without changing to a certain degree. But if a company finds a tag line that works, they will continue to use it. Clearly, if they have been using this campaign for seven years, something must be working."

Natural Evolution

ESPN's Daley believes it works because of the natural changes that have come, and because viewers have come to identify with the anchors, athletes and mascots involved.

"We're delighted at how people have responded to the campaign," she said. "It's kind of a cockeyed view of our world, but we love that people enjoy it so much. It continues to be relevant because it has the ingredient of topicality. It taps into what is happening now in sports."

Todd Waterbury, another creative director with Wieden & Kennedy, said the campaign continues to evolve.

"I think it evolves, in my mind, because of the role sports plays in all of our lives," Waterbury said. "It positions SportsCenter as the world of the sports fan. It's where people go for a take on the sports world."

Montague believes the campaign has served to take people - usually anchors or athletes - who are viewed with a somewhat mythic eye and made them more human.

"I think it takes sports and sports icons and makes them seem more friendly, if you know what I mean," Montague said. "I think the campaign shows that ESPN likes to have fun, and that it would be a pretty fun place to work."

Athlete Participation

So far, the impact of the campaign on Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh athletes has been minimal. Jaromir Jagr appeared in some print ads related to the campaign when he played with the Penguins. Team owner and star center Mario Lemieux also has appeared in the print campaign.

There are no plans on the table to involve any Pittsburgh athletes at this point, although the city and some of its stars, like Jerome Bettis of the Steelers, are popular with the network and its anchors. Many of the athletes who have appeared—like Curt Schilling of the Arizona Diamondbacks—have done so after their teams won or they, as individuals, were involved in noteworthy events.

"We've gotten some amazing performances from some of the athletes that have become involved," Daley said. "It's now become like a badge of honor to appear in one. It wasn't always that way.

"When we first started, we couldn't get anyone to do it. No one was interested. But it's really caught on, and now they are willing to do just about anything. We've seen the anchors and the athletes do some unexpected things that have really worked out well."

Building On Success

When ESPN landed the television rights to the National Basketball Association broadcasts earlier this year, a campaign was launched touting ESPN as "The New Home of the NBA." Early ads showed NBA stars sharing a home with ESPN's Dan Patrick and NBA Commissioner David Stern.

It is related to the "This is SportsCenter" campaign in that anchors and athletes are used to cast the relationship between the network and the league in an alternately serious, but humorous nature.

"It was a way to create a message that we were together," Daley said. "We had not had the NBA for 20 years. We wanted to create the impression that we were in this new relationship, and if you were an NBA fan, you needed to be here."

The NBA has been pleased with the response.

"ESPN's spots are not only creative and humorous, but also very effective in letting viewers know that they can now catch NBA games on ESPN," said Gregg Winik, executive vice president of NBA Entertainment. "There has been a lot of positive feedback about the spots since they began airing."

The NBA campaign, like "This is SportsCenter," has worked beyond ESPN's hopes.

"It's been really gratifying to see how well everything has been accepted," Daley said. "We're just looking forward to keeping it fresh and keeping it going. Sometimes we wonder what will happen next, but that's a good feeling. This has been a lot of fun for all of us."