For the past however many years—let’s say…15—the San Diego Chargers have been playing their home games in Qualcomm Stadium, formerly known as Jack Murphy Stadium, until Qualcomm came in and paid $18 million to smack their logo on top for 20 years.
What does Qualcomm do? I’m not entirely sure, to tell you the truth. I’m suspect it has something to do with communications or phone cords or Ethernet cables or, as their website indicates, designing and supplying chipsets and system software.
The corporate sponsors atop our favorite teams’ stadiums have become largely interchangeable over the years. Between 1997 and today, the Philadelphia Flyers and Sixers have played home games in the CoreStates Center, First Union Center, Wachovia Center and Wells Fargo Center, all part of the Comcast Complex and—oh, right—all the exact same building.
Starting this week, Qualcomm is making the revolving door of bank sponsors look like lifelong partners with their new gimmick. Qualcomm has a product called Snapdragon that is a more progressive arm of the telecommunications conglomerate. Snapdragon makes (or is, perhaps) the chips inside our phones and other mobile devices.
In other words, they’re doing the Lord’s work.
So why are Qualcomm and Snapdragon making big news today? well, because they’ve decided to change the name of their branded stadium from Qualcomm Stadium to Snapdragon Stadium…for just two weeks.
The name change, and all the fabrication of new signage and new branding, is taking place for a whopping two weeks. The Murph has become some weird kind of corporate sponsorship timeshare.
If they get the hit they’re looking for, don’t be surprised if Qualcomm starts lending the space out to their cheap aunt and uncle who really want to vacation in San Diego but don’t want to spend the money on a nice hotel.
“Can we stay in your stadium for a few days while we’re out there? You’ve always been such a nice boy.”
I can see it now: Art and Sylvia’s Weekend Getaway to San Diego because “Have you Seen the Weather and Traffic Where We Live These Days” Stadium.
It actually has a rather nice ring to it.
The reason for this Qualcomm gimmick came because the stadium is hosting three big events between now and the start of the new year. Qualcomm thought it was a prudent investment to get their product a little more national recognition and either didn’t want to change the stadium forever or didn’t want to have to go through all the permits and approval boards to do so (and may just keep it Snapdragon in the future if all parties agree after the fact).
Plus, if they changed the name of a stadium from one corporate logo to another, people like me wouldn’t care. Loaning out the space piques the average sportswriter’s interest and allows me to envision imaginary relatives sitting atop the stadium in an old fedora, a wife beater, shorts, dark socks and loafers, complaining about how salty the air smells.
Donald Miralle/Getty Images
So, with that, this weekend’s Sunday Night Football game will be played at Snapdragon Stadium, followed by the S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl between TCU and Louisianna Tech on December 21st and the Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl between Cal and Texas on December 28th.
Following that, if you believe the reports, all the signs will come down and the Chargers will be playing in Qualcomm Stadium once again.
Let’s not deny the fact that it’s a great marketing idea, if only for the fact that people are talking about it. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?
The first rule of marketing is to get people talking about your brand. In that regard, you win, Qualcomm.
If Al Michaels mentions Snapdragon Stadium to 30 million people this weekend, the company wins even more. if he takes the time to mention how and why it changed—something the company is surely pushing (full disclosure: as they did to me)—the publicity will far outweigh the cost of changing all the signs.
The City of San Diego and the Chargers had to approve the move, so it’s not like corporate sponsors are going to suddenly have free reign to change whatever they want on teams’ home arenas and stadiums. it does, however, set a precedent that other companies will surely want to follow.
Whitney Curtis/Getty Images
The St. Louis Cardinals play all their home games in Busch Stadium, but after seeing this Qualcomm deal work so effectively (to this point), will they suddenly start playing all nationally-televised games in Budweiser Stadium or make a playoff run at Bud Light Lime Field?
Heck, if they wanted to spend the money for new signage—or more efficiently reconfigured all corporate signage in the building into LED boards that could easily change the logos with a click of a mouse—who’s to say the stadium couldn’t change names based on whatever beer was on special that day of the week?
You know, the strangest thing…I’m writing about this with an odd sense of anti-corporate indignation, but after getting this far, I realize I don’t even care.
Do any of us really care where our teams play? does it come up that often in conversation? In Philly, we called the First Union Center the F.U. Center, so it was disappointing to fans when First Union got bought out by Wachovia.
The “Linc” has a good ring to it, either making the people at Lincoln Financial happy their name has a long-standing affiliation with the Eagles, or upset we shortened it to something the average fan can’t associate with their brand.
This gimmick in San Diego is really just that—a gimmick. this isn’t the deciding event to signify when corporate sponsorships finally jumped the shark. That happened decades ago.
This is just a two-week PR ploy that got people talking about a brand we’d otherwise totally and completely ignore this holiday season.
Good marketing, Qualcomm…whatever you sell.
immigration news - sex crimes of illegal immigrants
No comments:
Post a Comment