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Recently we received a comment to DeepThoughts which asked, “where will the majority of that $100 million (of Tiger’s endorsement money) be reallocated?” The short answer is: Nowhere. Prior to the sex scandal that broke wide open after a late night run in with a fire hydrant, Tiger resided in rarified air in the world of endorsements. There certainly won’t be a rush for companies such as AT&T and Accenture to redistribute their money to other high-priced endorsement talent. Economic realities had already reset the endorsement and sponsorship market to some degree. Additionally, the instances of a celebrity endorser serving as a strategic marketing platform (as Tiger was with Accenture) will be severely limited. And that, from a marketing perspective, is a good thing.

Some years ago, I wrote an op/ed piece entitled “Don’t let the stars outshine the product.” (http://sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/38205). The premise was that marketers should not build the foundation of a marketing program around the one element with the greatest likelihood to fail, that being an individual human. “Do not build your foundation out of the element that is least likely to maintain strength over time,” is one of the principle lines. Interestingly, it is followed by, “With the possible exception of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, individual athletes do not lend themselves to serving as sturdy platforms on which to build long-term alliances.”

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The first half of February is not just a great time for sports fans; it really is “sports marketing season,” the time of year when marketers’ sports sponsorships and endorsements are their most visible. The “season,” of course, includes the Super Bowl, a week of NASCAR from Daytona, and the NBA All-Star Game. And, every four years, an Olympic Winter Games are thrown in.

The “season,” of course, kicks off with the Super Bowl where advertising shares center stage with the actual sport like nowhere else. NASCAR then takes the spotlight with a flurry of activity leading to the Daytona 500. Generally falling on the same day as the Daytona 500, as it did this year, is the NBA All-Star Game, a star-studded affair befitting the sport that is largely defined by its individual stars.

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Never is the term “Monday Morning Quarterbacking” more appropriate than the day after the Super Bowl, when pundits and laypeople alike weigh in on the spate of ads that were foisted on us during the previous day’s Super Bowl, or as is often referred to in non-sanctioned promotions, THE BIG GAME.

This year, humor again seemed to be the primary approach used by advertisers who forked over nearly $3 million for a chance to speak to over 100 million people in 30 seconds. Within that genre, a popular theme was men standing up to their overbearing significant others (sometimes only in their minds) to seize the day and take what is theirs. It seemed to take the place of the popular anthropomorphic genre so popular over the last few years. Of course, this year still had its share of animals and objects doing human things. Old habits, after all, die hard – especially in advertising.

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