“It was 20 years ago today …” No, not the start of the Beatle’s Sgt. Pepper, but something just as fun for me and my team at ROI strategic brand marketing (www.roiadvertising.com).
At the time, we were the direct agency for the Washington Commanders’ predecessor (name not to be mentioned), helping them promote sales of suites and Club seats. Through a lucky break, the National Football League was developing the strategy for the launch of a new promotion – Extra Points®-- the first-ever, Visa® rewards card for earning points to exchange for NFL- and individual team-related merchandise and, with enough points accumulated, NFL experiences, including Super Bowl trips. (I’ll take two please!)
As luck would have it, our client at the team, former VP of Marketing Jason Baum, and close friend and marketing consultant, Ann Marshall Schweitzer, heard that the NFL’s Erica Klair was looking for a branding agency to set the tone and imagery for all related Extra Points®-related traditional and digital marketing materials.
ROI’s assignment was to create a comprehensive marketing toolkit for use by the League and all 32 teams, -- a “promotion in a box” providing each NFL team and the NFL with easily customizable, digital, and traditional (radio scripts, print ads, Visa™ card applications, and more) media for promoting Extra Points® card sign-ups in their home markets.
We responded (in six weeks, soup to nuts) with the complete, award-winning, Extra Points® Toolkit (you can see one – a true museum piece -- at www.roiadvertising.com, featuring NFL-branded, yet-customizable (by team), materials needed to excite, engage, and sell prospects on the program and the card. All media creative was provided with simple instructions and digital art files for customizing and producing all the media (remember, each team has its own signature color palette and graphics), enabling quick, hassle-free production of advertising materials.
Per Erica Klair, our NFL client, the Extra Points® card program launch was a “huge success.” In the program’s first six months, more than 100,000 new, Extra Points® cardholders were acquired by the individual teams and the NFL. Today, 10 years later, the Extra Points® program is alive, well, and still rewarding tens of thousands of fans with value, quality merchandise, and awesome experiences that get them what they truly want … to be as close to the game and their teams as possible. If you're an avid, pro football fan like I am, don't pass ... Visit https://lnkd.in/ePCKn-hB and get in the Extra Points(R) game!
THE NFL EXTRA POINTS CREDIT CARD: www.nflextrapoints.com