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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Gahm who wrote (41514)	12/19/1998 6:31:00 AM
From: Kathleen capps	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 53903

December 18, 1998 My question: Where is this One Million Dollar price tag coming from? Micron Runs For Marketing Touchdown Filed at 7:34 p.m. EST By Mo Krochmal for TechWeb, CMPnet RESOURCES From CMPnet Micron Electronics has created a marketing plan to make a strong impression on computer buyers -- and college-football fans. The Idaho-based PC company is paying more than $1 million to tack its name onto a college-football bowl game, now called the Micron PC Bowl, which will take place in Miami on Dec. 29. For Micron, this is a chance to make a bigger impression than just putting its name on the stadium's 50-yard-line and on players' jerseys. "We are a national company. We needed to take our show down to Miami where we could reach a broader audience," said Denise Smith, a Micron spokeswoman. Micron is not the first and won't be the last technology company to enter into a sports sponsorship. It's a growing trend. "These companies are fighting the most basic battle in the marketplace, to get front-of-mind awareness," said Dean Bonham, a Denver-based sports marketing consultant. "Sports sponsors get extraordinary exposure." Micron, aggressively trying to grow its share of direct PC sales, is using the Micron PC Bowl as a launch for a television ad blitz that extends its "New Rules, New Tools" branding campaign. While Micron hasn't released details of the ads, humor plays a part. Company execs, tongue-in-cheek, have suggested that instead of a traditional pre-game coin toss, team representatives could play scissors-rock-and-paper to decide who will takes possession of the pigskin. That may be an example of new rules, but don't count on seeing that on Dec. 29, when North Carolina State and Miami kick off in a prime-time broadcast on TBS. Micron expects that more than 2 million people will be watching, and calculates that those impressions are worth more than $9 million. Micron isn't the only technology company to see college-bowl games as a prime opportunity to extend a brand. Tempe, Ariz.-based Insight.com, a direct marketer of computers, hardware, and software, has lent its name to a bowl game in Tucson on Dec. 26. Wireless-equipment maker Nokia has been a long-time sponsor of the Sugar Bowl. And, AT&T scored a marketing touchdown this season when it agreed to sponsor the Rose Bowl. Experts say the audience for college football is a good fit. "[Sponsors] are tying into a certain lifestyle, an educated group of consumers, future grads, and fellow graduates," said Kermit Pemberton, a California-based sports marketer and author of Sports Marketing: The Money Side of Sports. "This group most likely will use computers." But IBM's foray into bowl sponsorship didn't create the results the company was looking for. IBM, a generous sponsor of sporting events such as the Olympics, professional tennis, and golf, used to sponsor the Fiesta OS/2 Bowl, but exited the deal in 1995. Organizers of the Fiesta Bowl were able to convince a chip maker of a different sort to underwrite their game. This year, college football's national championship will be decided in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl when Tennessee meets Florida State. Although the Micron PC Bowl won't decide a champion, it will be big in Boise. The company is renting a 5,000-seat auditorium for an employee tailgate party.