In a First, Football’s Hall of Fame Opens Doors to Marketers

Van Heusen, JC Penney Sponsor Fan Initiative in Larger Marketing Play to Reach Men

Major pro sports halls of fame tend to be largely pristine, marketer-free shrines to their respective sports, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame is breaking with that tradition in a new multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal with Van Heusen and JC Penney.

The fashion brand and retailer are partnering with the hall on a microsite housed within JC Penney’s website that intends to give fans a voice in the debate over which players ought to be enshrined in the Canton, Ohio, museum. A voice, of course, is not the same as a vote — but the fan’s choice will be promoted extensively via the NFL Network, the league’s premium-cable-TV outlet, and could influence the selection process. The microsite for the partnership incorporates social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards 2009

P&G, Cine Las Americas, Comcast and Their Hispanic Agencies Lapiz, Latinworks and Grupo Gallegos Are the Biggest Winners, With Deep but Entertaining Insights Into Latino Culture

The best Hispanic advertising this year cleverly mined cultural insights into Latinos in the U.S. without resorting to stereotypes. In one of the judges’ favorite campaigns entered in Advertising Age’s Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards, Comcast’s CableLatino and Grupo Gallegos entertainingly demonstrated that if you don’t watch TV in your own language, you lose too much of the story. To drive that point home, English-language newscasts were devised with crucial information, like the photograph of an escaped killer or product shots of poisoned food brands, hidden by subtitles.