ESPN has announced the appointment of leading creative advertising agency Droga5 as the sports media company's new partner. The New York City-based global advertising agency will focus on managing creative and strategic advertising communications that will promote the "SportsCenter" and its ESPN brand with an effort to appeal to today's diverse sports fans around the world.
"As sports has evolved, we have an opportunity now to speak to a wider audience than just necessarily men," ESPN's president of global sales and marketing Ed Erhardt said, according to Wall Street Journal.
"Today's sports fan is more diverse, clearly more female [and] more interested in a wide variety of sports."
Technology has evolved consumers' habits from traditional TV viewing to online consumption. ESPN, which is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation, aims to market their products and services by identifying target consumers who consume sports content through multiple forms of online media platforms.
Disney's cable network ESPN will launch streaming service in 2018
As Disney ended a Netflix deal recently, the cable network intends to establish its ESPN-branded sports streaming service in 2018. The company, which purchased a majority stake in BAMTech, a streaming, and marketing service, from the Major League Baseball for an additional $1.58 billion, will stream MLB and National Hockey League games online.
ESPN suffered subscriber loss and ad revenue loss decline. As a result, the company laid off a sizable number of on-air personalities and writers. Disney CEO Bob Iger said it is indispensable for ESPN to be more aggressive at acquiring sports content through new digital communication platforms to attract fans.
According to market research firm Kantar Media, ESPN made a significant $26.3 million investment in paid media to promote the brand in 2016.
TV broadcasters seek collaboration deals to make new streaming services available for consumers and enable viewers to watch shows with less (or without) ads. ESPN offers streaming services, including DirecTV Now, Hulu, Sling, Sony Vue and YouTube TV.
ESPN split 25-year partnership with Wieden+Kennedy
In January, ESPN decided to end a 25-year advertising association with Wieden+Kennedy, an independent advertising agency who receives a new partnership agreement with Fox Sports Media Group (21st Century Fox).
This year, the broadcasting company has released a new campaign ad, "Every Game Is Everything," focused on the beginning of college football season.
W+K has produced marketing and advertising campaigns for various brands, including Nike, Facebook, Coca-Cola, ESPN, Honda, Microsoft, Miller Brewing, Old Spice, Procter & Gamble, Chrysler and among others.
Droga5, which launched in 2006, has created campaign contents for well-known clients such as Google, Heineken, Hennessy, Mattress Firm, Under Armour, Pizza Hut, among others. The agency received Agency of the Year award 13 times in the past 11 years. In 2013, William Morris Endeavor acquired a sizable minority stake in Droga5 and set a partnership deal to perform services for each entity's clients.
