What’s in a name? Big money and great PR
Frank Clair Stadium’s rebranding the latest example of the premium companies place on name recognition
By Vito Pilieci, OTTAWA CITIZEN January 7, 2014 7:01 PM
OTTAWA — Despite some public frustration, an agreement to change the name of the iconic Frank Clair Stadium to TD Place is a sign of the times that Ottawa residents will soon accept, says a local branding expert.
Gordon McMillan, president and chief creative officer of Ottawa marketing agency McMillan, said major companies are salivating to associate their brands with stadiums, parks, theatres and other venues because of the positive feelings associated with them.
“Anytime there is an event in the venue, it’s advertising. You’re associating your brand with a feel-good event in the community,” said McMillan, a day after the Citizen reported on a deal that will see the stadium at Landsdowne Park stripped of the Frank Clair name and rebranded as TD Place.
McMillan said the “seven-figure deal” — the exact amount of the sponsorship has not been released — is a drop in the bucket for a large organization such as TD.
“TD could spend that on marketing quickly. Building awareness of the brand is super important. It’s easy to understand why companies want to brand these stadiums.”
TD Bank has already bought the naming rights to the home of the Boston Bruins, which is now known as the TD Garden. Meanwhile, it’s believed that Bell Canada is paying as much as $10 million each year for the right to name the Montreal Canadiens’ home arena. In 2009 American bank Citigroup signed a 20-year deal worth $400 million US for the naming rights to Citi Field, which is home to the New York Mets.
Here in Ottawa, the Ottawa Senators recently overturned a long-term deal with sponsor Scotiabank to sign a deal with Canadian Tire over the naming rights for the team’s arena.
The latest announcement, though, had some Ottawa residents seeing red.
In letters sent to the Citizen on Tuesday, many wrote that renaming the stadium, which was named after former Ottawa Rough Riders coach Clair — the 3rd most successful coach in Canadian Football League history with 147 wins — was in bad taste.
“A historically important part of Ottawa’s past has been swept away by the current, hastily sketched out scheme,” said Centretown resident Bill Brown.
His thoughts were supported by Glebe resident Ken Rubin.
“A name change sold to the highest bidder and just so fitting for the retrograde Lansdowne Park full disservice shopping centre,” he said.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that the naming rights to the facilities in Lansdowne Park have been sold to the highest bidder. The old Civic Centre was the prize in a corporate raffle, tickets cost $1,000 each. Urbandale won that draw in 2009 and the arena was named the Urbandale Centre for a year. In subsequent years, the arena was named the Rona Centre and the J. Benson Cartage Centre.
According to experts, it’s not hard to see why the big brands are eager to get their names on the sides of public attractions such as arenas, concert halls and stadiums. Aside from the advertising it hands them every time there is an event held at the venue, the traffic flowing by the building every day is exposed to the sponsor’s brand.
Barry Nabatian, director of market research for Ottawa’s Shore-Tanner & Associates said the redesigned Lansdowne Park is set to become one of the most high traffic areas in the city. He estimates that as many as four million people will pass by the location annually and be exposed to the TD logo and branding.
McMillan has worked with several large brands with global reach, including Siemens, Hitachi, Intuit and Computer Associates.
Protests from some residents are something McMillan said TD and Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) likely expected going into the deal.
The name Frank Clair elicits an emotional response to the city’s CFL glory days.
However, once the new sports teams start playing at TD Place, any anger from the public will likely simmer, he predicted.
“Frank Clair was super important to this city and the CFL,” said McMillan. “In the short term, there will be negativity. But, long term . . . the more people associate with what’s in the present, the more they will forget about the past.”
OSEG said a monument will be erected outside the stadium to commemorate Frank Clair and his accomplishments at the venue. The planning for the monument will include input from Clair’s daughter, Robin.
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http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/What+name+money+great/9360757/story.html
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