ESPN Develops Toshiba's New Campaign

Cabler Acts as Ad Shop to Create Spots That Show How Sports Fans Can Use Marketer's TVs, Laptops

by Brian Steinberg
Published: November 02, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Weaving advertising into a flagship ESPN property such as "SportsCenter" is old hat; what isn't so common is a media outlet helping to design advertising that ties products and services being sold to the very specific ways in which its viewers might use them.

To help sell Toshiba TV sets and laptops, ESPN worked with the Japanese company to create advertising that illustrates specifically how ESPN fans could use those products. The ESPN-centric campaign represents "one of our efforts to reach sports fans while they are watching their favorite team in the living room or if they are on a laptop trying to check fantasy scores," said Eddie Temistokle, manager-corporate communications, Toshiba America. "We really want to engage the whole fan base."

But to do so, a greater number of marketers have discovered, it helps to have the media outlet that brings viewers to the screen -- whether it be TV, computer or mobile -- helping to craft the message. Indeed, while Toshiba in the past has relied more on ads that are somewhat serious in tone, working with ESPN resulted in commercials that take a humorous approach, mostly because the audience seeing the pitches reacts well to that sort of execution.

"This is a very different approach for Toshiba," said Maria Repole, associate VP-corporate communications at Toshiba America Consumer Products, who noted that many ads from technology marketers focus on "techs and specs." Instead, she added, "by adding humor, we really felt the ads could also resonate with ESPN enthusiasts."