In his capacity as a Columnist for California Sports Lawyer®, Founder and Managing Attorney Jeremy Evans has written a column about the use of advertising and film in sports to grow knowledge, popularity, and interest in a game.
You can read the full column below.
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People may complain about advertising in general, but it is effective especially in the digital age to force people to think about a service or product. If an advertisement can get a potential buyer to think about a product, the buyer is more likely to become a customer. With the internet and social media, a product advertisement becomes even more valuable because it can easily be searched and purchased.
The Strauss (a German outdoor apparel and products company) advertisement on Major League Baseball (MLB) batting helmets during the 2024 postseason is a prime example of successful advertising. Most Americans were unaware of the German brand prior to the prominent brand of the company being placed on both sides of players batting helmets. It forced Americans to search the company name to see what is was.
Middle America and rural parts of the country are essential customers for outdoor products for what Strauss offers. Moreover, baseball fans tend to be blue collar and skew older, again key demographics for outdoor wear. When people think of Los Angeles and New York, you might be thinking big city, but for anyone who has lived or visited these areas there is a lot of open land and rural fans too right outside the city limits. You might be surprised to learn that California holds as much claim if not more to the American West, cowboy lifestyle, boots, and outdoor fun and living as anywhere else. California has the most National Parks in the nation with nine. Vaquero’s, the native word for cowboy, found its origins in California through the Spanish, dating back to the 1770’s, and then spread to Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Texas. Upstate New York (outside the five boroughs) looks more like forest land with trees, lakes, and rivers than a metropolis.
Films and television series have similarly often brought light to sports, stories, players, coaches, and front office personnel. The influx of sports docuseries programming has been a phenomenon that has brought new life to Formula 1 in the United States through Drive to Survive on Netflix. Film and television series are essentially another form of advertising, but in the long form format and content. Film and television series have also often used product placement in filming to highlight a product or service, like Chevy or Ford trucks, Oreo cookies, and Windex.
Cricket is looking for a home for its docuseries after a successful tournament Stateside. Cricket is the second most popular sport globally behind soccer, but there is a growing fanbase in the United States and it is something that with more exposure, personalization, and understanding of the game, it could see a rise in popularity. A popular documentary on a well-known streamer could do the trick to introduce the game. If it sticks, cricket could well be on its way to growing its influence in America. Most Americans are unfamiliar with the game, the most popular players, teams, and how to play it.
MLB famously opened the 2014 season in Australia at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground, built in 1886, that pitted the Los Angeles Dodgers versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. The two games played there gave a brief, but important highlight to the importance of cricket globally and eventually led to more T20 tournaments and the establishment of Major League Cricket in the United States. Similar to the National Football League (NFL) playing overseas to establish a fanbase, cricket could do the same by playing its most popular international teams in America’s most popular stadiums and possibly in cities with an existing cricket fanbase or interest. Cricket could take a page out of Utah Hockey Team (NHL) strategy in its inaugural season where it is likely to have immediate impact because it only has two of the big five in professional sports franchises with the Utah Jazz (NBA) and Real Salt Lake (MLS). It comes down to advertising and film and sports and utilizing them as tools to grow the game in question.
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About Jeremy M. Evans:
Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.
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