The Boston Celtics are in the midst of another great post-season run. After winning their 17th NBA Championship in 2007, they are back in the Eastern Conference Finals - playing their best basketball of the season. Led by future hall of famers Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, and emerging superstar Rajon Rondo, the green have seized the attention of Celtics nation and NBA fans everywhere.

But does their post-season success materially impact the Celtics brand and business? You bet it does.

The Celtics are among the most successful and storied brands in all of professional sports. Their 17 world championships over five decades is a testament to their organizational drive and continued commitment to their fans, community, and to themselves. The core essence of the Celtics brand is championships, driven through exceptional talent and a will to win. Competing, and winning, in the post-season both affirms and advances that brand image.

Winning in the regular season is entertaining, but it’s only in the post-season that legacies are made and brands become legends. Ask the Cleveland Cavaliers‚ fans about the post-season, and it’s crystal clear that for all of their regular season success and highlights, it means nothing without post-season validation.

Post-season success connects a team to its fans, its community, and its business partners. Winning both deepens connection with loyal fans as well as brings new, casual sports fans into the franchise. For the Celtics, it reassures fans that the 2010 Celtics are driven to be Champions, just like the 17 Championship teams before them.

The success of the 2009/2010 Celtics team has virtually assured the organization of high renewal rates from season ticket holders, another sold out season at the Garden, and strong support from their numerous corporate sponsors and partners.

And in a sports crazed town like Boston, it also serves as a point of pride that its the Celtics who are occupying the front page of the sports section, dominating blogs and providing positive content for talk radio. There is a real buzz about this team, and it’s good for business.

As the marketing and advertising agency of the Boston Celtics for the past six seasons, a&g is thrilled to be a small part of this great franchise. We know the important impact that post-season success has on Celtics fans, the city of Boston, and the business success of the organization.

We’re looking forward to seeing Banner 18 in the rafters - go Green!

Forget everything you know about IT investments. The cloud changes everything. Just-in-time computing services are here. The cloud (automatically in some cases) flips a switch when you need platforms, systems and databases. It creates and reduces bandwidth on demand. Problems with scale are a thing of the past. [You still need good coders, UX pros and analysts] Elegance in design and development create efficiencies and conserve your scarce resources, but unlimited bandwidth makes it far easier to get clunky proofs of concept (like twitter ZING!) into market. It’s cool. You can optimize in parallel.

But do optimize because you pay for cloud services based on the amount you use. That means you can play around with an idea or concept for cents, but also have the means to scale should you get picked up by the Wall Street Journal, appear on the Yahoo home page or heat up for any reason.



What lives in the cloud? Everything from cool activity stream data providers like SimpleGeo to websites and communities. If an application needs hardware, software and scale, the cloud is a great place for it to live.

The biggest benefit to the cloud for marketers is that it provides the infrastructure necessary to quickly build massive databases. Procurement and setup are easy. Sure, you still need developers and techs, but you have a lot less to worry about in terms of trying to understand the server and software specifications they put together for you.  If you exceed your bandwidth forecast, well, you know your costs. If you do not use what you estimated, you save. The model is simple. Security is tight. Backup is possible (and so is recovery).  This means that small and medium business can now have the same advantages as large mega-conglomerates. CRM, Social CRM, Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence do not need to be dirty words or pipe dreams. Nope. Now it’s OK to keep your head in the clouds.

Google, as a search tool, has existed since 1996. Google, as a verb, has existed since 2002. But the multinational public cloud computing and Internet search technologies corporation (as defined by Wikipedia) has yet to construct a brand.

Two of A&G’s team members (a thirtysomething digital guru and a fiftysomething accomplished creative director) had a friendly Facebook debate about the branding of Google and the significance of its new ad campaign, “Search Stories” which can be found on YouTube.

Google: Once Impersonal, Now with a Heart and Soul
By Gary Greenberg



For me there’s nothing more impersonal than sitting in front of a blank search bar with the multi-colored, now iconic Google logo and typing in whatever you happen to be looking for at any given time.

Nothing emotional about it.
Nothing terribly exciting about it.
You don’t ever really know if you’ll get the information you need.
You just, do it.

And like millions and millions of others I do “it” everyday.
Sometimes dozens of times a day.
Anytime of day.
Any day of the week.
It’s there for me whenever I need it.
I take it for granted now.
It’s just there.

Notice I say “it’s” just there for me.
Not who is there for me.
Google is a thing, not a person.
No face.
No real personality.
I suppose when they change their logo depending on the holiday maybe I get to see a bit of who Google is.
Google is not someone I can really converse with.
Yeah I can ask it questions, but does it really hear me?
I didn’t think so until very recently.

Until, the Superbowl ad they ran.

Perhaps for the first time, I started to see Google as having a heart, a soul.
Something that turned into a someone, that could have emotions.
Someone that feels love.
Someone that’s confused.
Someone that needs help and advice.
Someone that in fact doesn’t always have all the answers.

Someone that’s vulnerable.
Someone that’s human.

Google finally for me, put a face on their faceless search bar grew up and became a real person.
Someone I now want to share information with.
Someone I want to talk with.
Learn from.
Someone that I may want to be friends with.

Nicely done Google.
Wanna hang out?

Google Doesn’t Need A Brief. We were the brief.
by Graham Nelson



Google is a brand that doesn’t stand for anything. It stands for everything. It stands for innovation, engineering, and technology. It stands for the tools that have become a part of our lives, that define our lives.

That brings us to the Google’s newest ad campaign, “Search Stories”. As challenger engines like BING and ASK steal search share – BING’s share increased 5% in January – Google must defend it’s territory as THE search engine with better access and more productive search results and it did so by telling one of our stories, as oppose to one of its own.

So if we agree that Google is the ultimate human engine, how exactly did this phenomenon come to pass? Consider this: I recently asked members of the Twitter Group “The Next Generation” — 18-25 year olds that share their thoughts regarding life, work, brands, and technology — to define what the Google brand stands for. Here’s a sampling of the feedback that I received:

Google = engineered. (via @stuartfoster)
Google = ubiquitous. (via @alicehu)
Google = crackerjack. (via @jpotteiger)
Google = matrix. (via @tallbonez)
Google = lifesaving. (via @addy_dren)
Google = “go-to-guide” (via @TheKimSchneider)
Google = Inevitable (via @hachface)
Google = My HomePage (via @captain_pete)

I recognize the sample demo and size is not representative of this blog’s readership, but I’d be willing to bet the themes above would hold true at any size. And at the core of their responses is a raw emotion that “Google is something that I could not live without.”

Because at the end of the day, Google isn’t an emotional brand. Google enables its user’s emotions. Google isn’t a brand that people fall in love with. Google enables users to find the brands that they love. Google doesn’t have a heart. Google is an extension of its user’s heart.

Google as a brand? Irrelevant. Google as an extension of us? A beautiful story. And that’s what we’ve seen on the screen in “Search Stories”. A simple screen with search terms and results pages demonstrating the story of a relationship from start to finish.

Google didn’t need a brief. We were the brief.

Despite the economy, the 2010 music business’ international trade show, NAMM, just drew over 86,000 music professionals and artists and an astounding 1,800 musical instrument manufactures and retailers. Covering 800,000 square feet of space and spanning four days, it was an impressive tempest of activity, excitement and non-stop business.



From world-renowned brands like Fender, Roland and Zildjian to niche and newcomer companies such as Zon Guitars and Orlando’s Wind Instruments, the scope and scale of attendees was massive.

Although estimates vary, it is projected that 20% of the US population currently play an instrument of some type. That decreases further to approximately 10% of the population for guitar players and just 5% for drummers. Considering that there were over 500 guitar manufacturers and over 150 cymbal and drum companies at NAMM, the level of competition and clutter for relatively small markets was, and is, epic.

So in this fragmented and cluttered market, how can these countless brands stand out and connect with target consumers? Well, it’s certainly not through big media investment and ad campaigns. Unlike CPG, automotive, or other competitive markets that have the benefit of significant media budgets, the music industry has exceptionally limited media spending. Buying share simply isn’t an option.

What works best?  In many cases, falling back to the proven strategy of building buzz at the grass roots level, one customer at a time. The combination of strong retailer relations, meaningful artist endorsements, and a deep understanding of customer and prospect needs is certainly a place to start. Encouraging customers to act as a marketing channel is how brand messages can be efficiently proliferated. That means enabling two-way customer communications through social media, blogs, and content sharing is key, as is face-to-face brand exposure.

Marshall Amps use of Slash to Introduce a New Product

Allen & Gerritsen’s work with music industry clients has shown that it’s very difficult to buy share by outspending the competition, however if customers respect and value your products, validated with professional artist endorsements, it’s possible to engage passionate musicians at all skill levels to become a part of the extended brand family.

As illustrated by brands such as Gibson, Marshall Amps and Zildjian - the recipe of base level media investment, artist relations, social media and a grass roots connection to the target audience is certainly a great place to start.

Our client, Athletes for Hope recently posed a thought provoking question to professional athletes and their fans – Are athletes obligated to give back to the community?

It’s the question at the heart of Athletes for Hope, founded by former super agent Ivan Blumberg, and embraced by hundreds of professional athletes including Tony Hawk, Lance Armstrong, Annika Sorenstam, Andre Agassi, Mia Hamm and many others.

It’s an intriguing question, because there are so many ways to interpret it. Is community where an athlete lives? Where he or she plays? Where they were raised? Is community defined as a neighborhood, a town, a city, or even a state? And for that matter, what does ‘give back’ mean? What should they be ‘giving’, exactly?

Community can be defined as whatever is most appropriate to each individual athlete; there is no wrong answer. Similarly, giving back can take many forms, including mentorship, speaking to kids, community service, and in-kind or monetary contributions. For many athletes, it’s a combination of several of these elements. Regardless of the form, any of these ‘giving’ elements can have a positive impact on the lives of others.

At Allen & Gerritsen, our answer to this question is a definitive yes. Professional athletes (and even collegiate and high school athletes) are in a position where people look up to them, whether the athletes like it or not, or even whether they know it or not. They may or may not be ‘role models’, but in our society athletes are in a position where their actions can and do impact others. They have a platform that most citizens simply don’t have access to, as well as the opportunity to influence others.

We’re proud to be a part of this discussion as a partner with Athletes for Hope and their mission of community service. Weigh in on the discussion here - we’d love to hear your thoughts…

The Boston Celtics are reloaded and ready to re-capture another NBA Championship. Their new marketing campaign, created by Allen & Gerritsen, will launch tonight on Opening Night of the Celtics season.



The campaign, themed: “Reloaded” will begin with a TV spot airing on Comcast on October 27th and will extend through TV, radio, digital, print, out of home and in-game activities.

“‘Reloaded’, captures exactly how the Celtics players and coaches feel about this season,” said Shawn Sullivan, CMO of the Boston Celtics. “The campaign demonstrates the attitude and energy of the entire team as we drive for another championship.”

The first Reloaded TV spot will air early in the season, with new spots in development, showcasing the Celtics’ behind the scenes, preparing for games (estimated air date: December).

Creative Credits:
Chief Creative Officer: Gary Greenberg
Art director: Matt Kiley
Copywriter: Craig Falzone
Producer: Deirdra Abelli
Production Co.: Allen & Gerritsen
Editor: David Maloney
Photographer: Brian Babineau

ESPN is the undisputed worldwide leader in sports, media and an endless stream of cross platform promotion. But wait, there’s more. Earlier this year, ESPN introduced ESPNChicago.com, it’s first foray into regional media and interactive programming. This built on the solid ESPN ScoreCenter iphone app, which allows fans to customize ESPN scores and content based on their favorite teams and home market.

Not surprisingly, ESPNChicago.com was an almost immediate success, becoming Chicago’s #1 destination for online sports in less than 3 months, with nearly 1 million monthly viewers per month. Essentially, ESPN identified an opportunity to repurpose (and resell) its existing Chicago based sports video, coverage, commentary and content, all delivered through a single site, ESPNChicago.com.

After a successful rollout in Chicago, ESPN is expanding to other key sports DMAs, including Boston, ESPNBoston.com. Their not so modest goal – ‘Become THE online destination for Boston sports fans’. And based on what we’ve seen to date, we can’t disagree with their plans. The combination of the ESPN brand and Boston team content, supplemented by original editorial from ESPN talent via blogs and video commentary, all wrapped in an ESPN.com digital experience is quite impressive.

Equally important, from a content and creative standpoint ESPNBoston is a already much better digital experience for sports fans than other alternatives, such as weei.com, or bostonglobe.com. The site looks great, is exceptionally easy to use, and delivers a better sports ‘product’ than other regional sports sites.

Allen & Gerritsen has several regional clients who’ll be taking a long look at opportunities with ESPNBoston.com. It opens the door to both ESPN and Boston sports in a unique combination not otherwise available, especially for regional brands who may be blocked out of team deals, or lost in the clutter of other sports sites.

Can ESPNBoston.com reach its goal of over 1 million unique monthly visitors? Hard to bet against them. They’ve taken over the world of sports, now they want our cities as well? It seems like a smart plan to us.

On August 13th, rock radio giant, WBCN 104.1 FM Boston was shut down, ending its impressive 41 year run as the leading rock radio powerhouse in Boston, and in many ways, the FM radio industry.

And while it’s surprising and disappointing to see CBS Radio close the famous ‘Rock of Boston’, it’s even more amazing to see what will be taking its place - an FM sports talk radio station, - ‘The Sports Hub’.

Only a decade ago, am sports talk radio was an interesting niche, a popular, but hardly mainstream programming option. However, stations like Boston’s WEEI, am 850, have proven that sports talk can be a wildly popular and successful sports format. It certainly helps that a sports obsessed city like Boston has a radio outlet for endless discussion of all things Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins. WEEI has evolved into the highest rated sports talk station in the country, and regularly leads key ratings for all stations in the Boston market.

The Sporting News and even ESPN have made minor inroads in the Boston am sports talk market, but due to poor signal strength and limited financial backing, neither has made much of an impact or dent in WEEI’s armor (or audience).

But the Sports Hub has several key advantages already in place: the financial backing of CBS Radio, a powerful FM signal (98.5), and the broadcast rights to the Patriots and Bruins. WEEI’s brand of incessant inside-joke humor, ‘celebrity’ fan callers, and know-it-all host banter isn’t for everyone. However, until now, other options for Boston sports talk radio were limited by weak signals and unpolished content.

Can the Sports Hub truly make a run at WEEI’s audience and dominance? It seems like a long shot, but as shown by the history of Boston sports teams, stranger things have happened. They’ve certainly got our attention. Stay tuned.

Photo credit : Bostontweet.com

The Boston Bruins and a&g have wrapped up a season-long campaign featuring the rally cry “We Want it as Bad as You.” And it couldn’t be more perfect for the times. The Bruins, who haven’t enjoyed the late success of the Celtics (another proud a&g client), the Patriots or the Red Sox appear to finally be having their moment in the sun.



We want it as bad as you really captured the buzz in the city throughout the season and it has only amplified as they advance in the playoffs. According to the April 20 Sports Business Journal, Bruins attendance was up +10.4% this season, enjoying sell-outs at all of their 41 home games. TV ratings on NESN were up 70.1% (that’s not a typo). There was clearly pent up demand to see the Bruins succeed. After all, Boston was a hockey town before it was a Patriots or Red Sox town.



It’s been an interesting process and season. It’s rare in this business that you hit on something that perfectly captures what everyone is thinking. In a short span of three months we watched what was the promise and hope for a great season, snowball into the huge success story it is today. The goal now is keeping the momentum alive throughout the off-season and into next year. Individual game tickets are likely to continue to sell next year, but the real challenge will be converting the enormous amount of club seats and luxury suite inventory that are available. We don’t need to tell you that this is a difficult sell in this economy. And so goes the next chapter. We’ve got some interesting ideas up our sleeves in this area as well and look forward to sharing in future posts. In the meantime, “We want it bad” for our client…and hope you do too.

It’s widely assumed that golf is played and watched by old men who barely turn on a computer, let alone use digital and interactive media as part of their everyday life.  It’s also assumed that social media has been embraced largely by teens and who want to share pictures and videos and chat about music and dating.

Right?  Actually, wrong on both counts.

The golf industry is highly interactive - 88% are online several times per day and 61% of adult golfers are registered with at least one social networking sites, led by Facebook, LinkedIn, Classmates and MySpace.

And social media is not simply the domain of Millenials and Gen Y – Facebook, YouTube and MySpace are among the top 10 web sites in the US across all age groups.  Twitter has exploded from 1 million to 10 million users in just 12 months and should exceed 20 million by the end of the year.

I recently spoke at the National Golf Foundation Symposium in Chicago where many of the attendees were CEOs and CMOs of major golf brands and companies.  It was clear that most are still trying to identify how social media can best enhance their brand and marketing messages.  The explosive pace of growth and change within social media is also the primary concern causing many golf companies to take a cautious approach to where to begin in this expanding medium.

But a few things were clear to all attendees, golfers are already having social conversations about golf every day, but these are taking place largely in the real world, at the course, over dinner, in the clubhouse – not in the virtual world of social media.

The opportunity for golf brands is to create social media destinations where golfers can talk about their love of the game and these companies’ products and services.  With over 30 million golf fans actively engaged in social media already, isn’t it time for a smart golf brand to give them a home to for those conversations?

At a&g, we think it is, and we can’t wait to help build it.