I hate negative posts but I have to say something… I went to 2 stores in the city yesterday, Fortinos and Shoppers. What do I see… huge NFL display cases and life size cut outs of NFL players… W*F is goin on around here???
I really took notice a couple weeks before Grey Cup. Next to nothing was advertised.
Just Sickening!!!
Frito Lay was a major sponsor of the CFL many years ago.
Way back in 2004 they had the Frito's Fandemonium contest running and I believe that particular contest ran for years.
I had the good fortune of winning it in '04. Basically you had to prove that you were the team's ultimate fan by dressing up in a crazy outfit and correctly answering trivia questions. The prize package included an all expenses paid trip to the Grey Cup - in Ottawa that year - and many other private and public functions to attend. It was a real blast and Frito's must have paid some pretty decent money as the events were fairly upscale and well stocked 8) .
It is really disappointing to see that they have shifted their focus to the NFL and abandoned the Canadian league. This is another good reason to read Bob's article about being proud of our league and not having to live with a ridiculous inferiority complex vis-a-vis the NFL. We have an incredible product and sponsors would do well to invest in it. I have specifically told Wendys that I am very grateful of their league support. Maybe Frito Lay Canada would respond positively from some feedback from us regarding their shift in marketing? I often wonder if these companies realize what they are doing or if they simply rely on some "marketing experts" to decide where they will spend their dollars.
Perhaps we as proud CFL fans should be making a solid effort to provide feedback to these companies and let them know directly what the impact of their decisions are - good or bad.
mailing address and phone number here:
https://cu.pepsico.com/caen/fritolayfacebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/LaysCanadaI've got no problem with Pepsico/Frito Lay trying to sell some chips in the month of January with marketing tying into the Super Bowl (I assume) - especially since millions of Canadians do host or go to Super Bowl parties and they want us to include their products in our plans. I think just like every year someone in my family - or one of my friends or I host Grey Cup parties - we take turns hosting Super Bowl parties too. And usually both are attended by lots of people who like football and often some people who are more interested in the half time show. lol. (In fact the Super Bowl halftime show usually sees a spike in ratings higher than the actual game).
Were I somebody making advertising decisions for Pepsico/Frito Lay and I started getting flooded with complaints and threats to boycott our products from CFL fans over this promotion WHEN WE WERE A SPONSOR AND PARTNER OF THE CFL'S GREY CUP FESTIVITIES IN REGINA - AS THEY WERE - and in other years been the title sponsor of the Grey Cup halftime show - as Diet Pepsi were - and are currently major corporate partners of CFL teams (the Stamps for example) - I think I would seriously be looking at dropping our support of the CFL since apparently their fans aren't satisfied with support and sponsorship - they want to try to dictate where else we spend our marketing dollars.
The point is: they make displays for one and not the other.
I'd have no problem with the nfl displays if they made cfl displays in November as well.
Like I said Drummer God. You're trying to dictate how they spend their sponsorship dollars - even though they do support the CFL..
I used to own a travel agency in Toronto. We often sponsored different events or community sports leagues in the area of the agency. Sometimes we sponsored bigger events too. For example we supported the Cabbagetown Softball League - a 20 team softball league right in the neighbourhood. They received thousands of dollars from my company over the years. We also sometimes supported national or international events that sometimes weren't even in Toronto - for example we sometimes partnered with conferences or tournaments in Montreal. One time we even partnered with a team in New York because they were booking some travel with us to an event in Australia.
Yes sometimes our involvement with those Montreal or New York organizations were different (and sometimes could be considered higher profile) than what our ongoing sponsorship looked like for the Cabbagetown softball league. Rest assured if I started hearing that Cabbagetwon softball league members were complaining about my sponsorship of the out of town team and events creating a negative perception of my company - the Cabbagetown League would have never received another penny from me ever again.
TravelPatB…You are totally missing the point my friend. When you have mass adverising, in that capacity, all around the city… its clear to people that they are pushing. The question why? The ones being affected by this are the kids. And I know if I was seeing all that flash and pazazz a kid, I’d want to be a part of it too. Especially when chips, dip and pop are all over it.
So your telling us that we are ungratful… you have got to be kidding me! All people ask is for a little recognition in the same capacity… So my kid can say “hey Dad, who are those guys” or whatever. All I see is a VHS over Beta uniform.
Sorry, but those brainwash tactics don’t work on me. Moms and Dads just have to work that much harder with the Impressionable ones.
Cheers
Because they are marketing to young people!! NFL appeals to the younger crowd, the CFL is an older baby boomer crowd that don’t eat a lot of chips anymore. Did you notice that the NFL on TV in Canada is advertising condoms, junk food etc while the CFL adverts have cialis and viagara ads? 
It’s all about demographics
Hey Moonbase001. I think you are missing my point though. If we start trashing those that support us - just because we don't like the form of marketing they decide to go with for an event in the middle of our off season - and they perceive our reaction is anti- their products and hurting them - good luck being the ad agency for the CFL who is trying to renew and up their support and sponsorship of our league the next year.
Much better to take the positive approach of - hey we really appreciate the sponsorship and support you have consistently provided our league over many seasons now. It has helped our league and we thank you for that. That support has taken different forms over the years - sometimes sponsoring league wide promotions other times supporting individual teams through your various products like Gatorade etc. We noticed in January you ran a great promotion for the NFL and were hoping you might want to do that for us next November - what do you think?
If we start dissing our partners - who would ever want to partner with us?
If it makes sense for Pepsico to partner with us - and often their partnership has been affiliated with our 'big game' the Grey Cup - it makes PERFECT SENSE from a marketing point of view that they do something surrounding the NFL's big game considering that something like 90% of the market their targeting watch both.
To take it to a local level with the Ti-Cats - it would be like a bunch of Cats fans stomping into Buffalo Wild Wings in the area - who are promoting NFL play-off games and demanding they not do so. Sponsorship just simply doesn't work that way. Never has - never will and nor should it.
The sponsors have their choices of thousands of different ways to promote their products and they look for the best way to do it for their product. if the CFL and its fans start making demands others don't upon them - good luck building productive long term partnerships!
Hey Moonbase,
as a former employee of Frito Lay I can assure you that there was just as much if not more swag provided to sales reps for displays and chip promos during Grey Cup as SuperBowl.
The real reason you see more advertising is because quite literally more chips and pop are sold for this event and MORE stores don’t mind having bigger larger displays up in their stores because they know the product won’t be there long. (ie clogging up their back rooms after the event is done.)
rest assured that there are big standies for both games/leagues.
so by all means complain about a lack of CFL promo displays in stores, eventually it will filter down to DSLs and RSRs will have to start pushing harder to put up said displays, if you want to see more but its not a company issue
[quote="TravelPatB"]Hey Moonbase001. I think you are missing my point though. If we start trashing those that support us - just because we don't like the form of marketing they decide to go with for an event in the middle of our off season - and they perceive our reaction is anti- their products and hurting them - good luck being the ad agency for the CFL who is trying to renew and up their support and sponsorship of our league the next year.
I'm not out here to "advertise" or to "trash" anyone TravelPatB. Second, your still not grasping what I have to say either. For some reason you feel the need to accentuate your perception and discard mine. Hey, I love the NFL and the standies, I'm just saying it would be nice to see ours too.
nfl SUCKS !! right Moonbase069
Sounds like a much better approach to me. But it all comes down to demographics and market research. If companies’ research indicates that the target market for their products tends to watch one event more than another, of course they’ll spend more of their advertising budgets tied to that event.
Moonbase001 - I do see your point and completely understand it. I guess it is a matter of the way I interpreted this thread based on reading the first few posts. When i read words like 'negative post' and 'sickening' I don't think it was too much of a stretch to assume I was reading an attack on Pepsico.
In another post you even seemed to indicate we (the CFL) shouldn't be grateful for their support over the years - unless I'm reading that wrong and if I am apologies for misinterpreting your posts.
I've always been very grateful for any sponorship an organization I was involved in received. When somebody like Transat Holidays would co-op a promotion with us when I was partners in the travel agency. Would I get all indignant and mad if months later I saw a bigger promotion running one with another travel agency that was an attractive effective campaign. Heck no. That's business!
I just think anger and negativity towards a long time partner is unjustified and likely not productive. A more positive approach to the sponsor as I described in my last post is the way to go. Love what you did prior to the Super Bowl . If we're lucky enough to be part of your marketing for 2014 do you think we could do something like that.
If that was misinterpretation of the gist of your post I apologize.
I think the bottom line is the same as with all big business. Frito Lay has done their marketing research. They will make a lot more cash by pushing the Super Bowl to all of North America than they will pushing the GREY CUP game to Canada. it`s not a matter of do the like one or the other better. What is going to make them more money. $$$$$
tcmik
Just one brand. Hamilton Icon Tim Hortons is fully inot the Tiger cats and have expanded their sponsorship of the CFF to go along with the expansion of their franchises across Canada and US.
I was ppleasantly surprised to see that Coors Light has become a pretty big sponsor for the Cats with the Coors light Patio
That's great and I appreciate Tim Hortons for their doing that - supporting the Cats and the CFL- and I won't hold it against them that they are one of the biggest sponsors of the Buffalo Bills too. 