ESPN: This is SportsCenter

The SportsCenter brand released its first ESPN episode on September 7, 1979 and was hosted by George Grande and Lee Leonard. An estimated 30,000 viewers tuned in to witness the launch of The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN). The first score ever reported on SportsCenter was when Chris Evert Lloyd defeated Billie Jean King in the 1979 United States Open women’s semifinals. The show moved quickly to make innovations that allowed them to broadcast things that had never been broadcasted via television before to viewers. In January 1982, SportsCenter worked to provide on-site reports from the Super Bowl for the very first time. They quickly reached 10,000 episodes in 1988, followed by 20,000 episodes in 1998, 30,000 episodes in 2007 and 50,000 in 2018. 

Background:

SportsCenter celebrated 40 years of business on September 7, 2019. To commemorate their first episode, the brand released a dozen new “This is SportsCenter” advertisements. These advertisements, however, aren’t new to the brand. They have constantly used these comical commercials throughout the years and kept this campaign alive since the day their first episode launched. The very first campaign commercial showed a high schooler being recruited into the big leagues due to great grades and exceptional scouting reports; however, he makes a fool of himself on camera stating that he wasn’t emotionally prepared. At the end of the video, he is leaving SportsCenter and it is stated that he “came out too soon.” The commercial is funny because it shows a teenager getting drafted and acting his age on national television, which is implied to be too young and immature for SportsCenter, in humorous and relatable way. The campaigns have since gone on to get even funnier and more relatable with its viewers.

The Campaign

The campaign is meant to make people “laugh out loud” by transforming the broadcaster’s bland headquarters into a bizarre universe where sports stars, ESPN personalities and team mascots interact in humorous ways together. The new advertisements depict characters from the ESPN world stumbling, screwing up, dealing with run-of-the-mill headaches and more in very human and funny ways. Furthermore, the brand believes these advertisements to be true to the campaign’s heritage. One of the latest commercials of this campaign shows ESPN presenter Stan Verrett making a presentation before colleagues and athletes, including the New York Giants’ Saquon Barkley. To Verrett's instant messages from fellow anchor Neil Everett embarrassingly pop up on the screen to reveal a fascination with the NFL running back that goes beyond athletics. The company has been working to develop new SportsCenter scripts for a while now. When they realized their 40th anniversary was coming up, they realized that the timing worked out perfectly and they pressed ‘Go’ on the campaign. Senior VP of marketing, Laura Gentile, also stated that, “This campaign has always been iconic, and made to delight fans. We hope the love these new spots.”

Overall Success of Campaign

Due to the campaign constantly popping up throughout the years, it has proved to be a success for the SportsCenter brand. The goal of the advertisements was to relate with its viewers in depicting that even sports legends are human and do things wrong. The message of these commercials is to understand that everyone is human and not everyone is perfect at everything. The brand believes these advertisements are always timely and resonant with viewers and plans to continue developing advertisements for the “This is SportsCenter” campaign throughout the years.