San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl?
In the midst of your holiday preparations and jubilations, you — along with the rest of America — probably missed the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. Played on December 23, the game pitted the barely-ranked Utah Utes against the unranked Cal State Bears. (FYI – Utah won.)
No one, it seems, likes this name of this bowl game.
It’s almost impossible for sports writers and bloggers to mention the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl without ridiculing the name. Gentler critics describe it as the longest name for a bowl game, perhaps in the entire history of bowl games. Others think it is “the least catchiest name in sports.” Some go so far as to call it “grand champion for worst bowl name ever,” such as U.S. News & World Report who included San Diego County Credit Union in its list of “The Worst College Bowl Sponsors.”
Comments from general public on the name hold no punches:
- “Who the f*** wants to play in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl????”
- “Come for the low-rate fixed home loans and poisonous plants, stay for the football!”
- “What’s better than your bowl being named after a plant? Having a local credit union sponsor it!”
- “San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl? Longest bowl name ever. Like I’m gonna buy your product now. I live in [effing] Alabama.”
- “How the f*** is a credit union big enough to host a bowl game? I smell a ponzi scheme.”
Reality Check: At seven words and 15 syllables, the name is so long and so unwieldy that it will inevitably get shortened. “SD County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.” “SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl.” Or just the “Poinsettia Bowl.” Can you imagine being the announcer for this game?
San Diego County Credit Union has sponsored the Poinsettia Bowl ever since it was created in 2005. SDCCU recently extended its title sponsorship through 2010, with options for 2011 and 2012. With $4.8 billion in assets, over 200,000 members and 25 branches, San Diego County Credit Union is the largest in its area.
The Poinsettia Bowl committee says it has created an aggregate impact on the local economy of $45.5 million since the game’s inception in 2005. According to the committee, last year’s game generated $17.6 million for the San Diego area.
“With the addition of the Poinsettia Bowl four years ago and its pre-Christmas playing date, we are filling hotel rooms and providing patrons for restaurants and shops during one of San Diego’s slowest weeks of the tourism year,” said 2008 President Larry Baber.
Key Questions:
- Is any publicity or exposure good, no matter the context?
- What does this sponsorship cost? If it only cost $50,000, would it be easier to forgive the awkward name?
- Where is the strategic alignment of audience and opportunity? Why sponsor a nationally-televised bowl game when your geographic field of membership is limited to one county in one state? (The credit union’s field of membership actually includes three counties.)
- Is the primary San Diego audience likely to make positive connections between the credit union and the impact on the local economy? Or are they more likely to cringe at a strange and silly sounding name for a bowl game (like the rest of America)?
There are now 35 games in the bloated bowl season schedule. Fourteen bowl games are played on- or after January 1, including the venerated FedEx Orange Bowl and the Rose Bowl presented by Citi. Sports fans know that these are the games that matter. There are another 21 bowl games played before New Year’s Day, most of little consequence because they pair teams with records barely above .500. With names like the “R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl” and “Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl,” it’s not hard to understand why so few people care.
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There’s no question that this credit union has received lots of criticism for their sponsorship of the Poinsettia Bowl. Yes, its a long name and yes, it’s a silly name. Inconsequential bowl games with 2nd and 3rd tier sponsorships have been around for years. They’re nothing new.
For a bowl game at this level (unranked teams w/ barely winning records) there are really only 3 audiences that matter: 1 & 2) The teams that play and their fans; and 3) The city where the bowl is played. I’ll give you 4 if you want to count the sports bar crowd who will watch any game at any time. Other than that, the rest of the nation really doesn’t care.
For the sponsoring city, these games are huge. As was cited above, the SDCCUPB brings in almost $18 million to the local San Diego economy. That creates a lot of jobs and sustains the economy for a few days. This is SDCCU’s way of giving back to the community. I’m sure they have greater name recognition in San Diego because of this sponsorship. The people of San Diego are not ridiculing the name.
The fact that the people in Peoria and the rest of the country make fun of it is irrelevant. They are not the target for this sponsorship. Why are the people at home watching the commercials anyway? Isn’t that when you’re supposed to get another beer or go to the bathroom?
I say, “Way to go San Diego County Credit Union. Way to make a difference in your community!”
Great insight, Mark. I agree with you whole-heartedly.
For one, I really don’t think the name is silly to the point it deserves such harsh criticism. Outside of the main 5 bowls (Nat’l Title, Orange, Sugar, Feista, and Rose), the rest are pretty much irrelevant so who cares what the names are at that point. I’m sure they don’t want to go with SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl – there’s even less brand recognition at that point.
And I’ll add – as someone in the financial industry, I actually watch this game each year since it’s the only FI-sponsored bowl game. I think it’s pretty cool.
Bill, there is more than one bowl game sponsored by a financial institution. There is the GMAC Bowl on Wednesday 1/6 and the Citi BCS National Championship on Thursday 1/7. The Rose Bowl is also sponsored by Citi. Lesser known games include the Capital One Bowl and the EagleBank Bowl.
That’s six bowl games sponsored by financial institutions, or 17% of the 35 games in the schedule, which is a generally representative percentage for most sports industry sponsorships (accept maybe golf, which draws an extremely high number of bank sponsors).
Here it is January 9 and I am reading about this bowl game, one that was played before Christmas. Although I would consider myself a pretty big college football fan, I neither watched the game, don’t know who won, and really don’t care to find out.
Just watched the national championship game on Thursday, and have no clue if it even had a sponsor.
Yet I know the name of the sponsor of the Poinesettia Bowl, and am reading about it now. It is being discussed in the world of financial marketing. This is not an institution being questioned about capitalization as many are, and there is no wrong-doing associated with it. What can be bad about this publicity? The awkward name of a football game?
I usually argue that there is no bad publicity. Sometimes it takes some digging in to stand a chance with that argument. Not this time. Sure seems like a successful name to me.
I would agree that this bowl name doesn’t roll off the tongue. But good for SDCCU for giving it a shot. But really, doesn’t this beg the question as to why the “credit union industry” does not sponsor a national event? If this were the “Credit Union Poinesettia Bowl” it would work fine. Would love to see CUNA step up to sponsor a national event.
If they did, it would give the industry some much needed national exposure (I’m still amazed at how many people still don’t really know what a credit union is). Individual credit unions could buy ads in their market during the game (or event) to piggy back on the exposure.
Michael, in 2005 Americas Credit Unions sponsored the Hula Bowl, which is the annual college all-star game (http://www.cuna.org/download/newswatch_122004.pdf). This was a “one and done” event, so I guess the ROI was less than they had hoped for.
Also, see page 7 of this HI League publication from that time, talking about local CU opportunities to get involved. (http://www.hcul.org/email/leaguenews/0105ln.pdf).
Mark,
Thanks for the follow up info. Now that you mentioned the Hula Bowl, I do recall the event. I believe a local credit union that has Ohio State University in their field of membership actually sponsored some of the individual OSU players that played in the game.
It’s too bad it was a one and done event.