Heavy advertising push drew attention to scandal-plagued DraftKings
Experts say: Be careful what you wish for.
From TV to radio to online ads, from billboards to trash barrels to public transportation, wherever you turn this football season, you’ll find a pitch to sign up at daily fantasy sports websites DraftKings or FanDuel.
With the massive marketing push, the companies forced their way into the limelight. So it’s no wonder recent industry turmoil, marked by serious concerns about the integrity of the games and the companies’ internal controls, has become such a big news story, advertising experts say.
“What’s happened is that, just by the crazed amount of tonnage that fantasy football companies are running–this is expensive advertising, this is big money these guys are spending—they’ve piqued everybody’s interest,’’ said Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor of advertising.
The controversy has centered on whether employees at the companies, who may have a competitive edge due to data access, should be allowed to compete in each other’s contests. It stewed in industry circles for days before boiling over into the mainstream media. Emerson College communications professor Brenda Wrigley said she doubts the industry’s recent issues would be of such wide public and media interest if the companies had not made themselves so ubiquitous this fall.
“I have to believe they could have flown under the radar a little easier,’’ Wrigley said. “You advertise to get attention, but be careful what you wish for.’’
Companies who find themselves in crisis during a marketing push face a problem beyond all the new attention, Wrigley said. They also have to answer to customers, who may wonder whether it was wise to spend money on advertising, rather than on addressing the problem. In the case of Boston-based DraftKings, that would apply to building safeguards on data and putting policies in place to ensure the integrity of the games.
“Why’d you spend all that money when you could have been more careful about your standards?’’ Wrigley said.
Berkovitz said he’ll be interested to see whether user numbers at DraftKings and FanDuel drop this weekend after all the negative attention.
He also wondered whether business could pick up, because users may feel more confident in the services now that they must act under such close scrutiny. Berkovitz said he doesn’t believe all publicity is good publicity, but he noted that the National Football League, upon which fantasy football games are based, has only grown in popularity despite scandal after scandal.
One thing’s for sure, though, he said: All of those ads aren’t going anywhere.
“The last thing you want to do now is throttle back, because you’re getting a lot of this negative publicity, so you’ve got to keep your message out there to counteract,’’ Berkovitz said.
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