Newsday has an article on low cost marketing. Eating contests are listed as one inexpensive method of promotion, but it was not cost effective enough for one former contest holder to continue its event:

Look at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest and Ben’s Matzo Ball Eating Contest. Nathan’s July 4th contest continues to be a big media draw, and Ben’s generated a lot of buzz until its last eat-athon in 2004.

Ben’s bowed out after a decade when the contest became “more expensive and less effective,” explains Scott Singer, president of Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen Restaurants & Caterers in Hicksville.

“We got a tremendous amount of media attention for a number of years,” says Singer, who estimates that the cost of the month-long promotion ranged from $30,000 to $80,000 each year. In the end, the contest became more of a venue for the professional food eater circuit than a contest for its local patrons, he says.

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TVRaiting.blog77.fc2.com reports that yesterday’s showing of “Gluttonous Queen II” received a 14.2% audience share. This compares favorably to the audience shares received by the current NCAA college basketball tournament (10% – 16% according to zap2it.com

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BusinessWire.com has a summary of the Coors Light commercial featuring Takeru Kobayashi:

Coors Light presents the World’s Fastest Eater – Takeru Kobayashi. On a hot summer evening, Kobayashi makes his way through his neighborhood to his local bar. On his way to the bar he inhales a number of hot dogs and a scoop of ice cream so fast that on-lookers are amazed. And at the end of a long day the world’s fastest eater orders the world’s most refreshing beer, frost-brewed Coors Light to quench his thirst.

The ad is not available on coorslight.com yet. It will probably debut sometime this weekend, possibly during the Final Four.

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NYTimes.com reports that Takeru Kobayashi will appear in Coors Light’s new advertising campaign:

The [Silver Bullet] train shows up at the end of the commercials that are to begin running next week, which present men of superlative achievement offering humorous endorsements of Coors Light as “the world’s most refreshing beer.”

The endorsers include Michael Johnson, identified as “the world’s fastest man,” and Takeru Kobayashi, identified as “the world’s fastest eater.”

The commercials are in a funny way a counterpoint to a successful radio campaign for Bud Light beer, sold by Anheuser-Busch, which offers mock salutes to “real men of genius” who are actually imaginary magnates of dubious achievement.

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Deresque was disappointed to learn that a picture of himself at a contest was placed on the back of the candy endorsed by Nobuyuki Shirota and Tomoko Miyake without his permission and more upset when he realized that the candy manufacturer had obtained the legal right to do so without his awareness:

When… with you think, the occasion where it occurs to the certain conference

‘All image photographs of the conference revert to the conference. ‘

With applying, you say, you sign to the letter of consent.

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blog.gansotorokatsucurry.com reports that candy endorsed by Nobuyuki “The Giant” Shirota and Tomoko Miyake will go on sale on March 26.

In his blog, Shirota states his design goal for his candy:

‘Of the snack which is agreeable to the beer’ was thought in theme.

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(From R Suzuki) A Mastercard commercial in which Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas have a hot dog showdown facilitated by Mastercard PayPass can be viewed at http://www.priceless.com/cards/paypass/takerukobayashi.html The video can be downloaded at http://www.priceless.com/cards/paypass/downloadvideos.html

updated mediapost.com reports that the Kobayashi & Sonya Thomas ad will only be available online and not televised. A commercial for paypass will be broadcast during the Academy Awards Sunday, but it will star an elephant.

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IFOCE announces that the cable network Spike TV will broadcast four Major League eating events in 2007 starting with the Saint Patrick’s Day Showdown in Savannah, GA which will be televised from a same day tape on March 17 at 7pm. The new contest will be a tournament similar to Broadway at the Beach and Takeru Kobayashi, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, “Humble” Bob Shoudt and Chip Simpson are expected. The other three events to be televised in 2007 have yet to be determined. It is not mentioned if Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest will remain on ESPN or be shifted to Spike.

A Reuters article and press release are also available.

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Brandweek has an article about the advertising campaign for redesign of the Heinz Ketchup bottle which mentions Nelson Peltz’ desire to have Heinz cosponsor Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.

More recently, Heinz CEO William Johnson has been locked in a bitter public fight with one his investors, Nelson Peltz of Trian Partners, New York. Peltz has argued that Johnson has nickel-and-dimed the brand, even failing to spend what he believes would have been about $200,000 to sponsor Nathan’s annual hot-dog eating contest, which has no condiments partner.

Johnson, however, has argued that it was he who came up with the plan to restart spending behind Ketchup. The recent pledge to evoke “Anticipation”-era ad spending is in Heinz’s 2006 annual report. The campaign will be created by Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago, a rep said.

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In its Best of 2006 Advertising/Marketing list, QSR Magazine gave Moe’s Burritos for Life contest, a tournament with first round contests at all Moe’s Southwest Grill franchises, the Best Marketing Off the Menu award. Some eaters who competed in that event, (or attempted to enter and were prohibited) might dispute that claim. 3,000 people are claimed to have competed in the first round.

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Wing Bowl 15 DVDs are available for sale at wingbowlvideo.com for $12. Proceeds from DVD sales will go to the Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience and the Christopher Reeve Foundation. DVDs will be shipped around March 1.

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Philly.com has an article about how the Wing Bowl and competitive eating in general has had difficulty landing national corporate sponsorships.

So, for Wing Bowl, Rayfield courts local advertisers and waits for the other guys to realize what they’re missing. This year WIP came close to signing a national TV deal, he said, and next year he hopes to do more than come close.

“As the person responsible for the event, I like to think I get a little smarter every year,” he said. “Each year it gets bigger, the publicity spreads wider. We’ll keep figuring out better ways to monetize it. But you sort of go where the fish are.”

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mercurynews.com has an article about the aftermath of the fatality in the water drinking contest:

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we all got a letter: No more stunts, ever, of any kind,” said KSAN-FM (107.7) program director Larry Sharp. “It’s terrifying. All stunts probably have some measure of danger. Anything can go wrong.”

Since 1938, when Orson Welles aired his famous “The War of the Worlds” play, radio stunts have gotten stations and hosts in trouble. Many hosts have been fired but often hired elsewhere. This is the first time in anyone’s memory that 10 people, including managers were fired

In other news, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department is now investigating the death as a homocide.

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The maker of the “Food Fighter” diet pill uses a picture of Kobayashi in their webpage for online sales. I am not sure if Kobayashi has given his permission to use his image in their advertising.

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Super Paul Barlow Jr. has a cafepress page with competitive eating themed T shirts, hats and magnets at http://www.cafepress.com/tropicmon The magnet shifts the site of Picasso’s Guernica to an eating contest.

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Trophy Central is selling trophies specifically designed for victors of eating contests.

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Nobuyuki “The Giant” Shirota and Tomoko Miyake are endorsing a garment called the turbocell. The turbocell looks like bike shorts, but its manufacturer claims that it raises body temperature and makes weight loss easier.

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Brooklyn Papers reports that the Astroland theme park in Coney Island has been sold to developers who intend to build a mini Las Vegas on the site. Tim Janus is quoted.

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(from kmikeym) A set of the magnets of the 2006 Nathan’s finalists made by Liz & Krista and praised by Kobayashi are for sale on ebay. The funds will go towards Liz’s travel expenses to cover contests, so the more you bid, the more contest writeups will appear on urbanhonking.com

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competitiveeatingnews.com says that it is “very likely” that heartburn remedy Axia 3 will sponsor the 2006 Thanksgiving Invitational. Previous Thanksgiving invitationals have been held in New York City, but the food changed from year to year.

Crazy Legs Conti will appear at an amateur wing eating contest at the Wingery in Covington, LA, on Thursday, the first Lousiana IFOCE event since Katrina.

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A list of every IFOCE eater to win money after July 5 is available after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

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An article about the Toyota Scion in today’s Wall Street Journal says that Toyota intends to drastically reduce television advertising for that brand and focus more on event marketing and branded entertainment. Toyota trucks sponsored an IFOCE contest at the Indiana State Fair and an IFOCE blurb said that several top IFOCE eaters drive Scions.

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Newsday reports that 2nd quarter earnings for Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs declined to $1.8 million from $3.1 million in 2005. No explanation for the decrease is provided in the article. Nathan’s did say that earning from continuing operations increased 14.1 percent to $1.5 million. Buisnesswire has more details about Nathan’s results.

updated Bob Shoudt says that the drop in Nathan’s non-continuing earnings is due to the sale of a parcel of land in 2005 and 2006.

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The blog for the conservative magazine “National Review” has an entry about the port security / internet gambling ban bill which takes an unexpected position on it.

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In his latest blog entry, Wing Tut predicts that some ranked IFOCE members will leave IFOCE because the loss of GoldenPalace’s sponsorship will decrease the amount winnable by eaters ranked outside the top 10.

The new poll asks if you think the standard prize distribution for IFOCE contests should be changed to award more to lower finishers to prevent this possibility or is there another change (if any) you would more like to see.

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