Earlier this summer, when the first real heat and humidity made their way into the urban jungle of Brooklyn, I walked past the new Barclays Center (brand new home to the brand new Brooklyn Nets) on Atlantic Avenue. I was on my way to catch a matinee viewing of a very terrible summer blockbuster (don’t ever watch Prometheus), and was impressed at how much room there was to maneuver on the sidewalks of the surrounding blocks.
These sidewalks will hopefully be used by the 20,000 plus Nets fans after riding the subway to the Atlantic Terminal one block away, because driving to and around Barclays Center is going to be a nightmare.
Despite the car-unfriendliness, Honda struck a strategic marketing agreement with the Center and the Brooklyn Nets in the international automaker’s first major sponsorship with a sports and entertainment venue on the East Coast. Honda is the 10th Founding Partner for Barclays, and gets its own club in the arena. (Called? The Honda Club.)
Honda also receives “Street-to-Seat” brand signage at all events, including in-arena signage during Nets games. (This is definitely ironic advertising, because the last thing anyone driving into Brooklyn for an event is going to want to think about is buying a new car.) The final piece of this strategic marketing plan is broadcasting Honda radio spots during Nets’ broadcasts. (This might be the only portion of the advertising plan that makes logical sense.)
But we can see past the advertising irony and understand that this does make business sense for Honda. So far this year, Honda commands the top three slots of the New York City Metro Area’s best selling vehicles list. New Yorkers have purchased more Accords, CR-Vs and Civics than any other models.
It’s not like traffic stops people from buying new cars, regardless of whether you’re going to a Nets game or just heading to work.
(Take another quick peek at that picture above; would you want to be converging on that angle during rush hour traffic? Yuck.)
