Seattle vs. New England: Which Town Boasts More Brand Marketing Swagger?
A Letter from Seattle
Dear lovable New England Chowdah-heads,
We’re going to take a look at a few Seattle brands that are cranking it all the way to 12 ahead of the big game. But first, we’ve got some news for you, New England. There’s a little local company down the street from Curator’s offices called Amazon.com. They crunched a few numbers recently and found that Seattle fans love their team more than New England loves its Patriots. What?! How can that be? Well, first they looked at site searches, then they sliced and diced customer purchases. What Amazon discovered is that items from the Seattle Seahawks Fan Shop on Amazon sold more than 8 times the average NFL team, while the Patriots sold at just 2.5 times the average team.
Ok, ok. I can understand that you might be leery of Amazon’s bias. They sure were quick to jump on the #deflategate bandwagon.
Let’s take a look at some other Seattle-based brands and see how they’re participating in this Seahawks frenzy. Everyone knows Boston is famous for tea parties and Seattle loves its coffee. Starbucks, an official partner of the Seahawks, calls the coffee-drinking fans the “Legion of Brew.” This interesting partnership delivered exclusive Seahawks content via the official Seahawks mobile app, when L.O.B.s were sipping lattes inside a Starbucks location. The baristas’ shirts were pretty cool, too.
Image source: Starbucks
Here in Jet City, both Delta (the team’s official airline partner) and Seattle-based Alaska Airlines want to be known as the Seahawks' biggest supporters. Personally, I like the local guys. At Alaska Airlines, Russell Wilson is the carrier’s Chief Football Officer. Anyone flying from Seattle wearing a #3 Hawks jersey gets to board their flight early. #GoHawks.
Speaking of travel, Expedia employees created an amazing 10-story shrine to Beast Mode completely out of construction paper displayed in the windows at HQ.
Image source: MyNorthwest/Dara Khosrowhshahi
Around here, when a brand or businesses uses its building to pay tribute to the team, we call that #Hawkitechture. Go ahead. Scroll through the #Hawkitechture hash tag on Instagram. I’ll wait here. It might take a while. There are just sooooo many.
When it comes to personal branding, we at Curator have to tip our hats to the #12Pets. Some of those pets have an amazing content strategy. We can't decide who is more creative — @barkleysircharles and his 306K Instagram followers or @Meowshawn_Lynch and his 2,500 Twitter followers.
You may have heard that recreational marijuana is legal here. We wondered if an industry so young would be ready to jump into the action. Sure enough! A hard-working marijuana dispensary is working round the clock to roll 12,000 joints in honor of the big game. This special Seahawks blend is marketed as the 12th Pack.
But don’t worry. If that kind of green isn’t your thing, area grocers can hook you up with some fan-friendly organic produce.
One final note from our local mythical creature brand, Sasquatch. He has made the most mesmerizing 12th Vine. Seriously. I challenge you to look away.
With that, we’ll hand it over to you, Boston. We’re waiting to be impressed by your marketers' Patriot Pride.