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Date Posted: 09:19:05 02/08/06 Wed
Author: lump
Subject: 
No One Backing Marti Gras
MediaBuys LLC, the Southern California company retained by New Orleans to find a sponsor for "the greatest free show on Earth," said Glad will contribute an unspecified six-figure sum to the city to help pay for public safety and sanitation expenses, and will donate 100,000 trash bags and coordinate volunteers for Carnival cleanup.
"I would call it a significant role," said Chick Ciccarelli, chief executive officer of MediaBuys.
Glad said it donated 1.2 million trash bags through the foundation of its parent company, the Clorox Company, for Hurricane Katrina clean-up efforts last year throughout the Gulf Coast.
"We're returning this year to donate more trash bags to aid in continued clean-up efforts. We also recognize that tourism is one of New Orleans' biggest industries, and also are proud to be sponsoring a program that promotes and supports the Mardi Gras celebration to help bolster the city's economic development," Glad Products spokeswoman Aileen Zerrudo said in a prepared statement.
Ciccarelli said he expects to announce additional sponsors, but the search for a $2 million "presenting sponsor" -- a title akin to the "Essence Music Festival presented by Coca-Cola" -- remains elusive.
Getting a presenting sponsor is not out of the question for this year, Ciccarelli said, but MediaBuys also is talking with many of the interested companies about sponsoring Carnival in 2007. MediaBuys is working on a variety of programs to bring money to New Orleans, and that money could come in the form of a presenting sponsor, or through a bunch of smaller donations.
"Our charge is to help offset the costs of Mardi Gras," Ciccarelli said. "One of the reasons why we have different levels (of sponsorship) is $2 million is a lot of money for someone to commit in a short period of time. It doesn't mean it's a failure by any stretch of the imagination."
Nonetheless, with less than two weeks to go before the first parades roll down St. Charles Avenue, time is running short for the cash-strapped city to raise the $2.7 million it anticipates it will need to pay for police, fire and sanitation services surrounding the event.
Ernest Collins, director of arts and entertainment for the city, said he is pleased with Glad's involvement, since cleaning up the city is a major focus for the administration of Mayor Ray Nagin.
"Every little bit helps. Their total participation is substantial," Collins said. "We just feel like every amount we can get toward that goal is a great thing. We're pleased that they've come on board."
Parades will run regardless of whether the city finds a corporate sponsor. If the city does not raise the amount of money it hopes for, Collins said, the city will find the resources elsewhere in the budget.
In December, New Orleans launched the effort to find its first-ever corporate sponsors for Carnival, in hopes of raising at least $2 million to defray the costs of the event. The city has determined that it is important to hold Carnival to lift the spirits of its citizens, to continue an important cultural tradition and to stimulate the economy with tourism, but it's broke.
Searching for a corporate sponsor was a big break from the noncommercial tradition of Carnival in Orleans Parish, but proponents of the effort note that companies wouldn't be involved with parades or the private social clubs known as krewes that stage the event. To protect Carnival's integrity, sponsorship money would go to the city to pay for police, fire and trash services.
Little time left
Time is not on the city's side in securing a presenting sponsor before its first parades Feb. 18.
David Cope, a Maryland corporate sponsorship expert who had worked on trying to sell the naming rights to the Superdome, said that corporations usually plan sponsorship efforts months ahead of time, not in the same financial quarter as the event.
"I'm not surprised that they received a significant amount of interest, but I'm not surprised they've had difficulty in closing a deal," said Cope, director of business development at DC Sports & Sponsorship Sales LLC, a corporate naming-rights firm in Rockville, Md. "For a company to be able to look for something in January and activate it within 30 days is difficult."
Cope said the sponsorship may become less valuable to prospective companies as the event draws closer because there is less time for them to pull together the marketing and special events affiliated with Carnival that would make it worthwhile. But MediaBuys is smart to keep looking, he said, because interest in Carnival could increase as the event draws closer -- and there's always next year.
"It will be difficult, but they're smart to keep looking," Cope said.
Indeed, Ciccarelli said the lack of time has been the biggest obstacle. But he remains optimistic that other deals will come through.
"Some are very close. Some we're not sure how long they're going to take," Ciccarelli said. "We still think we're going to have strong support."
As part of its efforts to help New Orleans, MediaBuys has recorded celebrity endorsements for sponsoring companies to use in promoting the idea of visiting New Orleans during Carnival.
MediaBuys also is launching a program called "The Recovery Room," in which companies that sell products or services that would be useful in rebuilding New Orleans can buy a trade show booth at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to make their pitches during Carnival. The $30,000 fee will go directly to the city. Meanwhile, the city plans to stage a job fair and contractors fair in tandem with the event, which will run Feb. 18 to Feb. 28.
MediaBuys said Nagin's controversial Martin Luther King Day comments with his racially noninclusive vision of New Orleans as a "chocolate city" and statements that God sent Hurricane Katrina to punish America for its war in Iraq have not been a factor in seeking a presenting sponsor.
"Our programs are not political," Ciccarelli said. "We haven't had any negative comments per se in response to the mayor's statements. I think most of the companies that we're dealing with understand that this is about helping a city."
Spotty success
Carnival was not the only New Orleans event seeking corporate sponsorship this year. Last week, another signature local event, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, nabbed Shell Exploration & Production Co. as its first-ever presenting sponsor. After a washout in 2004 nearly killed the event, organizers decided they needed a corporate sponsor to stabilize the event's finances so its success wouldn't ride on the weather.
But Louisiana has not had as much success with other corporate naming ventures.
Efforts to sell the naming rights to the Superdome as part of the 2001 deal to save the Saints failed because the building is already well-known and its future was uncertain as Saints owner Tom Benson clamored for a new football stadium. Finding a corporate sponsor for the New Orleans Arena to defray costs of getting the Hornets to move to New Orleans also has fallen flat.
Meanwhile, Nagin's successful New Orleans Media Experience, a high-concept media trade show and festival in October 2003 that put New Orleans at the intersection of the movie, video game, advertising and music industries, did not come back for a second year because it was unable to find a corporate sponsor.
But some, such as Carnival aficionado Arthur Hardy, publisher of Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide, hold out hope that a sponsorship will come through.
"I think the story is still being written. If it ends there, everyone, including MediaBuys, would have to be disappointed. But my sources tell me this is just a start. What if they come up with $3 million?" Hardy said. "I would have to give them an incomplete for a grade right now.
"Although, you would have to assume if they could announce more they would have."
I wish I were wealthy because I'd send a couple million down there just to pay the extra police needed during Carnival. I love that city, so to me, debating whether or not to re-build is stupid. Debating how to rebuild, however, I'd like to have a hand in. My poor poor city.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- tg, 10:22:50 02/08/06 Wed [1]
SAD!! When I think of New Orleans, I think of Mardi Gras.
Hopefully it will be happening again next year, maybe NO was still not ready for it.
It would have been inspirational to comeback with MG, like saying it survived. SAD.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- lump, 10:32:46 02/08/06 Wed [1]
Oh it'll happen anyway. You can't kill spirit like that. But there just may not be as many services available and I'm not so sure you can trust a bunch of drunken fiends to behave themselves. It's a recipe for disaster unless the locals take over and keep an eye on things.
With no money, though - there won't be enough police, who will clean up? Who will clear them out of the French Quarter? Who could stop any rioting? It could be ugly!
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- 23, 11:26:13 02/08/06 Wed [1]
As much as I'd love to see things back to normal down there, I would hope that Mardi Gras would be below a few other things on the list of priorities:
Strengthening the levees, getting residents back into their homes, etc.
But people DO need to see boobs, too. It's a tough choice....
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- lump, 11:31:21 02/08/06 Wed [1]
On the other hand, MG generates like 90% of their tourism profits each year. Marti Gras is expensive to run, but it's also a ton of money coming in.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- 23, 11:36:36 02/08/06 Wed [1]
Then why do they need someone to give them money?
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- tg, 11:46:16 02/08/06 Wed [1]
Well I don't think it's in a cities budget to throw huge parties with tax money.
I would think it would have something to do with promotion and getting people to go there and also liability and insurance.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- tg, 11:48:30 02/08/06 Wed [1]
P.S. New Orleans probably does cover a portion of the cost.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- lump, 11:52:27 02/08/06 Wed [1]
This is the reasoning that probably made you believe I was a Republican.
Those profits don't all go to the city government. Even if they did - those paychecks are in realtime and the profits are not. That would work rather like a loan - "We'll pay you this money we're not even sure we have yet." What's new in government, right? But it just doesn't work that way. When you buy your $8 Boilermaker, the $1 of tax does not go to the government RIGHT NOW. The business owner tags it - adds it all up - and then pays it at a certain time.
They need realtime money right now. And those taxes they get from all the purchases and things - those will only be a FRACTION of what they normally depend on when they do get it.
You've heard the saying "Have money to make money."
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- tg, 11:58:38 02/08/06 Wed [1]
It would be a kinda risky business venture, considering NO isn't back in shape. How many people would go, the numbers in attendance would probably be low. I think they should work on the city as a priority.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- lump, 12:01:48 02/08/06 Wed [1]
They are working on the city.
My house needs worked on too, but I have to come to work everyday to make the money to work on my house. You see?
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- tg, 12:07:43 02/08/06 Wed [1]
Yeah, but having Mardi Gras this year would they make money or loose money? That's the business perspective, so I don't know if too many people would be planning on going to MG so soon and not knowing what to expect. I know it's sad, but that's the way it works you usually plan your vacation destination early and I don't know if people are thinking of MG as a possibility.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- lump, 15:03:44 02/08/06 Wed [1]
Make it 10-fold.
By the way, I'm well aware that it's MARDI Gras. I'm just retarded!
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- 23, 15:51:36 02/08/06 Wed [1]
I'm just saying, it seems like a sure-bet kinda thing to me. Maybe the local business should get together and take out a loan to cover the cost of security up-front. Then they can pay it back when they rake in all the cash from those $8 boilermakers.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- lump, 15:54:19 02/08/06 Wed [1]
Who is going to give a loan to a business who probably 1 - already has a repair loan since most people didn't have flood insurance and 2 - probably don't have any collateral? Their $ system has been wiped clean down there.
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Re: No One Backing Marti Gras -- 23, 17:14:00 02/08/06 Wed [1]
Well, if the cash from Mardi Gras is a sure thing, I would think any self-respecting bank (you know, the ones who want to make money) would jump at the prospect.
But I'm no banker, so I'm pretty clueless.
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