MEMO1

TO: Roger Stokoe Goodell, Commissioner

FROM: Evan Page, Market Research Assistant
DATE: January 31, 2019
SUBJECT: Recommended Adjustments to the 2019–2020 Season Advertising Plan

This memo recommends that we realign the NFL’s television and social media advertising plan related
to the 2019–2020 football season in order to better match our consumer audience’s media consumption
habits.

You asked me to review our current advertising media plan for the 2019–2020 season. The latest data in
Pew Research Center’s News Use Across Platforms 2017 report indicate a need to update our
advertising efforts in order to better align with our target consumers’ changing media habits that are
moving away from radio and newspaper. The following sections offer more details on these trends and
related realignment needs.

Social Media Advertising

While keeping in mind that two of our three target audiences are teens and young millennial individuals,
the NFL needs to focus our advertising on platforms that appeal to them. According to Pew’s report, our
target audience claims that although they feel overwhelmed by the drama on social media and pressure
to construct only positive images of themselves, they simultaneously credit these online platforms with
several positive outcomes—including targeted advertisements and up-to-date news. Also, according to
the same research, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat dominate U.S. teens’ (ages 13 to 17) time online.

Shifting our advertising efforts from other media sources—such as newspapers, streaming radio, and
outdated social media platforms like Facebook—to these popular, younger generation-driven sites will
more effectively promote our upcoming season and merchandise sales. We also need to take into
account how many younger individuals have constant access to the internet and smartphones.

Television Advertising
Considering that older generations (ages 40 to 65) are also our target market, television ads should make
up a large portion of our 2019–2020 advertising plan. The Pew data showed that 65% of adults aged 45–
60 report going to television for news and most importantly, for sports. In contrast, only 20% of
teenagers reported the same in Pew’s 2015–2016 survey. These statistics solidify the fact that we need
two strong outlets to advertise to both of our target markets.

To conclude, we need to focus on up-to-date social media advertising if we want to reach our younger
target audience. If we keep putting our advertising money into radio streams and newspaper print, we
will be effectively targeting our money into the trash. Also, we must continue and exceed our current
television advertising so that we can influence and better advertise to our older audience. By tapping
into these advertising routes, we can further maximize our brand awareness to support our sales goals.
After additional research is conducted, I will follow up on these recommendations to see where exactly
we should begin with our new advertising process.