No doubt it was an eye-grabber.
At the top of Wednesday’s San Francisco Chronicle’s business section, in its Daily Briefing, was a short write-up about Under Armour’s freshly signed, $280 million deal with UCLA.
Top of the Chronicle
We read it twice and then jumped on the Internet to do some research.
First, what appeared in print:
“This gives UA a highly visible and lucrative California presence.”
San Francisco ad exec Bob Dorfman, upon hearing that Under Armour has signed a 15-year, $280 million contract with UCLA. Hmmm. Wonder if he knows that Stephen Curry, who has a deal with the athletic apparel company, plays for Golden State. Under Armour also signed Cal last month. Guess the NBA’s two-time MVP and the Golden Bears aren’t “visible and lucrative” enough.
Our questions were as follows:
- Who’s Bob Dorfman? What agency in SF is he with?
- Why was he commenting on the UA deal?
- Where was he quoted? What publication asked for his thoughts on the deal?
Google told us Dorfman is with Baker Street Advertising and is a “sports marketing expert.”
First Google search.
That covers off the first two questions.
So back to Google we went, plugging the following into the search box:
bob dorfman baker street advertising UA
Pretty much the same results.
Second Google search.
We noticed his Twitter account came up:
Bob Dorfman (@BobDorfman) | Twitter
The latest Tweets from Bob Dorfman (@BobDorfman). Sports marketing pundit, ECD at Baker Street Advertising in SF, author of The Sports Marketers’ … I comment on: For Under Armour and others, March Madness is a mad competition for …
So we went there…
Bob’s Twitter feed.
…and found he posted a link to a Bloomberg article.
So we checked it out.
Bloomberg story on UCLA -UA deal.
Aha! There it is!
Mr. Dorfman was quoted in the Bloomberg piece about the deal — with his remarks appearing under the subhead “Nike Territory.”
Humm…
Then we read further:
“This gives UA a highly visible and lucrative California presence — until now a Nike stronghold,” said Bob Dorfman, executive creative director of Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco.
As Dick Enberg would say, “Oh my…”
We think the second part of the sentence should not have been omitted. What he said is true.
Also, that article pointed to UCLA being an Adidas house for years, which is also significant. UA knocked off two big brands.
AWSI, this may have been a test to find out who actually reads the top of the Chronicle’s Business Report. At least, that’s us giving the Chronicle the benefit of the doubt.
But a word to the wise, always look for the story behind the story — and in this case, quotes out of context with sketch attribution.
—The Gang
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