Snapdragon Stadium? Only for 10 days

Union Tribune (2011-12-09) Mike Freeman

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Most of us have heard of Intel’s marketing slogan “Intel Inside.”

For about 10 days this holiday season, Qualcomm Stadium is going to have Snapdragon inside.

And outside. And on TV.

The San Diego wireless chip giant, which has held the naming rights on the Mission Valley stadium since 1997, is temporarily changing the name from Qualcomm Stadium to Snapdragon Stadium.

Snapdragon is the brand name for the company’s family of application processors that power smartphones.

“Any where you have the big Qualcomm signage – in and around the parking lot, on the stadium, in the seating bowl -- we will replace the Qualcomm signage with new signage that says Snapdragon Stadium by Qualcomm with the Snapdragon logo,” said Dan Novak, a company spokesman.

Qualcomm has 30 million reasons to make the move. That’s the size of the audience expected to watch three nationally televised football games at the stadium during the holidays -- the Sunday night Chargers vs. Baltimore Ravens contest on Dec. 18, the Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 21 and the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 28.

Qualcomm has received approval from the city, Chargers and college bowl organizers to make the switch. Work to modify signage will start next week. After the games, the Snapdragon signage will be removed and the stadium will revert back to Qualcomm Stadium.

Sunday Night Football is one of the highest rated programs during any given week of the NFL season, said George Belch, chairman of the marketing department at San Diego State University. The college bowl games also draw significant TV viewers.

“Exposure is essential,” he said. “You have a couple of high profile bowls that are going to have a relatively big audience in the target demographic they’re after.”

The company won’t release specific costs, but Novak said the renaming effort will be less than the price of a 30-second commercial in the Charges-Ravens game.

Ad Age estimates an advertising spot in a highly rated NFL game would come in around $500,000.

“I think it‘s clever,” said Belch. “They’ve sat on that stadium sponsorship all these years and really haven’t leveraged it that much. If you go back, it’s almost a philanthropic move they made.”

Today, Qualcomm is trying to build name recognition around Snapdragon – taking a page from Intel in creating brand awareness for a chip that’s inside electronics.

“We want people, when they are thinking about buying their next device, to ask if it has Snapdragon inside,” said Novak.

Snapdragon processors have been built into 300 smart phones, tablets and other gadgets to date. They are being designed into 350 additional products under development.

Qualcomm and Intel are likely to start competing more heavily next year. As Snapdragon processors become more powerful, they’re likely to begin powering notebook and laptop computers – invading Intel’s turf.

“They’re going up against the Intels of the world in that market,” said Belch. “You have to come out swinging and put as much as you can into building brand awareness.”

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