BRANDedTRAY Teams Up with Kraft Foods to Sponsor Select Fall 2010 NCAA College Football Games

Greenwich, CT (PRWEB) September 10, 2010

This fall, Kraft Foods will sample one of its newest snacks, Wheat Thins Crunch Stix, during select NCAA college football games through a promotion using branded in-venue concession tray producer, BRANDedTRAY.

During this past NCAA? March Madness? tournament, Kraft Foods launched a sports venue sponsorship program with BRANDedTRAY?s innovative concession trays with product samples, social media and coupon offers. The sponsorship was an overwhelming success, distributing 800,000 samples of Wheat Thins snacks through BRANDedTRAY to attendees at the Men?s and Women?s NCAA? March Madness? tournament.

As part of the overall marketing mix, BRANDedTRAY served to ?activate? and increase positive consumer awareness in a meaningful, tangible way. ?The trays were a huge hit with fans?? recalls Thomas Piccolo, VP of BRANDedTRAY - ??we put the Wheat Thins brand right in their hands?.?

?The Wheat Thins brand appeared on the trays in resplendent yellow, reminding fans of the brand's distinctive box, and the product's wheat-based ingredients. At each of the venues, the enhanced brand image from the sponsored trays was inescapable - in the stands, in the aisles, in the walkways and at the concessions stands. Kraft Foods was able to add to the interest and engagement by distributing product samples of two different flavors that had fans offering approval ratings to the concessions workers, and anyone else who would listen. The stage was set for Wheat Thins to 'activate' fans, now that they had recognized the brand, and tasted the product?? explains Tom Flynn, Senior VP at BRANDedTRAY.

This Fall, as part of a new product launch, Wheat Thins Crunch Stix will be promoted and distributed at select home football games at the University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky, Auburn, University of Connecticut, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, University of Texas, and UCLA. The trays will feature a ?text-to-win? contest offering a trip for four (4) to the ?Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl? (http://www.kraftbowl.org), a college football bowl game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on January 9, 2011.

?BRANDedTRAY provides innovative avenues for us to creatively connect with Wheat Thins fans and to enhance their game-time experiences,? said Leslie Waller, Brand Manager, Wheat Thins. ?We look forward to an exciting campaign to help NCAA football fans discover Wheat Thins Crunch Stix and delight them as they?re cheering on their favorite teams.?

?We?re excited about executing another successful performance?? says Flynn. ?The combination of associating sponsors with the highest levels of athletic competition, offering product sampling capabilities, and direct response options make our branded concessions trays a ?must-have? part of any sports sponsorship package?.?

About BRANDedTRAY

BRANDedTRAY produces high-quality sponsored food and beverage trays provided free during concession stand purchases at sports and entertainment events in participating stadia, arenas and race tracks. BRANDedTRAY is the approved serving tray of MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA and NASCAR.

Get more information about BRANDedTRAY and their pioneering text-to-win contest, sweepstakes, couponing and 2D barcode promotions by downloading BRANDedTRAY?s media kit at: http://www.brandedtray.com/media and/or fan BRANDed on Facebook.

About Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods is building a global snacks powerhouse and an unrivaled portfolio of brands people love. With annual revenues of approximately $ 48 billion, the company is the world?s second largest food company, making delicious products for billions of consumers in approximately 170 countries. The portfolio includes 11 iconic brands with revenues exceeding $ 1 billion ? Oreo, Nabisco and LU biscuits; Milka and Cadbury chocolates; Trident gum; Jacobs and Maxwell House coffees; Philadelphia cream cheeses; Kraft cheeses, dinners and dressings; and Oscar Mayer meats. Approximately 70 brands generate annual revenues of more than $ 100 million. Kraft Foods (http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com; NYSE: KFT) is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor's 500, Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Ethibel Sustainability Index.

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New Hockey Website Hopes to Score with Fans and Pro Teams

(Vocus) October 6, 2010

PowerScout Sports Inc. is pleased to announce that PowerScoutHockey.com will go live at 12pm EST on October 7th, 2010. The founders are hoping to score with hockey fans who will experience a site that will revolutionize hockey this season and beyond, all at no charge and with no obligations or advertisements.

"After three decades of research and two years of web development, we believe that this site will be a game-changer in how hockey fans and professionals follow their favourite NHL teams and players," says President Terry Appleby who developed the PowerScout system of statistics.

He claims that what truly makes PowerScout stand apart is its innovative real-time game charts that measure "Team Intensity" and "Goaltender Performance." The site will also launch with 23 widgets that will track themes like "Best Special Teams", "Hardest Working Teams" and "Best Line-Ups."

The visionary behind the much-anticipated website is Marc Appleby, co-founder and VP of Marketing who explains: "We tried to combine the functionality of Google, the sharing of Facebook, the personalization of MySpace, and the real-time stats of NHL.com with our exclusive PowerScout tools to create the ultimate web experience for every hockey fan."

The following video provides a preview of the site's innovative widget-based drag & drop design:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PNOw9LEbpc

There are widgets for every fan like "Best Games to Watch" for NHL Center Ice subscribers, "All-Time Greats" for historians, "Streaks & Trends" for fantasy/pool junkies, "Team Effort" for journalists, and "Team Success Factors" that even the most demanding NHL general managers will appreciate.

Members will benefit from:

????Getting scores faster and easier than any other sites
????Enjoying live games more than ever using PowerScout's real-time Intensity and Goalie charts
????Customizing their home page to track only the hockey themes they want
????Following their favourite NHL team with unprecedented details
????Knowing who are the best players/teams with easy-to-interpret graphs and dashboards
????Evaluating players, trades and draft picks with more accuracy than ever before
????Making better predictions of player talent and team performance

At the core of PowerScoutHockey.com is the introduction of three revolutionary stats: PS, MAX, and INT, that Terry and Marc believe will help fans understand why good teams are winning hockey games in a simple, accurate and reliable way.

PS stands for 'Point Shares' and measures directly what share of a team's points were earned in the standings by that player alone.

MAX stands for 'Maximum Point Shares' and measures a player's point shares if he played the maximum amount of time allowed (i.e., 60 minutes a game). This provides an easy way to compare players regardless of position or role.

INT stands for 'Team Intensity' and measures in real-time how hard a team is working, making it easy to chart and record every game's momentum changes.

"Currently, 99% of fans use goals and assists to evaluate players," says Terry. "In my research, I found that goals and assists aren't equal as the scoring race suggests and they don't account for the 'little things' a player does offensively and defensively to help his team win. We combine 18 different player statistics into a single stat called MAX and update it every day."

The PowerScout system is based on analyzing over 14,000 games, 12,000 skaters and 28,000 goaltending performances since 1997. Terry has done extensive research into all aspects of hockey through which he also proved the following:

1.????Different skills are important at different positions;

2.????Not every position has the same importance to winning; and,

3.????Every player statistic can be expressed in terms of team wins.

Through Terry's work, the PowerScout system answers some of hockey's toughest questions such as:

Who are the best hockey players of all-time?
How hard is my team playing?
How much should that player be paid?
Who are the true MVP's?
What's the impact of injured players?

The website also promises to provide cutting-edge tools like their "TradeMaker" which will evaluate trades involving up to 8 players on six criteria: MAX, PS, team speed, team toughness, team defence, and salary.

"Never before has it been easier to evaluate a trade and assess its impacts on both teams," explains Terry. "This is more than a fantasy tool, it is designed with professional teams in mind as a valuable way to assess the true cost/benefit of every trade they are considering."

Most of the content being launched on October 7th is free for all users, forever. An additional nine widgets are scheduled for release in November and December and will be free until January 2011.

To register now, readers can go to http://www.powerscouthockey.com.

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Can Hockey Fights Help NHL Teams Win Games?

Ottawa, Canada (PRWEB) December 29, 2011

The controversy over NHL hockey fights has prompted PowerScoutHockey.com, known as the ?Moneyball? of the NHL, to become the first known company to measure and publish the statistical impact of fighting on NHL games.

The results will surprise many NHL hockey fans because the PowerScout advanced graphs do show that some fights can have a significant impact on a game, even be game-changers in some cases. To evaluate this impact, they used a graph called the Momentum Meter?.

?The Momentum Meter tracks how often shots on goal happen to estimate the ups and downs of team momentum in real-time for every NHL game,? says Marc Appleby, President of PowerScout Sports, Inc. ?This makes it the first and only way I know of to see and measure the true impact of every NHL fight at-a-glance.?

NHL fans can see how a specific fight changed the New York Rangers' momentum in the December 23rd game against the Philadelphia flyers when Brian Boyle was involved in a fight with Tom Sestito in the 2nd period, resulting in a Ranger goal. Fans can view the actual Momentum Meter for that game by visiting http://tinyurl.com/btsazzm

?The Momentum Meter shows that this fight actually had a negative impact on the Flyers momentum,? says Appleby. ?They did not create any offensive pressure minutes after the fight, while the Rangers maintained even momentum and capitalized with a Ruslan Fedotenko goal.?

To gain a larger scope of the influence of fights on NHL games, the company analyzed 1,563 fights going back to the 09/10 season using their game archives. They have determined that a fight has a positive effect on at least one team's momentum in 76% of fights and increases the momentum for both teams about 1 out of every 4 fights (23%). This research was done using the Momentum Meter, looking specifically at the increase in team momentum in the three minutes following the fight.

Appleby agrees that the controversy is far from over and believes that PowerScout's unique momentum perspective and research will likely add to the controversy as fans can now clearly see how fights impact games.

?I believe that this new way to look at hockey will fuel the passion of NHL fans and will generate more debate at every level.?

The Momentum Meter is part of a more advanced package designed for hockey professionals and NHL General Managers, but PowerScout is making many parts of it available to all NHL fans because they believe it will change the way people look at NHL hockey.

Busy fans can see the Biggest Impact Fight from any NHL game played the previous night by visiting the daily Games-at-a-Glance or see the latest research into the impacts of fights at their Fighter?s Corner blog sections located on the home page of http://www.powerscouthockey.com

BACKGROUND ON THE CONTROVERSY

A Canadian survey published by Angus Reid in November shows that hockey fights are still a draw to more than half of all NHL fans. However the mood may be shifting because another survey by Forum Research published by TSN.ca on December 16th shows that 60% of Canadians who watch and follow hockey believe fighting should be banned from the NHL.

Although a hockey fight can create an exciting hockey game, the controversy intensified this past summer after the tragic deaths of NHL enforcers Derek Boogaard (New York Rangers), Rick Rypien (Vancouver Canucks & Winnipeg Jets), and Wade Belak (Nashville Predators).

As a result of these events, former NHL player Chris Nilan was interviewed and quoted in a September Toronto Sun article saying that it was time for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to snuff out fighting for good. A well-known former enforcer, Nilan played with the Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers.

Nilan later clarified his position in a follow-up October Sun article by Mike Zeisberger. He said that he had not called for a complete ban on fighting but that he believed the NHL itself doesn?t want fighting in the game, therefore challenging them: ?why don?t they just take it out.?

NHL hockey fights have been a safety and health concern for years. Some encouraging research by a professor at Georgetown and Washington Hospital Center has provided some encouraging news recently in an article published this October by the National Post.

The Post quoted the conclusion of Dr. David Milzman that the NHL is correct to be concerned about the link between blows to the head and concussions, but that his research has convinced him that hockey fights are not causing concussions.

One of the world?s leading concussion experts has recently made a different conclusion. Professor Blaine Hoshizaki and his team at the University of Ottawa?s Neurotrauma Science Impact Lab shared some surprising lab research during a Rogers Sportsnet broadcast in late November.

Hoshizaki was asked to reproduce the speed and power of hockey punches to the head and to study their effects. He found that players who get punched either in the jaw or receive a traditional headshot are likely to get one of two types of concussions. He strongly recommends that players not take their helmets off during hockey fights.

About PowerScout Sports Inc.

PowerScout Sports Inc. is the leader in real-time sports analytics and statistical scouting. Using its cutting-edge technology platform for analyzing sports statistics, PowerScout provides the most innovative tools for fans, media and professional managers to track teams and players with unprecedented detail. Their flagship NHL hockey system uses advanced tools like their real-time game Momentum Meter and Dominance Curve, enhanced NHL standings, as well as daily NHL Power Rankings, advanced NHL teams and players, and a ground-breaking way to get NHL scores. PowerScout's core business values are to harness passion, innovate to elevate, learn and grow, and to strive for excellence.

For media or blog interviews, contact:

Marc Appleby

CEO, Solutions Architect

PowerScout Sports, Inc.

http://www.powerscoutsports.com

Tel: 819-459-2745

Email: media(at)powerscouthockey(dot)com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Marc_Appleby

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