Pay Attention! Beef O'Brady's Broke The Bank To Name This Bowl Game

It’s halftime of the Beef O’Brady’s St. Petersburg bowl, and Rutgers is leading Central Florida 28-17. Time for some backstory:

When I first heard the name “Beef O’Brady’s bowl,” it sounded like a satire of all the other ridiculous bowl names. That’s not really a company, is it? Err… Apparently so. With a real marketing budget and everything.

From Nation’s Restaurant News:

“Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, the casual-dining chain of more than 260 "family sports pubs," has spent about $5 million to be the title sponsor of the St. Petersburg Bowl, with naming rights for the college football game secured for next year.”

"That wasn’t an easy decision," Vojnovic said. "We’ve never done anything like this. But our franchise advisory board recommended we pursue this further when we were approached about it."

“We have a total budget of about $5 million, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the big guys in casual dining. You can get washed out by Applebee’s and those guys. But a seminal event like this would break through and grab everybody’s attention."

To review: Beef O’Brady’s spent their entire marketing budget on the St. Petersburg bowl.

And this may sound crazy, but it works. Two weeks ago if you’d told me about a place called “Beef O’Brady’s,” I’d have imagined some fat Irish guy in a kilt, dim lighting, and full buffet of corned beef. But now… “Oh yeah, those are the guys who sponsored that Rutgers game.”

Instead of getting washed out by Applebees and the other blue bloods, now Beef O’Brady’s has the Rutgers name working for them. And the city of St. Petersburg, too. And Central Florida.

Branding, baby! It’s all about branding.