Those who are remotely familiar with the newsletter certainly know that we here at Promo Marketing absolutely love bobbleheads. The Chicago Bears must know our weakness for chronicling the collectibles, as they have taken the joy of the products to new heights, literally, placing seven-foot-tall versions of famous team personnel around the city to honor the franchise’s 100th anniversary.
This year did not exactly start well for the Bears, as January’s “double doink” gave us an opportunity to talk about the beauty of promotional micro-moments, but they are hoping the rest of the calendar proves rewarding. The large bobbleheads are sights to behold and could come to complement the action that fans see at Soldier Field. The novel creations, numbering 13 in all, tip the scales between 150 and 200 pounds and serve as preludes to the much-more-compact giveaways that 20,000 supporters will receive for each home game.
Da Coach is in da park!
📍 Millennium Park, Washington St. entrance
⏰ now – 9/2#BearsBobbleheads pic.twitter.com/7Ugh0fuMmI— Chicago Bears (@BearsLocal) August 30, 2019
Next on the list is Mike Ditka, who carved out a Hall of Fame career with Da Bears, first as a player and then as a coach, with the latter role including distinction as the Super Bowl XX champion. His high-density foam homage went up today in the Windy City’s Millennium Park and will remain there until Labor Day. Football fanatics undoubtedly know that the Bears have enjoyed a storied history, and the bobbleheads are acting as means not only to thank Ditka and the other honorees (including fellow Hall of Fame inductees Brian Urlacher, Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers), but also as ways to promote the larger-than-life status of the NFL. It is fitting, then, that the Bears will open the league’s centennial campaign on Thursday, by which time the towering Ditka bobblehead will appear outside Soldier Field, against their bitter rivals, the Green Bay Packers.
As promotional goods, we have to say that seeing the Ditka bobblehead and one that pays tribute to Red Grange made us wish that the NFL could just allow for the Bears to play the whole 2019 season at home. After all, they have enshrined more players in the Hall of Fame than any other franchise, meaning that they could easily have other bobbleheads combine with the ones that have made the preseason a visual delight and those that will help the regular season to be additionally special. Since the league has the team heading on the road eight times, though, we expect for the large bobbleheads to make fans particularly enthusiastic about lucking out when the smaller ones become available. That, then, strikes us as great marketing, and we are sure that fans will get a “kick” out of the bobbleheads. Sorry/not sorry for that pun, Bears fans.
