ABetting the mortgage on the Mets
Advertising Age - August 07, 2006
By Ken Wheaton
When Jericho, N.Y., mortgage broker and banker Premium Capital Funding wanted to up its game, it turned to branding agency Thinkso Creative, and thus was born Topdot Mortgage. But as everyone knows, it takes more than a name-change and a new marketing focus to get people talking-especially about mortgages. So Topdot VP Adam Brown, a life-long New York Mets fan, couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a promotion with radio station WFAN and the Amazins.' Adam, though, wanted "to put some high stakes in there." So they came up with the "Grand Slam Inning" contest. Starting after the All-Star break and lasting until the end of the regular season, the next time a Mets player hits a grand slam in the fifth inning, one lucky fan will receive a year of mortgage payments up to $25,000 (renters can enter, too, and get their rent tab picked up). They're also giving away $200 steak dinners to a Christo's steakhouse in Queens for single home runs in the fifth. It took a little persuading on Adams' part to get his brother David, CEO and founder of Topdot, to go along with the promotion. Grand slams, he pointed out, are rare, and, "I explained to him that a grand-slam in the fifth inning is not very likely." And then the Mets hit a record-tying six grand slams in the month of July. Four of them happened before the contest began and the latter two didn't happen in the fifth inning, but it was enough to give Adam conniptions. "It's bittersweet," he says. "I want them to win, but I want the fifth inning to fly by."

And the Yankees? "We have plenty of Yankees supporters here at the company," says Adam, "but I'm a Mets fan so they had to deal with it."