August 23, 2007
ESPN promotion brings recognition to Tempe company's 'Olevia' TVs
The Arizona Republic

Syntax-Brillian Corp.'s high-definition televisions once fought to break out of a field of low-price brands trying to undercut heavy hitters Sony and Samsung. The Tempe-based company's Olevia line of liquid-crystal display TVs were surrounded by a pack of several middle- and bottom-tier products that emerged to compete with household names based on price.

"Twelve to 18 months ago, it was really not a well-defined brand in North America," said Michael Tieu, a senior vice president with investment research firm Brean Murray, Carret & Co. LLC in New York.

Syntax-Brillian seems to have resolved its identity crisis for the time being.

Its Olevia line has been riding a wave of newfound recognition, thanks to strategic marketing partnerships that have pushed the brand's name into sporting events, television shows, magazines and entertainment venues.

The firm, which also sells digital cameras under the name Vivitar, is experiencing more demand from national retailers than ever before. In May, Syntax-Brillian reported third-quarter sales of $162.9million, 256.6 percent higher than a year ago. Its $5.5 million profit compared with a previous-year loss of $11.4 million. And analysts say demand for the Olevia line well surpasses the company's production numbers.

"The company has gained significant market share over the past year and a half," said Tristan Gerra, a senior research analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. in Milwaukee who follows Syntax-Brillian.

The silver bullet, company executives say, has been a multi-platform advertising and marketing campaign the firm launched with ESPN last summer. The partnership, for which Syntax-Brillian pays an undisclosed price for in exchange for certain sponsorship rights, makes Olevia the official ESPN HD sponsor for nine months out of the year and includes full-page advertisements in ESPN The Magazine and audio mentions on the broadcaster's radio shows.

A market study that research firm Dynamic Logic recently conducted showed that the ESPN initiative reached almost 60 percent brand awareness across ESPN audiences.

"They really did create Olevia," Chief Marketing Officer Hope Frank said in a recent interview.

The result has been retailers increasing orders for the TVs and their marketing teams showing a willingness to partner with Syntax-Brillian.

"We did not enjoy that level of relationship prior to this deal," Frank said.

Bryan Burns, vice president of strategic business planning and development for ESPN Inc., said the Disney-owned broadcaster has always been interested in helping small-name players elevate their status. The sponsorship deal officially began in summer 2006 and is set to last through August 2008.

"I do think it's fair to say that when Olevia became a sponsorship of ours for the first time, there was a fair amount of people in the consumer electronics industry that said, 'Who are they? What's that all about?'" Burns said. "I can't say that it led to anybody else doing anything with us, but I certainly think it got a lot of people's attention."

Tieu, the Brean Murray, Carret & Co. analyst, wrote in a recent report on the company that some U.S. retailers are consolidating the number of TV brands they carry to increase their Olevia inventory.

Tieu attributes the change of heart to Syntax-Brillian's ESPN campaign and its sponsorship initiative with entertainment venue operator AEG, which gets its name into sports and entertainment venues around the world.

"(Previously) it was sold through regional channels as well as some of those very discount-focused channels on the Internet," Tieu said. "It was not a very relevant brand."

Through its ESPN and AEG sponsorships, Olevia "has become a modified second-tier brand in North America," he said.

In terms of television shipments, Syntax-Brillian's market share has remained among the top 10 over the past year, according to the most recent data available from industry tracker DisplaySearch. The company was ranked 9th in the first quarter of 2007, the same ranking it held in the year-ago quarter.

Syntax-Brillian's unchanged ranking is evidence that the Olevia brand has staying power but is also a sign that the company needs to expand its distribution channels if it wants to go head-to-head with the household names, said Paul Gagnon, director of North American TV market research for DisplaySearch.

Gagnon said the ESPN sponsorship is a good start for a brand of Olevia's size, but notes that for Syntax-Brillian to capture more of the market from Sony and other top brands, it must also diversify its marketing to attract more recognition.

"There have always been a certain number of brands that have controlled a majority of the market," he said. "That doesn't vary significantly from year to year."

Frank and Syntax-Brillian Chairman and CEO Vincent Sollitto Jr. stressed that they are not putting all of the company's eggs in one basket.

Sollitto said the company is lean on management, which allows it to make marketing decisions quickly.

"It's a very, very far-reaching broad-brush approach toward developing a brand… and doing it in a way that does not involve lots of agencies, lots of staff," Sollitto said.

Reach the reporter at (602) 444-8280.