By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The hiring of Marvin Lewis has revitalized not only the Cincinnati Bengals football team, but its bottom line as well.

Lewis

Since being named head coach in January, Lewis has become chief marketer for a franchise trying to score points with critical corporate customers while changing its image as an NFL doormat.

The coach has courted the business community in letters and personal pitches, and a regional billboard blitz splashed his face across Greater Cincinnati. As the Bengals prepare for Sunday's season opener against the Denver Broncos, the marketing mojo of Marvin Lewis apparently has worked its spell to the tune of at least $2 million in additional revenue for a team that won only 2 of 16 games during the 2002 season.

According to Bengals spokesman Jeff Berding, Lewis' impact includes:

• The sale of more than 1,000 additional club seats for the season at Paul Brown Stadium. The premium-priced club seats - at $800 to $2,000 per year, plus a one-time seat license fee of $750 - often are purchased by corporate clients.

• Sale of an additional four luxury boxes, helping the team cross the 100 mark in suite sales and leaving fewer than a dozen available. Typically, major local businesses are customers for the pricey, status-symbol perches.

• While the team won't be specific about total new sponsorship dollars, it acknowledges that at least half a dozen local companies have been signed to new or expanded commitments.

The new revenue buoys the Bengals' bottom line and gives the team an edge in attempting to sell out the stadium and gain additional exposure on local television. And with the 2004 corporate budget season in the air, the team is looking to its charismatic coach to work his magic for the long haul in the business community.

"His hiring literally can mean the difference of millions of dollars a year to that franchise," said Dean Bonham, chairman and CEO of the Denver-based Bonham Group, a sports marketing consulting firm. "It says to me that this is a guy of character who's willing to risk a lot to help the franchise. I'm going to be front and center watching the Bengals this year to see if it works."

While acknowledging the importance of his role in marketing the Bengals, Lewis makes no secret of his discomfort with the accompanying high profile. "It's something I've been asked to do," he said Wednesday. "I'm anxious for the focus to shift onto our players."

Still, local marketing executives say Lewis' success off the field is anchored in his style.

The coach shifted into marketing mode just days after his appointment. Bengals insiders say he has been a dream for the team's marketing effort - especially to corporate clients. He's spoken to a variety of school and community groups, but also to the local chamber of commerce. And several local CEOs threw a luncheon in May to meet and greet Lewis.

Of course, the team also was praised nationally for the free-agent acquisitions and college player draft that Lewis led.

"It's safe to say it's been a pretty dramatic off season," Berding said. "Marvin understands the connection between the business side and the football side, and how we're all one football franchise. It's all part of the puzzle."

Leigh Miller, president of local ad agency Freedman, Gibson & White, said Lewis is effective because he's "unblemished" by the team's losing past.

"He's not made irrational promises, and I think he's been very believable," Miller said.

Chris Allen, a marketing professor at the University of Cincinnati, compared Lewis' impact with that of Paavo Jarvi, the charismatic music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Jarvi's arrival in 2001 led to increases in ticket sales.

"Paavo is much more of a natural," Allen said. "Maybe he's used to being there ... I think Lewis would almost be served by lightening up a little bit. But a football coach can sometimes be just a football coach. And maybe that's just what the doctor ordered for the Bengals."

Laura Cook, luxury suite administrator for Corporex Cos., said Lewis called her this week apologizing that he couldn't make a corporate function. And when Corporex executives arrived at the team's first preseason game in August, they were greeted with a personal note from Lewis. "He's very marketing savvy," Cook said. "We know we like the personal attention we're getting."

The Bengals declined to disclose the bottom line on revenue generated by the off-season marketing flurry. However, the gains could be consolidated if corporations start renewing sponsorships or seating deals.

Sponsors generally signed long-term deals when the Bengals moved into Paul Brown Stadium in 2000, and some said they were considering not renewing the deals last year.

But their tune has changed.

"I think we're more interested now because we see the team has made some good changes," said Lori Busse, marketing director at Gold Star Chili Inc., which is entering the fourth year of a five-year deal with the Bengals. Busse declined to put a price tag on Gold Star's commitment to the team, but said the deal includes stadium and television ads. Gold Star also is the "official chili" of the Cincinnati Bengals and its product is sold at concession stands.

"As a sponsor value, any time the team does well it's beneficial to the sponsor," she added.

With his first foray into Bengals marketing successfully behind him, Marvin Lewis now turns his attention to Sunday's battle with the visiting Broncos. The fans - and the Bengals marketing department - will be rooting for him.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com