Description
COMEDY AND SPORTS COLLIDE IN THIRD YEAR OF CELEBRITY GOLF SPECIAL
Brian Baumgartner, SUBWAY® restaurants, and Content & Co team up for “Training for Tahoe: Brian and His Famous Fans”
Premieres on NBC, July 21, 2012 at 2PM Eastern
(Los Angeles, CA) – July 20, 2012 – Brian Baumgartner’s “Training for Tahoe: Brian and His Famous Fans” returns to broadcast television this weekend with another innovative one-hour installment of comedy-driven, brand-supported sports and entertainment. The special is a result of the third annual collaboration between Emmy Award®-winning actor/producer Brian Baumgartner and 3-Bees Entertainment, leader in consumer branded marketing SUBWAY® restaurants, and Content & Co, the Los Angeles-based, brand studio.
“This is our three-peat of training Brian for Tahoe. It’s a fun event and showcases our Famous Fans of Subway and Brian’s every improving golf skills,” said Tony Pace, Sr. Global Chief Marketing Officer of the SUBWAY® Brand.
The one-hour broadcast special “Training for Tahoe” on NBC will also include “Fresh Takes,” which are video shorts specifically produced as digital content. These shorts will be readily sharable online via Facebook, Twitter and other leading digital and social media platforms.
“‘Training for Tahoe,’ combines Brian’s artistic vision, SUBWAY® ‘s innovative promotional strategy and our expertise in developing progressive content, creating an extremely effective new-school media property that equally serves the audience, the brand and the talent,” said Stuart McLean, Chief Executive Officer of Content & Company.
“I am excited to work again with SUBWAY®, Content & Co, and NBC Sports on our third consecutive year of trailblazing original entertainment that appeals to fans of both comedy and sports,” said Baumgartner. Besides shining as the fan-favorite role of ‘Kevin’ on NBC’s “The Office,” Baumgartner is an active producer of entertainment media content with his company 3-Bees Entertainment. “Training for Tahoe” will mark the third year of successful production of brand-financed work for 3-Bees, beginning two years ago with “Golf Therapy.”
This year’s “Training for Tahoe” will follow the journey of Brian Baumgartner of NBC’s “The Office,” as he enlists the help of elite athletes in his quest to improve his performance at Lake Tahoe’s American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament. For the past two years, Brian has readied himself mentally and physically with the help of world-renowned athletes and SUBWAY® Famous Fans such as Ryan Howard (Philadelphia Phillies), Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers), Justin Tuck (New York Giants), Michael Strahan (New York Giants) and Apolo Ohno (Olympic speed skater). This year, Super Bowl winners Michael Strahan and Aaron Rodgers reprise their roles as Baumgartner’s lead trainers with help from defensive end Justin Tuck. Also in Baumgartner’s star-studded corner include boxer Mike Lee, World Champion luger Erin Hamlin, inspirational Eric LeGrand (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone, and fellow comic-golfer Ray Romano. A golf enthusiast in real life, Baumgartner will go for broke and put his all into keeping up with these elite champions in order to be on top of his game before facing the ultimate test of celebrity golf fame at the Championship in Tahoe. This sports journey of epic proportions ensures hilarious results as everyone works to push Baumgartner to be the best.
“Training for Tahoe: Brian and His Famous Fans” is a production from Content & Co in collaboration with Brian Baumgartner’s 3-Bees Entertainment. Rand Holdren returns as the director.
“Training for Tahoe” is yet another addition to the already impressive list of Content & Co’s brand-financed entertainment projects. Recently the company produced the second season of “Clean Break presented by Schick Hydro®” for FUEL TV and Yahoo! with Emmy Award-winning producer Mike Hughes. The first season of the property was honored with an Effie Award. Previously, Content & Co also worked with 3-Bees Entertainment and SUBWAY on “Golf Therapy: Life, Lessons and the Pursuit of Par,” and USC and NYU for SUBWAY® ‘s Fresh Artist Filmmakers series, among other projects.
About Content & Co
Founded by Stuart McLean, Content & Co is a Los Angeles-based entertainment brand studio that couples with Fortune 100 brands to develop, produce, and distribute entertainment content utilizing the brands themselves as distribution channels. By enabling brands to directly connect with their audiences across multiple platforms, Content & Co offers advertisers the opportunity to generate their own programming rather than employ the aging models of traditional sponsorship and brand integration. In this next generation of content creation led by Content & Co, brands are the creative inspiration, the distributor and the financier of their own original content. Past collaborations include the SUBWAY® web and broadcast (NBC) semi-scripted sports comedy “Training for Tahoe,” starring Emmy Award-winner Brian Baumgartner (“The Office”) and “Clean Break,” an Effie Award-winning web and broadcast series from Schick Hydro® produced by Emmy award-winning producer Mike Hughes, for distribution on Fuel TV and Yahoo! For more information about the studio, visit Facebook.com/ContentandCompany.
About 3-Bees Entertainment
Under the direction of founder Brian Baumgartner, 3-Bees Entertainment is a production company that serves as the nexus between the entertainment industry looking to partner with athletes and members of the sports community who aim to expand their brand into TV & Film. In addition to a partnership with Content & Company and SUBWAY for the inception of "Golf Therapy: Life, Lessons and the Pursuit of Par," 3-Bees created and launched an original web series about the other American pastime, Turtle Racing, for CollegeHumor.com.
About SUBWAY Restaurants
The SUBWAY® restaurant chain is the world’s largest restaurant franchise, with nearly 37,000 locations in 100 countries. Headquarted in Milford, Connecticut and with regional offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Brisbane, Miami and Singapore, the SUBWAY® franchise was co-founded by Fred DeLuca and Dr. Peter Buck in 1965. The SUBWAY® brand is committed to providing a wide range of great tasting, healthier food choices while reducing its environmental footprint and creating a positive influence in the communities they serve around the world. Over the past several years, the brand has switched to products and practices that improve the sustainability of their supply chain, as well as improve energy efficiency, water conservation, and food and water quality and reduce their waste stream. The brand has also made a commitment to fully support principles of responsible farming, fishing and animal husbandry - for the long term sustainability of the earth's natural resources. In 2011, for the third year in a row, the SUBWAY® brand was ranked "number one" by consumers in the "Most Popular," "Top Service" and "Healthy Options" categories in the Zagat® Fast Food Survey for food brands with 5,000 or more locations. Find us on Facebook: Facebook.com/subway. Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/subway. Visit us at: www.subway.com. SUBWAY® is a registered trademark of Doctor's Associates Inc.
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Contact: Megan Haverland (for Content & Co)
Beck Media & Marketing
megan@beckmedia.com
Tess Finkle (for 3-Bees Entertainment)
Metro PR
tess@metropublicrelations.com
Christine Sumecki (for SUBWAY)
c.sumecki@sfaft.org