OMAHA, Neb. (CBS4) – CBS4’s Jeff Todd is making the “Drive to the Championship” in his own wandering way. He left Colorado earlier this week and has made it as far as Omaha, Neb.
Everyone knows by now that “Omaha” is one of Peyton Manning’s favorite words. It turns out having Manning bark out the name dozens of times every game is doing wonders for that city.
Omaha companies came together to raise nearly $25,000 during the AFC Championship game.
“He’s been saying it for years actually, and so has some other quarterbacks, but that one playoff game, I don’t know what you did for atmosphere conditions of that game or if the microphones were different, but for some reason, every one of those 44 ‘Omahas’ was crystal clear,” David Brown with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce said.
And when there’s free advertising on during an NFL game, many companies in Omaha knew it was time to jump at the chance.
“Omaha Steaks is the largest direct to consumer marketer of steaks and other gourmet foods and we think we’re the best known brand of beef in America,” Omaha Steaks co-owner Todd Simon said. “We thought, ‘How can we tie this great publicity that Omaha is getting to something that would really do good?’ We decided we’d make a $100 donation for every time Mr. Manning said Omaha during the game.”
Omaha Steaks asked the Chamber of Commerce if they’d help spread the word.
“So we said, ‘Sure, I could make some phone calls.’ And I didn’t get a single one saying no. It was great,” Brown said.
“Our goal now for the Super Bowl — we’re going to double down. We’re going to get twice as many companies,” Simon said.
But the philanthropic effort by many of the town’s companies isn’t going unnoticed on the business end and the town’s hoping to cash in.
“Certainly we’ve seen an increase in Web traffic, and one of the biggest things we’ve seen is that there’s a lot of pride in place and people are talking about Omaha, people are thinking about Omaha, people are saying Omaha, people are tweeting Omaha,” Simon said. “It’s really been excellent.”
“We will try and reach out to him. We know he’s got something else on his mind right now, and so we’re going to wait until after the season is done,” Brown said.
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