Posts Tagged ‘sponsorship’
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Google “NRA 500” and the leading responses won’t be about Kyle Busch’s victory at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday evening. 
In fact, the headlines won’t even be about what many saw as a controversial sponsorship by powerful gun rights organization, the National Rifle Association. Rather, in a twist of irony worthy of Poe, the headlines are all about the man who took his life with a gun following an altercation in the infield at the NRA 500.
At DeepThoughts, we try to stay inside our lane of expertise, so rest assured, we’re not going to try to tackle the issue of gun violence in this post. However, the incident shines a spotlight even brighter on the role of sponsorship and the responsibility that comes with it.
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Tags: Controversy, NASCAR, NRA, NRA500, sponsorship, Sports Business, Texas Motor Speedway
Posted in blog, sponsorship | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 17th, 2013
Even without the Oprah couch confessional, the Lance Armstrong drama is significantly newsworthy both from a sports and celebrity standpoint. It’s never been our intent here at DeepThoughts to get too far outside our lane and dive into the more sordid issues at play. However, given the swiftness that Mr. Armstrong’s vast array of sponsors dumped him (Anheuser-Busch, Nike, 24-Hour Fitness, Trek Bikes, et al) and recognizing that his attempts at rehabilitation (including a modicum of honesty) are geared toward once again competing in something, we felt that it was a good time to revisit our “5 DEEP Considerations” list for athlete endorsement.
Almost two years ago, DEEP published its “5 DEEP Considerations for Athlete Endorsement” on our DeepThoughts blog page as the Tiger Woods scandal was exploding. Our intent then, as it is now, was not to advise marketers how to deal with a scandal or to suggest to athletes how to better manage their own personal brand. Rather it was to alert marketers to what needed to be considered before entering into an endorsement deal.
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Tags: athlete endorsement, Lance Armstrong, sponsorship, Sports Business Journal
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Monday, January 14th, 2013
According to a recently released IEG 2013 forecast, overall sponsorship spending is expected to grow 5.5% up to $19.94 billion, fueled largely by a significant jump in sports sponsorship. This projected increase is significantly higher than the last four years, not all that surprising since the economy has been shaking itself out of a deep recession. There are however a few interesting takeaways when considering this report in relation to the overall sponsorship landscape:
• The absence of a major non-annual event in 2013 such as an Olympic Games or World Cup makes the projected record growth even more impressive; surprising in fact.
• Sponsorship never really saw the tumble many expected. While the market favored the “buyer” or the brand marketer for a while after the financial collapse, there was not a mass exodus from sponsorship many anticipated. (more…)
Tags: IEG, media, Red Bull, sponsorship
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Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
There will be much to remember from this year’s Daytona 500, but from a brand marketing perspective, the most indelible is unquestionably the use of Tide detergent to help clean up the jet fuel that poured onto the track after Juan Pablo Montoya’s Target car careened into a jet dryer during a caution igniting an explosion and causing a several hour red flag race delay.
Proctor & Gamble’s Tide brand, of course, was one of the sponsors that helped open the floodgates of NASCAR sponsorship beyond automotive-endemic sponsors, beer and tobacco. The Tide Ride holds a place in NASCAR marketing lore, helping carry Darrell Waltrip and Ricky Rudd to tremendously successful careers.
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Tags: Daytona 500, NASCAR, sponsorship, sports marketing, Tide
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Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
I am not a runner. But I do like the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Wait, that wasn’t strong enough. I HATE running. But I LOVE the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. In my view, there is no better locally driven event-marketing play anywhere. When Bank of America acquired the venerable LaSalle Bank in 2007 there was speculation that BofA would drop the marathon program. Bank of America, while heavily involved in sponsorship, had not been active in running events. And, let’s face it, mergers and acquisitions often mean cut backs in staff and expenses, usually under the header of redundancy reduction. Marketing expenditures are often targeted.
A little history…the first modern Chicago Marathon was run in 1977. The event emerged quickly as one of America’s premier marathons and Chicago-based food marketer Beatrice Foods jumped on board as a sponsor. In 1987, G. Heileman Brewing Company took over the event and renamed it the Old Style Chicago Marathon. While Heileman was a Wisconsin-based brewery, Old Style had a strong reputation in Chicago. (more…)
Tags: Bank of America, Chicago Marathon, sponsorship, sports marketing
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Sunday, August 15th, 2010
One of my sponsorship pet peeves (and there are a legion of them) is when a marketer does not think through what activation strategies will best work with a given property in connecting with a target audience. One specific mistake I believe is made too often is that national or global properties are acquired without giving consideration to whether or not they can be effectively activated in key markets/regions.
The simple key in our mind is to make sure your organizational structure and how your product/service goes to market are factored heavily into the pre-decision criteria screen. If you are organized by region or market, a strong national property platform doesn’t guarantee strong activation on a local level. (more…)
Tags: F.I.T. Analysis, sponsorship, sports marketing
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Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
The FIFA World Cup came to a close on Sunday, July 11, with a deserving win by Spain over The Netherlands. The match was far from pretty, but people watched in large numbers, including here in the US. According to reports (http://bit.ly/aCZQvB), over 15.5 million people watched the final match on ABC, setting a record for US viewership, while another 8.8 million watched Spanish-language coverage on Univision. There is no doubt the numbers are impressive and had the US team not lost in its first elimination match against Ghana, who knows if that number could have gone even higher.
On the heels of World Cup came news of Thierry Henry, the French soccer superstar, signing with MLS’s New York Red Bulls. Without question, the news for soccer in the US has been pretty decent of late. So, it’s probably a good time to once again ask the question (paraphrased for timeliness) I posed several posts ago. What will the interest in World Cup and the signing of Henry mean to soccer in the US at the professional level? (more…)
Tags: Adidas, David Beckham, FIFA, LA Galaxy, Major League Soccer, New York Red Bulls, Nike, Ronaldinho, sponsorship, sports marketing, The Netherlands, Thierry Henry, Victory Sports Marketing, World Cup
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 18th, 2010
FIFA World Cup is now underway…I begin this post as I’m watching the opening match between Mexico and the Republic of South Africa. The scene is as electric as the hype has suggested it would be. Soccer is a unique sport, one that still doesn’t register completely with the rank-and-file American sports fan.
The question that is always asked leading up to the quadrennial competition – followed passionately the world over – is, “What will World Cup mean for soccer in the United States?” It’s a fair and logical question. But we feel the answer is not so simple. To be sure, there are plenty of Americans who really enjoy the world’s most popular sport. But, that hasn’t necessarily translated to love for the North American professional league, Major League Soccer (MLS). TV ratings compared to those of other “major” professional sports leagues remain inconsequential and attendance in many league markets is substandard. (more…)
Tags: Adidas, advertising, Budweiser United, ESPN, FIFA, Major League Soccer, McDonald's, Nike, Player Escort, soccer, sponsorship, sports marketing, US Soccer, World Cup
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Sunday, June 13th, 2010
With the streets (and buildings) of Chicago lined with fans, the Chicago Blackhawks paraded east on Washington, north on Michigan and came to a halt at Michigan & Wacker where a rally of an estimated 2 million people were waiting for them; a number that Chicago officials say is the largest celebration the city has ever hosted. But this celebration was not just for the first Stanley Cup Championship in 49 years. It was far more. It was the culmination of the resurgence that started three years ago. Friday was just as much a “welcome back” party as it was a championship celebration. It was the fans showing their appreciation to the entire organization for “committing to the Indian”* and making hockey relevant again in Chicago; something that just five short years ago seemed impossible.
Looking back at the 2005-2006 season, the Blackhawks were a lousy 26-43-13 with 65 total points. Good enough for fourth place in the Central division, ahead of only the perennial basement dwelling St. Louis Blues. The team was being run by Bill Wirtz, zero games were televised, and the average attendance was 5,000. That was all about to change.
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Tags: Blackhawks, Harris Bank, sponsorship, sports marketing, Stanley Cup
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
“Today marks a big win for the USOC. We are extremely proud and appreciative to welcome BP to our growing family of U.S. Olympic Partners. The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the ultimate showcase of human endeavor and performance and we are thrilled to partner with an organization that has high performance at its heart.”
These were the words of US Olympic Committee CEO, Scott Blackmun when announcing BP’s sponsorship deal with the organization in February. “High performance” is likely not the term most would equate right now with BP.
On April 20th, an explosion occurred on BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico triggering a massive oil leak deep below the surface of the water. A month after the explosion, answers are still hard to come by as oil (more…)
Tags: BP, BP cup, Chicago, oil spill, sponsorship, sports marketing
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
In fact, the headlines won’t even be about what many saw as a controversial sponsorship by powerful gun rights organization, the National Rifle Association. Rather, in a twist of irony worthy of Poe, the headlines are all about the man who took his life with a gun following an altercation in the infield at the NRA 500.