#agencies

Learfield, the Texas-based company that sells marketing and media assets for more than 50 universities may be up for sale. According to the New York Post, escalating rights fees have priced the privately-held company out of the market leaving it to pursue a sale of the company.

As recently as late 2011, Learfield secured growth capital by selling a majority stake to Shamrock Capital Advisors.

Learfield frenemy, IMG, which often bids against the Plano-based Learfield for rights, is also up for sale.

#inventory

Under a new plan approved today, the NBA will allow teams to sell on-court advertising decals in front of team benches as well as on top of the backboards. Next season will be a test run for the new inventory, which some experts believe could net teams up to an additional $2 million annually in corporate sponsorship revenue.

#activation

With the oil industry suffering from an employee recruitment crisis, Danish shipping and oil company Maersk has come up with a curious hiring idea. It's developing and distributing a computer game called 'Quest for Oil' as part of the company’s larger plan to engage and educate the public about oil and gas exploration, and to inspire younger players to consider employment in the industry down the road. The first-of-its-kind computer game allows players to experience the stresses and strains of successfully managing an oil company.

“By playing the video game you can learn some basic and more advanced aspects of our industry: how to combine data from different sources and make very difficult decisions on high value or high cost, so risk based decisions based on a variety of incomplete ...

#deals

The Sports Business Journal is reporting that Verizon is close to announcing a four-year, $1 billion extension of its partnership with the NFL, a deal that will allow the company to “to stream every NFL regular season and playoff game to mobile phones.” The agreement is significant for two reasons.

First, it shows the NFL’s power to command a premium price for league-wide sponsorship/media rights deals. The average $250 million per year is more than leagues like the NHL or MLS make annually from their entire media rights deals – let alone just the mobile component.

Second, this sponsorship/media rights deal shows the increasing importance for sponsors to look for direct ways to monetize their corporate partnership agreements. In the SBJ article, the authors assert that the Verizo...

#activation

Almost immediately after Levi's signed its $220 million, 20 year naming rights deal with with the San Francisco 49ers in March, pundits were proposing monikers for the new stadium. It seems fans aren't content with Levi's Stadium. Among the nicknames recently trademarked by the blue jeans maker are the following:

"Field of Jeans"

"Win one for the Zipper"

What do you think? Got anything better? Give us your best Levi's Stadium nickname in comments.

photo credit

#activation

How do you top a $65 million free fall from the edge of space? You don't. But a BASE jump from the world's highest mountain isn't bad either. Red Bull's latest record breaking sponsored stunt saw Russian extreme sport star Valery Rozov jump from Mount Everest to record the world's highest BASE jump ever. Of course, there's a video...

#activation

Tennis players generally aren't fond of fly-overs so the French Open has found a subdued way to keep its official airline top of mind. New French Open sponsor, Emirates, this past weekend unveiled this cute model A380 affixed to the tournament's aerial skycam. The clever activation supports Emirates' five year tie-up with Roland Garros announced just last month.

“Leveraging our sponsorships to showcase Emirates is a key part of our overarching brand strategy. This is the first time we have attempted to create an A380 aerial camera and the results speak for themselves. The A380 is an iconic aircraft and this near scale model hovering above Roland Garros is guaranteed to be a real eye-catcher,” said Boutros Boutros, Emirates’ Divisional Senior Vice President, Corporate Communication...

#activation

This is pretty crazy. The folks at Lego just unveiled a one-to-one scale replica of the Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter in Times Square. Built to promote The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network, the X-Wing contains a truly astounding 5,335,200 Lego bricks and weighs 45,980 pounds! More fun facts... the model has a 44 foot wingspan and took 32 builders 17,336 hours (or 4 months) to construct.

Lego's PR team says the model was heavily engineered to withstand all the transportation, setup/break down and to ensure it was safe for Times Square given the subway system below and California's seismic requirements for the LegoLand California Resort installation, where it will head next.

#deals

Today's blockbuster Microsoft-NFL partnership gives sports techies a lot to digest. In addition to extending exclusive content to sports fans on a wide range of Microsoft devices, Surface tablets will now appear on-field enhancing team communications, photo viewing and play calling. "Microsoft and the NFL envision a sideline of the future with players reviewing in-game photos from different camera angles directly from the sideline and head coaches calling plays off connected Surface tablets instead of today’s static paper products," today's announcement states. Surface by Microsoft branding will also appear on NFL sidelines in unique ways, including on the hoods of the official on-field NFL instant replay stations. The price tag for all of this? NFL.com is reporting $400 million over 5 ...