Advice: Omit the "appointment"

This past week I enjoyed a terrific phone conversation with Butch Bellah, a sports team colleague of mine and current general manager of the arenafootball2 Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings in Louisiana. We both met through Facebook and then reconnected through LinkedIn.

The conversation began with Butch inquiring about my hockey club's first-ever attempt at creating a “Facebook Members” party for an upcoming game. Soon afterwards, the dialogue switched over to sales and learning of one another’s selling philosophies and various techniques. We both agreed that we do exactly the same thing each and every day despite the differences in our sport and levels (pro vs. amateur).

Butch was recalling one of his strategies that he used and how this worked for him more times than not in gain...

Marketers using hotspot sponsorship to meet wide-ranging objectives

If you're tired of paying hourly rates for your internet connection, sponsored wifi which by many accounts struggled at best as a standalone business concept, may be making a comeback as a marketing one. Last week, we ran into a pop-up hotspot from Coke and Delta in the trendy meatpacking district. With Google's announcement today that they'll be providing sponsored wifii for Virgin America flights this holiday season we couldn't help, but think perhaps marketers are ready to give wifi another go. Of course, with today's announcement we couldn't be reminded of Google and the city of San Francisco's ambitious plans to prove free wifi for all back in 2005. After Google and Earthlink eventually dropped the project, last year a company called Meraki picked up the idea and has been trying to...

When sponsorship drops, team turns to sheep

File this one away in it could always be worse. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has a story today entitled "Footy club fattens the sheep" that claims a local football club has abandoned sponsorship in lieu of 300 sheep. Yep, that's right. 300 sheep.

The president of the club's social committee says the team must find ways to be self-sufficient and not reliant on sponsors so team members have chosen to raise and sell 300 sheep in an effort to raise necessary funds.

"Hopefully, we'll make 10 to 15 grand out of this little venture, and a couple of cartons of beer are on the line for the person that has the most weight gain, and a couple of cartons to owe for the person that's least," President of the club's social committee Tysan Mickan says.

photo credit via flickr: ...

Staples has extended its sponsorship of the Staples Center, with AEG, "in perpetuity." AEG contends that the arrangement is "the first lifetime naming rights extension for a major market arena."

Morgan Stanley will once against activate its $5 million presenting sponsorship of the Dublin, Ohio PGA Tour stop.

Nike and FedEx have renewed sponsorships with the NBA heading into the 2009-2010 season.

Nissan has reached an agreement with US Road Sports & Entertainment of Florida to become the official vehicle of the ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon.

UMB Bank Colorado bought naming rights to the Denver Botanic Gardens' amphitheater in a three-year deal.

Konica-Minolta has extended their partnership with magazine and events group, Inside Lacrosse, to include title sponsorsh...

Smaller properties may be a sponsor's best friend

Anybody who has worked in an agency that recommends sponsorships to brand clients -- especially those that get paid commissions on them -- has seen it. Anybody who has worked for a brand has lived it. The “bigger is better, let’s get a big national property and leverage it locally” mentality reigns supreme in sponsorship marketing.

It’s easier for a brand, and much easier for an agency to tell the client to do an NFL or NASCAR sponsorship for $10 million per year (give or take a million), and say to the client “that will be $1 million (or so) for us, please,” than to really work hard to find perfect sponsorship fits and brilliant activations for the client. I mean seriously, how hard is it to put together some cool ads, maybe a sweepstakes to win a trip to the Super Bowl, or be...

Kasey Kahne to celebrate Team USA with Olympic paint scheme

It seems while many sponsors are slimming down sponsorship portfolios in deal numbers, some are increasingly attempting to make their core deals work harder via cross-property promotions. Here's one example, this coming February Budweiser will celebrate U.S. Olympians with a special Olympic paint scheme on Kasey Kahne's No. 9 Budweiser Team USA Ford in the 52nd running of the Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, both coinciding with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games (February 12th -28th).
Budweiser has been a USOC sponsor since 1984, the Official Beer of Daytona International Speedway since '96 and a Kahne sponsor since 2007.

"Anheuser-Busch has been a tremendous supporter of the U.S. Olympic Team and the Olympic Movement for a quarter of a century," said USOC Chie...

Brown sees benefit from Nelligan deal

While they might not be seeing $86 million guarantees, Brown University and other Ivy League schools, too, are seeing the benefits of sports marketing firms expanding once local sponsorships to broader deals with national brands.

The Brown Daily Herald takes a look at how a new deal with Nelligan Sports Marketing has helped to "soften the blow" of a difficult economy, bringing in new sponsorships with the likes of Dunkin’ Donuts, AT&T, Domino’s Pizza and Taco Bell.

In addition, the article says that some of NSM's new deals provide value-in-kind such as lodging and food services.

While the school is optimistic, the 5-year deal hasn't paid for itself yet, Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger told The Brown Daily.

“It’s one of those things that we felt would take two or th...

Printing company renews sponsorship of two college lax events

Konica-Minolta has extended their partnership with magazine and events group, Inside Lacrosse, to include title sponsorship of the Big City Classic, which will be the first event held at the New Meadowlands Stadium on April 10, 2010.

Konica Minolta has also extended its title sponsorship of the Face-Off Classic, to be played on March 6, 2010, at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Last year 22,308 lacrosse fans filled Giants Stadium for the Big City Classic and the second playing of the event will be the first ever event to be played at the New Meadowlands Stadium.

The Big City Classic will feature a tripleheader that includes Duke v Maryland, Princeton v Johns Hopkins and Notre Dame v Loyola.

“We are thrilled to continue our long-term title sponsorship relationship with Konic...

Given gives Facebook a shot with new sponsorship application

Can Facebook be used to draw support from sponsors? That's the idea behind the new app, Given. Given is a new product created and launched in 48 hours at London start-up event, Launch48. Events like Launch48 are not meant to come up with the perfect, bullet-proof application, but to see how far a simple idea can be taken from idea to code to inception in two days. We haven't yet seen the full application because it hasn't yet been launched to Facebook, but Given's basic idea is to allow users the ability to target the 20,000 companies with Facebook Fan pages for sponsorship and fundraising purposes. Companies can then sponsor events and causes through PayPal, which then gets publicized to feeds, company fan pages and fans of the cause. Targeted exposure seems to be the main benefit t...