#awards

British media company, Sky, took home three awards at last night's Hollis Sponsorship Awards, including Sponsorship of the Year for its partnership with British Cycling. Each March, for the past 19 years, the Hollis Sponsorship Awards has come together to honor the best sponsorship campaigns throughout the UK.

Key to the Sky campaign, which has been ongoing since it first partnered with British Cycling in 2008, was the grassroots efforts the media company undertook.

“With Sky’s support, British Cycling reached its target of getting one million more people on bikes a year early, almost two million people are now riding regularly, our membership is booming with over 69,000 members, and over 20,000 people are now taking part in competitive events," British Cycling’s Chief Executiv...

#activation

On the heels of Tiger Woods' Arnold Palmer Invitational win yesterday and his return to the number one ranking, Nike has released this social media ad drawing more than 300 comments in less than 24 hours on Facebook. Some found the Nike ad to be controversial, while others applauded the brand for sticking by its man. Thoughts?

#ooh #activation

Online tutoring company, The Tutor Crowd, recently came up with a brilliant and somewhat hilarious way to get the word out about its test prep services. Working with brand activation agency, Arc London, the firm is going around London and spell-checking graffiti. The corrections are of course accompanied by a subtle sticker promoting the smart-thinking test prep company's website. Check out some of the examples below and for more visit thetutorcrowd.tumblr.com. H/T: psfk.com

#activationstag

#strategy

If you're a golf fan flying Southwest Airlines later today, you may see some familiar faces among your in-flight crew. Adams Golf's team of PGA Tour endorsers will be trading places with Southwest employees today making boarding announcements, unloading baggages and according to this blog post even guiding aircraft on the tarmac. It's all part of an innovative new brand partnership between the Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and the Plano-based golf club manufacturer.

Throughout the 2013 PGA Tour season, the Adams-Southwest Tour Team will include Aaron Baddeley, Jeff Overton, Kenny Perry, Lee Williams, Eric Meierdierks, Paul Haley II, Donald Constable and Gary Christian. Each player will carry a colorful co-branded Tour Staff Bag, Adams-Southwest Airlines headcovers and wear a new r...

#deals

Airlines can be used for all kinds of things these days so with the recent addition of in-flight wifi, why not hackathons? In partnership with the United Nations and DNA (Decide Now Act), British Airways has launched what it's calling the "first-ever innovation lab in the sky," designed to connect Silicon Valley’s most notable business leaders and creative minds.

From BA:

Our Advisory Board is hand-picking 100 of the most forward-thinking founders, CEOs, venture capitalists, and Silicon Valley game-changers, and putting them on a flight from San Francisco to London.

On board, they’ll do what they do best—innovate and collaborate to find an effective solution to this growing global challenge.

Once back on land, they’ll present their ideas to ranking delegates from the Unite...

#strategy

UPDATE: With the Final Four now set, Adidas can be declared the likely winner of the NCAA Tournament apparel bracket. Two of 13 Adidas’ sponsored schools (Louisville and Michigan) are heading to Atlanta while only two of Nike’s 52 sponsored schools are traveling to the Georgia Dome. The news gets even better for Adidas as both of its teams are favored to win their national semifinal games. That means Adidas all in gamble on fewer schools in the NCAA Tournament could pay off with all Adidas national championship game.

UPDATE #2: As predicted, it's an all-Adidas championship. Michigan vs. Louisville. May the best stripes win.

March is the time of year when many people are betting on college basketball by filling out an NCAA bracket. It is also the time of year when many people lo...

#aboutSP

We're constantly looking for new ways to help our members make sense of the world of sponsorships happening every day around them. With more data and more users than ever on the SponsorPitch platform, it's critical that our members have access to the very latest tools. Tools that can help you synthesize a lot of data fast, figure out what it all means to you, use it to make better business decisions and of course, find your best leads faster™. With that in mind, we're excited to let you know about our latest alliance to enhance SponsorPitch's offerings. The release is below and we'll have more details coming soon!

Block Six Analytics (B6A) and SponsorPitch have agreed to a new partnership that enhances their current sports / entertainment sponsorship service offerings. This ...

#deals

Longtime American Idol sponsor, Coca-Cola, has come up with a unique way to get fans involved this season. Through its Perfect Harmony program, it is asking fans to help hit singer, Carly Rae Jepsen, create a new song that she will perform live on the show's season 12 finale, May 15th. The partnership goes beyond lyrics to include helping choose the singer's wardrobe, set design and even back-up dancers.

Through Coca-Cola Perfect Harmony fans can take part in the songwriting process each week throughout the AI season. In addition to assisting with the creation of the song, people will have the opportunity to impact various aspects of Jepsen’s Perfect Harmony American Idol Finale performance as well.

“I wrote or co-wrote nearly every song on my album and the songwriting process is ...

#deals

The NFL has created a new partnership with private equity firm, Providence Equity Partners. The partnership, which expands on the NFL's current ventures program, will invest approximately $25 to $30 million in private companies with sports and entertainment related media assets and will have the capacity to make larger investments as needed. Eric Grubman, the NFL’s EVP of Business Ventures broke it down for CNBC's Maria Bartiromo this morning...

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#dealsta