Dennis Greene/Cardinals - Alltel
After blowing a huge third quarter lead to the Bears on Oct 16, 2006, Dennis Green's crowning moment came in the post-game press conference. For fast growing mobile service provider, Alltel (now Vz), the additional exposure couldn't have hurt in raising the company's brand profile.

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For the 24th consecutive year, John Hancock was at the starting line of the Boston Maraton today. That may not come as a surprise given that John Hancock is about as Boston as Fenway with a Red Sox and Gilette stadium sponsorship rounding out all of the home town bases -John Hancock partnership overview. John Hancock's sports marketing director, Deb Maxfield discussed the partnership this morning:

What some may not know is that John Hancock, under the direction of one of sponsorship's most staunch and successful advocates - David D'alessandro - once used its famous signature to save the country's oldest marathon altogether. In 1986, with the Boston Marathon falling behind Chicago and New York and the elite runners looking elsewhere, D'alessandro, at the time...

Almost all major cities have CVB's that look to lure big ticket events to their locale. Now some cities are going a step further and actively helping match brands with local events. At NYC & Co, the official marketing and partnership arm of NYC, they do just that. Acting as a one stop shop for marketers looking to tap into the city, more and more cities may be looking to assist brands in navigating, finding and even brokering the various sponsorship opportunities within their city confines - in many cases including proprietary events created and sold by the city (think fairs, festivals and such).

We've heard of a handful of other cities that are devoting resources to similar efforts. If you're in one of those cities, it may be worth checking out!

Retaks, was featured in the April edition of IEG Sponsorship Report! Founder David Meikle discusses how Retaks is using both sponsorship of existing events, as well as their own proprietary events, to grow the brand of this newcomer to the backpacking space. The lifestyle backpack-maker is using events like the Action Sports World Tour and the 3rd Retaks Expressions Tour to grow awareness with an active, teen audience. Check out the this month's sponsorship report (page 6) for more details!

Today, a must read for sponsorship sales professionals from IMG veteran Kevin Hanft:

"Funding Sponsorship Deals - Look Across the Board for Hidden Dollars"

Hanft's thesis is that "with the current economic times requiring senior buy-in, full utilization and accountability, it may require internal advocates to find broad based support and budget resources."

Here's a few of the corporate silos he addresses:

Employee Relations
Human Resources/Campus Recruiting
Campus Education & Training
Health & Wellness
Corporate Social Investment/Philanthropy
Environmental Outreach
Product Management/R&D Budgets
Retail Promotion
Sales Awards
Channel Marketing/Affiliate Relations
Advertising & Media Budgets

While sponsorships routinely impact many cost-centers and revenue ...

As agencies have long understood, sponsorship proposals can work both ways - as a brand you don't always have to be on the receiving end. Heck, sometimes the property (or the sponsorship opportunity) may not even yet exist (or know there's interest). In the case of YUM! Brands, KFC recently saw America's road troubles as an opportunity to communicate their "Fresh Tastes Better" campaign, firing off a proposal to America's mayors that would allow Colonel Sanders and his team to fix the city's streets in exchange for KFC branding on each filled pothole.

During this age of corporate cynicism, Ad Age points out that this is part of a larger OOH (out of home) media trend that features companies trying to move beyond traditional signage and make a memorable cause tie-in. Example...

The world's most famous band is headed back on tour for the first time in three years and this time they're taking they're taking their crackberries with them. The 360 World Tour, which will include 14 U.S. cities in the summer of this year, announced that Blackberry will headline their tour as the top sponsor as one component of a deeper strategic partnership, which presumably will include exclusive product integration, licensing and music distribution components. Seems like just yesterday Apple was pushing their sleek red and black "U2 iPod." In fact, it's been five years since pop icon Bono and guitarist The Edge joined Apple's even more ubiquitous Steve Jobs on stage to promote the company's special edition U2 iPod. Since then, UMG and U2 relationship appeared to have so...

If you're not in NYC, Boston or San Francisco or a handful of other major cities you may not yet be familiar with ZipCar. ZipCar was founded in Boston and offers "car sharing," which is increasingly becoming a legitimate alternative to car rentals in many major cities.

ZipCar seeks to be the antithesis to car renting and offers a lot of unique customer delights, sort of like Jet Blue. Instead of in-flight TV though, you'll get EZ pass, pre-paid gas and a selection of sleek of gas-conserving cars. ZipCar definitely has a cool factor and they're fueling it through events, guerilla marketing and WOM campaigns that get people talking about their unique value prop. For instance, last month ZipCar teamed up with Live Green and the Coalition for Smarter Growth for a promotion c...

We're back! There's some truth behind every joke. Just in case you were confused, the preceding message was just an attempt at some April Fools Day fun. With that said, we thought we'd use the day as an opportunity to show how uneducated and ridiculous some of the accusations currently being lobbed at the sponsorship industry really are. Got a few emails so thought we'd clear that up right off the bat!

In the meantime, last night Hollis Sponsorship celebrated the best in sponsorship and here's what they came up with. What do you think? Hit the discuss button at the top of the page and ... discuss!

Hollis Sponsorship Award Winners

Herm Edwards/Jets - Cadillac
This one could have easily been #1. The conversation may have bothered Former Jets coach Herm Edwards, but Cadillac likely didn't mind the additional exposure.

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