Last Friday I had the chance to attend the 2011 Ivy Sports Symposium, which every year offers an impressive array of speakers, informative panel discussions and wonderful networking opportunities. If you haven’t already, search for the Twitter hashtag #ISS2011 to see some of the updates that were shared during the event. During the breaks between sessions, I tried to grab a couple of video interviews to share with you this week, along with a larger event recap post coming soon.

My final interview was with Brandi Connolly, Director of Sports and Experiential at hawkeye. Brandi and I talked about experiential marketing and how it can be a valuable component in a brand’s overall sports marketing and sponsorship strategy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQwQli-LgrM

You can connect with Brandi on Twitter at @brandiconnolly or by email at bconnolly@hawkeyeww.com.

(Please pardon the slightly unusual shape of the video box – I took the video vertically on my iPhone. I’ll stick to landscape for future clips!)

I received an email last week from the St. Louis Rams about a new program called “Football University” that I thought was a great idea, so I wanted to share it with you here:

Teams are always looking for new packages and experiences to sell, and this package has a lot of unique benefits outside of just revenue:

• It’s a great integration with existing health care partners, creating more value for their sponsorship (and a nice mention for the team’s catering provider as well)
• The pink color scheme is consistent with all of the NFL’s breast cancer awareness messaging
• The package itself, with inside access to the team’s staff and facilities appeals to casual and hardcore fans alike
• Offering it with and without a game ticket creates flexibility for the consumers, while also hopefully providing a lift for ticket sales
• The inclusion of a charitable component (the United Way) is a great way to give back, and can also encourage more purchases
• Finally, I really like the name of the event – “Football University”

Of all the leagues that I receive email from, I have to say that MLS does some of the best work in providing sponsor value via this important communication channel (and this is an area that I’ve criticized other organizations about in the past). Take a look at some of the examples below that I think you can learn from:

Home Depot – Drives participation in their Community MVP program, which is a key component in how Home Depot activates around MLS, and rewards entrants with a chance to win.

American Airlines – Great integration between the idea of being a soccer fan and traveling the world (look at the names on the departure board), driving valuable opt-ins for both organizations.

Castol – Back to the basics with an email that directly encourages Castol product sales and rewards MLS fans with a valuable incentive.

I also love the simple, clean and effective footers they use in their emails to drive more engagement via social media outlets. These are great examples to follow when driving sponsor value with your email communications.

In the past, I’ve written about some poor email-based sponsorship solicitation tactics that I’ve seen, and how they can do better (see “How NOT to Solicit a Sponsorship”). However, this email takes the cake – I don’t think there’s any saving this one. Hope this brightens up your Friday!

Hello we have two monster trucks that run for monster jam . And many other shows as well as over seas . As u know times r harder now we have new stuff as well as a new semi . We would love to letter that trailer up with ur name or any kind of sponcer help we do 25-30 shows a year as well as over seas . We would love to work with you thank you for ur time or info
Mk-motorsports.net website

Wow…

In honor of today being opening day for MLB (and with the Yankees/Tigers game on in the background), I wanted to share one of my favorite local sports sponsor commercials. Watch this Avis ad that runs in the New York market on the YES network:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOnoJVJZDSw

Avis is a national brand that has sponsorships with many sports organizations, so they could easily stick to their overall brand message in their Yankees in-broadcast commercials. However, that would not maximize the value of their sponsorship. They recognized that connecting with a fun, local tradition in Yankee Stadium while simultaneously poking a little fun at Boston will let their advertisement resonate more with the local viewership.

In addition, on their closing screen, they feature the statement, “Not Just Corporate Sponsors. Fans.” This seals in the notion that Avis really knows what it means to be a Yankees fan. This helps break down the barrier that can exist between a standard corporate message and the fans that the sponsor is trying to reach.

Avis has several of these ads, which you can find on YouTube, and I’m sure other local sponsors in different markets use similar tactics. If you have a particular example that you really like, share the link in the comments. Thanks!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Mike Mahoney.

Chicago was once again host to IEG’s Annual Sponsorship Conference but this time at a new venue, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. For many years the venerable Hilton Chicago was the host hotel for this gathering of sponsorship sellers, agencies and brands. This will become important later on in this conference review. I also attended this conference last year and looking back on my notes there are several similarities.

First, let’s look at the setup. About 1200 sponsorship professionals attended this year, up slightly from last year. About 80% are from properties or agencies. (This is a guess but 80-20 rule feels right). As far as the agenda, the conference sessions are organized into four basic types; sponsor panels, keynote addresses, workshops and interactive roundtables. Last year I loved the roundtables which are small group meetings designed for interaction and an exchange of ideas around a topic. This year, in the new hotel, you could not hear anything at the roundtables as the acoustics in the cavernous room were horrible. But this was the only complaint I had about the new hotel.  It was extremely convenient to Michigan Ave. and a number of great restaurants which were great to hit after the evening networking receptions.

On to the content! Return on Engagement was this year’s theme. The buzzwords again were “measurement”, an IEG core product and consulting topic and “activation.” Both were used extensively last year throughout the conference.  Cause marketing and social media were a larger focus based on the number of session around these topics.  I always leave with great activation ideas and examples and they came from a large number of sessions. Let’s review a few of them and what I learned from each.

• Scotts Miracle-Gro partnered with the head groundskeepers of several baseball teams to develop local seed and fertilizer blends based on local growing conditions. What a brilliant way of using experts (and trademarks) from both companies to offer a tangible benefit to fans.
• Frito-Lay’s Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” promotion where fans actually created the ad for SB45 took something that usually lasts 2 days into an 8 month conversation with fans about the brand and the NFL. The lesson here is to lengthen promotion impact time by using social media and having a two-way conversation with consumers.
• The NHL solved a major problem the league had been trying to solve for a number of years. Apparently only 10% of league revenues came from national sources. They created a series of unique events with national impact across the calendar, from the draft to the Winter Classic, to an All-Star fantasy draft.  This had a significant impact on sponsorship revenue by incorporating traditional media, hospitality, digital and on-site activation into custom packages, including a larger multi-year partnership with Cisco as a result.
• AT&T’s Keynote presentation featured integrated cause or non-traditional marketing including a campaign to keep all of us from texting while driving. This YouTube video is a must watch if you ever entertain the idea of texting while driving and certainly great for your teen drivers to see before getting their learner’s permit. See the YouTube video for “It Can Wait” here.
• The NFL and Gatorade joint presentation was a true highlight, though I might be biased. The NFL conducts a thorough brand positioning and matching analysis with potential partners to highlight similarities. Can you and your sponsor both claim to be innovators? Develop a shared campaign around those values. The NFL clearly stated they know and focus on how many bottles of Gatorade need to be sold to make the NFL partnership work.

The last few tidbits are some I really want to make sure to use this year. I know they’ll help me close a deal before 2011 ends. Frito-Lay’s Rudy Wilson implored sponsorship sales professionals to sell a story, not a sign, or a program. He mentioned that Susan G. Komen sells hope, not an activation opportunity. We can do that as well. Tagging along with that directive was a great suggestion by IEG’s Lesa Ukman to change your sponsor’s “Official Category” to the “Official Emotion”. Rather than your Official Security Company maybe it becomes the Official Supplier of Peace of Mind. I’m sure I’ll think of a better one before I put it in a proposal.

Lastly, IEG’s dashboard on www.sponsorship.com was a great resource before, during and after the conference and worked very well on mobile devices when the room(s) were equipped with IEG’s free Wi-Fi . Now that the conference is over I am enjoying being able to go back and watch video of sessions I missed and review the handouts.

Recommendations for those thinking about going to IEG next year will echo last year’s suggestion. Please don’t swarm sponsorship buyers while at the conference by handing them unsolicited stock proposals. I met reps from brands that actually disguised their true company on their badges to avoid over-zealous sales people. Do learn and network from other salespeople. Let your ROI from the conference come later when you are back in your territory putting to use what you learned from the week. This will also put less pressure on you during the conference and allow you to meet more colleagues.

Mike Mahoney is a sponsorship sales executive based out of Charlotte, NC with 5+ years of sponsorship sales experience. Prior to selling in the sports world he worked in major account sales at FedEx and SAP. Mike believes in the power of CRM and loves social media. You can follow him on Twitter (@mahoney) or on LinkedIn or find him on Sponsorpitch.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Ron Turner, Director of Gensler’s Sports and Entertainment practice.

In today’s competitive environment, sports sponsors are more attentive than ever to ROI.  And with many owners planning stadium and arena upgrades, the industry has a unique opportunity: by integrating the needs of sponsors and advertisers into the design process, we can create dynamic, transformational arenas and stadia that enhance the fan experience, increase sponsorship revenue, and create operational efficiencies for property owners.

With this in mind, we recently convened a panel of sports industry professionals representing brands, sponsorship agencies, sports teams and sports venues to get a better understanding of the needs of the industry.  My colleague and founder of MRA International, Michael Rubin, helped lead the discussion with a distinguished panel that included:

• Shervin Mirhashemi – Chief Operating Officer, AEG Global Partnerships
• Woody Thompson – Executive Vice President, Octagon
• Michael Robichaud – Vice President of Global Sponsorships, MasterCard
• Robert Jordan – Managing Partner, Venue Research and Design LLC
• Lisa Delpy Neirotti – Associate Professor, George Washington University
• Tim McGhee – Senior Vice President, IMG Consulting
• Seth Rabinowitz – Founder, Rabinowitz Consulting

We learned that the biggest concerns for the industry are related to technology, fan experience, ROI and sponsor integration.  Here is some of the advice we heard:

Involve sponsors early in the design process. Ideally, the venue owner should have sponsorship deals in place during the design process. This allows sponsors to customize their presence at the venue and maximize the fan experience, leading to an optimal ROI. Giving sponsors the ability to help design their own experience will also allow the property owner to provide added value in exchange for the price for the sponsorship as well as create a revenue stream prior to the completed construction of the venue.

Embrace technology and build it into infrastructure. The game day experience is becoming more interactive.  Fans are using digital signage and handheld devices more than ever. In response, venues need to incorporate enough bandwidth to satisfy this demand. This will allow fans to access information as they like, and also allow the venue to reach the fan during the game. Technology systems created by providers like Cisco and Harris allow operators to individually control every video display screen within a venue and target the unique audience watching each of those screens. The use of customer databases – with information gathered from the internet, handheld devices, credit cards, or ticket scans – will allow this technology to segment fans precisely. The technology holds great promise and will not reach its true potential until those involved with its operations are fully informed about its applications.

Make attending the event easier and more convenient than ever. Today, with what it costs to take a family of four to a sporting event, fans can buy a big screen HD TV to watch with friends and family in the comfort of their own homes. To get fans in the seats, venues need to minimize both monetary and non-monetary costs (such as time) by maximizing value and convenience. By integrating both automatic technology and reassuring human contact throughout the venue’s customer service strategy – from initial web inquiries and ticketing all the way through event parking, concession purchases, concourse navigation and post-event communication – venues can make both the fan and the sponsor feel like they are a valued part of the overall experience.

This event allowed us to gain insight from sports industry professionals, but we want to take it a step further and hear from the fans. What do you think? What elements in a stadium create such a fun, exciting, game day experience? Take a quick online survey here so we can find out about your fan experiences.

Ron Turner is Gensler’s Director of Sports and Entertainment and a principal in the Los Angeles office. Ron has over thirty years of experience dedicated to creating iconic event center designs that generate increased revenue, build civic brands, and employ innovative technologies. As a founder of sports design practices for Ellerbe Becket, NBBJ, RTKL and now Gensler, Ron has led design teams for numerous venues and sports-anchored entertainment districts around the world. You can reach him at ron_turner@gensler.com.

Continuing with the video theme this week, I found a great sports business video on YouTube today courtesy of the Rice Sports Management program’s YouTube account. This clip shows several highlights of how Subway activated their sponsorship of the Subway Fresh Fit 500.

I particularly liked how they also involved Apolo Anton Ohno, a non-racing Subway endorser, and how found a fun way to show off the Subway Dunk Fresh game with Blake Griffin (you can read more about this campaign at the Blogs with Balls blog).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEh8_EFLx9I

I was watching a hockey game the other night and the virtual signage on the glass at the ends of the rink made me think, “what others spaces are left to sponsor?”  So here is a quick list of physical and virtual inventory by sport that hasn’t been sponsored yet, but could be. I realize that several of these might not be allowed because of rules on having uniform court/rink/field elements, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen in time…

Hockey:

• The crease
• The blue lines
• The penalty box
• The goal netting (like with field goal nets?)
• The faceoff circles
• Center ice (if you ever dared to replace the team logo)

Basketball (after seeing Oregon’s new court, I believe anything is possible):

• The shot clock
• The paint
• The top of the key
• The mid-court, free throw or three-point lines
• The baselines (out of bounds)

Football:

• The endzones (combine the team name/logo with the presenting sponsor?)
• The virtual first down line (have seen this on some broadcasts I believe)
• Sections of the coaches box and players area on the sidelines (the way NBA benches are)
• The instant replay review booth

Baseball:

• The bases (remember the Spiderman controversy a few years ago?)
• The outfield (logos mowed in to the grass)
• The on-deck circles
• The first and third base lines (just along the grass)
• The warning track
• The bullpens

I know that some of these may seem ridiculous, but many of them don’t even need to be physical elements. The entire reason I started thinking about this was because of the virtual signage in hockey games. There’s no reason that the same technology can’t be applied to these types of locations.

Note: Check out the comments below. I tried to add a little more context to the idea behind this post. Thanks!

Last week, the Sacramento Kings announced that they signed a new naming rights deal. On March 1, the building’s name will officially change from Arco Arena to Power Balance Pavilion. It is a five year deal, and the financial details have not been released, although it supposed to be worth much more than the $750,000 per year they had been getting from Arco. You can read about the deal over at the Sports Business Daily.

For those of you that might not be familiar with Power Balance, they produce bracelets designed to, well, improve your balance.  Here is a quick description from their website:

What is Power Balance?
Power Balance is Performance Technology designed to work with your body’s natural energy field. Founded by athletes, Power Balance is a favorite among elite athletes for whom balance, strength and flexibility are important.

How Does the Hologram Work?
Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body.

What makes this deal interesting to me is that Power Balance is quite a controversial brand right now. Because of complaints from Australian consumers, Power Balance has stated that there is no “credible scientific evidence” behind their product, and they are currently facing three false advertising lawsuits in the U.S (Sporting News, 1/14/11). Based on this information, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Power Balance doesn’t represent a particularly stable brand.

If you only look at the financial value of the deal over the five-year period, I’m sure that this is a profitable deal for the Kings, and probably does a lot for the credibility and visibility of the Power Balance brand. However, if the company faces further legal problems or consumers decide to abandon their product, what happens to the Kings and the value of their naming rights moving forward? If anything happens that leads to the deal ending prematurely, the market value for those rights could easily be diminished. Is that worth the risk of the short-term dollars that Power Balance was willing to pay over any second or third options (if there were other options, of course).

On the other hand, Sports Business Daily also highlighted that Sacramento is a small market, which has its own long-term challenges for stability of a professional sports franchise. If there’s a chance the Kings are unable to stay in Sacramento more than a few more years, this deal could end up making much more sense.

What do you think of the risk vs. reward of a deal like this?

In case you didn’t see it, there was a very interesting moment in last night’s BCS Championship broadcast right before the game-winning field goal attempt by Auburn. Check out this video clip (thanks to fangsbites.com for their post today that included the clip).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJmnxPD9vGM

Now before you assume that the “This is for all the Tostitos” line was part of Frito Lay’s’ sponsorship package, Darren Rovell has already confirmed via Twitter that this was not the case (@darrenrovell: “ESPN Spokesperson: Frito Lay did not pay for Brent Musburger’s “This is for all the Tostitos” line.)

Even though the line was an “unofficial plug,” it does raise some interesting questions:

• What was the additional media value generated by the statement?
• Would title sponsors want to have integrated play-by-play mentions as part of their deals?
• How much would this level of integration increase the cost of the sponsorship?
• Could there actually be a negative impact if fans thought the integrity of the game and broadcast was being compromised?

Unfortunately, I don’t have any answers to these questions. I’m sure within a day or so, we may have some estimated numbers to measure the value of the statement from a media value perspective. The other questions will probably be actively discussed by sponsors and properties alike over the coming weeks. Both sides are always looking for new, creative ways to integrate sponsors into the sports experience, and this could make sense if it’s done correctly.

Update: From our friends over at Navigate Marketing (@Navigate_Mktg), “Making educated assumptions, we think ‘This is for all the Tostitos’ will end up being worth about $250k in exposure value for Frito-Lay.”

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Peter Amador.

Mexicans don’t drink Coors Light.

A lesson I learned growing up in San Diego.  Therefore, you could understand my befuddlement at Coors Light’s decision to become the presenting sponsor of the Mexican Football Federation’s (FMF), Primera Division (First Division soccer).  The Coors Light / Primera Division poster that has greeted me at the subway entrance every morning since December 1 has caused me to question: A) whether the anecdotal experience of my childhood is correct and B) if I am correct, is the sponsorship the best way for the brand to improve its image with Mexicans / Mexican-Americans?

According to Scarborough Research’s first report of 2010 (Q: beers drank in the past 30 days), Coors Light has the fourth largest market share with Hispanics in the United States, trailing Bud Light, Corona and Budweiser, respectively.  However, with Hispanics that have watched or listened to a Mexican soccer league match in the past 30 days, Coors Light’s market position drops to 7^th with only 1.6 percent of fans (see graph).  To put this result into perspective, Hispanics that have watched or listened to a Mexican soccer league match in the past 12 months are 76 percent less likely than the general Hispanic population to drink Coors Light.

The answer to question A: Fans of the FMF’s Primera Division are less likely than the average Hispanic consumer to drink Coors Light. The answer to question B is purely subjective.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there are 30,746,000 Mexican / Mexican-Americans living in the United States, representing 66 percent of the Hispanic population.  Unfortunately for Coors Light, fans of the Primera Division represent a small fragment of the Mexican / Mexican-American community.

Scarborough Research reports that 658,000 Hispanics have watched or listened to a Primera Division match in the past 12 months; this number reflects a 24 percent increase from 2008.  However, is this audience large enough to fundamentally alter the brand’s image with Mexicans / Mexican-Americans?

Consider this: if the league was to maintain its current growth rate and raise its audience numbers to 817,000 by 2012, AND Coors Light was able to double its market share in the same time span, Coors Light would increase the number of Primera Division fans drinking its beer from 10,400 to 26,100.  The Primera Division does not offer the scale necessary to justify the initial investment of the sponsorship and the associated media buys.

Coors Light has invested heavily into a branding strategy which utilizes the league’s marks in television, radio, online and out-of-home advertising.  The brand’s image will be enhanced by its association with the league’s marks, but I do not believe the mark’s carry enough equity in the hearts of consumers to dramatically enhance the brand’s image.

Coors Light is working on reversing decades of being stigmatized as a brand that does not represent the Mexican / Mexican-American identity.  The brand’s investment in the Primera Division is the first step in an ongoing effort to improve its brand image with Mexicans / Mexican-Americans, and should be one piece of a much larger and broader strategy.  The Primera Division investment will not yield a positive ROI for Coors Light, but will help to improve its standing in the community.  After all, it only can go up.

Peter Amador has spent the past six months interning in Soccer United Marketing’s, Partnership Marketing department.  You can follow him on Twitter (@petervamador), connect with him on LinkedIn, visit his blog (petervamador.wordpress.com), or email him with your comments (pvamador@usfca.edu).

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Mike Mahoney from the Carolina Panthers.

May 18, 2010. 8:30 a.m. – At Caribou Coffee, in the shadow of uptown Charlotte, people fill chairs for coffee meetings, fire up Wi-Fi  on their laptops, and swing in to get their day started with some much needed caffeine. Scott Hepburn (@scotthepburn) and I meet to exchange ideas and chat about social media, marketing, sponsorship etc. It’s maybe the 4th time we’ve done this over the last year.  We go over a number of things we are each trying to get accomplished and Scott brings up one last project he has started. He pens it as a “social media road rally”, touring Charlotte while documenting your Amazing Race like experience using social media. He has a couple of businesses signed on to be stops on the tour, hosting competitors and offering challenges. I thought instantly it had potential. Scott was meeting with his prospects and clients and getting good feedback. I thought about how we had been looking for a way to include social media in sponsorships. I thought the Panthers would make a great theme for the event, something to tie it all together. And we’d have enough partners and connections to get a sponsor to help defray costs while generating payback for their efforts. Plus we could include our community partners who would benefit from the mentions and interaction.

I take the concept back to the Panthers sponsorship group and got early buy-in from my boss, John Berger, and team to research and find out more about what the event would look like. Sponsors had been asking us about Facebook (Panthers FB  launched 3 days earlier) and Twitter, where we had 9,000 followers for a while now. Scott came in and explained it to the group and after two or three follow-up meetings, everyone was on board. We needed a title sponsor. Allen Tate Company, the leading residential real estate company in the Carolinas, was the first company I called. They were the first of our sponsors in Charlotte to hire a full-time social media coordinator, Genevieve Jooste, (@genevievejooste) who talked to Scott about it as well separately.   Scott agreed to let me try to make the event a Panthers event and hire Media Emerging, his firm to be the race director. Dana Thomas, our event coordinator would run sign-ups and marketing of the event and any operations at the stadium and organize the awards party. Our sales team and account managers would work with our sponsors and include some as stops on the challenge and we’d need to find sponsors to cover the costs. Our mascot, Sir Purr (@pantherssirpurr) would do whatever we needed.

July 7, 2010 – Genevieve and the VP of Marketing for Allen Tate setup a meeting at the stadium to talk about fresh ideas for 2010 sponsorship elements. The goal was to have something with more concrete measurement capabilities and benefits. Allen Tate CEO Pat Riley bought in quickly after the presentation and agreed to be the title sponsor as they saw immediate fits with bringing in open house, offices with agents and combing both social and personal interaction.

Several planning lunches and brainstorming sessions continue. Allen Tate’s marketing team brainstormed and generated the final event name, Panthers Purrsuit and logo. Media Emerging generated YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts which we all helped manage.  One of the main questions we get is why are you charging for this and why $20. We just had to know how many people to plan for. We knew we get more folks for free but how could busy retail locations plan for an event not knowing if it would be 25 or 200? So we decided we’d charge about what our 5K race charges and instead of getting to run for 20 minutes you’d get a whole day of fun, free stuff, coupons, and companionship with a partner (not to mention great prizes).  Scott Hepburn and the assigned Panthers reps went out to each interested sponsor to help create exciting challenges for the teams to complete.

By the time registration ended in mid October we had two Panthers players help us with videos, Jon Beason (@jonbeason) and Everette Brown (@everettebrown). We had several teams make promotional videos after their entry and engaged in playful trash talking. Thirty-two teams signed up and they were all extremely enthusiastic, making costumes and uniforms and trying to encourage their friends to get involved as well.  The Panthers added a new sponsor to our roster as well in SportClips who saw the value in promoting Purrsuit across their 14 area stores since they too are very active in Facebook marketing and Twitter.

October 23, 2010 – Event day was a truly amazing sunny Chamber of Commerce weather day in Charlotte. After days of stuffing SWAG bags, filling envelopes with color coded clues, and delivering signage, we were ready. Teams started from Bank of America Stadium by kicking a field goal into an inflatable goal post and getting their pictures taken with Panthers mascot SirPurr. Teams were dispatched with their first clue at 1:00pm. After that, If you were in Charlotte and on Twitter from 1pm – 6pm you could not miss #Purrsuit Tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube videos. Not to mention teams of two building Lego houses on a real estate office sidewalk, scooping up empty sweet tea containers with their elbows in recycling bags, watching 3DTV, and playing paper football in a dining booth. All in response to challenges dreamed up by Panthers partners and Scott Hepburn. Some sponsors had the capability and the vision to dedicate resources to be on-site interacting with the contestants. Others came up with ways to be creative without expending many resources at all. I believe it is fair to say the stops where staff were there to meet and greet, instruct and compete against the teams were the favorites of the challengers. Allen Tate was certainly in this group, as was Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont and Bojangles’ Famous Chicken and Biscuits.  Their blogs, recaps, or photos are linked in their names above. We collected school supplies for classroom central, food for Second Harvest Food Bank, learned more about Goodwill’s job training and electronics recycling and garnered $10 text donations to the Library system.

To tie this all up in a bow Purrsuit was a success from a numbers perspective, mentions, sponsorship, interaction, donations, sales all were there and that is important. But the most gratifying part of the entire event by far was the Bud Light awards after party at Dandelion Market where we had a private room upstairs and we were able to have a cold one, tally up the points, give out the prizes and collapse from the exhaustion of a crazy day. The winners were funny, smart and gracious. Check out the pictures from our Facebook page and a full recap of all the media exposure and relevant numbers from the event are on this slideshare presentation (also included below).

And of course, there are more people to thank than I will be able to here but the event would not happen without Scott’s creativity (he wrote about his 5 A-Ha moments in the process here), Dana’s execution, the support of everyone at the Panthers from the top down and the bottom up and of course the vision of the Allen Tate Company team who continue to be leaders in real estate as well as social media and the rest of our sponsor and partner roster that participated.  I certainly can’t express enough gratitude for the support of the Sportsbiz community as well as the social media advocates and Panthers fans in Charlotte.

Mike Mahoney is a sponsorship sales executive for the Carolina Panthers with 5+ years of sponsorship sales experience. Prior to selling in the sports world he worked in major account sales at FedEx and SAP. Mike believes in the power of CRM and loves social media. You can follow him on Twitter (@mahoney) or find him on LinkedIn.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Brian Gainor. Brian is the Founder of Partnership Activation Inc., a venture that provides sports business professionals with sponsorship and marketing best practices, unique activation tactics, and innovative ways to drive revenue for their business. He also works for GMR Marketing.

As the sponsorship marketplace continues to mature across the globe, the airline category has remained alive and healthy as many carriers look to take their consumer engagement and hometown affiliation programs to new heights. Despite the global recession and fluctuations in oil prices, airlines have continued to invest in the sponsorship space, particularly in the government, arts, music festivals, and sports categories. Airlines typically leverage their partnership agreements to drive hometown affiliation awareness, engage with consumers in 1-to-1 settings, reward frequent flyers, and capitalize on B2B opportunities, but more airline carriers are beginning to activate their deals in new, innovative ways.

With a general understanding of the sponsorship landscape, here is a quick look at how a few of the leading airline carriers are activating their partnership agreements across the globe:

Emirates Airline

Emirates Airline leveraged its designation as an Official Sponsor of the 2010 World Cup and FIFA’s only Official Travel partner by executing several programs on the ground, in the air, and across the globe. Emirates activated its partnership on the ground in Johannesburg by featuring a giant inflatable display mirroring the airline’s A380 Airbus fleet that hosted a soccer kick challenge where consumers had an opportunity to compete against a virtual goalie to win prizes. The airline carrier leveraged its FIFA affiliation by providing team and association travel to and from the World Cup and treating several senior global media figures to an extraordinary FIFA World Cup experience. Emirates also extended its partnership rights to its flights and airport terminals, where passengers enjoyed exclusive broadcast rights of live and delayed World Cup matches while traveling.

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines leverages partnership agreements in several select markets to drive affiliation awareness and acquire new customers. The airline carrier currently has several partnerships in place, including an official agreement with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a collection of team deals.  Southwest Airlines recently brought its partnership with the Phoenix Suns of the NBA to life by executing a “Trading Places” promotion, where players, cheerleaders, and the Suns mascot  greeted travelers at the airport by taking boarding passes, making announcements, and interacting with consumers at the gate.

AirTran Airways

AirTran Airways has utilized auto racer Danica Patrick as a central figure in its sponsorship efforts. Over the past few years, AirTran has successfully leveraged a personal services agreement with Patrick to create several initiatives that engage consumers at the airport, trackside, and online. AirTran celebrated the start of the 2008 NASCAR season by featuring a team of Danica Patrick lookalikes, referred to as the Danica Patrick Pit Crew, working the airline ticket counter at Laguardia Airport in New York City. Here, the Pit Crew assisted travelers with their check-in process and ensured that they had a memorable airline experience. The airline brought its partnership to life for consumers at-track by executing a “Ride Shotgun with Danica” promotion that offered consumers an opportunity to win a trip to Miami where they could enjoy three days of VIP hospitaliy and take a ride with Danica in an Indy Racing Experience 2-Seater. From a digital standpoint, AirTran leverages its affiliation with Danica Patrick via an online video game, AirTranRaceway.com that rewards airline tickets to participants who log the fastest times competing against Danica while driving a luggage truck, people mover, catering truck, or stair car in a virtual race.

JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways celebrated its partnership with the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL) by unveiling a 22.5’ x 26’ airplane tailfin just outside of the team’s arena, the BankAtlantic Center. The giant tailfin, built off-site and transported in multiple pieces to the arena, serves as a gathering place for fans prior to games, concerts, and related events taking place at the venue. The area, known as “The JetBlue Tarmac”, is now considered a common venue destination for fans. JetBlue also leverages its partnership with the Panthers with several joint marketing initiatives, highlighted by a promotion that offers free tickets to fans who wear blue on the airline’s TrueBlue nights and to others who are willing sign up to become TrueBlue members.

Jon Kander, Valuation Analyst at IEG, and I decided to have a little back and forth discussion of the idea of integrating guarantees and team performance into sponsorships and sports business in general. Jon’s comments are in black and mine are in blue. Hope you enjoy our conversation!

Jon: I really enjoyed your latest blog post on guarantees in sports, especially the part where you made the distinction between “guarantees as a sales/marketing tactic” and “guarantees as a result of passion/emotion.” Emotional guarantees by players and fans have been around since people began playing and watching sports. However, sales-based guarantees appear to be a recent trend. While both can have a drastic impact on a team and its fan base, I was hoping we could delve further into the sales-based category. Is this purely a result of the economic downturn, an ever-increasing amount of available entertainment options, or something entirely different?

Also, the examples you brought up in your blog post were ticket sales-based. What are your thoughts on variable compensation as it relates to sponsorship fees? Are their instances where you would recommend incorporating a pay-for-performance model?

Russell: Thanks Jonathan. I don’t think the idea of using guarantees can be entirely attributed to the economic downturn, although there’s probably some relationship. From the ticket sales perspective, the guarantee is designed to overcome two objectives: the risk of team failure, since fans are less willing to financially support a losing team, and the financial reassurance, to try and make customers feel more comfortable with the value of their purchase. Even without the economic downturn, if a fan becomes too frustrated with the team’s on-field performance, they will still walk away, and if the team doesn’t live up to the “guarantee,” they risk potentially reinforcing the fan’s choice.

Connecting guarantees to sponsorships can have similar issues. Hopefully, the team sells the sponsor on the long-term relationship with the brand, and that brand needs to have value even if the team isn’t winning. There’s no question that winning always helps, but the more you tie a significant revenue source, such as season tickets or sponsorships, to the on-field performance, the more you risk potentially devaluing your brand. This is not to say there’s no place for pay-for-performance, but I believe it needs to be selectively and strategically applied. For example, I like the idea of escalator clauses with additional sponsor benefits when the team is performing well. Another option would be to offer additional “complimentary” benefits if a team under-performs – in this situation, you aren’t decreasing your revenue potential, but still try to compensate the sponsor with additional value to ensure they get the results they’re hoping for.

Finally, as a last resort, I think you can consider using a pay-for-performance style deal for a new customer or even a renewal if they absolutely insist and you believe there is no other option that can close the deal. However, when you open this door to one sponsor, others will find out and want the same type of opportunity, and I don’t think that’s a road you want to head down. Jonathan – what pay-for-performance structure do you feel can help mitigate the team risk but still drive sponsor value? Also, from the sponsor perspective, what are the biggest reasons why they would benefit from that approach? Are there reasons why that model could actually hurt the sponsor?

Jon: Great question. I would endorse a variable compensation model tied to delivery of benefits and a property ensuring its sponsors are achieving their ROO and ROI benchmarks. This can include establishing minimum performance milestones around attendance and an out clause if a property is not meeting expectations. Negotiating this type of sponsorship model would be a completely justifiable and prudent move on the part of the sponsor. Ideally, this would ensure that properties would work with its sponsors to better meet their objectives as well as force sponsors to think through what they are hoping to accomplish with a sponsorship investment on the front end of a negotiation/partnership.

On the other hand, I do not believe sponsorship fees should be tied to on-field performance. First, on-field success is no guarantee of fan loyalty – look at the Cleveland Browns vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. The former has one of the most loyal fan bases in country (coming from a biased Ohio boy) and the latter had to give away 20,000 tickets late in the season for a team in a pennant race. Second, I worry that this model enters the territory of sponsors unduly influencing a property’s decision-making. This has happened in college athletics by alumni promising large donations if the school fires its athletic director or coach. I wouldn’t want team execs firing or hiring a coach based on the potential loss of sponsorship revenue.

A sponsor could also be hurt by this type of model. If a sponsor requires a refund because it is unhappy with the on-field product, the organization could come across as disloyal and/or a fair-weather fan. That reputation would make it very difficult for the company to market itself to a team’s die-hard fans who have stuck by their favorite team through thick & thin. Their fan loyalty is unlikely to extend to the sponsor in this instance.

Despite my concerns detailed above, sponsorship fees linked to on-field performance appear to be more commonplace than in years past. Within the past month the French National soccer team paid a significant refund to many of its sponsors after its dismal World Cup performance. A few days later, England’s soccer governing body said that it believe it needs to link payouts more directly to performance if it hopes to secure new major partners for the national team. I also was in attendance at a conference where Bank of America’s former corporate sponsorship manager, Ray Bednar, argued that winning teams should get paid more in sponsorship than losing franchises. Do you think this is the next sponsorship trend? What impact do you see guaranteed on-field performance having on the both the sponsorship industry as well as the sports business landscape as a whole?

Russell: You brought up some great examples. I completely agree that winning does not guarantee fan loyalty, which for a sponsor is probably the biggest factor to identify in a property they should connect with. And in the right (or wrong) situation, I can see your analogy between athletic donors and performance-related sponsors becoming reality – you cannot put your organization in a position where business relationships can have undue influences on your on-field decision making.

There does seems to be a small trend developing, but I don’t see it becoming common practice because of the various risks we’ve discussed. Let’s take the French national team example. There was nothing specifically designed into their sponsor deals that I’m aware of. However, the team didn’t just under-perform – in many eyes, they embarrassed themselves and their country with how they handled the conflict between the players and their coach, leading to their quick World Cup exit. I imagine that the national team was at risk of losing several sponsors because of this. So as a proactive measure, they decided to refund several sponsors. To me, this was a relationship-saving decision more than a direct tie to performance. The goodwill generated by the refund can hopefully ensure their continued support of the national team in future years – you can almost think of it as a renewal discount more than a refund if things work out well.

In principle, I agree with Bednar’s statement that winning teams should get paid more. But even without direct pay-for-performance style contracts, isn’t this already happening? Winning teams almost always have the ability to generate more revenue than losing teams (additional short-term deals during a good season, better chance for long-term renewals, escalator clauses, maximizing all inventory, etc). And if they make the most of the good times, that can help carry them if team performance swings the other way. If organizations take the next step and directly integrate on-field performance guarantees into their sponsorships, I feel like all they’ll be doing is leaving revenue on the table during the downtimes. So I guess my position is that guarantees are still a bit to “gimicky” to be a significant aspect of sponsorships and sports business in general. Sponsorship, season tickets, premium sales and most significant revenue streams are ultimately based on long-term relationships, affinity and brand value. Guarantees shift the focus from the long-term relationship to the short-term transaction, and I think that’s bad for business.

I don’t write much about tennis here, so when a friend of mine sent me a press release about a tennis partnership that combines a major sporting event (US Open), a top athlete (Venus Williams), cool technology (a virtual interactive clinic), a top fashion line (Polo Ralph Lauren), a premium sponsor (Mercedes-Benz) and fundraising (Women’s Sports Foundation), I thought I would share some of the release with you. This is the type of partnership-driven event that really creates value for every party and brand involved, from the sponsors to the consumers.

POLO RALPH LAUREN PRESENTS THE LEGENDS CLINIC FEATURING VENUS WILLIAMS

In celebration of its sixth year as the Official Apparel Sponsor of the US Open Tennis Championships, Polo Ralph Lauren presents the Legends Clinic with Venus Williams, a live interactive virtual tennis clinic produced in partnership with Mercedes-Benz at New York’s SPORTIME Tennis Center on Randall’s Island on August 26 at 2:00PM EST. Tennis enthusiasts around the world will tune in as seven-time Grand Slam Champion Venus Williams answers questions, demonstrates technique and offers hints and tips on how to improve your game during this live one-hour interactive clinic. The clinic will reach a global audience as it will be streamed live online exclusively at RalphLauren.com and accessible on mobile devices at m.ralphlauren.com/USOpen.

“The Legends Clinic is ground-breaking. This is a dynamic way of connecting fashion, technology and sports in a way that has never been done before,” said David Lauren, Senior Vice President of Advertising, Marketing and Corporate Communications. “We are providing our customers around the world a unique experience to personally connect with one of the world’s premier tennis legends while she is engaged in her sport.”

Ralph Lauren will design a limited-edition dress in partnership with Eleven to be worn by Venus Williams during the Legends Clinic as well as a special limited-edition US Open polo shirt to accompany the collection. Both the Ralph Lauren designed limited-edition dress and polo shirt will be available on-site at the US Open Polo Ralph Lauren shop and online at RalphLauren.com. Additionally, the limited-edition US Open polo shirt will be exclusively available at Macy’s Herald Square in New York. Fifteen percent of sales will be donated to the Women’s Sports Foundation, dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through sport and physical activity.

“It is truly exciting to partner with Polo Ralph Lauren in this unique endeavor and to bring my professional expertise and personal experiences to tennis fans around the world,” said Venus Williams.

The Ralph Lauren US Open collection is available on-site at the US Open Polo Ralph Lauren shop open for the duration of the tournament. The store also features a wide selection of items such as tote bags, tennis dresses, skirts, sweaters, commemorative caps, classic Polo shirts for men and women. The collection will also be available at select Ralph Lauren stores, department stores and online at Ralphlauren.com.

As part of the Legends Clinic, Mercedes-Benz, the official vehicle of the US Open Tennis Championship and presenting sponsor of the Men’s Single Championship, will highlight its new SLS AMG supercar that draws inspiration from the 1954 300SL Gullwing, a legendary car known for its iconic style and innovation.

This announcement reinforces Polo Ralph Lauren’s leadership in major sporting initiatives. The company also serves as the Official Outfitter of the Wimbledon Championships and will be the Proud Outfitter for the US Olympic and Paralympic Teams at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Polo Ralph Lauren also sponsors an elite roster of professional golfers, as well as the Blackwatch Polo Team.

Earlier today, I received a sponsorship solicitation email, which in itself is not unusual. I get all sorts of different requests and proposals through the site. However, there were some things about this particular email I felt should be addressed in a post. First, take a look at the edited version of the email below – all identifying content has been removed (substitute content in CAPS) to protect the innocent:

From:      FULL NAME <SALES REP EMAIL ADDRESS>
To:            <SALES REP EMAIL ADDRESS>
Date:        Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at ##:##
Subject:  SPORT Sponsorship Opportunity

Hello,

My name is REP NAME, and I am a TITLE of a sports agency located in CITY called COMPANY-HAME-HERE (www.WEBSITE.com). I am writing this email on behalf of our affiliate agency, OTHER-COMPANY-NAME (www.OTHERWEBSITE.com). I noticed you are in a sports related business, so I wanted to offer a sponsorship opportunity. We represent numerous ATHLETES. THIS SPORT is the fastest growing sport across the world. We are offering you the opportunity to sponsor these ATHLETES.  Sponsorships include your logo on ITEM 1, ITEM 2 and ITEMS 3 AND 4. Please see the attached Power Point for more details.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, please contact me via email at EMAIL-ADDRESS or cell phone at PHONE #. I appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

FIRST-NAME
CONTACT INFORMATION

So, what problems did you notice? Here are just a few that immediately jump off the page:

1. “Hello,” is not an acceptable greeting. The person sending this didn’t even take the time to type in my first and/or last name. If they have my email address and are sending this to me, they better know my name.
2. Look at the email header. The “From” and “To” address were the same, meaning that I was BCC’d (blind carbon copied). That tells me this same exact email was sent to who knows how many people at the same time. Not exactly a personalized sales pitch. And if you can’t take the time to write me a personalized email, what does that say about how I matter as a prospect, let alone an actual client?
3. No where in the entire email is there any reference to my company name or what we do, other than being a “sports related business.” If you have no idea who I work for or what I do, and how can you demonstrate a fit with your property and how will you generate any interest?
4. The sender is rattling off inventory option in the very first email sent. Before you start to discuss any sponsorship details, you need to assess what value you can provide for the sponsoring company, and then tailor your package accordingly. Just sticking my logo on different things does not provide value.
5. We know this sport is “fast growing,” but that doesn’t mean anything without context or fit. This sport may be growing exponentially, but if your property doesn’t reach my target audience, that size and growth is useless.
6. This particular person isn’t just representing their own agency, but a larger affiliate agency as well. Now any problems with this approach reflect poorly on both organizations.
7. The attached Powerpoint file (not shared here) was actually pretty good and had some nice data in it (albeit not personalized at all). However, the odds of someone opening the attachment from this email are minimal at best.

For the record, I replied back to the sender. He seemed very apologetic for the mistakes and interested in learning what he can do better next time, so I am writing this post as a tip for him and anyone else out there trying to drum up business. What other problems do you see in this approach and what tips can you share with other readers?

Today’s post is courtesy of Brian Gainor, Founding Editor of PartnershipActivation.com. This article was featured in the July 2010 Partnership Activation monthly newsletter. I highly encourage everyone to sign up for it – always a great source of sponsorship news and marketing best practices.

Are You Providing Truly Exclusive Experiences for Fans?

Miller Lite and the Tampa Bay Rays recently teamed up to execute a “Ray for a Day” promotion that truly offered one (1) lucky winner the ultimate Rays game day experience. Miller Lite called on agent Drew Rosenhaus to host the winner, Andrew Marante, and represent him in negotiations with Rays SVP Mark Fernandez, President Matt Silverman, and GM Andrew Friedman that officially made him a “Ray for a Day”.

Following the negotiations and official press conference, Marante was presented with a collection of prizes, which included a one-year supply of Miller Lite, a one-day rookie salary, an authentic, customized Rays jersey and hat, (4) pre-game field passes to watch batting practice, (4) game tickets in Row 1 – directly behind the Rays dugout, an on-field meet & greet with Rays Manager Joe Maddon, a box of authentic Miller Lite-branded Rawlings baseballs, a Miller Lite/Rays neon sign, a Miller Lite beer fridge, a commemorative press release issued by the Rays, and the opportunity to throw out the first pitch prior to the game.

The promotion, managed by GMR Marketing from ideation to execution, was picked up by a host of media outlets and the Rays organization featured a (1) minute clip of the press conference on the jumbotron during pre-game warm-ups and at the bottom of the 4th inning.

Miller Lite leveraged relationships with several retail partners (Publix, Total Wine and More, Buffalo Wild Wings, Winn-Dixie, ABC Liquor, Hess, and Beef O’Brady’s) to execute the Ray for a Day sweepstakes, which tasked consumers ages 21+ with filling out entry forms between May 1– June 6 for a chance to win.

Editor’s Note: This type of ultimate fan experience provides the best level of exposure and activation for a team sponsor. This particular program was able to combine point-of-sale messaging, customer data collection, prime in-venue activation and media exposure, not to mention providing this lucky Rays fan the experience of his life. Great job between the team, agency and sponsor in executing all of the elements involved in this promotion.  ~RS

Banking and credit card sponsors are a standard part of the industry, and one that makes a lot of sense. Sporting events provide a great opportunity to reach a large, passionate audience, and affinity-based credit cards that feature a favorite teams logo and offer special team rewards can be a easy sell to these fans. However, what about sports outside of the typical big four (or five, if you include soccer)? There are opportunities for sponsors to connect with the same type of passion and affinity through participation sports on the local level.

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) and Nationwide Bank have done just that with the largest, most popular participation sport in the country. Yes, bowling is that huge, with over 69 million bowlers and a $10 billion annual impact on the economy (I don’t know about you, but I was shocked when I saw those numbers).

Using the same logic as the traditional team/league affinity credit card programs, Nationwide’s partnership with USBC will provide card holders a credit on their membership renewal (which can be set to automatically renew, helping USBC’s membership efforts) and bonus rewards from USBC-related merchants and purchases. USBC members will benefit from these card features, while Nationwide will benefit from the expected increase in card owners, related revenue and increased brand value. Based on that large number of bowlers in this country and their increasing level of participation (up 4% from last year), this is a great audience for Nationwide to connect with.

This same model can easily be applied to other participation sports and with sponsors in various industry segments. I enjoy seeing all the ways that these types of corporate partnerships can be positive for everyone involved, from the partner to the property and down to the individual consumers.

We are days away from arguably the most important and historic free agency period in NBA history. The biggest question is, where will LeBron James sign? Stay at home in Cleveland? Hit the Big Apple? What about Chicago? The sports media cannot stop talking about this question, with everyone spouting their own theories and “insider” information. The same story goes for Wade, Bosh, Stoudemire, Johnson and others, although not quite on the same scale.

While all NBA teams need to wait until July 1 to start officially pursuing these free agents and July 8 to actually sign any of them, there is an incredible “signing” opportunity sitting out there right now that no one has taken advantage of yet. No need to wait until July!

Why hasn’t a single company stepped up and “signed” LeBron to a new endorsement deal during this pre-free agency buzz? Why haven’t we seen articles, press releases, tweets and more with the huge headline of “LeBron James Signs New Deal”? This seems like such a no-brainer for any company looking to make a big endorsement splash during a period of huge offseason media attention.

Remember how much buzz State Farm got for the fake LeBron James / Cleveland Browns signing campaign that they ran in 2009? That seemed to have been a very effective campaign for them in an industry that doesn’t generally sign athletes to endorsement deals (most insurance companies concentrate on team and league sponsorships). Imagine how big a LeBron James signing campaign could have been…and could still be?

I know companies want to know what team and market an athlete will be playing in before committing a large amount of money to an athlete, but seriously, we’re talking about LeBron James, currently the most iconic figure in professional basketball. The team almost doesn’t matter, so why hasn’t this happened?

Attention Corporate America – time is running out! Have your people call his people right away. And if LeBron’s people are reading this right now, I’d be happy to sign him right now, as long as he’d do it for free! The buzz would be huge…call me (973-498-TBOS)!

After a hectic couple of weeks, I need to ramp up my writing again. So let’s get it started today with some links and recaps of some interesting sports business stories from the past couple of days.

Brits May Challenge Visa’s 2010 Olympics Exclusivity – Marc Perton, The Consumerist (thanks to @khuda1 for the link)

As one the highest level sponsors of the Olympics, Visa has benefited not only from the traditional sponsorship elements, but also complete exclusivity for any credit card purchases made at the Games. The Office of Fair Trading in Great Britain has some issues with this, as it restricts commerce and hinders open competition in the marketplace. This reminds me a bit of beer and beverage sponsorships here in the United States. In order to not restrict competition, the pouring rights for a particular stadium cannot be directly tied to a sponsorship for that company. This is definitely a story to watch for the 2010 (and future) Olympics. If this aspect of the sponsorship is overturned, does the sponsorship hold the same value to Visa? And would they still be required to pay the full cost of their deal?

How Much Will Hayward Cost the Pacers? – Darren Rovell, CNBC

It was almost the “perfect” scenario for the Indiana Pacers. They were one pick away from being able to take their hometown hero Gordon Hayward in the 2010 NBA Draft, until the Jazz swooped in and selected him. This could have been one of those unique opportunities where a team could have made a draft decision (outside of the top 2-3 picks) that fits the team on the court and would provide an immediate lift to ticket sales off the court. Darren Rovell reminds us of other past situations where some teams have made picks with too much focus on the revenue side (the Charlotte Bobcats picking two UNC players in 2005) and where other teams looked past the short-term revenue lift and stuck to their on-field preferences (Houston Texans passing over Vince Young and the same Pacers selecting Reggie Miller over Steve Alford).

Old Navy co-sponsors Coney Island hot-dog contest – Adrianne Pasquarelli, Crain’s New York

Hot dog eating may not be viewed as a sport, but competitive eating has grown in popularity over the past few years, with more media coverage, attendees, and revenue. The Coney Island competition is the biggest event that Major League Eating runs, and through their partnership with Old Navy, they have created two new revenue streams: the sponsorship itself and jersey sales. That’s right, you can buy an official jersey for a hot-dog eating competition. But don’t laugh – as the article points out, over  1 million people tuned in to watch last year’s event, with another 35,000 people attending it live.

On a quick personal note, I just got married over the past weekend, which was the most incredible day of my life! With everything going on, I do not have time to blog this week, so here are two of posts “from the vault” that I really liked and wanted to share with you all again. Thanks, and I’ll see you all next week.

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BASIC ECONOMICS IN SPORTS TODAY (originally published on 11/17/2008)

I was thinking more about the economy of sports, so I decided to write about some of the basic concepts and apply them to the current situation. I know I am oversimplifying some of this, but I think its an interesting exercise nonetheless.

Law of Demand: As price increases, demand decreases.

• Result: Ticket prices have increased significantly over the past decade. This increase had been consistent with and driven by the demand, as seen in the high degree of sellouts across the major sports. However, price increases over the last two years have been met with a drop in attendance, meaning that sports has passed the equilibrium point.

Law of Supply: As price increases, supply increases.

• Result: Over the past decade, the actual number of sports and sporting events have increased along with prices (the only ways to increase supply are expand stadiums or host more events). This increase included extreme sports (X Games), niche sports (PBR), and international exhibitions (Olympic sports & soccer). Now with the drop in demand and ticket prices, we are seeing signs of the supply dropping (e.g. my previous post mentioned the cancellation of the Tour of Georgia).

Price Elasticity of Demand: Demand is “inelastic” when the quantity demanded decreases slowly relative to a price increase. Demand is “elastic” when the quantity demanded decreases faster relative to a price increase.

• Result: We have seen price elasticity in sports shift from fairly inelastic to more elastic over the past two years. There are several things that impact this shift, including substitute products (more sports and entertainment alternatives mean people will choose other options when prices increase), % of income (as ticket prices equate to a larger % of income, people become more resistant to price increases), and necessity (tickets are not a need while other needs have also increased in price, thus there is higher resistance to ticket price increases).

Again, I’m just looking at some very basic concepts, without considering the multitude of other important factors. While there are a lot of “negative” news items related to the economy, it really is not surprising when you drill down to the basics. Sports has overshot its economic equilibrium. Adjustments will have to be made across all of the different sports, starting with a basic reduction in price, supply, or both, until we get back to a more stable equilibrium.

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THE REAL ROI (originally published on 9/11/2008)

So your company just paid $1 million to become a sponsor of Team X for the calendar year. At the end of the year, you tally up the value of all the exposure you got from being a sponsor. The guaranteed television advertising, the press releases and news coverage, the radio spots, the website impressions, the signage viewers, etc. At the end of all your adding, you find out that you got $3 million worth of exposure for your $1 million sponsorship. Wow, that’s a 3 to 1 return on your investment, otherwise known as ROI.

Well, actually it isn’t. What you just calculated is the media value of your sponsorship. All this is telling you is that you got a great value on your purchase. You essentially saved 67% off the regular price – not bad at all. This value is easily confused with and mislabeled as ROI. The question is, how can you determine what your ROI actually is?

Without going into all the details, your ROI is your actual bottom-line, dollar return divided by your costs. So lets say that you can accurately determine that, because of your $1 million sponsorship, your sales increased by $5 million, compared to the previous year when you were not a sponsor. Does that mean your ROI is actually 5 to 1? No, but we’re getting closer. Your sales increased by $5 million – a substantial increase. But your profit margin is only 50%. The results is that your ACTUAL return on your investment is $2.5 million – an ROI of 2.5 to 1.

So what does all of this mean? Here are the key takeaways:

1. Do not be fooled by measurement labeled as ROI that are not ROI. ROI comes down to bottom-line impact on profits (not sales, profits!)
2. Calculating ROI can be difficult. You need to put systems in place that will accurately measure what profits can be directly attributed to a sponsorship. This is a challenge, but its not impossible.
3. With corporate budgets tightening every day, companies need to really focus on metrics like ROI. If your team or agency can help get to those numbers and demonstrate a real return on a company’s investment, you will keep them as a partner and a client.

Since you are sitting there reading this, I don’t need to tell you about the value of blogs (and sports blogs in particular) in the marketing and social media landscape. However, it seems as if that understanding is now reaching the large-scale consumer products industry. In particular, I’m referring to the recent announcement that Blogs With Balls 3 (BWB3), a sports bloggers conference that has only been around for about a year, just signed on Proctor & Gamble to be their presenting sponsor. In particular, P & G is specifically focusing on their “Official Locker Products of the NFL” brand and line of products in this event sponsorship.

I had the change to attend the first Blogs With Balls event in New York last June and came away very impressed. The panels deal with very important topics in sports media, including advertising, traditional vs. new media, branding, interactive content and more. While most of the attendees themselves are blog authors and publishers, I felt like anyone in the sports community (teams, leagues, media outlets, brands, etc.) would have learned a great deal from the event.

Several of the original sponsors are back again, including SB Nation, Bleacher Report and YardBarker, which makes sense considering the conference audience. However, I’m very pleased to see a company like P&G (not to mention Captain Morgan, Guinness, and Fox Sports among others) recognize the value in associating themselves with the sports blogging community through an event like this. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them further increase their involvement with the sports social media landscape after BWB3 is over.

For more information on Blogs With Balls 3 in Chicago, including details on how to attend, with www.blogswithballs.com.

A friend of mine just passed along this interesting approach to a soccer jersey sponsorship. Please watch this video:

What a creative approach to a jersey sponsorship! They found a way to create positive brand value and a connection with Racing fans by pulling their logo out of the mix. The result was an organic response in support of the brand through other communication and social channels (along with potentially making other team sponsors and competitors look bad).

My question is, is this a sustainable approach? How long will the goodwill from fans last? Without the constant visibility on the jersey, will the sponsor be able to generate equivalent value for the cost of their “jersey sponsorship? What do you think?

After reading about Dallas Braden’s perfect game, which was also the 2nd no-hitter in Major League Baseball this year, I realized that this type of accomplishment could easily be associated with a sponsor in a positive way for the sponsor, the sport and the player involved. Think about it for a moment – we already have presenting/naming sponsors for several major awards (NBA MVP presented by Kia, the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year, etc.), but there are so many great individual accomplishments beyond awards that brands would benefit from associating with. Here are a few quick examples that I thought of:

• Baseball:  N0-hitters, hitting for the cycle, triple plays
• Basketball:  Triple-doubles, 40/50 point games
• Hockey:  Hat tricks
• Football:  Kickoff return TDs, 200 yards rushing/receiving, perfect passer rating

I think my baseball examples probably work the best for this idea. I know some people may feel that this tarnishes the purity of the game, but sponsors have been such a present part of the game for so long now, I believe that argument has lost it’s merit. Take Braden’s performance yesterday – how damaging would it be for the media broadcast to congratulate Braden on behalf of a premium brand like Lexus. Then in his next game, Lexus could present him with a brand new car to congratulate him for his “perfection”, an idea that Lexus would happily associate with their brand. Or at the end of the season, there could be a special event or ceremony hosted by Lexus to recognize all players that achieved the accomplishment. The sponsorship would be at a league level, and trickle down to all the teams. Since these events are rare, I’m sure other elements could be incorporated to provide more value in both directions.

So what do you think of my idea?

So your team has made the playoffs – excellent! This is what your sales and marketing staff has been waiting for. Time to capitalize on it, sell those playoff tickets and rake in the cash. But wait a second…we’re not sold out? People aren’t knocking down the doors for seats? We sold out the upper-deck but still have good seats left? What do we do?

If this was the regular season, the easiest thing to do would be to discount the seats. Teams are always offering special promo codes and ticket offers to their fans through their website, email list or other communication channel. But in the playoffs, this can look really bad. This is a time when your product should be in demand and sell at a higher price point, so publicly discounting tickets has the effect of:

• Generating bad PR (makes it seem like your fans aren’t supporting the team)
• Angering existing buyers, especially season ticket holders that have already bought full playoff strips (i.e. tickets to all playoff games)
• Potentially flooding the secondary market, making it harder to sell your tickets directly

So how can you discount your playoff tickets without discounting your playoff tickets? I’ve seen two teams this year use a very successful strategy to move these tickets. It’s all about collaborating with your corporate partners. Compare these two scenarios:

1. Team X can’t sell out their playoff game, so they discount their tickets, creating all the negative effects described above.
2. Sponsor Y of Team X creates a special “Sponsor Y Playoff Pack” offer at a discounted price that the team and sponsor promote together.

In the 2nd scenario, you end up with the same results of getting lower-priced tickets in the marketplace to hopefully sell out your building, but instead of a negative perception for your team, the sponsor builds a positive perception my providing a service to fans of the team. Everyone wins with this plan: fans buy cheaper tickets, sponsor build brand affinity and the team has a sold out venue for the big game. This strategy can also be effective during the regular season as a way to “discount” premium inventory (suite and club seat) for low-interest games without devaluing your product.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Deandra Duggans and was originally published on her blog at sportsandalatte.wordpress.com.

You may or may not have seen “Logorama,” the short film that took home an Oscar earlier this year for “Best Animated Short Film.”  It’s a film that explores the way that logos are increasingly embedded in our existence.  While the movie discusses the ubiquity of branding and leaves one to ask is it too much?  Well I don’t think so.  Plus, that’s not my call and I think it’s completely subjective. What it did make me observe more carefully is the logo placement and corporate alignment as it relates to sports.

Of course corporate sponsorship runs rampant in the NBA and there’s no better time than now for presenting sponsors to align themselves with one of the most premier stages in all of sports: The NBA Playoffs.

Check out the presenting sponsors for some of the playoff contenders (note: most of these were splash page elements on the teams’ websites, so obviously there are some teams that are missing):

(Atlanta Hawks Playoffs Presented by Aarons)

(Cleveland Cavaliers Playoffs Presented by Cub Cadet)
Side note: I like that one athlete isn’t singled out…great concept of “teamwork”

(Boston Celtics Playoffs presented by Arbella Insurance)
Side note: this is my favorite piece of creative out of all of them. I appreciate how clean, yet intense it is.

(Charlotte Bobcats Playoffs “powered by” Budweiser, Kobalt, Presbyterian Hospital and McDonalds)

(Denver Nuggets Playoffs presented by KeyBank)

(Miami Heat Playoffs presented by Miccosukee Resort & Gaming)

(Phoenix Suns Playoffs presented by Casino Arizona)

(Spurs playoffs presented by HEB and Toyota)

Of course many of the presenting sponsors are also presenting sponsors of the team as a whole.  It’s just really interesting to see the amount of involvement by corporations and the partnerships they have with sports entities and how sports is a great platform to enhance brand awareness and brand image.

Deandra is currently working in the sports business industry as a Media & Marketing Specialist.  She is a graduate of Georgia State University’s M.S. Sports Business Management program and attended undergrad at NC State. Her previous work experience includes time spent with Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome, GSU Athletics, NC State Athletics and the Women’s Sports Foundation. In her spare time, she does freelance graphic design (www.deandraduggans.com) and shares her talents with grassroots sports organizations. You can reach her via email at deandra@deandraduggans.com or on Twitter at twitter.com/SportsandaLatte.

Whenever I can, I like to pass along information on events or special offers that I believe will benefit our blog readers, and this is definitely one of those cases. Kim Skildum-Reid, Director of Power Sponsorship (www.PowerSponsorship.com), is organizing two sponsorship workshops in the Los Angeles area next month.

• Tuesday, May 25 – Power Partnerships – Full-day workshop for sponsorship seekers. This workshop provides a very comprehensive approach to raising and retaining more sponsorship and effectively marketing your event. By the time you walk out of this workshop, you will have the mindset, skills, and confidence to make best-practice work for you and significantly elevate your results.

• Wednesday, May 26 – Amazing Sponsorship Results – Full-day workshop for corporate and government sponsors. This interactive course equips corporate and government sponsors with the skills, tools, and mindset to create powerful, cost-effective sponsorship programs that really deliver on objectives and create a major point of difference with competitors.

In addition, all participants receive a bonus coaching session from Kim (value US $700) for use any time in the next 12 months.

As a special bonus, as a reader of The Business of Sports, you can use the discount code sportsbiz to receive $50 off the cost of admission, and if you register before April 23, you will get the early-bird discount which is another $50 off.

For full details on these two events, click here to download the PDF brochure. Event registration links can be found at powersponsorship.eventbrite.com, and you can learn more about Kim and Power Sponsorship at www.powersponsorship.com.

On Tuesday night, I finally took in a New Jersey Devils game at the Prudential Center, which opened back in October of 2007. Having been to several Devils games at the older Continental Airlines Arena (now the Izod Center), I was looking forward to seeing what the new building had to offer. Here are some quick thoughts from the game, including some tweets that I sent during the game.

Stadium Environment

• Taking in the Devils/Bruins game at the Prudential Center. My 1st time here at “The Rock.” Definitely like it http://tweetphoto.com/16470860
• Prudential Center has a great open-back design on one end of the mezzanine seating/concourse area. Unique feel for http://tweetphoto.com/16475479
  • It almost had the same feeling I get when walking a baseball concourse, where you can still see the on-field action while you get to your seat.
• They’re doing Score-O (four fans try a shot from mid-ice with most of the net blocked off). I did Score-O back in high school and made it on the first shot! One of the sports highlights of my life.
  • I was 16 when I did this contest, so that means they’ve been doing it for at least 13 seasons now, and fans still seem to enjoy it, especially when the first guy made the shot.
• Fun video during the break of the Devils’ ushers dancing to the music. Crowd got into it too. http://tweetphoto.com/16480551
  • I love when the personality of the arena staff comes through like this.
• Guy not paying attention to the mascot’s t-shirt toss just got hit it the back of the head w/ a shirt. At least it wasn’t a puck!
• There was a “deck” in one lower corner of the arena where the Devils had some female dancers. The location was odd as only part of the arena could see them, and only some of their dances ended up on the center-hung scoreboard.
• They also featured jerseys of all New Jersey high school and college hockey teams hanging on the walls throughout the entire building.
• The food selection seemed pretty standard with typical prices. The one “extra” that I really noticed was the “Taste of Newark” section on the mezzanine concourse that featured food from popular local restaurants.
• The egress from the mezzanine level was a little rough. They could definitely benefit from additional escalators.

Sponsorship

• The permanent naming rights signage for Prudential Center is prominently featured everywhere inside and outside the building, and always includes both the company name and logo for full branding impact.
• PNC Bank has a strong presence, particularly in the PNC Tower, which is also where the box office is located (more visibility). You can’t miss PNC in the building – they also had frequent appearances on the scoreboard and LED.
• Frank’s Red Hot Sauce was just on the scoreboard and ribbon LED. Don’t think I’ve seen them in any other sports sponsorships.
• Great presence by Verizon at the Prudential Center. Phone demos, sales staff, free co-branded t-shirts, games and more http://tweetphoto.com/16477636
  • I cannot over-emphasize how effective this activation was. There was a “Text Battle” station where kids used Verizon phones to answer Devils trivia, a long line to get the free Devils/Verizon t-shirt (which also included a product demo), and Verizon sales/service staff answering questions and showing off new phones.
• The Belvedere Vodka Ice Lounge premium club seating. Looks very nice inside. http://tweetphoto.com/16477896
• @SeatGeek I walked past it (The Fire Lounge) on the other side. Can’t get into either tonight but they look great. Love the Fire and Ice theme between the two.

Sales

• My favorite Devils sales rep (@isatten) swung by and dropped off a season ticket flyer. And I’m actually contemplating it.
• The Devils have put together some creative season ticket offers, including a 12 month payment plan, guaranteed early purchase/renewal benefits, additional higher-end pay-in-full benefits, and 15 different top-tier prize drawings that all early-buyers are eligible for.
• The team also offers a $15 and $30 price point for select locations, which is a pretty affordable option for hockey tickets (and I firmly believe there is no such thing as a bad seat for a hockey game).

I have to say that I came away very impressed with the arena across the board. I’m sure the Devils are quite happy with it as well!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Mike Mahoney. Make sure to check out Part 1 from Monday.

What is it like to attend IEG’s annual sponsorship conference? Is it right for you?

IEG2010 was a perfect mix of presentations, Interactive roundtables, tradeshow booth visits, group networking, and 1 on 1 meetings facilitated by IEG. The conference started with sessions on Sunday afternoon and ran through Wednesday afternoon. The daily schedule was packed from 7:30 a.m. when the networking breakfasts would begin until the evening receptions ended. If there was food being served it meant there was the ability to network with colleagues in the room. IEG helps by setting up industry or category tables at which to break bread.

Before I went to Chicago, I heard from a few previous attendees that the return on the conference was not great because they did not close enough prospects from the event. If this is your only goal, it’s unlikely you’ll go back to the conference. I witnessed several large sponsors get hammered with business cards and proposals from property sellers after their sessions. I understand many properties never get this type of audience and they were determined to get in front of these sponsorship buyers. But to me, this is the wrong tact to take. These presenters just laid out how they buy sponsorships in their presentation. Take that information back, decide if you can create an offer to match what they are looking for and then re-connect. Next, use that information to take a strategic approach on ten other prospects that are already on your list back home. That is where your ROI will come from. If we cause sponsors to have a bad experience here by making them feel like bait in a shark tank, why will they come back and share how to get their business?

I arrived at the conference knowing direct sales were not my number one goal. I wanted to meet colleagues, learn best practices, and how to help measure their return on sponsorship (or as I learned at IEG2010 – return on activation). I believe I met this objective and the conference will have a significant ROI for my organization over the next 12 months. Let your ROI come from how you sell in your market, not at the conference. And as far as conference etiquette goes, when there are 250 people in a ballroom you should not ask a question where the answer will only be relevant to one person (i.e. you). I heard “Why don’t you sponsor my event?” and I heard it more than once. I am pretty sure the sponsor does not appreciate being put on the spot and I know 248 other folks don’t become raving fans either.

One of the great aspects of the conference was having IEG set up 1-on-1 meetings, or speed sponsor dating. Properties could request a sponsor category and then IEG would match you up with one of their “Sponsors in Residence” who was attending. My scheduled appointment was with a sponsor that my company just started purchasing IT products from. I took an email from my IT director saying how we loved their service and how much he planned to buy. I thought this would be a great starting part of discussion. I also did not want to present to the client but get to know them for future conversations. It turns out my contact took ill, but IEG found me another open appointment with a sponsor so I took that meeting instead.

So if you want to learn best practices from other great sponsorship professionals and see the real research and case studies that explain where the sponsorship industry is headed, IEG’s next conference will be for you. Make friends while you are there, and make sales calls when you get back to the office.

Mike Mahoney is a sponsorship sales executive based out of Charlotte, NC with 5+ years of sponsorship sales experience. Prior to selling in the sports world he worked in major account sales at FedEx and SAP. Mike believes in the power of CRM and loves social media. You can follow him on Twitter (@mmahoney13) or find him on LinkedIn.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Mike Mahoney. Check back later this week for Part 2!

I attended IEG’s 2010 Sponsorship Conference Themed – “Unbound” last week, and Russell asked me for my key takeaways, especially ones that could not fit under 140 characters. This was my first time at IEG’s annual conference, and that was true for many I met this week. The theme was brought home in the keynote and across many sessions. “Unbound” really stood for being creative and thinking way outside the box. The best example of this is clearly Red Bull. Red Bull is a brand, yet they have become a property by creating their own events. They now have over 150 a year where they sponsor themselves which gives them total control of the consumer and brand experience. Red Bull wants to be inserted in the action, ex. Shaun White’s secret snow park and the content and press that spun off from that truly unique idea.

Theme two was measurement; this is IEG’s core competency. I walked away clearly feeling brands can and should measure the impact of sponsorship, but you need the objectives outlined and the measurement plan in place before you start. Feel free to take baby steps and measure only Business to Business sales or do basic surveys about your brand before during and after the sponsorship. Another great measurement comment was that you really measure activation, not sponsorship. Coke in conjunction with their sponsorship of the Houston Rodeo tried multiple activation strategies with the same sponsorship across five different retailers and found that one with grocery chain HEB was the most effective with a 288% increase in sales, year over year. I personally feel to measure sponsorship ROI, the real data will exist within the sponsor’s accounting system most of the time with sales lift or other measurements, but properties should help ensure the tactics used with sponsorship will help the bottom line of the customer.

Topic three was activation and the buzzword bingo word of the day was “integrated.” It really means a 360 degree view of all possible channels and platforms to get the sponsor’s message across. Great integrated sponsorship examples included Taco Bell’s, ‘Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” campaign ran by Inter-Sport. They used television, print, radio, PR and Internet to drive folks into Taco Bell for a free taco once a base was stolen in the World Series. QuickTrip, a convenience store chain, said all of their sponsorships must contain a digital component that will help build their database of customers they can market to in other ways and they are seeing those campaigns resulting in more in-store purchases by their “fans”.

The fourth focus of the event was really for properties and how to sell sponsorship in these economic times. I hosted a pair of roundtables entitled “Developing additional benefits to attract new sponsors.” These roundtables were attended by 20+ properties and offered an interactive discussion that I moderated. Great success stories of adding value to retain or gain new sponsors included the Redskins Powerboard (a digital content dashboard sponsored by Comcast) and Spevco’s Dallas Cowboys mobile Hall of Fame which can travel around to various Cowboys’ sponsors to drive store traffic. I am also proud to learn that nearly every property attending of every size is creating custom sponsorships. The Platinum, Gold and Silver sponsorships are going the way of the Apatosaurus.

Social media came up in quite a few sessions but it still seemed somewhat mysterious and I did not hear great success stories, but a promising session by Frito-Lay had to be cancelled at the last minute. There was a valuable roundtable on the legal issues of social media contests and promotions by Winston and Strawn LLP with a handbook takeaway that I will refer to many times over the next year. Perhaps I’ll have to submit our case study with Allen Tate and our first two Twitter/Digital promotions in 2009 for the 2011 conference.

Later this week in Part 2, I’ll have thoughts on how the conference ran, who should attend, suggestions for improvement and if I think I will be able to make the investment pay off for my company and how you should it expect to pay off for yours.

Mike Mahoney is a sponsorship sales executive based out of Charlotte, NC with 5+ years of sponsorship sales experience. Prior to selling in the sports world he worked in major account sales at FedEx and SAP. Mike believes in the power of CRM and loves social media. You can follow him on Twitter (@mmahoney13) or find him on LinkedIn.

I wanted to share three emails that I recently received from a couple of professional sports franchises (I’m signed up for several team newsletters, so I can follow trends and best practices in email marketing).

Email 1 from the Houston Texans (right):

While a large percentage of male football fans consider cheerleaders to be a valuable part of the football experience, I imagine most of them have little use for a cheerleader tryouts email. Now I’m sure that some people on the list may have forwarded this to friends or family that might be interested, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a larger than normal number of people unsubscribed from the Texans’ newsletter because this just wasn’t relevant to them.

If you have a niche message like this that you want to share, you either need to find a more narrow, appropriate segment of your list to communicate with (which you could identify through a regular survey of your email newsletter members or via other web-based data collection methods), or you include this message as part of a larger newsletter that provides value to all readers.

Email 2 from the Los Angeles Lakers (below):

The subject line for this email was “Lakers Fans: Ready to “TOSS” Your Reading Glasses? Turn to the Assil Eye Institute” – and that was the only reference to the Lakers in this message (other than the use of yellow and purple text). Email marketing is a very important way in which a team can drive value for their sponsors, and with a team like the Lakers that have an easy time selling both tickets and sponsorship, this is one way they can easily generate additional revenue. However, they’re doing it at the expense of their email database, because even more so than the Texans’ email, this message could end up driving more unsubscribes than click-thrus. Plus, without more integration with the Lakers brand, the partner isn’t getting nearly as much value as they could be. Let’s take a look at a more effective example from the New York Yankees and H&R Block:

This is a much better approach to a corporate partner email. There is prominent co-branding so you never forget that this came from the Yankees, which connects their brand with H&R Block. There is a relevant connection to both the team and the sponsor product through the call to action (in this case, a contest). Finally, the partner gets the benefit of reaching Yankees fans in a way that both provides the fans value and limits the chance for opt-outs.

Your email database is an incredibly valuable tool in any team’s consumer and corporate marketing efforts. While the easy solution in situations may be to simply “blast the list,” this approach has damaging implications and will rarely generate more value that either a more targeted or strategic approach.

I follow several different team fan pages on Facebook, both for personal interest and to see what different tactics teams are taking with their social media marketing. Yesterday during the course of my usual Facebook usage, I noticed the automatic “Become a Fan” suggestion that you see on the right. Because I am a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers, Facebook thinks I should also be a fan of Wawa.

You may ask what’s so special about this, but in case you didn’t know, Wawa is a very big sponsor of the Philadelphia Flyers. This got me thinking – how great would it be for integrated property/sponsor social media efforts to be aware of certain sponsor relationships and be able to cross-promote each other in such a natural way through Facebook’s standard interface? Maybe this is actually an instance of it already happening!

In this specific case, the more likely scenario is that there is a very high index between fans of the Flyers and “fans” of Wawa (Wawa is HUGE in the Philadelphia and South Jersey region). Facebook is simply recognizing the overlap and making a suggestion that is statistically logical. Of course, that statistical logic is further support for the team/sponsor relationship that the two entities have.

With the power that Facebook has to collect and instantly analyze large amounts of consumer data, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing new measurements like the “Facebook Index” that supplement the current standard consumer research data that a company like Scarborough Research provides.

This week I have been busy finishing up trimester number 5 (out of 6) of my MBA, so I’ve only been intermittently paying attention to the Olympics, and I’ve been leaning heavily on those I follow on Twitter to keep me updated on which sponsors are activating in unique ways and which are practically non-existent.

One quick aside before I delve into specific sponsors… I think some Olympic sponsors will be hurt by NBC’s decision to air the competitions in prime time in MST and PST. I personally know that after I’ve seen a result earlier in the day, I’m less likely to watch the entire broadcast,  if I choose to watch at all. Now that we’re in the twitter age, networks will need to re-think their policy of playing everything in prime time. Also, I enjoyed watching uninterrupted footage of the snowboard halfpipe. Other events have been chopped up, competitors cut out, and drama ‘manufactured.’ I’d rather watch the full competition every time.

Ok, now on to the sponsors. Coke includes an environmentally-friendly aspect to their activation by encouraging Canadians to “adopt sustainable environmental practices.” They will purchase carbon offsets to offset the carbon footprint from their operations at the Games as well as the torch run. This means their carbon emissions will have been reduced 100%. (Courtesy of Cokenews.ca). “Every piece of our Olympic marketing has a social and mobile component,” says Katie Bayne, marketing chief for Coca-Cola North America.

Meanwhile, much has been made of Visa‘s decision to put 40% of their activation budget towards digital, quadrupling past spends. Their YouTube channel unveiled their Olympic spots before they were even shown on TV. These spots drive awareness and help reach their objectives, spelled out in this interesting document.

According to a USA Today article, GE is “using the Olympics as a ‘launch pad’ for it’s biggest social media push.” They have created a Twitter hashtag (#GEhealthy) and an account (@gehealthy) with the bio of: A shared commitment to creating better health for more people . Together. With only 184 followers, it remains to be seen if this push will be fruitful for them.

One company who seems to really get it is Red Bull. On Tuesday night, NBC showed a segment about Shaun White and his secret halfpipe. The segment really reinforced why Red Bull is the perfect sponsor for the halfpipe competition. They didn’t just slap their logo on one of White’s boards, they instead found a way to help him achieve his goals, thereby making the partnership valuable from both perspectives.

I thought the remark that best summed up what these Olympic sponsors should strive for was said by Mark Pritchard, CEO of Proctor & Gamble: “So what really makes the difference? The idea. When the idea is good, people flock to it and build on it.”

There is still a significant amount of time left, and many amazing Olympic moments that are sure to occur. What sponsor(s) are you most looking forward to stepping up to the challenge?

In the midst of my usual sports business ramblings on Twitter last week, I wrote the following message:

“Come on @ispsportnetwork and @learfield. Two of the biggest college sports marketing brands – you guys can do so much more on Twitter!”

I didn’t think much of this at the time. I sent it because I noticed that these two corporate Twitter accounts had a very low number of followers, didn’t tweet much and offered little in terms of actual content. I was pleasantly surprised when a few days later, I got the following reply from@Learfield:

Learfield: @rscibetti Guilty as charged. Been working on the Grown-Ups for 3 years. How about a blog post: “10 Reasons Learfield Sports Should Tweet”

So, at the prompting of the @Learfield Twitter account, here are ten reasons why Learfield Sports should tweet (in no particular order):

1. Raise awareness for your properties – At a most basic level, Twitter gives you a popular communication channel to promote all the great things that your college teams are doing, both on and off the field.
2. Create an engagement opportunity to connect with fans and customers across your properties – Beyond promoting the schools and teams, Twitter will let you interact with the fans in those locations, building a deeper connection to the property and also providing you valuable feedback.
3. Help test and execute social media campaigns that you can share as best practices with your properties – What better way to assist your properties than by learning about Twitter yourselves, finding out what can be most effective, and then spreading best practices across your different locations.
4. Engage in conversation with other sports media and sponsorship professionals – Twitter is an incredible educational platform that gives you an easy way to learn from other industry leaders and apply those ideas to your company.
5. Leverage your network of properties to create high-value social media promotions that generate direct value for top-level sponsors – It’s one thing for a corporate partner to run a Twitter contest with one location…you can harness the power of Twitter across multiple locations to really generate a powerful campaign for a sponsor.
6. Get direct feedback about current marketing promotions that your properties are running – People on Twitter are honest and direct, which will help you learn what is and is not working.
7. Connect with future Learfield employees – There are a lot of talented individuals on Twitter that have unique skill sets that could benefit both Learfield and your properties.
8. Create more value that can help retain customers – If you are at risk of losing certain partners, perhaps developing integrated, cross-property social media campaigns as an addition to their current elements can provide more value and help retain your customers.
9. Build a stronger relationship with your properties – Some schools are running great social media campaigns, while others are well-behind the curve. If you can leverage your own Twitter presence is a way that educates and assist these schools, you provide more value and make your relationship indispensable.
10. It’s fun – I wanted this to be last, but there’s importance to it. There is a uniquely fun element to engaging with others through Twitter, and I believe that whoever at Learfield shares this responsibility will get more satisfaction out of their job, which will in turn make them a better employee.

So that is my list of 10 reasons why Learfield Sports should tweet. I hope I’ve made a strong case for it, and if anyone at Learfield would like to talk more about this, they can reach me right here!

Yesterday I found out that Under Armour was renewing their deal with the NFL to be the presenting sponsor of the 2010 NFL Scouting Combine. This is one partnership that really offers an excellent and natural fit between the property and the sponsor.

From the very beginning, Under Armour has built their brand around the idea of high-quality apparel for peak athletic performance. This concept has been consistent throughout all of their various marketing platforms. In fact, Under Armour has rarely endorsed specific athletes, instead opting to focus on the imagery of intense workouts and competition. What event offers more coverage of talented athlete workouts than the NFL Scouting Combine? Their brand and apparel will be featured on every potential draft pick that participates in combine drills, and with the increased coverage of the event on NFL Network and NFL.com, the exposure level and overall media value should be even greater than last year (they already have a significant presence on the NFL’s combine website).

A nice addition to this partnership is an increased level of activation leading up to the combine itself. Rather than being content with just media coverage, Under Armour is running a “Countdown to Combine” grassroots campaign in the Miami area. They’re kicking off this campaign by creating a “combine-like” event for local high school and youth football players right after Super Bowl weekend. Local events like this will continue right up to the combine itself at the end of February.

It’s good to see a deal like this between UA and the NFL. With such a strong fit between sponsor and property, both sides should see more benefit. If the deal was with a food chain, financial firm or some other disconnected industry segment, it would be more challenging to build a successful campaign around the event. That’s not to say those deals wouldn’t have been effective, but they would definitely require some creative approaches and extra effort to generate the same type of impact.

In case you didn’t see the announcement, the football stadium that the Miami Dolphins play in is now called Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Sun Life Stadium! (Miami Herald, 1/18)  The previous naming rights deal with Land Shark Lager was a short-term deal (less than a year in total) and expired a couple of weeks ago, which almost left the facility without a top-level deal in place before this year’s Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.

The timing of the deal ends up being unfortunate for Land Shark Lager, since they just miss out on being tied to the biggest U.S. sporting event of the year (although I’m sure they had plenty of opportunity to renew the deal, but decided it wasn’t worth the cost). On the positive side, Sun Life has definitely increased their marketing spend over the past few months, and now topping it all off with “hosting” the Super Bowl is quite an accomplishment. There is also an interesting parallel with their recent television campaign where they want to change Florida’s nickname to the “Sun Life State.” In a way, they’re actually doing that!

The Dolphins should also get some credit for being able to turn around a full, five-year deal in such a small time. However, the contract is only worth $7.5 million for an average of $1.5 million per year, which is well below the revenue generated by most other NFL naming rights contracts. UPDATE: I’ve seen conflicting information on the annual cost of the deal. The Miami Herald article now says the deal is worth $7.5M per year (it’s possible I misread this the first time), while the New York Times is reporting an annual net fee of $4M per year.

I have a few questions on this topic:

• Has the frequent turnover in their stadium name had a permanent impact in the value that the stadium name offers to a potential partner? Along the same lines, can the naming rights partner generate as much brand equity being the 7th name on the building?
• Could they have generated more revenue by going with an even shorter-term deal for the upcoming Pro Bowl/Super Bowl events, and then exploring a longer-term agreement with a different partner?
• Does the fact that the Pro Bowl now has its own title sponsor (McDonald’s) diminish the value associated with the name of the facility where the event is occurring? Did that have an effect on the total dollar value of the contract?
• There seems to be a trade-off between pursuing long-term naming rights deals vs. exploring shorter-term deals. Which method do we think will be the trend moving forward. I would still think long-term deals are better for both parties in terms of potential value generated, but there is a definite loss of flexibility.

What are your thoughts on the situation? Do you like the partnership for the Dolphins and Sun Life? Who got the better end of the deal?

On Saturday night, I was watching the Oregon/USC football game when I noticed that the sponsor on the netting raised behind the goal posts was American Family Insurance. I was a little surprised because I am so used to seeing the Allstate brand “Good Hands” logo on the netting at most football stadiums.

This got me thinking a bit about the connection between a particular industry segment and the available sponsor inventory at sporting events. Is it possible that because certain companies use the same type of signage across multiple locations that the inventory itself becomes associated with that specific industry segment? In the case of American Family Insurance, do they get more value out of being on the netting because of how much people are used to seeing Allstate in that location? In fact, maybe this is a play to try and gain share from Allstate.

Another example could be the coach’s headset on the sideline. For a long time, you almost always saw Motorola on earpieces, but now you will see other wireless-related companies like AT&T in this location. However, this is also a situation where the industry (telecommunications) is directly related to the inventory, whereas there isn’t anything specifically connecting insurance to field goal netting.

So, if you are an insurance company, and you have the opportunity to get placement on field goal netting, will you ultimately benefit more because of the association that already exists between insurance and this inventory? Or will you not benefit as much because viewers are so used to seeing Allstate that they won’t notice something different? I think this could make an interesting research topic, if anyone wants to look into it more!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Rob Campbell, Analyst for IEG Research Services. This article was first published on IEG’s Sponsorship Blog at Sponsorship.com.

Social Media and Sponsorship Join Forces for Marquette Basketball

This past week, Marquette University started posting from a Pepsi-sponsored Twitter account focusing on the home opener for its men’s basketball team. This development is unique in that very few (successful) forays have been made into the world of sponsored social media.

So far, the only evidence of Pepsi involvement is a Pepsi logo and the text “Pepsi Season Opener” on the Twitter page. There have been no tweets or links posted regarding Pepsi or the sponsorship and the posts have largely focused on information aimed at building excitement around opening night. If the user’s window is not maximized, the Pepsi logo and blurb receives little visibility, as it is mostly shrouded by text display.

The account has amassed just over 100 followers at the time of this post, but its posts are retweeted through the Marquette Athletics account.

I think this minimalistic approach of the lowest possible integration (no influence on tweets) is a great start. By keeping the sponsorship transparent and the content sterile, the account does not have a detrimental effort on the actual sponsorship of the athletic department and if anything, only adds to it.

If Pepsi ever does make it into the subject matter of tweets, it should not be in the form of just marketing messages. Instead, the best way to integrate the overarching Season Opener sponsorship into this sponsored Twitter page is to provide actual useful content or promotions. For example, if Pepsi were to give away tickets or create a highlight video, that would be relevant content to relay to the account’s followers. However, simply stating there is a sale on Pepsi at the local grocer would not be relevant.

Essentially, this Twitter account is just an activation extension of Pepsi’s sponsorship of Marquette Athletics and is not the sole focus of the sponsorship. I think placing the Twitter account in the supporting role of the much larger sponsorship makes the sponsored page feel much more organic than if the sponsored Twitter account were the primary focus.

It would be interesting to know if Pepsi requested the Twitter tie-in or whether Marquette’s athletic department took the initiative in its creation.

(Editor’s Note: I love to see experimentation like this in the social media space. I believe the first sports-related Twitter sponsor to get involved was Tissot on Danica Patrick’s page. Social media allows for a wide array of value-added activation, which is so important now as companies look to gain more value from their sponsorships without increasing their spend.)

The US Open receives a lot of credit for some of their creative and engaging sponsor activation opportunities. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the event myself to write a recap, but the good folks at PartnershipActivation.com and SponsorPitch.com have let me “borrow” some of their great recaps to share with you here.

The US Open Smash Zone – The US Open worked with Synergy Events to create this incredible fan engagement experience at the USTA Indoor Training Center. There were multiple opportunities to play different style tennis games, including the American Express “Challenge a Pro” green screen exhibit that puts you into a “virtual” match with a professional player. Check out this video example below, and read the full write-up at PartnershipActivation.com:

Mobile Engagement from Chase and American Express (via SponsorPitch.com) – Chase had a simple but effective text-to-win program where fans could enter via a mobile text message to win free tickets. Meanwhile, American Express had both a branded iPhone application that provided live scores and American Express Radio Live that let fans listen to live commentary while watching the matches.

Mass-Mutual Half a Racket Game (via SponsorPitch.com) – Attendees could participate in this game, playing with literally half of an actual tennis racket. Seems a bit frustrating, but it emphasizes the point of how difficult it is to manage with half of anything, such as the income most people get while on disability, thus providing a unique way for Mass Mutual to promote their supplemental disability insurance.

Creative Brand Elements from Continental and Others (via PartnershipActivation.com) – This airplane built out of tennis balls that was part of the Continental booth definitely help catch people’s attention. There were several other creative and effective branding displays, such as the Heineken Pub, a giant Lexus tennis ball and a truly “oversized” Wilson racket. Visit PartnershipActivation.com for more great pictures.

The Basic Booth Approach (via SponsorPitch.com) – Some companies, like SpongeTech and Oikos Yogurt, took the basic route of product display and free samples. As long as you have a good location for these booths, this can still be a very effective way to connect with potential customers at the event.

Thanks again to the guys at PartnershipActivation and SponsorPitch for sharing their great US Open activation content.

Today’s post is a excerpt from “Hot to Sell Sponsorships, Tickets and Popcorn” written by former sports executive and current non-profit consultant, Bob Burris.

Nothing Happens Until Something Gets Sold!  We are ALL in the Sales Business!

You may not want to think of yourself as a salesperson because sometimes the label of being a “salesperson” might not be one that is flattering to you. But truthfully, you have been selling your entire life.

Whether it was to your parents to buy your first bike or to stay out later than your curfew; getting your first date or your first kiss; or your proposal to marry your spouse, we are always selling and have been since the beginning of time. In fact, the Bible tells us in the book of Genesis that the first recorded sale in history was the Serpent selling Eve the “Forbidden Fruit.” In fact, he did such a magnificent job that he got a referral – Adam!

But before we sell our event to anyone, we must know what we have to sell and know our audience. Who do we attract? It is very important to take the time to do this exercise because any potential sponsor will be very interested in the type of people your organization draws. Consider such factors as:

• Household Incomes
• Education Levels
• Gender
• Marital Status
• Number of children
• How many automobiles they own
• Travel – how often
• How often do they frequent restaurants

The first sale you make is NOT the product you are selling. The first sale you make is selling YOURSELF to the buyer. I’m a firm believer that people buy people first and then the product they are selling. This is called “Relationship Selling,” and is particularly true in the Corporate Sponsorship sales world.

The First Steps

So, when we have an event of any kind, who do we target? Based on the type of event, the first place to start is by knowing the “Hot Buttons” for corporate sponsors and then identifying categories of sponsorship that fit for your particular event.

Hot Buttons for Sponsors

When looking to make a sports or entertainment marketing purchase, corporate sponsors, are motivated by several factors.  Can the sponsorship deliver the following:

• Increase Brand Loyalty
• Increase Visibility
• Enhance Image
• Drive Retailer Traffic
• Stimulate Sales
• Experiential Opportunity
• Client Entertainment

The next set of criteria is aimed at specific benefits the sponsorship contains. The following is a list of benefits that are perceived to be attractive to corporate sponsors:

• Demographics of Audience — Does this sponsorship hit our target audience?
• Category Exclusivity
• Hospitality Opportunities
• Exposure
• Media Value, Charity or Cause
• Product Sampling
• On-Site Product Sales

The Second Step: Identify Your “Circle of Influence.”

Each person in a company or organization has his or her own circle of influence. Who from your Board of Directors and your donors knows the decision-maker or anyone from the companies in the categories you’ve targeted? These people are on your board and are donors because they care and believe in the organization. They will help, if they are asked. But only ask with the provision that you are NOT asking them to sell for you!

All you want is an endorsement to the decision maker with the ultimate goal of getting a face-to-face appointment. I believe we are ALL more effective in person than we are on the phone. And if your “circle of influence” can get you an appointment or approval to call the decision maker directly, you are more than half way there. When this happens, your call now is a “warm” call as opposed to a “cold” call.

For more information on “How to Sell Sponsorships, Tickets and Popcorn,” visit www.theburrisgroupllc.com.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Kris Mathis, Founder of SponsorPitch.

This summer Wimbledon and the British Open offered up some of the richest sports viewing in quite some time. Unfortunately, they also brought the usual headaches for official marketers, courtesy of a few clever ambushers. Take for instance Hugo Boss’ branded sailboat garnering some significant broadcast exposure at the British Open or Pringles’ “These are not tennis balls!” sampling campaign just outside the gates of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

If 2009 was the year of the cutback, 2010 may very well be the year of the ambush. There are many properties, and deep pocketed sponsors, that are out to make sure that doesn’t happen. Nevertheless, marketers continue to look for clever and cost-efficient ways to tie-in to major events like the World Cup and Olympics, while properties are seeking to vigorously defend their sponsors (and their value proposition) in a tighter spending environment. Good timing for Nicholas Burton and Simon Chadwick, who have been studying ambush marketing at Coventry University Business School in England. Burton and Chadwick recently looked at 350 potential ambush examples in an ongoing effort to define the practice, identify the ramifications of it and explore practical solutions for preventing it. It’s a highly recommended read for any high profile sponsor or property. Taking a step back, this is the definition that Wikipedia proposes for the common, but often maligned practice:

Ambush marketing is a marketing campaign that takes place around an event but does not involve payment of a sponsorship fee to the event. For most events of any significance, one brand will pay to become the exclusive and official sponsor of the event in a particular category or categories, and this exclusivity creates a problem for one or more other brands. Those other brands then find ways to promote themselves in connection with the same event, without paying the sponsorship fee and without breaking any laws.

So is it still ambush if there isn’t a direct competitor? Not according to the AELTC, who let the Pringles campaign continue and offered this reaction:

“Wimbledon does not have a deal with a comparable snack food, so there was no question of the Pringles tubes harming sales of a licensed product.”

Maybe not this year, but shouldn’t properties still do everything in their power to “signal” a harsh stance against ambush attempts? If nothing else, to assuage the concerns of future partners (and official sponsorship revenue)?

In Burton and Chadwick’s most recent white paper, A Typology of Ambush Marketing, they point out interestingly that the practice has evolved over time from broadcast sponsorship campaigns and billboard advertising around venue to more aggressive off-site strategies that go as far as to get fans to distribute the ambush marketer’s messages for them.  Click here to see a few of the more recent cases they cite.

Interestingly, of the cases they studied approximately 10% ended up in lawsuits or legal procedures of some nature. While many ambushers take special effort to skirt the legal boundaries, the report suggest that in some cases official properties and sponsors may have some success with proving misappropriation of goodwill or unfair competition. Intellectual property claims were also common among these cases. Unfortunately, legal remedies can often bring uncertain results, high costs and even more publicity to the offending party.

In 2004, John Crompton issued a report entitled “Sponsorship ambushing in sport” that outlined these categories of ambush:

• the sponsorship of event broadcasts or television time around an un-sponsored event
• the sponsorship of associated entities (other than the organizers/rights holders)
• the use of advertising media near/in proximity of the event/venues
• advertising using a theme or implied association
• creating a competitive attraction to distract from the event
• accidental ambushing of an event due to a lack of diligence on the part of the organizer

Chadwick and Burton build on this by classifying twelve (some new and some old) prevalent ambush strategies such as associative, insurgent, predatory, coat-tail ambush and even “pre-emptive” ambush, whereby an official sponsor essentially ambushes itself by buying up assets outside of its official rights to supplement the association and “pre-empt” an ambush.

As further research goes into the practice, properties and sponsors may be able to identify both proactive and reactive (read: legal) remedies for ambush practices. Of course, one way to prevent against ambush will always be to come up with the most compelling, mindshare dominating activation platform. As an official sponsor, you’re at an inherent advantage.

What’s your opinion on ambush marketing? Fair and ethical marketing tactic or illegal procedure?

This year’s MLS All-Star Game is being held later this month in Salt Lake City, so Home Depot is running  a special program to celebrate Utah’s Community All-Stars.  Fans can visit www.mlsnet.com/works and nominate someone that has helped improve their local community in Utah through any type of volunteer activities.  Their applications will be reviewed and five winners will be selected to win a $1,000 gift card from Home Depot and an MLS All-Star prize pack that includes two tickets to this year’s all-star game.

This might seem like a pretty simple promotion, but it’s a very valuable and effective one.  Home Depot recognized the fact that Utah leads all state in total volunteerism, so this type of program really taps into that volunteer spirit of the all-star hosts. Additionally, anytime you can incorporate and promote the charitable efforts of your team or league (in this case, MLS Works), you build good will towards your fans and encourage them to help support the same charitable initiatives.  Finally, it’s always nice to see how sports teams look for ways to reward their fans and give back to the community at large.

So if you know someone from Utah that deserves some recognition for their community efforts, nominate them for this program and maybe they’ll be rewarded as a community all-star.

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Joshua Duboff of The Sports Business Exchange.

The day after the NBA Draft is usually devoted to commentaries on which teams end up as winners and losers from the night before. This Draft offered plenty of opportunities for discussions. However, what rarely gets discussed is the Draft’s sponsors. I attended last night’s draft as a mere spectator, but as many in the sports business encounter, I could not stop myself from looking around for sponsors and analyzing their activation. From what I could gather, there were four sponsors: EA Sports, Adidas, Kia, and Hewlett Packard. Here are last night’s sponsor winner and losers for on-site activation.

Winner – EA Sports:  EA Sports had the best sponsorship package of the evening. Not only was their logo everywhere, including the back side of some of the tickets, but they had an activation kiosk in the main lobby of WaMu Theater as well. At the station, fans could pose with a basketball and have their picture superimposed onto the cover of NBA Live ’10. The photo printed out and was a great take away from the evening. There were also gaming stations where fans were playing Playstation. While I couldn’t get confirmation, I assume the fans were playing NBA Live ’09, since the 2010 version doesn’t come out until October 6th (I only know the release date because of last night’s sponsorship). According to a Sports Business Journal article from June 22, EA Sports also gave away branded Dwight Howard Fathead Tradeables to fans as they left the event. I stayed until the very end of the Draft and was then ushered out a side door so I did not get a promo. If this promo is true, that’s a good take away item, although I’m not sure how a Dwight Howard Fathead was embraced in the New York market. At my desk, I still have my green Sprite cup from the 2007 NBA Draft.

Losers – Kia & Hewlett Packard:  Kia and HP took different routes. Kia handed out reusable bags with car information pamphlets inside. Many fans grabbed a bag, but many bags eventually found their way to the ground as well. The color of the bags (redish brown) left something to be desired and lacked distinguishable marks to recognize the 2009 Draft. Inside the theater, the video boards rotated between sponsor logos (EA Sports, Kia, HP). This was the only sponsorship I could see for Hewlett Packard. There was no activation, simply signage (note: most of HP’s sponsorship was behind the scenes with printers and scanners).

Undecided – Adidas:  I had to be reminded that Adidas was a sponsor because there was no activation outside of selling NBA Draft merchandise. Had I been in the market for a new hat, I probably would have more easily identified Adidas as a sponsor. That being said, there was a long line at the merchandise table all night. With both local teams only having on relevant pick and assuming most fans are from the Tri-State Area (in other words, few people should be there buying Clippers or Grizzlies gear), I suspect Adidas was pretty happy with the crowds at their table.

Like I mentioned earlier, I may have missed some activation points. However, if I as a sports business professional couldn’t find these points, I can’t imagine the rest of the fans could either. EA Sports wins.

In the past, I’ve written about ways that league’s can “own” a holiday and use it as a marketing vehicle for their sport.  On a smaller scale, teams have found ways to use different holidays that occur during the season for in-game promotions and special marketing campaigns.  Well last week, we had an unofficial holiday on April 15th – Tax Day!  While this day normally has negative connotations to it, anytime there is a major yearly event, you can find a creative way to leverage it.

I polled some of my peers to see what types of tax-related promotions they’ve seen, and here are some great examples:

• The Phoenix Suns had a H&R Block countdown to tax day on their web page as part of a sponsorship activation package.
• H&R Block sponsors the Yankees’ Numbers Game, where you add or subtract two players’ numbers together to equal another player’s number (it is played on the big screen at the stadium). After the numbers game, they show a tax tip courtesy of H&R Block.
• The Kansas City Blades of the IHL used to have a promotion in conjunction with H&R Block when they had a home game on April 15th.  Fans could make an appointment ahead of time to have their taxes done at the arena that night for free, and anyone who owed money got entered into a drawing to win a cash prize.

Clearly, H&R Block is a great company to work with, as any tax day promotions are a natural fit with sponsorship activation.  This would apply to any tax or financial services sponsor.  However, you don’t need a sponsor tie-in for this to be valuable. A “Tax Day Ticket Offer” can be effective, or a special offer for customers that apply their tax rebate to a ticket package, similar to the stimulus check promotions that teams used last year. 

Even though Tax Day has passed, it’s never to early to put these ideas away for next year, or for your next sponsorship pitch with H&R Block!

Thank you to Brian Gainor, Jim Loria, and Rob Scibetti for their help with this post!

The other day, someone emailed me regarding a sponsorship pitch for an event he was running (he saw a previous blog post and mistakenly thought that I worked for the particular company).  In reading the email, I noticed a few things that he could have done better before sending this cold-email, so I replied back and we had a nice dialogue about it.  With his permission, I’m going to include some of his email below and talk about the things I feel he could have done better (all identifying information has been removed to keep this anonymous).

“My name is XXXXX and I have teamed up with XXXXX to host a SPORT_X event at the XXXXX Arena.  We have a tentative date of ##/##/#### (to be confirmed later).  The arena has the capacity to seat ##,### people.  Our plans are to hold SPORT_X events here every other month.  We have some great up and coming talent here and offering an event like this to showcase these athletes and give them some exposure is necessary.

I believe that COMPANY_X products are currently sold in the arena.  I have met with an arena representative and worked out a deal to have two bars set up on the floor to convenience patrons and encourage sales.  We have plenty of advertisement space available for sponsors to display their logos, hang banners, etc.  The ring mat has large placement areas available if you are interested in displaying your logo on XXXXX and/or YYYYY, I have packages I can send you.  Included in the sponsorship packages are printed space on custom fliers and posters to be distributed as soon as the event date and headliners are finalized. 

My hopes are for COMPANY_X to have the exclusive stage for this event, so please let me know if you are interested in sponsoring us.  These types of events are popular and great opportunities for all involved.  I look forward to hearing from you, and possibly doing business with you to help boost COMPANY_X sales in the arena.”

Now that you’ve read the email, here are some of my suggestions that I think could help in these situations:

• First of all, it is incredibly tough to make a cold pitch, whether it is by phone, email or in-person, but sometimes you just need to go for it.  However, the more research you can do of the target company in advance, the better.  If we look at the letter, we know nothing about COMPANY_X except that they might sell their product in the arena, and this deal might help boost in-arena sales.  Is the company’s goal to boost in-arena sales?  Even if it, I’m sure they have other larger goals, maybe related to brand awareness, increased distribution, or penetrating a new market.  There is nothing in this letter that ties this particular deal to the company’s strategies or goals, which makes it seem like that the author didn’t spend time doing any research (even if he did).  Remember, you need to understand their business and focus on how the sponsorship helps them, not you.
• The letter talks about logos and signage and pre-designed packages.  Right now in the initial stage of proposing a sponsor relationship, these inventory details are pretty insignificant.  In fact, for a larger important sponsor, you want to allow for a lot of freedom and creativity.  In this case, the company being pitched really likes to have full control over sporting events that they work with, so maybe a larger presenting sponsorship or naming rights deal would be a better fit.  But if you’re just pitching banners and fliers, you’re probably missing out.
• The event date is “tentative”, there are “plans” to hold events every other month, and they “possibly” could do business together.  These words and phrases do not suggest much confidence in the event or the relationship with the sponsor.  When you are making a pitch, you need to not only know the sponsor’s business inside and out, but you also much be confident about the value of your own product.  If you’re unsure of your event, the sponsor will have even bigger doubts.

I hope none of this seems critical.  As I said, making cold pitches is an incredibly challenging task.  However, you still need to come into the pitch with an open-mind, having done your research, and with confidence in yourself and your product.  If you do these things, your pitch will get noticed…then the real work begins!

Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger AJ Maestas, President of Navigate Marketing.

Knowing the ROI of Your Sponsorships is more important Than Ever Before…

In these tough economic times, all marketing budgets are under scrutiny. Advertising and sponsorship in particular are two categories that are oftentimes the first to be eliminated. Instead of using a broad axe to cut the budget, there are options available to make more strategic marketing budget decisions. Knowing how much of a return on investment (ROI) sponsorships are yielding can provide a better indication of which investments warrant a cutback and which are yielding significant gains – and thus are ones that a corporation cannot afford to discontinue. Understanding the ROI of each sponsorship investment in a portfolio allows for a proper comparison of performance among all assets and an easier renewal decision making process.

Steps to make measurement easier

For the most part, each business or industry generates revenue in a unique manner, so each ROI equation must be adjusted to properly capture the idiosyncrasies of each business model. For example, a wireless carrier may look to minimize churn and increase loyalty through a sponsorship while an energy drink might look to increase frequency of purchase. These marketing decisions should be supported with evidence to provide a benchmark for analysis. Furthermore, oftentimes ROI numbers appear inflated due to possible lifts in profit from factors outside of the specific sponsorship. Because of these factors, it is recommended that conservative and consistent calculations be used throughout the ROI measurement process.

The following are steps a company should consider when creating or commissioning the measurement of ROI for a sponsorship investment:

• Establish the bottom-line objective for a sponsorship (i.e. increase in sales, buying frequency, buying volume, B2B sales conversions, unique website visits, etc.)
• Create a mechanism that can measure the success of these objectives (i.e. sponsorship specific coupons and/or codes for redemption, quick questionnaires at stores that ask if the sale and/or visit to the store were due to the sponsorship, affinity cards, uniquely tracking sales conversions by hospitality attendees, etc.). For example, AMP Energy Drink tracked increases in sales due to their Dale Earnhardt Jr. sponsorship by creating special edition cans that featured the race car driver.
• Periodically track the immediate effects of the sponsorship through market research and internal data collection (i.e. increases in market share, sales, willingness to act/recommend, coupon redemption, etc.).
• Determine the bottom-line profit directly attributed to the sponsorship and calculate the ROI. Remember that it only counts if it’s incremental; don’t credit a promotion with normal sales activity.

Other Industry Methods

Other commonly used industry methods for measuring sponsorship ROI include a sales forecast and calculating the lifetime value of a customer. A sales forecast estimates future sales based on marketing metrics known or believed to lead a consumer down the sales funnel. Lifetime customer value acts as a multiplier to account for future sales and attrition when a new customer is converted.

As mentioned above, it is easy for ROI to be overstated if the algorithm used does not account for the numerous subtle details that can affect the final number. At every decision crossroad, Navigate takes the more conservative route and uses strict filters to ensure that an ROI number isn’t overstated. Because of the numerous methodologies that exist, Navigate encourages brands and properties to consider a wide range of ROI indicators, in addition to the final ROI number, to assess a sponsorship’s performance. While ROI is the ultimate investment metric, great sponsorships still require the skill of art and science.

You can learn more about Navigate Marketing and the services they offer at www.NavigateMarketing.com.

Darren Rovell from CNBC recently reported that Red Bull signed Devin Hester from the Chicago Bears to a sponsorship deal.  In addition, Red Bull also signed a deal with Reggie Bush earlier this year.  Normally, a major brand signing an athlete to endorse their products is fairly standard, but these deals are actually unique because of the fact that Red Bull is involved.  These deals represent a new direction for Red Bull’s sports marketing strategy.

Historically, any time that Red Bull has gotten involved in the sports world, they’ve taken complete ownership of whatever entity they decide to pursue.  This goes back to their original acquisition of an F1 racing team up through their more recent purchase of the New York Red Bulls of the MLS.  They also own a wide variety of action sports competitions and other unique sporting events.  What they generally don’t do is just sponsor something.  Red Bull is so focused on brand management that it’s more valuable for them to take complete ownership of a sports property than to sponsor it.  This provides complete control over how their brand is connected to the sport.

So, now Red Bull has two NFL athletes on their roster.  While their great speed and energy as athletes does fit with Red Bull conceptually, the company has no “control” over them.  These two deals might be completely isolated cases, where Red Bull decided their value was worth the risk of varying from their normal strategy.  Or this could be the first step in opening up their strategy to include new sports marketing approaches.  This is one brand that is definitely worth following over the next year to see what they do (or don’t do) next.

CBSSports.com will have tens of millions of live streaming viewers during the first round of the NCAA tournament, and each year that number increases.  It doesn’t matter if people are at work or at home…they find a way to watch the games online.  Because so many people watch at work, usually against the wishes of their employer, that the viewer has a “boss button” that can be clicked to quickly bring up a fake spreadsheet.  Last year, that button was clicked 2.5 million times (CBSSports.com).

This brings me to the point of this post.  This year, the Boss Button has a sponsor…it is now the Comcast Boss Button.  This is brilliant! Who would think of sponsoring a button on a video player? I don’t know if the idea came from CBSSports.com or from Comcast, but whoever thought of it should get a lot of credit.  Beyond just putting the Comcast logo on the button, when you click on it, the fake spreadsheet contains content on NCAA tournament history as well as the Comcast family pf products, further enhancing the value of the sponsorship by connecting the excitement of the tournament with their brand.

I hope everyone enjoys today’s games, and make sure you click on the “Comcast Boss Button” to see it for yourself!

I recently wrote a post about how companies that have large sports sponsorship deals, particularly those that have received government funds, are unfairly criticized for these deals.  My logic is that, even though these deals seems excessive, when you calculate their actual marketing value and ROI, they can be very justifiable and effective as part of a company’s marketing mix.

Well a few days ago, Kenneth Lewis, the CEO for Bank of America, publicly defended their sports marketing spend, stating how valuable their sponsorships are to the company (Reuters, 3/12/09).  Here is a great quote from Lewis: “I was never inclined to pump big sums of money into sports marketing until I saw the facts and the numbers…in general terms, for every dollar we spend on sports marketing, we get $10 in revenue and $3 in earnings. This is not wasted money.”

Bank of America sponsors a wide variety of sports properties, including the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, and individual teams.  From Lewis’ statement, they not only recognize the value of these deals, but they are making a dedicated effort to measure them to ensure they are getting the right return.  What they aren’t telling us is how exactly they are measuring them, but there are many established ways of doing this that can be quite accurate (this topic will actually come up again in a future guest post).  I am making a bit of an assumption that the data Lewis is sharing comes from actual measurements and not general estimates, but I would be surprised if this is not the case.

I’m glad to see a company step up and defend their decisions in this area, and hopefully others companies that put in the effort to measure the effectiveness of their sports marketing initiatives will do the same.

Imagine that you work for a multi-billion dollar corporation with a massive marketing budget.  You spend money on all different forms of advertising in order to reach your target audiences.  Now I approach you with a deal that will cost you between $10 and $20 million a year and will generate well over $50 million worth of media exposure, not to mention a direct impact on your bottom line of somwhere between $10-20 million (I’m am making up these rough numbers to make a point).  This seems like a pretty solid deal.  You are getting a bargain on the media value alone, along with a direct positive ROI.  Most companies are going to sign that deal.

Now, what if this company has been recently “bailed out?”  Even though there was an influx of government money to help their operations, the company still has to spend a lot on marketing and advertising to generate revenue.  So if one of those companies gets a hypothetical opportunity like this, with the same type of media value and ROI, they should still be expected to take it.  It makes good business sense.

Unless of course, that opportunity is a sports sponsorship!  Companies like Citi and AIG have received a great deal of public pressure regarding their major sports sponsorships.  There are constant rumors that Citi is being “forced” to back out of the CitiField naming rights deal, and after enough pressure, AIG ended their relationship as the jersey sponsor for Manchester United.  This pressure is unfortunate for both the companies and teams involved, as these deals can still make perfect business sense for both sides.  However, because the deals “look” excessive to the public, they receive backlash and are deemed to be “wasting” public funds.  The problem is that the public only hears about the costs and not about the value, and this only occurs with sports sponsorships.  You don’t hear outcry about how much Citi is spending on their latest direct mail campaign or the cost of AIG’s latest media buy.  I feel that there is a PR need to educate the public on the positive side of these deals, otherwise more and more companies will have to walk away from valuable sponsorships and teams will lose out on a critical revenue source.

(Credit to ABCNews for the AIG/Citi image)

I just received an email from the Los Angeles Lakers, telling me about a contest they are running with one of their partners, Taco Bell.  I could win tickets and merchandise, meet the team on the court, and more.  Sounds like a good basis for a partner email…create a unique experience that connects back to the team brand and simultaneously generates awareness and value for your partner.  Take a look at the actual email, and think about what’s missing…

Where is the Lakers logo???  This might seem like I’m being picky, but if you are sending me an email as the Los Angeles Lakers, I want to actually see the Lakers logo, colors, jersey, or something in the body of the email.  The funny thing is, if you click on the email to visit the actual contest page, the web page has almost the exact same image on it, with the addition of a Lakers logo in the top right.  Why didn’t they use that image in the email content? 

In email marketing, there is a concept called “A-B Testing” which is based on sending out two versions of an email, with one small difference between the two.  It could be the subject line, an image, the wording of a link, or any similar items.  If they sent two versions of this email, one with and one without the Lakers logo, I would highly suspect that the one with the logo would have a significantly better clickthrough rate.  These are important things to keep in mind when building any email elements, whether the email is a sponsor-focused message or part of your own marketing mix.

There was an excellent article in the Dallas Morning News yesterday discussing the naming rights prospects for the new Dallas Cowboys stadium.  To give a quick summary, the timing of the new stadium opening with the current recession will either force the Cowboys to take much less money than they originally planned, or they may go with a temporary name and wait for the economy to improve before signing a naming rights deal.  Dallas had been hoping for a New York-caliber deal in the $20+ million per year range over a 20+ year period, but no one is willing to commit to that type of deal right now.

I have to agree with the author that the Cowboys’ best bet is to take the wait-and-see approach, but only because they are the Cowboys.  If anyone still has a chance to land that type of deal, its is a global brand like theirs.  Also, because of their top-tier revenue streams (not to mention the wealth of Jerry Jones), they don’t have the pressure of needing naming rights revenue that some smaller market teams have.  Finally, they also hold an incredible bargaining chip in their pocket – the 2011 Super Bowl.  According to the article, the value of TV exposure alone for Raymond James, the naming sponsor of the Tampa Bay stadium, was over $37 million.  Combine this with their powerful brand, and within the year, someone will come around to their price tag…or at least close enough.

In a few days, the NBA will introduce HORSE as a new part of the All-Star Weekend festivities.  This could be a very entertaining event for fans, with the players attempting to one-up each other on their best trick shots.  The lineup of players might not be particularly impressive (Durant, Mayo, and Johnson), but I still think this new event will be very successful.

The most interesting thing from a business perspective is the sponsorship deal that goes with it.  Rather than the typical presenting sponsorship deal, the NBA has renamed the actual game after the sponsor GEICO (click here for the recent press release).  Some people might balk at this, but I think its a very creative deal by both parties.  Fans have gotten used to tuning out many sponsorship deals, but it will be impossible not to connect this new event with GEICO.  If HORSE turns into a fan favorite, then GEICO has a great platform to build a long-term NBA relationship off of and the league could get a long-term sponsorship deal in a high-value category.

The only way I think this deal fails is if the game itself is boring and uneventful, and the NBA decides not to bring it back next year.  If that happens, part of the blame could fall back on GEICO, even if it has nothing to do with their involvement.  Both the NBA and GEICO need to go above and beyond to make this event a success.  They both have a lot of money riding on it!

Today’s post is courtesy of Gail Sideman (www.publiside.com)

“Sports sponsorship is an emotional topic prior to Super activities”

“Now in for General Motors Corporation…Audi and Hyundai… Replacing FedEx in the lineup, and just in time for Valentine’s Day, Teleflora!”

While this reads like fantasy sports corporate style, these companies represent some of the roster changes in the Super Bowl ad lineup. As we approach the National Football League’s title contest February 1, an estimated 100 million NBC Sports viewers will watch more than the game that will pit the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers. They may also pay closer attention to the commercials than usual. Super Bowl XLII in Tampa, Fla., will be the first played since the U.S. government announced what many thought for months – that we’re in a recession.

NBC’s Super Bowl advertising rate card for 30 seconds of airtime was listed at $3 million, headed into this year’s game, although industry experts suspect that returning customers and the faltering economy have forced that number closer to $2.8 or $2.9 million.  It’s still no bargain for the average business that’s looking to get itself recognized by the masses.

What remains as the Super Bowl begins its countdown to kickoff is a debate about finances that began with the 2008 college bowl season. While corporations stand on proverbial boulevards asking for handouts and are laying off personnel, are they justified in spending millions of dollars for sports sponsorships?

According to most people informally polled for this post, the answer is yes. The consensus is that these companies still have to reach out to consumers and work to attract business and dollar for dollar, sports sponsorships are the most effective ways to do that.

However, the queries and emotions grow from there. Financial management companies and automakers, just to name two frequent big event sponsors, are asking for money from the U.S. Treasury’s Asset Relief Program (TARP). The 2008 college bowl season featured 34 games, many which boasted top billing as a result of big bucks sponsorships. Among them, Citigroup which presented the Rose Bowl; Capital One Financial Corporation whose company name replaced the former Citrus Bowl; Bank of America Corporation, which requested $15 billion from TARP and sponsored the 2008 Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl and Eagle Bancorp, Inc., which asked for $38.2 billion in TARP funds yet saw itself sound enough several months ago to make its resources available for a first-time bowl game in Washington, D.C.

College bowl games are evaluated annually so the 2009 lineup is yet to be announced.

Patrick Ryan Lewis of Winchester, Va., said that allocation of sports sponsorship dollars is not an easy debate. A dissenter of the government’s bailout program, he said one has to look at the intent of the money provided. In hopes that it’s to help companies improve and sustain their businesses, he said that enterprises have to advertise to maintain current clientele and attract new customers. On the other hand, Rep. Scott Garret (R., N.J.) said in The Wall Street Journal that he questions why banks – which reportedly aren’t using federal funds as intended – need to sponsor nationally televised sporting events.

Sports sponsorships have not been immune to the economic slowdown. While it’s far from creating a hardship on network partners – NBC’s “lower” fees are still 5-7 percent higher than FOX Sports’ 2008 numbers – sales have slowed from flood levels to trickles. For the 2008 Super Bowl, FOX sold its entire inventory by Thanksgiving 2007. Approximately 10 percent of NBC’s spots for this year’s game remained vacant as of this writing.

The bottom line is not always the bottom line. In events such as the Super Bowl or college bowl games, companies can reach more eyes at one time than other means of traditional advertising. Throw in a tie-in to a website promotion or produce a spot that creates word-of-mouth buzz, and the publicity alone will double or triple the investment as people talk about the spot(s) and hopefully react at the cash register for weeks to come.

As with any promotional tools, quality production typically reflects value received. If businesses that have suffered during the last year create targeted, meaningful, creative and emotionally charged spots, chances are that its consumers will react in kind.

I recently went on a small rant regarding a partner email sent by a MLB team.  My argument has always been that any partner-related email efforts need to tie directly back to the sports brand and connect with the fan’s affinity for that team or league.  Along those lines, I’ve received two emails this week from the NFL that I felt did an excellent job in this area:

Vote for the Motorola Coach of the Year:

Vote for the FedEx Air and Ground Players of the Year:

Motorola has a clear connection to NFL coaches through their visible presence on the headsets used during the games.  Now they can take that connection online via a league email campaign to vote for the top coach.  It’s a consistent platform across different channels with a great connection to the NFL brand.  FedEx doesn’t have the same connection to the actual game as Motorola, but they found a creative way to associate their brand and two of their products (Express and Ground) with two key elements of the game (passing and running).  As a fan of the game, I am much more likely to engage with Motorola and FedEx via these types of email campaigns.

Last week, I had the chance to interview Brian Gainor, Founding Editor of PartnershipActivation.com, which is a great resource on activation strategies and best practices in corporate partnerships.  We covered several topics, including:

• Some background on PartnershipActivation.com and his monthly newsletter (click here to download the December edition)
• Activation spending compared to rights fees
• Current trends and tactics in activating sponsorships
• The impact of the economy on corporate partnerships this year and moving forward
• Some of Brian’s favorite in-arena and online campaigns
• More career tips for those starting out in the industry

You can use the audio player below to listen to the current episode in your browser. You can also use the links below to download the MP3 directly or subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.  If you do subscribe through iTunes, please help promote the podcast by leaving a positive review.  Thanks!

Download audio file (TheBusinessOfSportsPodcast-20090119.mp3)

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Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Kris Mathis, Founder of SponsorPitch:

Every day we hear about layoffs, another sponsor passing on renewal or worst of all, a league’s entire operating model in jeopardy.  Making your most effective pitch is more critical than ever and unless you’re titled by Madoff Securities, the new year will offer not only challenges, but also opportunity.  With some luck, an open mind and the perfect pitch, you can position yourself to shine in ’09.

10 Sponsorship Sales Secrets to Surviving the Recession

1. Be creative with deal terms.  Sponsorship pros generally devote a lot of creative energy to developing activation concepts for sponsors.  Now is the time to get creative with not only activation strategies, but also deal terms. Be more open to VIK (Value-in-Kind), extend payment terms if possible, and develop other out of the box terms that will help you’re partner weather the downturn without sacrificing the sponsorship.

2. Communicate.  Don’t be a pest, but check in with your partners regularly.  Give updates, talk activation strategies or simply send a holiday greeting.  Keep the communication channels open, even in the off-season, so that if a sponsor is getting cold feet about a renewal it’s an open discussion, not a closed one.

3. Network 2.0. You probably consider yourself a people person, but are you really using all the tools available to you? LinkedIn, Facebook, SponsorPitch, among many others.  Cold calling is tough, but if you can discover you have a mutual connection or find someone within a company that can be your proponent you’ll at least make it out of the pile.  Online tools can help you spread your message, make new connections and cultivate long-term relationships.  A quality lead will more than pay for the time and/or money you invest to build a quality presence online for yourself and your sponsorship opportunity.

4. Speak their language.  The six figure flop that may be chalked up to calculated risk in yesteryear, today costs jobs. Be prepared to tweak your pitch in light of a lowered risk tolerance.  For example, rather than giving a prospective partner the opportunity to “get in on the ground floor” of a hot new opportunity, demonstrate in concrete terms how your property will help them “spend smarter” and stretch an the same marketing spend even farther.  Even if the opportunity itself doesn’t change drastically, your wording can make all the difference in the world. 

5. Hold the line on your fees. Rather than lowering sponsorship fees, try to add additional benefits (see #1 about creativity) that enhance the sponsorship value relative to the price, while maintaining your own revenue level and future pricing power.

6. Headline watch.  This is really a sub bullet to #5.  Business goals are changing. Employees are being laid off, divisions are being divested and product strategies are shifting.  Be respectful of your partner’s business climate and make sure that the benefits you initially offered are still aligned with their business goals in light of recent company news.

7. Sponsorship or a partnership?  Sponsorships are a lot easier in good times, than bad.  If you can show you’re flexible, open-minded and understanding of their business needs today, you’ll have more success tomorrow (with this particular client and with future business partners).

8. Manage expectations.  Be realistic with your expectations and make sure that others within your organization are prepared accordingly.  Since sponsorship touches virtually every other aspect of an organization, you can’t be shy with sharing good (or bad) news.

9. Diversify.  Treat your sponsor portfolio like your 401k.  Autos and financials may be in decline, but if you’re diversified with sectors like energy and health care then you may be able to soften the blow. Just like stocks, diversify your revenue streams and make sure your sponsorship revenue is not too heavily weighted to one single sector. 

10. Be persistent, but gracious.  If a sponsor doesn’t renew or can’t swing the investment this year, thank them for their time and tell them you look forward to having another discussion next year.  It’s a small industry. Karma and reputation matter.

Honorable Mention: Try to quantify the value of an investment in the sponsor’s terms (incremental revenue, employee retention, customer acquisition, etc), not just arbitrary media value. Why is this an honorable mention?  Because you should already be doing this!

What sales techniques have you found to be most important in a down economy?

Kris is the founder of SponsorPitch.com, a website dedicated to helping properties of all kinds and sponsors connect in an open, expressive and more efficient new way.  SponsorPitch is currently in beta testing.  Sign-up for a free invite at sponsorpitch.com.

The second discussion panel I attended at last Friday’s Princeton Sports Symposium was on “Sports Marketing & Sponsorships.” The panelists were Kathryn Carter (EVP, Soccer United Marketing), Gary Jacobus (Managing Director of Corporate Partnerships, USTA), Dan Mannix (Founder/CEO, LeadDog Marketing Group), Ben Sturner (Founder/CEO, Leverage Agency) and Frank Vuono (Co-Founder/Partner, 16W Marketing).  Here are some of my notes from the discussion:

On sponsorships and the current market:

• Renewals are doing pretty well because of established brand equity between the partner and property, but new sales are challenging.
• There is a definite need to be more creative in structuring new sponsorship deals, including the length of the deal, pricing, and products/activation.
• The first spending to get cut is advertising, but sponsorships have a distinct added value based on the relationships with fans.  Affinity is powerful and should help sustain sponsorships.
• Use everything you can about the partner company, such as corporate anniversaries or what sports the CEO plays/follows.  The more you know about their needs and interests, the more success you’ll have.
• Properties need to overdeliver, offering more integration between the brand and the on-field product.

From Kathryn Carter on sponsorships and soccer:

• This is a buyer’s market right now.  Companies aren’t saying no, but they’re not saying yes quickly either, so the market is driving better bargains.
• Soccer has a unique point of difference in their demographics, specifically the youth and Hispanic audiences.
• There is also a growth potential that still exists for MLS and soccer in the US, compared to the other major sports leagues.

From Gary Jacobus on sponsorships and the USTA:

• The best sponsorships provide the opportunity for the brand to “plug-in” to the property at every level.  An example is the relationship between American Express and the US Open, which starts right away with early access to tickets and includes many special event benefits (shuttle access, tv/radio rentals, and more).  If American Express walked away, fans would definitely notice the difference – that’s the type of connection you want to create.
• This is an “attraction economy” – partners adding direct value to the event experience.  Properties need to go well beyond tickets and signage, which is expected by default.  This is where creative agencies can come in and provide value.

The panel also offered some career tips:

• “Never walk into any office unprepared.”
• “No is not no until the 3rd or 4th time.”
• “Always overdeliver.”
• “Persistence will get rewarded in the end.”

More from the last discussion panel (“Sports Media and Technology”) later this week!

The news articles just keep on coming!  Here are a few more recent ones:

• Poor Economy Starting to Shape Sports Landscape (New York Times, 11/14/08) – another smalled sporting event gets cancelled (Tour of Georgia cycling race) and NASCAR loses revenue while trying to cut their costs.
• Are the New Jersey Devils Stalling Their Creditors? (NJ.com, 11/16/08) – An NHL team is actually behind on their bills and may face actions from the city.
• NASCAR is about to face some tough times(FoxSports.com, 11/16/08) – Multiple race teams are making layoffs, including Chip Ganassi and Hendrick.
• Amid downturn in US, GM and other sports sponsors rethink their gameplans (IHT, 11/16/08) – Major sponsors are withdrawing their sponsorship dollars, and teams are going to pay the price.

Not a lot of good news out there right now.  I’ve also heard about other teams in the four major sports making staffing cuts.  I don’t expect a rebound anytime soon, but I do think we’ll hit a leveling-off point in the next 4-6 months.

Below is a presentation that I worked on with two classmates in the ASU Sports Business MBA program.  The exercise was to pitch GM on the title sponsorship for the BCS National Championship.  We had two days to put the presentation together, and here was the result:

One of the biggest takeaways from this exercise was the primary focus on the client rather than the property.  Too many sales presentations focus completely on the value of what they are selling.  We knew that even though the BCS Championship is clearly a valuable property, we needed to first focus on GM’s business and the connection to the property.  That is why we started with emphasizing the high number of vehicle purchases in the AZ market (remember, the BCS Championship was in AZ two years ago).  We then highlight multiple ways the property fits with GM’s business and marketing strategy (slide 6).  Finally, we offered creative ways for GM to leverage and activate their sponsorship that were directly related to their brands and business (slides 11-14).

Now this was just an exercise, so the presentation is missing a lot of details.  Even so, we learned a lot about the different elements that go into a sponsorship deal and the importance of understanding both the client’s business and the integration of the property with their business strategy.  Hopefully this exercise can be used as a nice template for others.

With the start of the NHL season around the corner, I thought I would go through each of the teams in the league and highlight one or two interesting promotions or business ideas from each.  I’m going to start out in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference:

San Jose Sharks:  The Sharks seem to be using blogs to promote the team more this season, with two different blogs being highlighted on their site, the Seagate Technology’s Broadcaster Blog and Marcel Goc’s Blog (a current player, but the blog is empty right now).  The first blog shows how you can also leverage new media offerings as new inventory for your corporate partners, as the Sharks have done with Seagate.  The Sharks are also offering both 10-game and 3-game ticket packs.  The 10-game is pretty common, but the 3-game might be a good way to start upgrading your regular single-game buyers and get them thinking about those 10-game plans.  The question is, will the 3-game plan cannibalize their 10-game plan sales?

Anaheim Ducks:  The Ducks are letting fans download the team’s goal song, which is a great way to build a continuous connection to the team away from the actual games.  It also offers a new sponsorship offering (in this case, with BestBuy).  The Ducks are also offering a Fan Loyalty Card - I know several other teams have tried similar loyalty programs with very mixed results.  I think something like offering the goal song will ultimately build more loyalty than a card with partner discounts.  Any loyalty program really needs to tie back to the team at its core, and this one doesn’t.

Dallas Stars:  I really like the StarsFanatics page they created.  Now this is a fan development program!  It connects with the die hard fans and it has a real fan-generated feel to it.  I also like the Stars iMix, which lets fans download the music that their favorite players listen to (I believe the Coyotes were the first team to do this).  Finally, they have a Student Rush program that has a similar structure to the student rush for Broadway shows.  The college student audience is very price sensitive, so this could be a great way to unload seats at the last minute and connect with a large audience.  They’ve also done a great job connecting with Chipotle as a corporate partner on this offer.

Phoenix Coyotes:  The Coyotes are doing a good job communicating with the younger audience through their Howler’s Den website.  I am a firm believer in developing a connection with younger fans to try and build a long-term fan base, which is particularly challenging in the Phoenix market.  They are also offering a Coach’s Corner Package which includes actual bench seats and other VIP amenities.  This is a wonderful way to not just create new inventory, but create premium inventory that can help make up for some of their difficulty selling tickets (the Coyotes have some of the lowest attendance numbers in the league).

Los Angeles Kings:  The Kings are offering a desktop product called Kings DeskSite.  These products are interesting, because you get the chance to integrate your team into a fan’s daily computer use – I just wonder what the adoption rate is on these initiatives.  If the content isn’t high quality and updated constantly, its easy to try it and then disregard it.  The team is also offering a complementary, customized third jersey to season ticket holders that complete a prospector survey.  I like finding ways to collect more information about your customers – the more you know, the better decisions you can make across the board.  Finally, the Kings are offering a service to connect with other fans and share a season ticket package.  This can help a team meet their FSE goals and provides another alternative to the now-traditional mini-pack.

So your company just paid $1 million to become a sponsor of Team X for the calendar year.  At the end of the year, you tally up the value of all the exposure you got from being a sponsor.  The guaranteed television advertising, the press releases and news coverage, the radio spots, the website impressions, the signage viewers, etc.  At the end of all your adding, you find out that you got $3 million worth of exposure for your $1 million sponsorship.  Wow, that’s a 3 to 1 return on your investment, otherwise known as ROI. 

Well, actually it isn’t.  What you just calculated is the media value of your sponsorship.  All this is telling you is that you got a great value on your purchase.  You essentially saved 67% off the regular price – not bad at all. This value is easily confused with and mislabeled as ROI.  The question is, how can you determine what your ROI actually is?

Without going into all the details, your ROI is your actual bottom-line, dollar return divided by your costs.  So lets say that you can accurately determine that, because of your $1 million sponsorship, your sales increased by $5 million, compared to the previous year when you were not a sponsor.  Does that mean your ROI is actually 5 to 1?  No, but we’re getting closer.  Your sales increased by $5 million – a substantial increase.  But your profit margin is only 50%.  The results is that your ACTUAL return on your investment is $2.5 million – an ROI of 2.5 to 1.

So what does all of this mean?  Here are the key takeaways:

1. Do not be fooled by measurement labeled as ROI that are not ROI.  ROI comes down to bottom-line impact on profits (not sales, profits!)
2. Calculating ROI can be difficult.  You need to put systems in place that will accurately measure what profits can be directly attributed to a sponsorship.  This is a challenge, but its not impossible.
3. With corporate budgets tightening every day, companies need to really focus on metrics like ROI.  If your team or agency can help get to those numbers and demonstrate a real return on a company’s investment, you will keep them as a partner and a client.

In the past 20 years, the majority of professional sports facilities have had their traditional names replaced with those of large corporations.  This has become an acceptable norm and a large revenue sources for the teams and facilities.  In fact, in some cases where the team didn’t want to change the facility name, just the field itself was named (Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium).  However, teams were still looking for big-time sponsorship revenue on a similar level.   So next on the plate was “presenting sponsorships” – for example, the Arizona Diamondbacks, presented by Gila River Casinos.  This was a unique approach because you now attach a brand with the team as a whole, rather than the stadium, but the drawback is inconsistent exposure vs. the consistent reference to a company name in a naming rights deal.

The latest extension of this has come with newer stadiums that want to keep the team branding in the name, but still want this large revenue stream.  We now have “Built By” deals, the latest of which is the “Red Bull Arena, Built by Makita.”  This is a great opportunity for Makita, since they have attached with the new facility literally from the ground up. 

This new type of “naming” deal has me wondering what other extensions of this model there could be.  Here are a couple of ideas, and I’d love to see other ideas in the comments:

• “Managed by” – could connect to financial or consulting firms
• “Designed by” – very similar to the “Built by” concept
• “Treated/Trained by” – the health and fitness industry would like to associate their services to pro athletes
• “Supported by” – a bit generic, but similar to the “Presented by” concept

Just a quick list of interesting links today:

• The Partnership Activation Newsletter – This is a great blog for anyone on the sponsorship side, and he just started putting out a monthly newsletter, so I suggest signing up.
• Getting Engagement out of Sports- From Pat Coyle’s blog (Pat runs www.SportsMarketing20.com).  Most organizations are looking for ways to generate revenue, but too often skip over the idea of engagement.  Without first engaging a fans interest and attention, they could easily block out attempts to drive purchasing behavior, and there is higher potential for engagement in sports compared to almost any other industry.
• A Longer Season for the NFL? – The NFL already has the largest television contract in sports and sell out almost every game across the country.  How much more revenue will they generate by adding a 17th or 18th game?  Is there any downside to this idea?  How will the players and league negotiate this change in the next CBA?
• Fantasy Football at the NCAA Level – The business potential is HUGE to expand the fantasy realm into collegiate sports, but where is the line?  How can you use the names and statistics of amateur athletes when their own colleges can’t use that information in a similar way?

While attending the Yankees/Red Sox game on Tuesday night (the Yankees unfortunately lost), I was looking around the stadium at all of the corporate signage.  There is quite a lot, from the smaller, backlit signs between decks around the stadium to the massive flat signs behind the bleachers.  However, there were a couple that specifically stood out that I thought were more effective in getting fans’ attention.  These signs went beyond displaying a company logo or tagline – these signs connected with the game in some fashion, giving the fans a reason to notice them:

1.  The Kyocera K counter.  This is a logical sign for any baseball stadium, and a great opportunity for a company to draw attention to their brand after any strikeout.

2.  The Duane Reade Pitch Speed sign.  This digital sign always displays the Duane Reade logo, but after every pitch, it also displays the pitch type and speed.  Again, a great reason for fans to notice your sign, especially if there’s a high-caliber pitcher on the mound.

3.  The MetLife Countdown sign.  This sign is actively counting down the last few games of Yankee Stadium.  MetLife has done a great job of using tying the stadium countdown into their marketing and promotion efforts (I recently received an email about winning a chance to pull the countdown lever).

I’m sure there are other companies using their in-stadium signage in similar fashions.  For a team that is performing well, you can have a “magic number” countdown.  How about displaying the current pitch count?  It is more and more important to give your audience a reason to notice your brand at the game.  Don’t just settle for another billboard – connect with the fans and give them value.  They will return the favor by remembering your brand and hopefully buying your product!

The 2008 Olympics have come to an end.  It’s been an incredible 2 weeks, filled with some amazing accomplishments and storylines, from Mr. Phelps’ eight gold medals to the “controversial” success of the Chinese female gymnasts.  The result has been an impressive 16.2 national rating for NBC’s primetime coverage and 211 million total viewers over the two weeks (from Sports Business Daily, 8/25/08).  There’s little doubt that all of the Olympic advertisers and sponsors are satisfied with these results.

So the questions is, now what?  We have another four years to wait until we get to London in 2012.  Now if I remember correctly, any of the top-tier Olympic sponsors have the rights to use the Olympic logos and the like for at least four years and possibly longer (I don’t know the exact details as for when the deals start and expire).  But under the assumption that they still have the relationship and plan on renewing it, what are the things that they need to think about now?  Here are some of my thoughts:

• First and foremost, continue to capitalize on this year’s success while it is fresh in everyone’s mind.  There is a huge merchandising opportunity in DVDs.  Think about a special edition DVD following the details of Phelps’ medal chase, or the “Redeem Team” performance.  Posters, books, clothing.  What about a post-Olympic tour featuring appearances of American athletes. Olympic sponsors should find ways to attach their brands to the production of these materials and events right away.
• Establish an increased presence in London over the next year.  While England does not pose the same logistical issues that China did because of political factors, the sooner that brands can associate themselves locally with the next Olympic Games, the more effective their sponsorship and activation methods will be when 2012 finally gets here.
• Build relationships with training centers and developing athletes.  Michael Phelps was clearing the breakout star of these games (if he wasn’t already after 2004), but wouldn’t you want your brand associated with the training center that produced the next Michael Phelps or Shawn Johnson?
• Incentivize your employees now.  Turnover is an issue in almost all areas, but if you connect employee incentives now with the opportunity of a lifetime four years from now, your employees may think twice before consider other offers.

These are just a few ideas.  The main point is that the Olympic brand is so powerful and this year was such a success, that it would benefit all the Olympic sponsors to maintain a high level of connection with both the past and upcoming Games.

Major League Baseball is possibly the premier league in terms of identifying new revenue opportunities through the Internet.  MLBAM is raking in money for the league and teams, and they are on the forefront on live media through MLB.TV (which got even better this year with the higher quality stream now available…for $5 more a month, of course).

Considering this fact, I’m surprised that they have left an obvious revenue stream untapped.  As of now, if you watch games through MLB.TV, whenever there is a break between innings, all you see is an image that says there’s a break in the action and stay tuned.  They do not play any commercials or show any advertising.  To me, this is a wasted opportunity!  In a time where more and more companies prefer to focus on regional, team-based sponsorships, here is a prime opportunity for a league sponsor to get additional exposure with MLB.TV customers, individuals that have willingly identified themselves as having a deep connection with MLB.

I know the MLB.TV does use the local affiliates for their video streams, so there may be some concerns about devaluing the advertising that those stations offer.  But with the blackout rules that the site has implemented, this should be of little concern.  Other websites with streaming content, like NBC.com, have already leveraged this opportunity for their station’s major advertisers to gain more exposure during “commercial breaks” in the television shows.  The opportunity is there for MLBAM…I just wonder why they haven’t taken advantage of it yet.