Danica Patrick Goes From Sponsored to Sponsor in Latest Deal

Professional athletes get hit up for autographs all the time, but not too many times do they get hit up for sponsorship. Sporting News has a good read on how Danica Patrick, who is usually the one being sponsored, recently ended up sponsoring a youth softball team. Naturally, Go Daddy got pass-through rights on the deal! The company's lime green branding was bestowed on the youth softball team as a result of the deal! From Sporting News...

While some aunts get asked to buy Girl Scout cookies, Patrick recently got a different request from Kendall, who asked in a somewhat shy voice:

“Aunt Danica, would you be willing to sponsor my softball team?”

Patrick’s answer? “Of course.”

The request included new uniforms. Patrick’s niece is a pitcher, and when she goes out to the mound, she has to look good.

So Kendall and her teammates have new uniforms and call themselves “The Green Machine” thanks to Patrick’s recent purchase of uniforms that sport the green of her GoDaddy-sponsored racecar.

As Forbes points out, an opportunistic brand out there might be wise to activate its athlete endorsements with a similar type of multi-level grassroots program.

Wouldn't it be cool if say Adidas gave each of its NBA athletes a small sponsorship budget to allocate to youth basketball teams in their respective local markets? The amount spent would probably amount to a fraction of the paid media currently spent and it might go a lot further in the community.

#dealstag