SpongeTech Keeps Sponsoring

Despite a tangled web of lurking legal issues, SpongeTech is still sponsoring. Today, SpongeTech announced that they'll be kicking off the NBA season courtside with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

SpongeTech will receive prominent courtside signage and media exposure through the partnership.

The maker of "the smarter sponge," who has not been shy about promoting its sponsorship strategy, unveiled the deal with a seemingly subdued announcement today.

"We are continuing to build our brand presence in Cleveland as the Cavaliers are the fifth professional sports team that we sponsor in Ohio," stated Steven Moskowitz, COO of SpongeTech.

SpongeTech currently sponsors the New York Knicks, multiple National Hockey League teams and eight National Football League teams. The Company continues to grow its sports sponsorship portfolio, previously leveraging Major League Baseball teams, the World Football Challenge, the US Open and professional boxing.

Depending on who you talk to, SpongeTech could be a blessing or an albatross for the sports sponsorship world, after picking up cut-rate sponsorship inventory from the sponsor-weary financials and auto sector earlier this year.

In another strange turn, Tim Keown of ESPN.com followed up last month's profile of SpongeTech by saying that "shortly after the piece ran I started getting e-mails from people who said they found it fishy that a company selling pre-soaped sponges would advertise so prominently at sporting events." Going further, in this follow-up post yesterday he says:

My conversation with COO Steven Moskowitz was strange; when you've interviewed enough people you learn to identify certain types of responses. Moskowitz wanted to steer the conversation from the beginning, to the point where he wasn't necessarily interested in questions. He talked through questions and seemed generally nervous. I don't know the man, so I don't know enough to know whether the company's problems and the COO's manner are connected.

What's your take on the SpongeTech fiasco?

photo credit: spongetech.com