Ahead Of The Curve: Bob Gearing

Today's Featured Member:Bob Gearing, New York Yankees Radio Network/WCBS 880AMSponsorPitch Profile: Link Years in the biz: 7 and counting How did you get started in it? I started in Minor League Baseball making peanuts and selling tickets. After my second season, I began focusing on sponsorship sales. I immediately fell in love with the fast pace, ever changing atmosphere and th...

Sony Ericsson Open 'Mayors' Will Flip Pre-Match Coin Tosses

An interesting stat that came out of the MIT Sloan Sports Conference last week: sports stadiums & arenas are the #2 place checked in on Facebook, coming in behind only airports. So it would seem logical that with the proliferation of location-based services like Foursquare, SCVNGR, Gowalla and Facebook Places, LBS activation is becoming a must have for many sponsors. Sony Ericsson has teamed up...

Pepsi Exec: Fusion of Music, Film & Digital All Coming Together

Clickz caught up with Pepsi's social media strategist Shiv Sing to check-in (pun intended) on Pepsi's SXSWi activation. Check out what he had to say on how location-based services fit with Pepsi's music and film marketing strategy. Also, be sure to check out this short clip from the Pepsico PR folks on how they're activating their SXSW sponsorship. To learn even more about what...

City of Houston Hatches Micro-Sponsorship Plan For 175th Anniversary

Rather than seeking a single title sponsor for Houston's 175th anniversary this Summer, city officials have announced a micro-sponsorship plan that it hopes will secure the $175,000 necessary to make the event free to the public. According to Houston Business Journal, the city is asking for 175 Houstonians and/or businesses to make a tax-deductible donation of $1,000. In exchange, each co...

Buick Takes Where Are They Now Stories To The Next Level

Buick is activating a new partnership with the NCAA by asking fans to create films that highlight the accomplishments of former student-athletes who are now making a difference in their communities. The activation, which was announced by the automaker at the Detroit YMCA today, is part of a deal that will involve the NCAA, as well as media partners, Turner and CBS Sports. The Buick Human ...

Band Says It Just Ebayed Off Naming Rights For $250K

If this auction is legit, it's either stroke of marketing genius or a VC's worst nightmare, you decide. You have to wonder, considering that all of the bids ranging from $25K to $250K were placed over the course of two days from identity protected bidders. Authenticity aside, the press release and ebay posting does raise some interesting points about the way bands try to fund their pursuits. ...

Ahead Of The Curve: Mike Mahoney

Today's Featured Member:Mike Mahoney, Carolina PanthersSponsorPitch Profile: Link Years in the biz: Over 5 years How did you get started in it? After years of selling services (FedEx) and software (SAP, Microsoft) I was ready for a new challenge. Sponsorship combines my experience in complex sales plus the added ability to be creative in solutions. How many deals have you done? ...

Visa Apologizes For Olympic Ticket Snafu

Less than a day after London 2012 Olympics tickets went on sale yesterday, it seems a glitch may be preventing, according to the Daily Mail's estimates, nearly 10% of all Visa cardholders, from purchasing tickets. The trouble apparently stems from the fact that while orders are being taken for more than 6.5 million tickets through the official Ticketmaster site, cardholders will not actually be...

Xerox Announces Cirque Sponsorship At What Else.. A Sponsorship Conference

Xerox CMO Christa Carone apparently just announced a new 3-year deal with Cirque du Soleil at IEG. Carone says Xerox recently "hired one of the best talents" from their sponsorship agency, MEC access, to develop their new strategy. (function (){var a=document.createElement("script");a.defer="true";a.src="http://www.apture.com/js/apture.js?siteToken=wgbbVPd";document.getElementsByTagName...

Coke Zero's Social Arena

As if March Madness wasn't already enabling office inefficiency, now comes word of the CokeZeroSocialArena. Coca-Cola Zero, Turner Sports and CBS Sports have partnered to create the "social arena," where fans can log on to CokeZeroSocialArena.com and follow basketball games and teams by the amount of social media buzz they're every receiving. In addition, the will stream games on March Madness ...