Yingli Solar Signs Another Big Soccer Deal

Yingli Green Energy, a solar energy company that dropped a heavy sum to sponsor the FIFA World Cup this past year, has signed another major soccer deal, this time becoming an official partner of one of the world's most well-known soccer clubs, FC Bayern Munich. The company has wasted no time, as an enormous announcement already appears at the header of the the company website, yinglisolar.com. ...

Octagon Launches 3rd Edition Of Audience Research Tool, Passion Drivers

Octagon has launched the third version of its interactive tool aimed at researching the "why" behind fan passion. Passion Drivers 3.0 is an evolution of the first tool by the same name, which was launched in 2005. Simon Wardle, Octagon Worldwide's Chief Strategy Officer, explained the latest evolution of the research initiative he created six years ago. "We began by providing the industry's...

Tennis Player Forced To Change Dresses Due To Oversized Logo

A fourth-round match at the Australian Open was delayed on Monday night when the chair umpire determined that a logo on the front of Ekaterina Makarova's shirt was too large and had to be removed. The 22-year-old Russian was warming up before her match against Kim Clijsters when umpire Mariana Alves noticed one of the logos and made Makarova leave the court to change. Read More >>

Nissan Beefs Up Portfolio Of Nashville Properties

Nissan is making its name known in Nashville. On the heels of its announcement that it will become the presenting sponsor of the Nashville Film Festival, Nissan has upgraded from official to presenting sponsor of Nashville's Country Music Marathon & 1/2 Marathon. The sponsorship deals support the automaker's recent headquarter relocation to the area. Nissan moved 1,300 of its employees from...

Corona Extra Signs Presenting Sponsorship With MLS' Chivas USA

Major League Soccer's Chivas USA will team up with Grupo Modelo, making Corona Extra the presenting sponsor of the LA-based MLS team. Club officials say the multiyear presenting sponsorship will put the logo of Corona Extra on Chivas USA team gear, and provide the brand with significant and visible presence at Chivas USA’s home games and other events. In an adjacent alcohol category, Chivas ...

How SponsorPitch Landed An Official Beer

After some intense negotiation, complete with talk of clawbacks, exclusivity and moral clauses, we've finally attained the holy grail of sponsorship - an official beer. It seems the micro-sponsorship trend hasn't lost any steam. While other brands have used social media to sponsor personal achievements, Miller High Life is out with a new campaign that allows anyone (over the age of 21) to get a...

The ROI Debate Is About To Get A Lot More Interesting

With the slew of recent lawsuits that Stanford's court-appointed receiver has issued to sports properties that Stanford Financial Group entered into sponsorship agreements with, now including the Miami Heat, IMG and golfer David Toms, it seems these sponsees may be asked to explicitly prove what value they provided in exchange for the CD proceeds they received from Stanford. Caveat: we're not l...

John Hancock Issues Press Release To Say It Will Continue To Tweet

This may be pushing the bounds of what is newsworthy. Then again, since we're writing about it, perhaps it worked. Nevertheless, it seems like John Hancock's PR team could've come up with a better angle for activation of what by all accounts is an amazing partnership with the Boston Marathon. Here's the presser: In celebration of its 26th year as the principal sponsor of the Boston Marathon...

Facebook Launches 'Sponsored Stories'

Your next Facebook status update, check-in or like might end up in an advertisement on Facebook. It's part of a new product from Facebook Marketing Solutions that is intended to present businesses with the opportunity to promote word of mouth mentions. The new program is called Sponsored Stories, which allows advertisers to use your content in ads it shows to your friends. Facebook launched 'Sp...

America's Next Top (Sponsorship) Property

Find out what the twitterverse had to say on the topic in last night's #sbchat, hosted by J.W. Cannon and Lou Imbriano. Dig in to a transcript from the weekly discussion here.