LN: Festival Sponsorship Expected To Be Up 15% This Year

Live Nation COO Joe Berchtold told analysts last night that the music industry bellwether expects festival sponsorship to continue growing rapidly, and for the full year, to increase by over 15%. For the most recent quarter, Live Nation's sponsorship business was $45 million, up 13% over 2013 due to higher sponsorship revenue generated from new clients and growth in online advertising. "O...

Pandora Pitches Promoted Stations

Pandora has launched the beta of a new marketing solution that it's calling Promoted Stations. Promoted stations, which embed brand content directly into a listener's station list, are being served for beta partners: Kleenex, Skechers, StubHub, Taco Bell and Toyota. Promoted Stations are being served to roughly 10 percent of Pandora’s 76 million monthly users with brand content appearing alon...

Publicis, Omnicom Call Off Monster Merger

The planned $35 billion merger of two of advertising's biggest players, Publicis and Omnicom, has been terminated as a result of what both parties are calling "difficulties in completing the transaction within a reasonable timeframe." The merger, announced last July, would have created the world's largest ad holding company, while at the same time, in theory, consolidating billions in sponsorsh...

Hendrick Goes Super Hero For Latest Sponsorship

11-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions Hendrick Motorsports will get an interesting new look as a result of a three-year agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) and DC Entertainment (DCE). WBCP and DCE will work with Hendrick Motorsports and its partners to build on- and off-track programs teaming star drivers Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wi...

Here's How Much California Chrome's Nasal Strip Would Be Worth To Sponsors

The $10 nasal strip California Chrome will sport at Belmont in the quest for the Triple Crown would deliver 38,400 times that amount in on-air media value, according to Front Row Analytics.

Google Back On Top As World's Most Valuable Brand

Last holding the top spot in 2010, Google has dethroned Apple to once again become the world’s most valuable global brand in the annual BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand ranking. Some of the key findings highlighted in this year’s research report include: Share of Life: Successful brands such as Google (No 1 brand), Facebook, Twitter, Tencent and LinkedIn are more than just tools, ...

Poll Results: Sponsorship Agency Comp

Do you know of agencies that will sell my property and what is the standard commission for sponsorship sales? We get this question at least two or three times a week so we recently put it to a SponsorPitch member poll. With 295 precincts reporting, 10-20% commissions look to be the standard protocol. Disclaimer: this can vary significantly depending on the agency's experience, deal size, retain...

Experiential Marketing Agency Acquired For $52 Million

Dentsu's Aegis Lifestyle division has agreed to acquire New York-based event marketing agency, MKTG. MKTG has approximately 340 full time employees and 6,600 non-fulltime field network employees, who reportedly execute approximately 70,000 marketing events annually across the United States. The $52 million acquisition is yet another signal of the growing preference for experiential marketing. ...

Chrome Gets Kicks For Crown Run

With California Chrome contending to become the first Triple Crown winner in 36 years, the world's most famous horse (ATM) will look good getting into the gate thanks to a new sponsorship deal. In what is reported to be the biggest horse racing sponsorship since UPS and Big Brown, California-based apparel maker Skechers will brand the trainer and owner team jackets, caps and apparel as well as ...

Gatorade Wants Everyone To Know It DOES NOT Sponsor "The Person Cramping"

The world's largest sports drink brand took some opportunistic shots at its chief competitor (a LeBron sponsor) during last night's opener of the NBA Finals. and it didn't stop there... and here... Despite all of this, LeBron was repeatedly spotted drinking what appears to be Gatorade, an NBA sponsor, throughout the game. According to Deadspin, due to LeBron's deal with Powerade, the...