The Ten Biggest Sponsorship Stories of 2013

New Year's Eve is a great time to reflect on the year that was. Here's a few of our hand-picked sponsorship stories that made waves around here over the past 365 days... Tablets Take The Field Tablets hold promise for ushering in a whole new generation of tech-savvy sideline activations. Whether the promise of that opportunity was fulfilled in 2013 is largely a matter of opinion, but the b...

Over 50% of Sellers Are Pitching 6 Months Out From Event

We put a wrap on our most recent poll and the findings, gathered from 266 responses, revealed that the majority of sponsorship sellers are pitching their opportunity to potential sponsors between 6-12 months before the actual event. The results, of course, may be a little biased from the average sponsorship seller since if you took the step of joining SponsorPitch, you are probably pre-disposed...

Sponsors Will Now Foot The Bill For *Some Of Your Mobile Data

We've all gotten used to sponsored Wi-Fi in public places. Paying for it in a mall, park or even a subway now seems almost unthinkable. Could mobile data be next? Yesterday at CES in Las Vegas, AT&T launched Sponsored Data, which looks to take this trend one step further. The gist behind the new program is that if you're an AT&T consumer, you shouldn't have to pay for data charges associate...

Devils, 76ers Become First To Cash In On Online Poker

The Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils have become the first major U.S.-based professional sports teams to align themselves with online gambling. Both clubs will today formally announce multiyear marketing agreements with partypoker and parent company, Bwin. Bloomberg reports the deal is worth at least $10 million. Bwin, which has deals throughout Europe, breaks in to the U.S. just as ...

Godin: Most Sponsorships Are A Screaming Bargain

Best-selling author, Seth Godin, took on the topic of corporate sponsorship this morning in his popular marketing blog. While acknowledging that sponsorship valuation is rarely easy, Godin writes that internal clarity of purpose is the most critical ingredient to sponsorship success. If you're clear about which of these five things you're shooting for, Godin writes that "most sponsorships are a...

Hundreds of Millions of Text Votes Later, AT&T to Exit Idol

In 2003, the inaugural season of its American Idol sponsorship, AT&T generated 7.5 million texts (a record at the time) with its 'text to vote' activation. Hundreds of millions of teen texts later, Fox confirmed the end of AT&T's sponsorship on Wednesday prior to the premiere episode of the show's 13th season. The telecom's sponsorship was used initially to lift the adoption of text messagin...

Notre Dame, Under Armour Deal Said To Be "Largest In College Sports"

Yesterday, the University of Notre Dame formally announced the school's 10-year apparel contract with Baltimore-based apparel provider, Under Armour, which Fighting Irish Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick is calling "the largest financial commitment ever made by a brand to a university." ESPN cites sources reporting that the apparel deal is worth $90 million in cash and merchandise over 10 years...

Enter Your Sponsorship Campaign Into This Year's CLIOs

For the first time in the CLIO Awards' 55-year history, sports marketing and sponsorship will share the spotlight with the best in advertising. The international advertising competition is accepting applications for the first Clio Sports awards through March 21st. "Clio Sports recognizes the enormously dynamic and still growing impact of sports on marketing and advertising," said Nicole Pur...

10 Big Sponsorship Themes For 2014

According to UK sponsorship consultancy, Synergy, these are the 10 sponsorship themes that we'll all be talking about in the upcoming year. Head over to the Synergy Blog to read more.

Here's How To Grow Experiential Marketing Budgets

While 73% of CPG marketing execs believe experiential marketing will play an important role in their future marketing plans, there may still be much room for growth. A 'lack of clear ROI' is cited by more than half of execs as the biggest challenge holding back spending with 64% of CPG marketers either somewhat likely or very likely to increase experiential marketing budgets if their challenges...