ESA Crowns 2009 Sponsorship Winners

Wrigley’s Extra: Extra 90+ took home the Business to Consumer Award at the European Sponsorship Association's 2009 Awards last week. Wrigley's beat out competition from fellow shortlisted contenders, Coke Zero Presents: Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker, PUMA Ocean Racing and Vodafone Taxi Grand Prix. Wrigley's joined forces with the Sun Online to develop a "Minutes that Matter" microsite that le...

Game's Up!

With little brand awareness outside of middle Tennessee, it appears Sommet has suddenly wised up to the fact that approximately eight million dollars may have circled the drain over the past two years, as part of their three year naming rights deal with the Nashville Arena. On November 25th the Preds thanked Sommet by suing the naming rights partner for missed payments on the deal scheduled...

Ranger Boats Renews With FLW Outdoors

Ranger Boats has renewed their sponsorship with FLW Outdoors, the two parties announced today. "We're proud to have such a strong partnership with Ranger Boats," said Trisha Blake, Chief Marketing Officer & Executive Vice President of FLW Outdoors. "Ranger is the ultimate standard on the water. Their leadership within the world of competitive fishing goes back more than four decades and ou...

Value of Olympic Sponsorship Questioned

The value of Olympic sponsorship was questioned at European Sponsorship Association’s annual European conference, Future Sponsorship, in London last week. Over 200 leading figures from all areas of the sponsorship industry took part in a survey which asked the question – Are domestic Olympic packages (LOCOG) good value for money? A staggering 79% said "NO." The Tier One Olympic Sponsorship Pro...

Chrysler Ending U.S. Soccer Sponsorships

Chrysler will be ending its sponsorship of U.S. national soccer teams. The Wall Street Journal's Eric Morath reports: The soccer sponsorship contract is “neither necessary nor valuable” to the auto maker’s bankruptcy estate and “will not be assumed … in connection with the Fiat transaction,” Chrysler attorneys said in court documents filed last week. Read more >> photo credit: wikim...

Links 12/01/09

Chrysler Ending U.S. Soccer Sponsorships7-eleven Signs on as Associate Sponsor of Danica PatrickGo Daddy now racer Patrick's primary car sponsor Blue Cross and Blue Shield Claims Presenting Sponsorship of Texas Round-Up 10KNascar Should Be Racing to Demonstrate ROI for SponsorsRanger Boats Renews with FLW OutdoorsNational Bank Financial Group Increases its Commitment to Tennis in Canada &a...

Korean Air Invests in Arts & Culture

Korean Air has entered into a partnership with the British Museum and will invest in new touchscreen multimedia museum guides over the next five years. The guides, launched yesterday, will come in 11 different languages. Yang Ho Cho, chairman and chief executive of Korean Air, said: "Korean Air is a company that encourages and facilitates cultural exchanges. Millions of people appreciate art ...

Nissan Dilemma Demonstrates Difficult Diplomacy of Olympic Bidding

Autocar reports that production of Nissan's new battery-powered Leaf hatchback in the UK is now uncertain after BMW outbid the carmaker for the right to supply electric vehicles to the 2012 London Olympic Games. Autocar writes: Nissan UK’s trump card in trying to secure European Leaf production for Sunderland was the fact that it could promise to have an outlet for at least 2000 units of the c...

New Study: Regional Sponsors Are a Hit in Major League Baseball

Recent data from a study by sponsorship measurement firm FanLab may show that smaller regional brands are standing tall with some of the biggest, official MLB sponsors in the country. FanLab’s September 2009 study included a national random sample of 1186 consumers who were asked about top-of-mind sponsors of Major League Baseball and then about their interest level in MLB and other prof...

First Mover (Dis)Advantage Applied to Sponsorship

Wikipedia: First-mover advantage or FMA is the advantage gained by the initial occupant of a market segment. This advantage may stem from the fact that the first entrant can gain control of resources that followers may not be able to match.[1] Sometimes the first mover is not able to capitalise on its advantage, leaving the opportunity for another firm to gain second-mover advantage. What does...