Ecko Joins NY's "Free MMA" Fight

Never a stranger to a fight, master marketer Mark Ecko's MMA brand is joining the battle to legalize the sport in New York and Toronto. Ecko MMA has partnered with legendary extreme sports producer, Bobby Razak, to raise the profile of MMA's fight for legalization in New York. Despite gaining support in other states, New York continues to uphold its ban on MMA events. In a new commercial ca...

JetBlue Activates BC Sponsorship with 10% Off

To raise their exposure around increased service at Boston's Logan Airport, Jet Blue has signed a deal to become the official airline of Boston College Athletics. To celebrate the new deal, JetBlue is offering a 10 percent discount off all flights to or from Boston booked today at www.jetblue.com/bc. "As Boston's largest domestic carrier, it is fitting that we align ourselves with Boston ...

Help Us Answer the WTA's $88M Question

Task #1, and it's a big one, for newly appointed Women's Tennis Association Chief Stacey Allaster - renew or secure a new title sponsor for the WTA Tour beyond 2009. Sony Ericsson's six year, $88 million sponsorship deal will expire at the end of this year. Allaster recently pointed to an 11% increase in attendance as a signal of the Tour's perseverance in difficult times. Still, the spons...

Fedor Challenger Goes From Sam's Club to CBS Primetime

This Saturday, MMA will return to CBS in primetime at 9PM ET. Fedor, universally considered one of the best fighters in the world, will be opposed by Brett Rogers. Rogers was changing tires at a Minnesota Sam's Club six months ago, according to this CBS promo. Will a tire co step up to opportunistically sponsor Rogers in the biggest fight of his career? Demographic fit? Check. Timin...

IZOD to Title IndyCar?

Several outlets are reporting that IndyCar is very close to securing series sponsorship from clothing brand, IZOD, at a rumored 3-5 years and $10 million per year. The IRL has called a press conference for Thursday, November 5th, but the topic of the press conference has not been announced. From SpeedTV.com: The new deal is supposedly worth $10 million a year and is rumored to include $100,000...

USA Promotes White Collar With - White Collars

My dry cleaning is now being sponsored by USA Network. Check out this ad for USA's new original series, White Collar. Of course, the upside of acceptance to advertising is supposed to be a lower transaction cost. No such luck.

Links 11/02/2009

IZOD to Title IndyCar? McDonald's Outlines Vancouver Olympic PlansDo you get more out of replacing a long-time sponsor due to "shock value"?JetBlue Activates Boston College Sponsorship With 10% Off FanCar Sponsors Its First Driver, Terry LabonteING NYC Marathon Sponsorship ActivationsMarathon Champ, Meb, has three sponsors: ALCiS, PowerBar and NikeTurner Signs Sony Playstation to Be...

WSOP Sponsor Tie-Ins Part II

Last time I sat down at the keyboard, I wrote about my recent experience of watching World Series of Poker on ESPN recently. I'm admittedly a poker neophyte – wouldn't know an inside straight from an inside fade. (Okay, I made that up... I don't even know if there IS something known of as an "inside fade"...) But I do recognize good sponsorship tie-ins, and if you want to see some classic te...

Macy's Congratulates Phillies for World Series Victory

Some make-goods are in store for Macy's, after the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday ran a premature ad by the department store congratulating the Phillies on winning back-to-back World Series. This, despite, being down 3-1 in the series (3-2 after last night). The Inquirer apologized late yesterday for the mishap.

Colbert Nation Becomes Official Sponsor of U.S. Speedskating

In the latest example of crowdsourcing sponsorship, which we've covered extensively (here, here, here, here, and here) Comedy Central's Colbert Nation has stepped up to become an official sponsor of the U.S. Speedskating team. Colbert Nation's sponsorship will include uniform branding and comes on the heels of the U.S.S.A previous sponsor, DSB Bank, declaring bankruptcy. Colbert made the ann...