Visa Promotion Puts Off TIFF Fans

Steve Kuperfman of the Torontoist today provides a detailed account of sponsor backlash from the Toronto International Film Festival, dubbed "the friendly festival." According to his report, guests of Tuesday night's Baarìa premiere, were less than pleased at Visa's cardholder promotion, which offers a priority line to get in the theatre first, only for holders of Visa gold or platinum cards. H...

Deal Flow 9-17-2009

Samsung Mobile and Texas Motor Speedway announced that they will extend the eight-year title sponsorship. The Samsung 500 will be called the Samsung Mobile 500 beginning next year. Verizon Wirelesswill assume sponsorship of the Florida Gators, extending the deal it inherited in its Alltell acquisition last year. The Dallas Mavericks will have HDNet as its practice jersey sponsor for the upcom...

Kleenex: 'Don't drop the ®'

Brands covet their nouns and verbs, especially when they've become a generally accepted category term in the public's lexicon. Spotted an interesting ad from Kleenex® Tissues on BrandWeek recently. Who's this ad aimed at? Other marketers and agencies one would assume? Unless you're BrandWeek. As we understand it, fair use doctrines allow journalists like BrandWeek to run stories like...

Sponsorship Sold to...?

The Plymouth Argyle sponsorship auction on eBay came to an end this morning with a last minute bid for £2,750.00. In total, there were 18 bids from seven bidders. So did the power of an efficient market work? Ashley Read from Sport Driven estimates that the package would normally be priced at about the reserve price of £1,500. Not taking into account, the windfall of free publicity Plymouth ...

Should sponsors think more like VC's?

Having talked to a number of well-known VC's lately, I can't help but think about some of the similarities between the way VC's and sponsors think, as it stands right now. When we were raising money, we would constantly hear things like "AWESOME.. LOVE THE CONCEPT, I can see how that could really take off... But come back and talk to me when you're bigger!" Lots of enthusiasm, no offer. If ...

UFC: Undisputed Takes Sponsorship to a New Level

If you're not a UFC fan or a gamer, you may not know about the sponsorship features in UFC's official licensed game, UFC 2009: Undisputed. The game, developed in a licensing deal with THQ, was released last May. To our knowledge there are three main levels of sponsor involvement in the title. Let's break them down. UFC fighters included in the game, and their agents, were given the opportu...

Deal Flow 9-18-2009

Nascar's Mark Martin will have a new primary sponsor at the Sprint Cup level for the 2010 season, Go Daddy.com Volkswagen became a sponsor of the 2014 Winter Olympics and will be the official automobile partner. The Meydan Group, which is building a huge facility called Meydan Racecourse inside a larger commercial development in Dubai, has signed on as major sponsor of the 2010 Alltech FEI Wo...

Mascots & Menus: Reviewing the New NFL Ads

Two of the most talked about deals leading up to the NFL kick-off were P&G's cross-category deal and IHOP's official partnership, featuring Larry Fitzgerald and Donovan Mcnabb. Febreze By most estimates, one third of the nation's 285 million football fans are women. When Febreze was announced it was widely assumed they would leverage the NFL to reach mom's and wives with the company's ai...

King of Queens

If it's better to be lucky than smart... the smarter sponge is doing a good job of it lately. SpongeTech, despite keeping U.S. Open activation at a minimum, curiously managed to take center stage during two of the fortnight's most memorable moments. Don't believe me? See for yourself... Simple name awareness is their goal and they have done an effective job of using sports to efficiently...

Dream Green; Soap Box Shifts Strategy

In a last ditch attempt to recoup lost sponsorship dollars, more and more properties are making over their value proposition to read more like cause marketing than traditional sponsorship. According to a USA Today article, the All-American Soap Box Derby is the latest. According to the article; the Derby which in the past has been title sponsored by the likes of Chevrolet, Goodyear, Home De...