Look More Closely: What Opportunities Do You See?

Bring a discerning eye, along with a healthy dose of creativity, to your exploration for new sponsor possibilities. As you monitor the media, interact with the business world, and go about your daily life, look for signs of new life and evidence that maybe there’s another way of looking at things. Not every industry sector, nor every business in troubled sectors, has collapsed. Some are doi...

Deal Flow 8-17-2009

Vail Resorts, Inc. announced today a four-year sponsorship agreement with World Champion American skier Lindsey Vonn. Vonn, a two-time World Cup Overall champion, is preparing for her quest to win an “epic” five gold medals at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Nike Canada and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) announced today that Nike ...

Financial Statements for Sponsors

Following up on our look at how sponsorship properties can use financial statements to better tailor their pitch and get an informational advantage in sponsorship negotiations, it's time to take a look at what sponsors can learn from properties' financial statements. This gets a little tougher. Unfortunately, there are not as many publicly listed properties, but on the other hand many propertie...

Simple Tips to Successful Sponsorship Sales

Jim Loria offers up several simple, but often overlooked tips to making a successful sale: In order to achieve a high level of success, salespeople have to manage a multitude of different relationships. Some will be static, some will grow and some will break down. It is up to the salesperson to set relationship priorities and to decide which relationship to advance and which relationship to ...

How did State Farm Snag the Home Run Derby?

Ray Katz, Founder of Optimum Sports which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Omnicom Group, has been instrumental in the development of landmark sponsorships such as State Farm's sponsorship with MLB, Visa's NFL deal and many other high profile global deals. Katz recently sat down with Mark for this week's BrandCast. Katz describes how the landmark State Farm Home Run Derby came about, the role th...

Monster Energy Crowdsources Music Sponsorship

At each stop throughout this summer's Crue Fest 2, Monster Energy has worked with local radio stations to bring some local flavor to the Monster Energy stage. Working with each local radio station, Monster Energy has allowed rock fans to choose a sixth, local act to join the stage with the five premiere bands currently on Tour. When the Tour wraps up its 30th and final stop on September 5th, fa...

AB&E Festival presented by Vanity and Charity

Brian McCollum of The Detroit Free Press today reports that Kid Rock has chipped in $20K in sponsor funds for Detroit's struggling Arts, Beats & Eats Festival on September 4-7th. Kid Rock's stage will be called the Made in Detroit Big Three Stage. Last month, the AB&E announced it would donate sponsorships to struggling automakers including Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. McCollum re...

Deal Flow 8-18-2009

The Breeders' Cup announced today that Dos Equis has agreed to become the official Beer sponsor of the 2008 Breeders' Cup World Championships. As part of the agreement, Dos Equis will have exclusive marketing rights on-site at Santa Anita Park for the 25th running of the Breeders' Cup World Championships to be held October 24-25, 2008. Women’s Professional Soccer and the U.S. Coast Guard anno...

Report: P&G Wrapping Up U.S.O.C. Deal

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that P&G is close to inking a deal with the U.S.O.C. that will allow them to put the Olympic rings to work on a wide range of P&G products for Vancouver 2010. This comes on the heels of the company's 13 brand deal with the NFL announced earlier this month and could be the biggest sponsorship to date for the U.S.O.C. Given the wide ranging demographic interest th...

Toyota Prius Partners with L.A. Freeways

Increasingly, we're seeing marketers recognizing that they can do good for both their brand and the public through thematically appropriate public-private partnerships. Yesterday Toyota and government officials unveiled a vivid roadside display made up of more than 20,000 live flowers, along the Pasadena Freeway (SR-110) in downtown Los Angeles with Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, officials ...