PBR Bucking Sponsorship Trend?

GoDaddy.com, the web domain registrar famous for Danica Patrick and its sultry Super Bowl ads, has signed on as title sponsor of Pro Bull Riding's Portland event in October. This follows up last week's announcement that U.S. Bank, a licensee since 2005, is now an official sponsor of the PBR The GoDaddy.com Invitational will pit the world's top 40 bull riders against each other over the co...

Show Me the U.S. Open Money

A Q&A with Condor Capital's Ken Schapiro Condor Capital President Ken Schapiro brings over 20 years of investment management expertise and tennis business experience to a financial analysis of the U.S. Open. Schapiro manages over $500 million in portfolio assets at Condor, a firm he founded in 1988. Schapiro also owns the Courtside Racquet Club in Clinton, which yesterday received the 2...

Happy Jetting: Jet Blue Scores NY Jets Deal

Jet Blue will join in the Jets 50 years of New York Jets football celebration as part of a three year sponsorship deal, announced today. "This is the perfect opportunity for JetBlue to establish a relationship with the New York Jets," said Robin Hayes, Chief Commercial Officer of JetBlue Airways. "We're a growing airline with a bright future ahead, and the Jets are starting an exciting new c...

Do Properties Really Want "Partnerships?"

We've been through the sponsorship vs. partnership debate several times so I won't rehash again, but an article coinciding with the PGA Tour's Deutsche Bank Championship this weekend really has me thinking: Do properties really know what they're getting into when sponsorships look more like "partnerships?" That is, with all of the talk about developing "partnerships of equals," are proper...

Deal Flow 9-8-2009

Danish brewer Carlsberg signed a four-year sponsorship deal with the English Football Association on Tuesday Bell Helicopter has agreed to remain the title sponsor of the Armed Forces Bowl through at least 2011, with options for the following two years. JetBlue Airways today announced a three year partnership to become the Official Airline Partner of the New York Jets. Gap is sponso...

Scenario Planning Meets Sponsorships

We all know that events and sponsorships have positive effects on communities and move the needle for sponsoring brands. However, especially in these whitewater economic times, is your entertainment or sport property able to communicate this principle to its existing and prospective sponsors? Has your organization contemplated this question multiple times already, but run out of fresh strategic...

Who Buys Luxury Suites?

I recently had the chance to sit it in on a panel discussing database marketing and demographic profiling in relation to premium sales. Ron Contorno, who is the President of Full House Entertainment Database Marketing, talked about some of the things he’s learned through research and analysis that indicate how to best target premium sales prospects. One piece of research he referenced was an ...

The END of Sponsorship Marketing?

This is the fourth posting in our "Key Learnings" blog series, which is a regular collection of insights and stories from thought-leaders within the sponsorship industry. Today's key learning comes from Kevin Hanft from Marketing Leverage LLC. Thankfully, we have seen the end of the populism trend of bashing every company that had a sponsorship, ran client hospitality or rewarded its employ...

Year-over-Year Activation Spending Poll

Admittedly, this is a limited sample size, but for what it's worth here are the results from our earlier poll. 5-1 votes for sponsors spending less on activation this year (with 3 votes saying sponsors maintained current spending). Is this because sponsors are finding more sophisticated, resourceful and efficient ways to accomplish more with less, because they are cutting back on activation e...

Confessions of a Sporting Goods CMO

Want to know what kind of questions CMO's are asking about sports sponsorship these days? Here's a quick sample. Now of course, sponsor loyalty is an inexact science, but for the sake of discussion... Are fans still as passionate and loyal to NASCAR and its' sponsors as they once were? Is NASCAR still dominating in terms of both sponsor awareness and loyalty as this study from poll...