'This flush brought to you by...'

This one probably didn't make your list of sponsorship trends for 2009. Nevertheless, clever CPG marketers are seizing on the opportunity to sponsor your next flush. You heard that right. Today the city of Calgary announced it is exploring the option of procuring sponsorship of the city's automated public toilet - "Olga" - which reportedly had over 45,000 flushes in 2008 alone. It's not...

Cause Marketing in the Age of Free

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book review of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price (which I learned of from one of my new favorite bloggers and twitterers @danblank) he shares this study from an MIT economist. He offered a group of subjects a choice between two kinds of chocolate—Hershey’s Kisses, for one cent, and Lindt truffles, for fifteen cents. Three-quarters of the subjects chose ...

Tour de France Sponsorship Primer

As the Tour de France moves into the mountains and stage 16, today Business Week offers up a great primer for the corporate partners that are behind this year's field. If you want a quick look at the corporate faces behind each team we'd suggest you check it out. While stateside cycling events like the Tour of Missouri are struggling, BW makes the case that cycling's doping scandal, in part, ...

Deal Flow 7-20-2009

Military financial services provider USAA has signed a 10-year agreement to be presenting sponsor of the annual Army-Navy football game. The International Ski Federation (FIS) and LG Electronics today announced an extension of their current sponsorship whereby LG Electronics will continue to serve as the title sponsor of the FIS Snowboard World Cup for the 2009/10 season. Coke Zero has agree...

Five Music Sites for Marketers

A recent report in the Guardian last weekend painted a surprisingly optimistic picture for the music industry. Why is this? For one, diversification, expedited by desperation. With dwindling music sales, sponsorship, licensing and merchandise are all taking a bigger slice of the music revenue pie. Back in May, IEG forecasted that North American companies will spend $1.08B on music festival a...

Army-Navy Finally Finds its Match

The U.S. Automobile Association, a financial services firm that provides financial products and services to members of the U.S. military, has agreed to become the first presenting sponsor of the iconic Army-Navy football game. The game will be "presented by the USAA" starting in 2009 at Lincoln Financial Field, the 119th meeting between the two academies, and will run through 2019, the same le...

Outside the Box Activation Ideas: Pepsi-Co(pter)

Plane activation is nothing new, but have you ever seen a sponsored chopper? We got a note about LA's KIIS-FM traffic reporter Commander Chuck and his Pepsi-sponsored chopper. Here's a look: As it turns out, this isn't the first use of helicopters as out-of-home media. In late 2007, the recently shuttered Portfolio Magazine sponsored helicopters to reach ultra-elite manhattanites on thei...

And on that topic of "ambush"...

Hungry tennis fans had plenty to snack on at Wimbledon last week. Appx. 24,000 cans of Pringles, branded with the slogan "These are NOT tennis balls!" were provided to hungry Wimbledon fans outside the gates of the All England Tennis Club. Pringles has no official relationship with the AELTC and Wimbledon officials didn't seem to mind as they decided not to confiscate the cans from fans. Th...

Creepy or Clever New Shirt Sponsorship?

Just when we thought we'd successfully copied the european shirt sponsorship model in the U.S., Burger King and spanish soccer team Getafe have unveiled a whole new twist on the time-honored tradition. Yesterday spanish football team Getafe announced a one year, $1.8 million shirt sponsorship with BK. This, of course, isn't the first time "the King" has made an in-game appearance. Here's a...

Deal Flow 7-17-2009

The New Orleans Saints and the Louisiana Lottery announced a marketing partnership, the fifth of its kind between NFL teams and state lotteries since the league approved lottery partners back in March. As part of the deal, the Saints will brand a scratch-off game that could award the winner tickets to a game and other prizes including autographed memorabilia and “VIP access to pregame field act...