REVIEWS ARE IN AT SPORTS SPONSORSHIP FORUM

     The "significant shift" of companies trying to get greater
leverage out of their sports sponsorships was a hot topic at the
Sponsorship Forum, the first annual gathering of top execs from
the corporate, media and property sides of the sports marketing
industry organized by Clarion Performance Properties.  Execs from
Reebok, IBM, GM, Sara Lee and Sprint all said they are rethinking
how they are leveraging their sports sponsorships.  IBM has taken
"a machete to its sport sponsorship roster," opting to keep ties
to the NBA, Olympics and pro golf and tennis, while dropping such
deals as the Fiesta Bowl.  At GM, execs now file some 25
sponsorship proposals a day into the trash, "as most of them fail
to address the carmaker's marketing needs."  Reebok reserves its
dollars for properties it can build a product around (Jeff
Jensen, AD AGE, 4/17).