Marketplace Round-Up

The PGA Tour Players Championship begins today, less than 50 days after Jacksonville hosted Super Bowl XXXIX, but Tournament Dir Brian Goin said that the event has “benefited — not struggled — from the Super Bowl’s wake.” Goin, on corporate sales for the event: “We did a bunch of three-year deals with this being the third year. We specifically timed it knowing the Super Bowl was coming, and it cushioned things. We’ll end up setting a (corporate sales) record this year” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 3/24).

The Boat Race Turning To Commercials After Four Years Of Losses

FLOATING AN IDEA: BLOOMBERG NEWS’ Sam Sheringham reports Oxford Univ. and Cambridge Univ. “are turning to commercials for the first time to boost revenue after four years of losses” from staging their annual Boat Race. Boat Race Co. Chair Christopher Rodrigues, whose company distributes funding to the school’s rowing clubs, said, “We needed to make sure that the total revenues for the race were maximized.” ITV recently signed a five-year, $3.4M deal to air the event, which takes place this year on March 27. The BBC, which is commercial free, aired the race for the past 67 years. UK-based MindShare Worldwide Account Dir Scott Taylor said that ITV “may make as much as [$2.3M] from ads during the two-hour program” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 3/24).

I’M JUST A CAVEMAN: Red Sox CF Johnny Damon will appear in an ad for DHL in which memorabilia from the Red Sox’ World Series win is sent to the HOF, including Damon’s beard. Red Sox Dir of PR Glenn Geffner said that Damon “got a special dispensation to shave for the DHL ad.” Geffner: “He’ll have it back in less than a week — in time for the book tour” (BOSTON HERALD, 3/24). Damon had agreed not to shave the beard off before his promotional tour for his book around the ’04 season (THE DAILY).

GOLD STANDARD: Former MLBer Pete Rose will appear in a 30-second local TV ad for Cincinnati-based Gold Star Chili “to promote the restaurants’ new line of salads.” The spot will run on local network and cable stations for about a month, and “continue to run throughout the season during Reds games” on FSN Ohio. This marks Rose’s first local TV ad campaign in six years and his second with Gold Star (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 3/24).