NBA Marketers Announce Deals Around All-Star Game

By Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large

With the NBA's All-Star weekend in full swing, the league has new marketing deals to bounce off business partners and basketball fans congregating in New Orleans. One new partnership sees the WNBA exporting its intellectual property for the first time to a company in China, a market the NBA has been exploiting with resounding success in recent years. Chinese footwear and apparel company Fujian Peak Group, better known as Peak, has signed a multi-year pact with the WNBA. Under the deal, Liberty C Janel McCarville and Silver Stars G Erin Buescher, the last two recipients of the league's most improved player award, have signed on as endorsers. While Peak's shoes aren't sold in the U.S., McCarville and Buescher will wear their shoes in WNBA games, some of which are televised in China. Additionally, Peak will underwrite clinics and other basketball activities aimed at promoting health and fitness among teen girls and young women in China.

Wrigley Sponsorship Of NBA Jam Van Part Of Marketing Efforts

DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE: First-year NBA sponsor Wrigley's is joining many other of the league's corporate patrons in adding a cause-related platform to its marketing efforts. Wrigley's is supporting its Doublemint brand with a "Double Double Challenge'' through which it will support Prevent Child Abuse in America by contributing $50 for each double-double amassed by an NBA player from February 19 to April 16, up to a maximum contribution of $50,000.

GOLDFISH BOWL: Earlier in the week, Campbell's Pepperidge Farm brand announced a multi-year promotional partnership deal for its Goldfish snack crackers, under which it will be presenting sponsor of a Junior NBA and Junior WNBA fitness initiative. Heat G Dwyane Wade and Raptors F Chris Bosh have been signed as well. Wade will appear in ads and in on-pack promotions for Goldfish crackers. Campbell's will sample goldfish in and around the NBA's Jam Session fan fest this weekend, where it will also host clinics over the weekend and present a $10,000 donation to Wade's charitable foundation Wade's World. There is also the potential for NBA-themed Goldfish.