NFL Sponsors Participating In Marketing Summit In Pittsburgh

The NFL ahead of tonight's Titans-Steelers opener will host a sponsor summit at the Hilton Pittsburgh, featuring "inside football updates as well as discussions on how" the league’s corporate partners "can get the best return on their NFL investments," according to Teresa Lindeman of the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. One of the NFL's messages will be that sponsors "should use their deals to drive sales 12 months of the year." NFL CMO Mark Waller said an NFL sponsorship is "now a year-round property." Waller: "You can generate incremental value in what isn't the off-season anymore." Sponsors "will start the day with an update from Commissioner Roger Goodell, who is scheduled to give a sort of 'state of the league' chat to touch on issues such as the decision to move the Pro Bowl to Miami a week before the Super Bowl and the plan to get the first round of the draft into prime time." Waller said that there also are sessions scheduled for league sponsors Procter & Gamble and Monster to "talk about why they came on board while others will share what has worked for them." Lindeman notes the NFL and its sponsors are "spending more than $40[M], up 30[%] from last year, on marketing surrounding kickoff events." The idea is to "make the start of the season almost as exciting as the end." Waller: "Our goal is to create that same feeling to coming back to football at the beginning of the season" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 9/10).