When the NFL’s domestic violence crisis became front-page news, corporate sponsors of the league, particularly the publicly traded companies, began applying pressure with the unusual step of taking the league to task publicly. That put the league’s top sales exec inside the controversy. In her first interview regarding the domestic violence problems that have plagued the league, NFL Senior VP/Sponsorship & Partnership Management Renie Anderson spoke about the league’s recent communication efforts with sponsors. For the full interview, see Monday's issue of SportsBusiness Journal.
Q: How are you communicating with your sponsors?
Anderson: We are speaking to sponsors and answering questions. We’re talking to our partners every day and at every level. That includes the commissioner; [NFL Network President & COO] Brian Rolapp; and my team of 25. We’re providing daily updates and listening to any concerns.
Q: What are their concerns, and what is your message, generally?
Anderson: They’ve been varied. ... The first thing I said when I began talking to all of them was that we’re really sorry for the burden that this has put on their brands, both externally and internally. We’re working with them however we can. They don’t want to just hear what we’re doing; they want to see action. So we have daily communication where we give them updates on the key pieces that [new VP/Social Responsibility] Anna Isaacson and others have been speaking about as far as what we’re doing in cases of domestic violence and sexual assault as we roll out our plan. They all are very aware of it and are updated daily. ... It’s all hands on deck; this is not business as usual for us. Our job is clearly to service the partners, and this is interesting circumstances, so we have to make sure we are here for them and we have been.
Q: Have any sponsors lost faith in the NFL as an institution?
Anderson: It’s hard for me to speculate on that. We’re speaking with partners every day, and we haven’t lost any of our partners. I think you’d have to talk to them about their feelings and their faith in the NFL.
UNENVIABLE SITUATION: FS1's Mike Garafolo talked about the dilemma NFL sponsors are in, saying, "The conversation is not about football, it's about these off-field issues. So you understand the sponsors saying, 'We don't want to pull completely.' All this talk about Budweiser and these other sponsors who said 'we want the NFL to handle this all little bit better, we wanted to be stronger' -- this is all fine. That's public relations. But when you start to pull money that's a completely different deal, and we haven't seen that" ("Varney & Company," Fox Business, 9/25).
