Bridgestone Tires, an NFL corporate sponsor since '07, has renewed its marketing rights with the league for an additional five years. Bridgestone VP/Consumer Marketing Phil Pacsi said that the NFL sponsorship has helped Bridgestone achieve increases in overall brand perception and purchase intent. "We've seen good lifts against Goodyear and Michelin. At the end of 2014, we surpassed Michelin in some U.S. awareness numbers and our platform of Performance Moments has served us well as we moved from our presenting sponsorship of the (Super Bowl) halftime show to something season-long. What we really like about our relationship and this extension is that we have flexibility to try new marketing initiatives as our needs change." NFL Senior VP/Sponsorship & Partnership Management Renie Anderson said, "Bridgestone actually made us be more flexible to all our partners, and there are so many more media channels now, social and otherwise, we have to be that way." Bridgestone supports its NFL league rights with nine team deals. Lagardere is Bridgestone's sports agency and helped negotiate the extension.
