Images of UCLA QB Josh Rosen and WR Darren Andrews "adorning Metro Rail cars" will appear on rail lines in the L.A. area this season, according to Ben Bolch of the L.A. TIMES. The ads are "scheduled to start running this week -- with each player’s consent after they signed waivers to use their likeness." The move is a "glimpse of UCLA’s enhanced branding and marketing efforts." Meanwhile, nine local UCLA billboards "feature a football player holding his arms up and pointing his thumbs at the back of his new Under Armour jersey," while three "nearly identical billboards have been erected in the Bay Area." Those ads and several other local efforts have been made possible by UCLA’s record 15-year, $280M deal with UA that includes a yearly $1M "outlay for marketing purposes, allowing the school’s athletic department to more than triple its previous marketing budget." UCLA hopes the "huge bump in resources can help them claim a bigger slice of a crowded local sports." UCLA AD Dan Guerrero said of UA's marketing expertise, "They worked shoulder to shoulder with us to come up with a comprehensive new branding initiative that maintains tradition but also evolves the UCLA brand. Once you have a cohesive brand look and story, you have to showcase it and talk about it. We intentionally built a dedicated annual marketing spend into the deal with that in mind" (L.A. TIMES, 8/29).
