Sometime last year, St. Louis Rams premium account executive
Rachel Link sold a single-game suite to IT service provider
ContinuityX for around $12,500, largely based on a senior executive’s passion for the visiting Washington Redskins. Less than a year later, the same company has signed a four-year deal at $1.1 million a year to title the Rams’ Earth City, Mo., practice facility.
Now that’s an upsell.
Rams CMO
Bob Reif said the deal for what will now be the ContinuityX Training Center includes signage at the Rams’ home stadium, the Edward Jones Dome; the Rams’ practice jersey patch, last held by
American Airlines; some team-controlled media; and a press conference backdrop, which it will share with the franchise’s home-field title sponsor,
Edward Jones.
RUNNING ON: With various degrees of success, groups with one major property or glamorous event per annum are perpetually trying to shift sponsors into more of a year-round program of support instead of the usual course of action — which is sponsors hoarding all their activation dollars behind the season’s dénouement. When your biggest event is arguably the world’s top marathon, that’s even more problematic.
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The New York Road Runners are looking for year-round involvement from sponsors, and recent renewal Asics has responded with a presenting sponsorship of the ING New York Marathon’s Opening Day.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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However, since training for a marathon requires six months or more of preparation,
New York Road Runners, parent of the ING New York City Marathon, is trying to make its corporate patrons act accordingly. Three renewals give NYRR hope that a majority of its sponsors will eventually activate not only leading up to the first Sunday in November, but also in NYRR’s other races and various events leading up to the marathon.
With the latter in mind, longtime footwear and apparel sponsor Asics has renewed for five years in a deal that included presenting sponsorship of the marathon’s Opening Day on Wednesday, the day in which 50,000 of the 140,000 would-be entrants get confirmation that they are in the race.
“We’re going to market in a different way and looking for fewer, deeper relationships,” said Ann Wells Crandall, NYRR executive vice president of business development and strategic partnerships. “Running is an everyday thing and so we’re trying to match that with our sponsor support.”
Nissan also has renewed for two years and is looking at more year-round activation. Nissan will be presenting sponsor of NYRR’s Fifth Avenue Mile event in September and have a huge presence on Fifth Avenue during miles 22 and 23 of the marathon. Also renewing is Indonesia’s tourism ministry, aka “Wonderful Indonesia,” which also will sponsor Opening Day.
Marathon broadcast rights holder WABC-TV in New York is adding a half-hour Opening Day TV show at noon on Wednesday, a show that will be streamed by NYRR. Also being added are half-hour shows dedicated to the Fifth Avenue Mile and a 30-minute preview show the night before the marathon.
Pending renewals include the airline category, held by United through the next race, and a deal with Hospital for Special Surgery.
INSUFFICIENT BOUNTY: Within days of the NFL’s recent loosening of restrictions on casino advertising, a handful of NFL team marketers vetted frustrations to us about what was permitted under the new rules and what wasn’t. Clubs can now sell casinos venue signage as long as it isn’t camera visible, along with ads in game programs and on local radio broadcasts. What clubs can’t do is sell casino title sponsorships to clubs, restaurants or other spaces within the venue.
Marketers at the handful of clubs we surveyed thought this cut their potential yield in half at a minimum.
“Having space to sell them really was the bigger opportunity,” said an East Coast NFL team sales exec. “And in any big market, most good signage is already sold, so I can’t figure what the league’s thinking was on this.”
“Certainly we were hoping for more than just signage rights, so it’s disappointing,” said another club-sales type who was hopeful of a big score from some nearby gambling establishments.
No one around the league was quite sure why the NFL decided to disallow clubs the ability to sell casinos the rights to title areas in and around NFL venues. Then we caught up with a veteran club marketer who we believe had the league’s rationale nailed.
“This had everything to do with the fact that there’s an entire gate with naming rights for sale at the site of Super Bowl XLVIII [New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium] and that stadium is located between the big casinos in Atlantic City and the ones in Connecticut,” he said. “They did not want that kind of association during the league’s biggest event.”
HOOPS GALORE: With 125,000 cars passing daily on FDR Drive and more on the nearby Brooklyn Bridge and East River, it’s unclear whether the new Basketball City on Manhattan’s Lower East Side is a better investment as an out-of-home media buy or a sports and entertainment venue at which related brands can activate.
Whichever, and perhaps it is both, Basketball City President Bruce Radler tells us the conversations for naming rights at the soon-to-be completed facility start at $2 million. The facility can hold around 5,000 for concerts and already has hosted events for the likes of Nike and Heineken, even before the six full-size courts, along with the beer and burger bar, are completed. Radler said the facility will attract 700,000 visitors annually.
COMINGS & GOINGS: Scott Lange, former NYRR/ING New York City Marathon executive vice president and chief marketing officer, is moving to The Active Network, as vice president of media and marketing, based in New York. Lange was most recently with Leverage Agency. … John Price will take over as director of channel marketing at Scotts Miracle-Gro. Price held the title of senior brand manager, global sports marketing and sponsorship, and has been with Scotts since 2004. Replacement plans are to be determined. … Ed Lynch joins the parade of former Sports Illustrated marketers under the USA Today Sports Group as senior director of sports marketing, reporting to Merrill Squire, senior vice president and head of sports marketing and partnerships. Lynch was director of sports marketing at SI from 2000 to 2002. Since then, he’s held marketing jobs at Broadband Sports, All Access Sports & Events Marketing, Sentient Jet and MGX Lab.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
