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Colleges

Koch seeks to connect on campus

Koch Industries has put the finishing touches on a sponsorship and media buy that will give the company exposure at 15 Midwestern schools as well as the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Wichita, Kan.-based multinational, which is among the largest private companies in the world, bought the deal from Learfield Sports, the rights holder for 10 of the schools and the conference, and IMG College, the rights holder for five of the schools.

The company has been appearing on LED courtside signage at many of the schools this season.
Koch, which has businesses in petroleum, energy, manufacturing and chemicals, among others, has been appearing on LED courtside signage at many of the schools through the latter part of the regular season. Other aspects of the deal, such as in-game mentions, radio advertising and Koch-branded towels, help round out what Learfield’s Roy Seinfeld described as a fully
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integrated program.

“Koch is looking for a way to connect on campus,” said Seinfeld, Learfield’s executive vice president for national sales.

Koch, making its initial foray into collegiate advertising and marketing, is using the sponsorships to promote its recruiting efforts throughout the Midwest. The signage, which runs during men’s and women’s basketball games, directs viewers to KochCareers.com, a job search site within Koch.

Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Wisconsin are the Learfield properties in the deal. The IMG College schools are Arkansas, Houston, Kansas, Nebraska and TCU.

The multiyear deal through the 2017-18 athletic season includes football, where the courtside signage will be replaced by LED advertising on the scoreboards and video boards. The deal is separate from Koch’s naming rights of the Charles Koch Arena at Wichita State.

The deal originated through Ben Boyle, Learfield’s general manager at Kansas State, and Doug Bax, Learfield’s senior director of business development for the central region of the U.S., as well as Rick Barakat, IMG College’s vice president of sales strategy and operations.

“Competition for top talent is a challenge for any company,” Barakat said. “With millennials comprising an ever-increasing component of the American workforce, collegiate marketing partnerships are a very effective platform for recruiting the next generation of talent. Through college partnerships, companies like Koch Industries are building both their brands and their workforce.”

Specific financial terms were not available, but a deal across 15 school properties and one conference typically would sell for the low seven figures, industry insiders say.

“It’s more than a straight media play,” Seinfeld said. “They’re going to be doing a lot with internships, the alumni association and other initiatives to ingrain themselves on campus.”

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