Hyundai and AT&T are in as the last of 10 top-level “homecoming” sponsors that the Los Angeles Rams have secured for their first season back in Los Angeles.
Hyundai’s nonexclusive Rams deal fits with its NFL league deal, the car brand’s five other NFL team sponsorships and its U.S. headquarters being 30 miles from L.A. “We’re committedto Southern California,” said Trea Reedy, Hyundai senior group manager of experiential marketing, “and we felt like the Rams returning was a story it was important to be part of.”
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Corona is designated the “Official Cerveza.”
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Essentially, that’s what the Rams have been selling since setting up shop in their former home early this year. Others buying three-year homecoming deals were American Airlines, Albertsons, Anheuser-Busch, Banc of California, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Cornerstone On Demand, Corona (which received an “Official Cerveza” designation) and Vivid Seats.
All of the deals are for three years, supposedly the time it will take Rams owner Stan Kroenke to build a new stadium in Inglewood to rival the next generation of NFL venues in Minneapolis and Atlanta. Clearly, that project is the most attractive thing the Rams have to sell. However, one of the unusual things about the Rams’ inaugural year is that the league isn’t letting the team sell bridge deals to the new stadium; at least, not until it’s determined whether the San Diego Chargers or Oakland Raiders will be co-tenants in that planned Inglewood venue. February 2017 is the earliest the Rams could start selling deals for the new stadium, but it could be well beyond that.
“Everybody wants to talk to us about Inglewood, but to be honest, we really can’t,” said Mike O’Keefe, a 19-year Rams employee who directs the team’s corporate sales staff. “We’ve gone from zero to 100 miles an hour in less than six months, which hasn’t been easy. But we made the decision to go for fewer, larger deals our first year back, and we feel like we’ve gotten deals commensurate with our value.”
League sources said the deals ranged from the mid-six to low seven figures.
While these weren’t shotgun weddings, the deals may be considered 10 of the most unusual NFL team sponsorships of recent vintage. Consider that the Rams didn’t start selling the homecoming packages until mid-March. Add the fact that the 93-year-old Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is easily the league’s most antiquated stadium, with few of the amenities or assets that attract sponsors. Then there’s the Rams on the field: Over the past decade, the team averaged five wins, with no playoff appearances since 2004.
That’s not a formula for sales success.
The Rams’ sales and sponsorship service staff of 10 is relatively small and includes Legends Global Sales. So perhaps the Rams’ homecoming parade is the ultimate testimony to the NFL’s appeal.
“Normally, it takes 12 to 18 months to get a premium NFL partnership together,” said Chris Hibbs, who liked the Rams’ opportunity enough that he left the Chicago Bears after 10 years to work for Legends, selling the Rams.
“We found a lot of enthusiasm in the corporate base, bringing back L.A.’s original team,” Hibbs added. “We were trying to get into marketing budgets that were already spent, at least on paper, and find brands that would take the message of the Rams’ return to retail. Before we’ve even played a home game, we think we have done that.”
