Marketplace Roundup
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Manchester United Set To Unveil
Marketing Deal With Saudi Telecom |
In London, Matthew Goodman reported English Premier League (EPL) club Manchester United (ManU) is "set to unveil an innovative marketing tie-up, thought to be worth more than [$18.65M]," with Saudi Telecom. The five-year deal "will grant the phone company rights to use [ManU's] logo and imagery in its marketing within Saudi Arabia." The arrangement is said to be "one of the biggest nonshirt sponsorship deals in British football." As part of the deal, Saudi Telecom "will be able to offer its mobile customers video clips of match highlights, a text news service and other related content" (LONDON TIMES, 8/17).
SUN SPOTS: EPL club Liverpool's shirt sponsor Carlsberg "had been planning a promotion ... to give away a pint of beer" to Sun newspaper readers. However, "hundreds of the club's fans from around the world contacted the Danish brewer to complain about the deal." Many Liverpool fans "still boycott New International-owned The Sun because of its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, in which 96 Liverpool fans died, and there are newsagents in the city that will not stock the paper." Carlsberg called the idea "naive" (BRAND REPUBLIC, 8/18).
NEW LOOK: The Boulder DAILY CAMERA's Kyle Ringo reported the Univ. of Colorado (CU) football team is "adding another tweak to its jerseys and pants this fall." The new uniforms will have "tiny gold raised resin dots in rectangle patterns [that] are visible on the shoulders of the team's black jerseys and on the upper-inseam of its black pants." The dots are "not visible on the white jerseys or the gold pants because they match those colors." NCAA rules "prohibit teams from modifying uniforms in any way to make them more slippery or difficult to grab," but CU Dir of Equipment J.T. Galloway said Nike designed the resin dots to have "deflective properties." Nike has used CU on "multiple occasions as a test school for new products it hopes to introduce to all its clients;" Nike uses the Univ. of Oregon "in the same way" (Boulder DAILY CAMERA, 8/17).
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| Nike To Release "Tiger Woods/Masters Edition" Shoe |
NOTES: Nike is set to release the "Tiger Woods/Masters Edition" Nike Blazer Premium Hi shoe to pay tribute to Woods' "dominance at the Masters." The shoe features a "White/Black Leather upper with a faux Tiger hair Swoosh, a Masters-like logo on the heel tab, and a green hoody, symbolic of the Master's trademark green jacket, on the tongue" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 8/14)....While in training camp, Vikings QBs are "wearing special goggles provided by Nike." The goggles have "lights inside that flash at different speeds," and the "idea is to force the QBs to concentrate and stay focused" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 8/17)....Evian Natural Spring Water has announced that it is the official Bottled Water of the Olympus U.S. Open Series in a deal that will span the next five years. As part of the sponsorship deal, Evian will have a presence at New Haven's Pilot Pen Tennis event held August 15-23 (Evian).
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