Looking to back its recent entrance into the hypercompetitive N.Y. financial services market, Citizens has signed on as a top-tier sponsor of the New York City Marathon.
Over the past 19 months, Citizens has spent billions to enter the N.Y. market, buying Investors Bank, along with 66 former HSBC locations, leaving the acquirer with more than 200 branches in the New York City metro area. Under the deal, Citizens is the official bank of the marathon and its parent New York Road Runners outfit. Citizens also will be the first title sponsor of what has been the 11,000-runner NYRR Queens 10K.
Citizens Vice Chair Beth Johnson said that the rationale for the deal was boosting awareness and establishing community ties. “If you’re going to enter the N.Y. market, you have to participate and differentiate," she said. "Our goal was is to enter the market in a way that was unique and play in-between the huge money-center banks, like JPMorgan Chase and others. ... We really wanted something that was a little more community and New York-oriented. New York Road Runners touches a lot of communities. We share values, and they should continue to get our name out."
Johnson said awareness and consideration will be chief among the metrics used to assess return on the sponsorship. Citizens' most well-known deal in the sports space is the naming-rights pact it has at the Phillies' ballpark.
Within the overlapping banking/financial services/financial tech categories, which grow more complex daily, Citizens’ (nee Citizens Bank) rights include retail and commercial banking, wealth management, retirement services and mortgage lending. ING, which was title sponsor for the NYC Marathon from 2013-23, was the last marathon sponsor with broad banking rights.
Citizens joins Mastercard (not coincidentally, Citizens is a large issuer), New Balance and United Airlines as a top-level "foundation" sponsor. Activation plans aren’t complete, but they will include signage along the race's course, a stage and display at the annual NYC Marathon Expo at the Javits Center, cheer zones along the marathon course (including one at a Brooklyn bank branch), volunteers servicing the race and around 50 employees, clients and “friends” running in the Nov. 5 NYC Marathon.
N.Y. Road Runners' longtime sponsorship agency, CSM, engineered the deal, with Avery Decker, director of partner development abd a 2022 SBJ New Voices Under 30 honoree, leading the negotiations. Citizens did not use an agency on its side.
With Wasserman’s acquisition of CSM pending, is this the last significant sponsorship deal under the CSM nameplate? Will it continue to sell property assets, something Wasserman has avoided assiduously? We were just pondering those same questions, but don’t expect answers until that deal closes shortly.
