Nike's corporate partnership with the ABL includes a
$350,000 media sponsorship "that gets it two spots per game
on" ABL broadcasts on Fox Sports Net (FSN) and BET,
according to BRANDWEEK's Terry Lefton. Lefton notes that
Nike "gets rights to use ABL marks in ads, but the players
likely won't be shown in their uniforms, as all team wear
bears Reebok's logo." Lefton adds that Reebok has "expanded
an original two-year deal" with the ABL and will commit a
total of $15M "in combined product, cash and promised media
support over the next" three years (BRANDWEEK, 9/29 issue).
AD CAMPAIGN: Lefton adds the ABL "broke an engaging ad
campaign last week," from NY-based Action Sports Adventure,
"using many of its top players to drive home its
differentiator of star players." Using the tag, "Real
Basketball," Dawn Staley and Jennifer Azzi show how they
spent their summer vacations with the "underlying theme
being the ABL's claim that 'real basketball' is played when
its cold outside, a rip at the WNBA's summer season." The
campaign will run through November on Buena Vista's
syndicated TV, ESPN and FSN, which "is expected to give the
campaign unpaid airings as an institutional boost to its ABL
schedule" (Terry Lefton, BRANDWEEK, 9/29 issue).
