As a companion to his cover story in this week’s SportsBusiness Journal, reporter Michael Smith talks about UPS and MillerCoors making aggressive plays in college athletics through new sponsorship deals. Smith elaborates on the magnitude of the UPS contract ("The UPS deal is really a blockbuster deal"), as well as how it fits in the company's overall marketing plans ("For UPS, business-to-business is a huge component of what they're looking for in every deal"). Addressing the MillerCoors sponsorship, Smith discusses the breadth of the new partnership ("ranging in profile from a Penn State down to a lot of the mid-major schools") and the target audience ("alumni and legal drinking-age consumers"). Read Smith's full story in this week's issue and watch the full video below.
OLD COLLEGE TRY: IMG Sports & Entertainment President George Pyne appeared on Fox Business’ “America’s Nightly Scoreboard” last night to discuss UPS' deal and said the “size and scale of the demographic” of college sports fans is what attracts advertisers. Pyne said through IMG College, “we're selling integrated sponsorships, so it’s not really media, and the value proposition that we’re offering is incredible because we have a new product that gives you 49 of the top 50 markets in America with one buy.” Pyne said that as a “marketer you want to break out of the clutter, you want to do something that’s different and unique. This has never been done before. In a tough economy, you want things that have real value. This program delivers you all of that” (
“America’s Nightly Scoreboard,” Fox Business, 8/31).
