With two schools joining the league this year and another coming on board next year, the Atlantic Coast Conference is facing the prospect of logo redesigns and some changes to its sponsorship packages.
Discussions on the redesign to date have been internal, and material has not been presented to the ACC membership. Some of the material compiled by the league, however, could be presented at the ACC’s spring meetings May 8-12 in Amelia Island, Fla., said Amy Yakola, ACC assistant director of media relations.
On the logo front, the challenge is figuring out what to do with the ACC conference seal, which now features a map of the states with ACC schools and locator dots for each campus.
“We’re trying to find a happy marriage between the two [expansions],” Yakola said. “We don’t want nothing to change this year and then have everything change next year.”
For 2004, the changes to the ACC seal will be minor. Since the addition of Miami and Virginia Tech does not increase the number of states in which ACC schools are located, the conference simply will add locator dots for the schools’ Coral Gables, Fla., and Blacksburg, Va., campuses, Yakola said.
The more noticeable redesign will take place when Boston College joins in 2005. Key to the new design will be figuring out whether the league wants to keep a similar look for the new seal and, if so, how to incorporate Massachusetts into the logo since it is not contiguous with other ACC states, Yakola said.
Since the winter, the ACC has amassed between 90 and 100 logo versions from six or seven firms, Yakola said. A formal request for proposals from design and marketing firms was never sent out. Instead, the league turned to contacts and companies it had worked with before. Yakola wouldn’t disclose the names of the companies that have submitted entries.
The current ACC seal has existed in some form since the league was formed in 1953, Yakola said.
The league’s expansion also will mean changes to the ACC’s sponsorship packages.
The new schools increase the ACC’s market appeal in the Southeast and expand its opportunities in the Northeast, said Ken Haines, CEO of Raycom Sports, which jointly operates ACC Properties with Jefferson-Pilot Sports. Haines was unable to say by what percentage the value of an ACC sponsorship would increase since ACC Properties is just starting to develop plans for new sponsorship opportunities.
Haines did, however, expect additional media and sponsorship opportunities to come out of the eventual creation of an ACC football championship game. He declined to disclose the value of existing ACC sponsorship packages.
What’s unlikely to change as a result of expansion is the ACC’s messaging in its public service announcements. The league for years has used the tag line “A Tradition of Excellence.” This year, the league incorporated a new message, “Then, Now and Always,” which reflects the past, present and future of the league, Yakola said.
“They’re good fits for the league, and there’s no need to really change that,” she said.
