Fresh off a successful first-year run with the
NFL,
Burger King is returning to
NASCAR for the first time in nearly five years via a deal with
Michael Waltrip Racing that will make it a primary sponsor for
Bill Elliott. Elliott will run five Nextel Cup races beginning with the Chicagoland Speedway event in June.
Scuttlebutt around NASCAR is that Burger King will share a full Nextel Cup sponsorship next year, possibly splitting the car with Domino’s, whose chairman and CEO, Dave Brandon, is also on Burger King’s board. However, sources indicated that although Burger King has options, nothing is finalized. “It’s still a trial run,” one source said.
 |
| Elliot |
Another source indicated that Burger King will indeed sponsor a Nextel Cup car next year for 75 percent of the races, with the rest going to Domino’s.
Coke is poured at both QSRs. Burger King had a deal with
DEI Racing from 1995 through
Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001.
The current deal is a bit ironic since Elliott drove a McDonald’s-sponsored car for many years. Burger King adds to a fairly crowded field of fast-feeders leveraging NASCAR, including Subway, Taco Bell, Domino’s and McDonald’s.
RANDOLPH BRANCHES OUT: Willie Randolph kept a fairly low profile during his years as a player and manager with the New York Yankees, but in his second season as manager of the New York Mets, he’s now starting to flex his marketing muscle. The team is streaking to a great start, and so is Randolph’s endorsement portfolio.
For the second year, he’s got a local TV deal with Subway. Additionally, he’s got deals for Champion Mortgage for radio and print, Verizon Wireless, Gametime Watches for print, and he’s doing weekly shows for Mets outlets WFAN radio and SportsNet New York. Reed Bergman at Playbook Inc. also said he’s close to apparel and beverage deals and is launching some baseball academies.
BY THE NUMBERS: Over in the manager’s office in the Bronx, we’ve been impressed with Joe Torre’s new three-year deal with JH Cohn, mostly because we can’t recall an accounting company doing any kind of sports marketing that didn’t involve golf.
 |
New York managers Joe Torre (top) and Willie
Randolph continue to pitch, including Torre’s deal
with accounting firm JH Cohn. |
Corporate marketing director
Marla Bace said that it’s not only the first sports marketing venture for the Roseland, N.J., accounting firm, but it’s also the first ad campaign per se. She said that when top executives in the company were asked what person or organization embodied the company’s culture most, the top three senior management execs all answered Torre or the Yankees. Since the firm is a regional New York company, a Torre endorsement was the next logical step.
“We’re trying to raise brand awareness among our target audience of midsized companies’ CEOs and CFOs,” Bace said, “and the fact Joe is part of what’s considered a superior management team was attractive, since we’re selling our accounting and our consulting capabilities.”
JH Cohn is supporting with radio on local sports, including WFAN and Yankees flagship WCBS, along with transit and outdoor ads, and print in the Wall Street Journal and local/regional business publications. Torre’s other endorsement deals include Bigelow Tea, Subway, Benzel-Busch Mercedes (Englewood, N.J.) and WFAN. Maury Gostfrand at Vision Sports Group, New York, handles marketing for Torre.
AFL SHOOTOUT: With the Arena Football League expecting as much as $100 million in private placement by June, agencies are lining up to help the league spend that money for incremental marketing. Sources said the agency shootout runs the gamut from sports-centric agencies such as IPG’s Octagon, 16W and Omnicom/OMD’s Optimum Sports, to the newly sports-active CAA (which not coincidentally also represents Philadelphia Soul co-owner Jon Bon Jovi) and WPP ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, which usually has relied on outside agencies for sports expertise.
An agency selection decision is expected by June.
COMINGS & GOINGS: At Major League Baseball, Ari Roitman has been promoted from account executive to director of sales. Roitman has been with MLB for about five years. … Michael Neuman has left Strategic, New York, after 27 months as senior vice president, group account director, “to pursue new opportunities.”
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
