Marketing and Sponsorship
Quarterbacks will wait till after game to sign deals
Both Super Bowl quarterbacks will wait till after game to sign deals
While there is considerable buzz about two hot quarterbacks playing in their first Super Bowl, don’t expect a rush of deals for either signal caller leading up to Super Bowl Sunday.
Representatives for both San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick and Baltimore’s Joe Flacco said the focus will remain on the game and not on cashing in off the field.
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Joe Flacco
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Colin Kaepernick
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Kaepernick has agreed to one pre-Super Bowl deal, but it is unlikely he will sign any long-term partnerships before the game, said his marketing agent, Shawn Smith, director of marketing for XAM Sports.
“We will wait until after he wins the Super Bowl,” said the optimistic Smith, who added that she has received numerous calls from corporations interested in a potential relationship with Kaepernick. “I am not bringing those deals to him right now. That is the way he wants it and that is the way it has to be.”
One source said the endorsement Kaepernick did agree to do was with the Milk Processor Education Program for the “Got Milk?” Super Bowl campaign, which traditionally debuts the Friday before the Super Bowl. Smith said last week that she could not disclose the company Kaepernick signed with. To date, his only corporate relationship is with Nike.
In an interview in November, Smith said Kaepernick was interested in deals with apparel and headphone companies. Since then, two headphone manufacturers approached her about a deal. She said she is in talks with those firms, but has not gone over details with Kaepernick.
Smith said she plans to sit down with representatives of companies interested in her client in New Orleans during Super Bowl week.
She added there is a possibility that Kaepernick will do an “I am going to Disney World” deal that is traditionally done by the game’s MVP and that she has been contacted by late-night talk shows eager to book her client.
JL Sports’ Tom Kleine, the marketing agent for Flacco, said he has experienced much the same thing. “Letterman has called us. Disney has called us,” he said.
Kleine said it was possible Flacco will agree to a Disney deal, but it is unlikely he will do anything that requires him to sit for a commercial or photo shoot.
Kleine said he was contacted by representatives of the Milk Processor Education Program about a “Got Milk?” advertisement but turned them down because Flacco was focused on football.
Flacco has regional deals with AT&T, First Mariner Bank and the Al Packer Automobile Group, which owns Ford dealerships in Maryland and Florida.
“There are a ton of things that get offered to him, but you know he wouldn’t be interested in because his priority is always football,” Kleine said.
