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Marketing and Sponsorship

Playing it Safelite: Bills sign vehicle glass repair brand

Call it the most transparent of deals. Safelite AutoGlass, which bills itself as the nation’s largest provider of vehicle glass repair and replacement, has signed its first NFL sponsorship, signing a three-year deal making it the official auto glass repair provider of the Buffalo Bills.

To support, Safelite will host in-store player autograph signings and Bills players will accompany employees on some service calls. Ralph Wilson Stadium will also be the site for two windshield repair events and Safelite will put Bills logos on its mobile repair units.

The Bills sponsorship follows similar deals for Columbus-based Safelite with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, University of Kentucky and Ohio State, where it has field goal net branding, similar to Allstate.

“Our strategy is to be nationally powered, but locally driven,” said Safelite President and CEO Tom Feeney. “So we align with causes and the strongest teams in each market to get that local halo.”

Safelite is looking to boost awareness and sales in the Buffalo market, where it has eight facilities and more than 150 employees.

Will we be seeing Captain Obvious in pro stadiums soon?
> HOTEL HEROES: As Captain Obvious could tell you, hotel rooms are a necessity for any sports event of scale. Accordingly, nearly every sports property has a sponsorship with a hotel brand.

Now Hotels.com wants in on the action and has hired Accelerated Growth Partners, the Stamford, Conn., agency owned by marketing vets Merrill Squires and John Von Stade, to devise a sports marketing strategy.

The two tout their offering, which they say “combines sports and lifestyle marketing with bottom-line growth.”

A couple of things set Hotels.com apart from a standard hospitality/sports sponsorship. One: since it has reach across multiple brands, it has the potential to bring more rooms to the table than a traditional hospitality brand.

Secondarily, it can lay claim to being a media property of sorts, since it attracts more than 22 million monthly unique viewers.

“Those assets mean they won’t be paying large rights fees; we’re looking for different kinds of deals,” said Squires, noting the brand’s scale.

Von Stade said plans for Hotels.com’s entry into sports should be complete before year’s end, with most activation slated for 2016. We look forward to seeing Captain Obvious on a pro sideline soon.

Other clients for the nascent agency include social media analytics provider MVP Index, high school digital play Varsity News Network and USA Today Sports Group, where both principals worked last.

> COMINGS & GOINGS: WME-IMG Consulting has hired an eBay strategist to head the Anheuser-Busch InBev account the agency won recently. Brian Bolten joins WME-IMG this week as vice president. Bolten was head of strategy and marketing solutions at eBay Enterprise since 2011; prior to that, he was at marketing agencies Momentum, Octagon and Team Epic. … Sergio del Prado is moving to the San Diego Padres as vice president of corporate partnerships, joining the team as it has some major deals coming up for renewal as well as the addition of some suites and club seats to Petco Park. It also hosts MLB’s All-Star Game next July. With a smile, del Prado denied that he joined a San Diego team because he had worked for every pro team in Los Angeles, including the Kings (1985-97), Lakers (1986-91), Galaxy (1999-2000) and Dodgers (2000-08). Most recently, he was Western region vice president for Front Row Marketing from 2012-15. … Terry Tsouratakis joins Premier Partnerships as manager of corporate partnerships. He’ll report to Jason Miller, Premier senior vice president, and be based in the New York City office. Tsouratakis has been in sales at Madison Square Garden since 2012.

Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

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