Mercedes-Benz Gears Up To Activate Open

Mercedes-Benz, the "Official Vehicle of the US Open" and "Presenting Sponsor of the US Open Men's Singles Championship," has teamed up with thirty Tri-State Mercedes-Benz dealers to kick off a Tweet Rally to the 2011 US Open. What is a Tweet Rally? We're glad you asked.. The luxury auto brand will tweet out clues to secret locations throughout the region. At each correct location, a special te...

Survey: 57% of High Schools Are Pursuing Corporate Sponsorship

With an increasing scarcity of educational resources, more than half of all high schools are turning to corporate sponsorship as a means of funding extracurricular programs according to a recent study from researches at Ball State University. The study by David Pierce and Leigh Ann Bussell of the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science program at Ball State University, reveals ...

Buffalo Bills Partner with Army National Guard

The Buffalo Bills announced a new partnership with the New York Army National Guard on Tuesday. The key activation element in the agreement will be the National Guard title sponsoring the Buffalo Bills Coach of the Week program. Each week during the 11-week high school football season, the Buffalo Bills will select a head football coach in Western New York as Coach of the Week with each winnin...

Jack Daniel's Signs First Music Artist Partnership In More Than A Decade

Jack Daniel's and Grammy Award-winning Zac Brown Band announced today that they have teamed up on an integrated partnership that will reach Canada and the U.S. with the whiskey brand taking center stage in the band's upcoming shows. The deal, Jack Daniel's says, is its first sponsorship with a major music artist in more than a decade. The sponsorship will kick-off at Zac Brown Band's Septemb...

Startup America Announces First Four Sponsors

The Startup America Partnership, an organization working to help young companies grow in order to create jobs in America, today announced the appointment of its founding board members, eleven of America's most successful and highly-regarded entrepreneurs, as well as its first four sponsors: American Express OPEN, Dell Inc., Intuit Inc., and Microsoft Corp. These companies will join the founding...

Selling By Phone is Tough. Here are Three Ways to Make it Easier.

Here's the bottomline: if you don't tell anyone about your sponsorship opportunities, if you don't work together with prospective partners to co-create meaningful opportunities, you're not going to have sponsors nor the revenue from that source. You know this, of course. But that doesn't make having actual conversations with real live sponsors any less scary, right? Here are three suggestions...

When Sponsorship Feels Forced. Did Corn Growers Cross the Line?

Several new football trophies have been recently announced leading up to the college football season, but none have been met with such scathing criticism as the Cy-Hawk Trophy, awarded to the winner of the annual Iowa-Iowa State football game. The trophy sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association shows a dad kneeling and holding an ear of corn as he speaks to his son and his wife, who is ho...

PGA of America Gets Official Hotel and Resort

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.'s Westin brand has been named "The Official Hotel and Resort of The PGA of America." The multi-year partnership was announced at the PGA Expo in Las Vegas today. As part of the deal, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members will have exclusive access to PGA of America events as part of the recently launched "Game on With SPG" program. SPG members w...

Newspaper Starts Blurring Sponsor Signage in Sports Photos

Most newspapers want to report on the world around them. One German daily newspaper wants to edit it. Having peculiarly taken an unusual and extreme position on the commercialization of sports, Die tageszeitung (“The daily newspaper” commonly referred to as taz) has decided to blur out sponsorship logos in its sports photos. While it might seem crazy, consider that broadcast partners now have ...

Sabres Change Arena Name, No Lawsuit Necessary

Back in 1999, you might recall that HSBC had to file a lawsuit against the Buffalo Sabres, after acquiring the regional bank Marine Midland, to get the team to change the building's name from Marine Midland Arena to HSBC Arena. Now, it's HSBC's Western New York branches that are getting acquired and it seems like the naming rights deal will have a much smoother transition this time around. Fi...