Devils, 76ers Become First To Cash In On Online Poker

The Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils have become the first major U.S.-based professional sports teams to align themselves with online gambling. Both clubs will today formally announce multiyear marketing agreements with partypoker and parent company, Bwin. Bloomberg reports the deal is worth at least $10 million. Bwin, which has deals throughout Europe, breaks in to the U.S. just as U....

Godin: Most Sponsorships Are A Screaming Bargain

Best-selling author, Seth Godin, took on the topic of corporate sponsorship this morning in his popular marketing blog. While acknowledging that sponsorship valuation is rarely easy, Godin writes that internal clarity of purpose is the most critical ingredient to sponsorship success. If you're clear about which of these five things you're shooting for, Godin writes that "most sponsorships are a...

Hundreds of Millions of Text Votes Later, AT&T to Exit Idol

In 2003, the inaugural season of its American Idol sponsorship, AT&T generated 7.5 million texts (a record at the time) with its 'text to vote' activation. Hundreds of millions of teen texts later, Fox confirmed the end of AT&T's sponsorship on Wednesday prior to the premiere episode of the show's 13th season. The telecom's sponsorship was used initially to lift the adoption of text me...

Notre Dame, Under Armour Deal Said To Be "Largest In College Sports"

Yesterday, the University of Notre Dame formally announced the school's 10-year apparel contract with Baltimore-based apparel provider, Under Armour, which Fighting Irish Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick is calling "the largest financial commitment ever made by a brand to a university." ESPN cites sources reporting that the apparel deal is worth $90 million in cash and merchandise over 10 years...

Enter Your Sponsorship Campaign Into This Year's CLIOs

For the first time in the CLIO Awards' 55-year history, sports marketing and sponsorship will share the spotlight with the best in advertising. The international advertising competition is accepting applications for the first Clio Sports awards through March 21st. "Clio Sports recognizes the enormously dynamic and still growing impact of sports on marketing and advertising," said Nicole Purce...

10 Big Sponsorship Themes For 2014

According to UK sponsorship consultancy, Synergy, these are the 10 sponsorship themes that we'll all be talking about in the upcoming year. Head over to the Synergy Blog to read more.

Here's How To Grow Experiential Marketing Budgets

While 73% of CPG marketing execs believe experiential marketing will play an important role in their future marketing plans, there may still be much room for growth. A 'lack of clear ROI' is cited by more than half of execs as the biggest challenge holding back spending with 64% of CPG marketers either somewhat likely or very likely to increase experiential marketing budgets if their challenges...

The Best Super Bowl Spots From XLVIII

At least there were the ads. Here are some of our faves from last night... T-Mobile | #nocontract Budweiser | Puppy Love RadioShack | #inwiththenew

Learfield Snaps Up Nelligan To Shake Up College Sponsorship Landscape

Learfield Sports has significantly bolstered its portfolio of collegiate properties under representation, today announcing the acquisition of Nelligan Sports and its 41 schools under management. The deal means Learfield Sports will now own the multimedia rights for 97 collegiate athletics programs including with the acquisition Louisville and Marquette. “Learfield is a terrific company with a...

NO-bani! Russia Won't Let USOC Sponsor Ship Product to Sochi

Strained greek yogurt may be the latest casualty of the tense relationship between U.S. and Russia. U.S.O.C. sponsor, Chobani, got the cold shoulder when it tried to send its product to Sochi earlier this week as part of the company's multi-million dollar sponsorship and with the Games just two days away, Russian customs officials are reportedly preventing the shipment from traveling through to...