Wal-Mart: The New E.F. Hutton

When Wal-Mart acts, we had better pay attention (for those of you too young to know E.F. Hutton: click here). Given the fact the majority of brands involved in sponsorship sell at Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer’s latest move warrants some attention. As Ad Age reported this week, Wal-Mart is now requiring brands to pony up marketing, media, and promotional budgets to the big dog in t...

Kaiser Permanente Pulls Out of Mannywood Promo

Healthcare insurance provider Kaiser Permanente dropped its sponsorship of tonight's Manny Ramirez bobblehead giveaway following his suspension for violating MLB's drug policy. The event has been sold out for days, but Kaiser Permanente, who agreed to be the official healthcare insurer of the team last spring, decided it was in its best interest to pass on the promotion sponsorship. "As a hea...

MIS: 'Show Me the CARFAX'

Carfax will be the title sponsor of its first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, the CARFAX 400, on Sunday, Aug. 16. The event follows the NASCAR Nationwide Series CARFAX 250 race on Saturday, Aug. 15 as part of the "Show Me the CARFAX Race Weekend" at Michigan International Speedway. The agreement strengthens Michigan International Speedway's ties with one of the best partners in motorsports...

Deal Flow 7-21-2009

IBM has renewed its U.S. Open tennis sponsorship at a value of $20 million over the next four years. Beer company Carling has signed a three-year, appx $130,000/yr deal with the Irish Football Association (IFA) to sponsor the Premiership. The deal is expected to be the biggest investment in Irish League history. The International Tennis Hall of Fame has announced that Campbell Soup Company ha...

What Happens When Peer Properties Collab to Cross-Sell?

Charities and local sports properties are a natural fit for sharing and cross-selling benefits as evidenced by the fact that virtually every sports property as some sort of charity affiliation. The importance of their collaboration was never more apparent than when a Performance Research study recently revealed that 41% of consumers believe sponsorships of nonprofits should increase to raise o...

Lance Armstrong Finds American Partner for TDF '10

Much has been made about Lance Armstrong's somewhat unfamiliar Tour de France partnership with Astana Group, an affiliation of Kazhak companies. Now that the Borat references have subsided, he made it clear today that he doesn't plan on sticking with the team for 2010. He's found a new American partner and plans to race with them in next year's Tour de France. Great news for American cycling ...

Bears Join Jersey Patch Bonanza

Good tie-in or bad jinx? For obvious reasons, we're sort of torn on whether practice sponsorships by health and life insurance companies is such a good idea. Knock on wood, Bears fan. Brad Biggs at the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago Bears have agreed to a practice jersey patch deal with Northshore University HealthSystem. The sponsor patch will be 3.5"x 4.5" and will not be worn...

Sponsor-less in Seattle

Sometimes, as a group of like-minded sponsorship professionals, it's good to take our head out of sponsorville and see how the general public feels about the practice. Sure, media pundits weigh in about the virtues, and more often lately, the pitfalls of sponsorship, but how does Joe Public feel when his favorite event gets cancelled. When Chase spokesperson Donahoe-Wilmot said there's "no ch...

Cause Marketing in the Age of Free

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book review of Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price (which I learned of from one of my new favorite bloggers and twitterers @danblank) he shares this study from an MIT economist. He offered a group of subjects a choice between two kinds of chocolate—Hershey’s Kisses, for one cent, and Lindt truffles, for fifteen cents. Three-quarters of the subjects chose ...

Tour de France Sponsorship Primer

As the Tour de France moves into the mountains and stage 16, today Business Week offers up a great primer for the corporate partners that are behind this year's field. If you want a quick look at the corporate faces behind each team we'd suggest you check it out. While stateside cycling events like the Tour of Missouri are struggling, BW makes the case that cycling's doping scandal, in part, ...