London Assembly Casts Scrutiny On City's Sponsorship Program

Transport for London (TfL)'s recent sponsorships may ultimately save taxpayers more than £60 million through deals such as Barclay's Cycle Hire and Emirates Air Line cable car, but lawmakers in recent months have been taking a closer look at both the financial and reputational impact of municipal sponsorship. Today, they are calling for more transparency in the selection process. "The pursuit...

Confessions (and Learnings) of a First-Time Sponsorship Seeker

This is the second installment of a weekly Monday series called Confessions (and Learnings) of a First Time Sponsorship Seeker. To read the first article in the series, please click here. Ok...here we go, time to put together my first sponsorship proposal. After reading The Sponsorship Seekers Toolkit I went about following the steps in the book to create a marketing plan, from there a sales ...

[Video] Starbucks Partners With Squaw Valley For World's First Ski-Thru Starbucks

Squaw Valley has opened the world’s first ski-in/ski-out Starbucks location. On the mountain at an elevation of 8,000 feet, Squaw Valley’s new mountaintop Starbucks includes mountain views and the unique ability for guests to keep their skis or board on while they order their latte. “We worked closely with the design team at Starbucks to create a one-of-a-kind experience that we know our guest...

British Airways' New Olympics Ad

British Airways, the official airline partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, recently released its new ad campaign for this Summer using the tagline is '2012. We're ready. To Fly. To Serve.' "This campaign builds on our 'To Fly. To Serve.' promise. We have an amazing team at British Airways who work to deliver hundreds of flights a day, all over the world," Abigail Co...

U.S. Open Series Gets New Title Sponsor

Emirates Airline will replace Olympus as title sponsor of the U.S. Open Series it was announced today, ironically only hours after chief executives at Olympus were arrested over accounting irregularities. As part of the new agreement with Emirates, the airline will become the “Official Airline of the US Open ” and the title sponsor of the “Emirates Airline US Open Series,” whose 10 events form ...

Bankruptcy Judge Lets Kodak Off The Hook For Theatre Naming Rights

Kodak, mired in bankruptcy proceedings, received court approval on Wednesday to end its $74 million, 20-year naming rights sponsorship of the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The judgement comes after weeks of negotiation between the struggling film company and the property's manager, CIM Group, which unsuccessfully argued that breaking the sponsorship deal would be "legally impermissible and prac...

Coca-Cola Launches Olympics Ad Campaign

A few months back, Coca-Cola provided a behind-the-scenes look at the progress the soft-drink company was making on its "Move to the Beat" Olympic campaign. Debuting today, the IOC sponsor is releasing the finished product: "We approached our London 2012 campaign in a bold new way in order to create stories that teens would love and that they would want to share," said Jonathan Mildenhal...

Yield Management Is Biggest Sponsorship Challenge, MSG's O'Neil Says

MSG President Scott O'Neil last week took some time to explain the organization's less is more philosophy when it comes to sponsorship. "Can you go out and do a deal in the auto category or is it better for this organization to do six deals or three deals or five deals?" O'Neil asked. "That's what we wrestle with every day and that becomes kind of a little bit of mixture of art and science." ...

Confessions (and Learnings) of a First-Time Sponsorship Seeker

Let me introduce myself...my name is Kym Oberauer and I am, among other things, a drag racer. I love drag racing. Some say I’m addicted to the sport. It’s more a lifestyle choice than a hobby. The downside of drag racing is the expense. Like most sports that require an internal combustion engine, costs are measured in thousands of dollars rather than hundreds. The last few years have been the...

MasterCard Renews UEFA Sponsorship

UEFA has renewed its multi-million dollar sponsorship with MasterCard, a partnership that dates back to 1994. The payment solutions provider will continue as an official partner of the UEFA Champions League for the new 2012–15 cycle, and for the UEFA Super Cup in 2012, 2013 and 2014. The three-year deal will run until the end of the 2014/15 season and will see MasterCard continue to leverage t...