Austin Karp here replacing Terry Lefton, who is busy setting up next week’s Eagles Cowboys game on Monday Night Football.
Grab your clubs because we have some golf notes in SBJ Marketing this week. When you’re a PGA Tour manager, there’s little rest for the weary with another season kicking off last week. See a list of new and returning tour sponsors below. Also, later this week, my colleague at the delayed Ryder Cup has some nuggets on sponsorship items in Whistling Straits.
The PGA Tour kicked off another season last week – yes, just after last season ended – and the tour now has 45 official sponsors / marketing partners. Five sponsors are still in the rookie year with the PGA Tour 2021 – Amazon Web Services (cloud provider), Maestro Dobel (tequila), Titos (vodka), TruGreen (lawn care) and Velocity Global (professional employer / workforce services) .
FedEx is the tour’s longest running sponsor. The freight forwarding / logistics company first came on the tour in 1986 and has been the umbrella sponsor of the FedExCup season since 2007. FedEx extended this contract for five years in 2012 and another decade in 2017. FedEx is also one of 10 Tour Sponsors that are the Title Sponsor or Presenting Sponsor of an event (Mastercard, Charles Schwab, John Deere, Southern Co., Rolex, Travelers, Rocket Mortgage, Valspar, and Grant Thornton).
The tour also kicked off last weekend in Napa with one of three new event title sponsors at cybersecurity company Fortinet (formerly Safeway Open). My colleague Thomas Leary spoke to Steve Loy at Sportfive, whose company runs the Napa event, about how Fortinet, despite a successful tenure with Safeway, was an attractive sponsor in part because of its focus on technology (the company hosted two security summits during the week ). .
Other new title sponsors / presenting sponsors this season include Butterfield Bank (Bermuda Championship) and Cognizant (Presidents Cup). Honda is the longest running title sponsor of the Tour events and has been with the PGA National in Florida since 1982.
| BRAND | CATEGORY RIGHTS | SPONSOR SINCE |
| FedEx * | Shipping, logistics and document service | 1986 |
| Anheuser-Busch | Beer and hard seltzer | 1994 |
| MasterCard * | Card and payment system | 1995 |
| Karl Schwab * | Investment firm | 1997 |
| Golf digest | Golf publication | 1998 |
| John Deere * | Landscape and golf course equipment | 1998 |
| Southern Co. * | energy | 1999 |
| Carey | transport | 2001 |
| Hawaii Tourism Authority | Aloha season | 2001 |
| Rolex * | Timekeeper | 2005 |
| Bridge stone | tires | 2007 |
| Getty Images | Photographic services | 2007 |
| Mitsubishi Electric | Large outdoor video display and HVAC | 2007 |
| Tiffany & Co. | Awards and gifts | 2007 |
| Traveler* | Property-casualty insurance | 2007 |
| CDW | Technical solutions | 2008 |
| opinion | Rental car | 2011 |
| Konica Minolta | Multifunction printer | 2011 |
| United Airlines | airline | 2011 |
| USA today | newspaper | 2011 |
| wealth | Business knowledge | 2014 |
| NetJets | Private jet provider | 2014 |
| Rocket mortgage * | Mortgage and Home Loans | 2014 |
| Servpro | Cleaning and restoration services | 2014 |
| Valspar * | colour | 2014 |
| United Rentals | Equipment rental | 2015 |
| Aeon | Risk, Age and Health Advisor | 2018 |
| Grant Thornton * | Professional / accounting service company | 2018 |
| Omni | Hotel complex | 2018 |
| Adobe | Digital experience / creative / document platforms | 2019 |
| Draft kings | Daily fantasy game | 2019 |
| Grain ferry | Company for executive development, organizational consulting and talent acquisition | 2019 |
| LOCALiQ | Digital marketing company | 2019 |
| Meiomi (constellation marks) | Wine | 2019 |
| Trifecta | Food delivery | 2019 |
| yeti | Insulated mug and cooler | 2019 |
| Comcast business | Business internet services | 2020 |
| Hyperice | Recovery device | 2020 |
| Sanford health | On-site COVID-19 tests | 2020 |
| Whoop | Fitness wearable | 2020 |
| Amazon web services | Cloud provider | 2021 |
| Master Dobel (Proximo Spirits) | tequila | 2021 |
| Titos | vodka | 2021 |
| TruGreen | Lawn care treatment provider | 2021 |
| Global speed | Professional employer organization and global platform for personnel solutions | 2021 |
REMARKS: * = Also title sponsor or presenting sponsor of a WGC or PGA tour event.
The NHL’s Panthers and BB&T – now Charlotte-based bank Truist after merging with SunTrust in December 2019 – have decided to end their 2012 naming rights agreement, SBJ’s Mark J. Burns reports. A new sponsor is currently being sought and will be led by Shawn Thornton, Panthers Chief Commercial Officer.
According to Thornton, both parties have “mutually agreed not to extend the deal for BB&T Center”. With BB & T’s recent branding to Truist, “both parties felt it was best to keep going,” he added. The naming rights deal would have expired on June 30, 2022.
The Panthers’ arena will now be called FLA Live Arena during the search process. There was no time frame when a new naming rights agreement could be concluded. Currently, the Panthers do not work with a sales and sponsorship agency.
There are still some concerns among industry executives about whether sports marketing is “back,” writes Terry Lefton in the SBJ this week. Even when the fans are back in the stands, the general industry perspective is somewhere between opaque and cloudy. Outside of the most depleted sponsor categories like hotels and airlines, marketing budgets are back. But there is still a lot of waiting. Without much certainty, here are some concerns and observations industry officials are expressing:
- travel. Real estate, agencies and media vendors are back on their pre-pandemic travel routines. While they spend money attracting and supporting crowds at events, the brands that sponsor events are still largely excluded from travel and mostly from their offices. When will that change? “Current partners we see at events … but when it comes to business development and potential partners, it’s still phone calls and Zoom calls,” said NFL VP / Business Development Nana-Yaw Asamoah.
- Social awareness: Consumers, especially Generation X and younger, are increasingly demanding that the brands they do business with take a stand on even the most divisive issues. Now it is a requirement of consumers and employees that brands be socially aware and spend money on it – especially on DEI issues. “It’s expected now,” said Mike Fedele, VP / Marketing for BodyArmor, whose company plans its largest dedicated program in 2022. “You just have to make it a brand commitment.”
- Are we already there? Make-goods kept some agencies busy, if not solvent, over the past year. Certainly there are a lot less now, but Matt Yonan of Tigris Sponsorship & Marketing, whose company counts Phillips 66, Western Union and Xcel Energy among its customers, said: “We are still negotiating contracts for COVID make goods and cannot do that Just do those. “Specifics of the long-term impact of the pandemic on the industry are still elusive and will remain until its impact on media consumption is better understood. Still, there are those who believe it viewed as net profit.” will.
- The Lakers have signed a new jersey patch deal with the South Korean food company Bibigo, reports my colleague John Lombardo. The LA Times reports that the five-year pact is worth more than $ 100 million. Bibigo replaces Wish, which reportedly paid between $ 12 million and $ 14 million annually. Bibigo, based in Seoul, will also become the Lakers’ first global partner under the NBA’s international marketing program, which allows each team to have up to three foreign sponsorships. Sportfive supported the Lakers with the deal. Bibigo has not hired an agency.
- The Ryder Cup kicks off Friday, and SBJ’s John Lombardo notes that the year-long delay on the business side has come as the PGA of America was able to sell two additional sponsorships in Rolex and RBC as Ryder’s top-tier partners. The two brands join BMW, Aon and BP as global partners with exclusive branding, hospitality and media assets on site. Also new this year is a deal with Titos, which makes the brand the official vodka of the Ryder Cup, with on-site activation to integrate a “Stillhouse Lounge” in Whistling Straits.
- When Kathy Carter was promoted to CEO of LA28 last week, it was a formal sign that the organizing committee was moving into the next preparatory phase, writes SBJ’s Chris Smith. Carter, who was previously CRO of LA28, has now expanded her commercial responsibility to oversee the operational management of this Summer Olympics. To date, LA28 has used its unusually long runway of 11 years to aggressively develop commercial partnerships. Carter’s team has previously won sponsorships at Comcast, Deloitte, Delta, and Salesforce.
- Citi will continue its title sponsorship of DC’s annual tennis tournament for three more years, says SBJ’s Bret McCormick. Citi first sponsored the tournament in 2011, with several contract renewals since then.
- My colleague Ben Fischer reports that the Rams have signed a multi-year sponsorship contract with Porsche, which is about VIP experiences in the SoFi stadium. Porsche will sponsor the pre-game side experience for invited guests and also work on offering season ticket holders and suite buyers wine tastings, activations in the Porsche Experience Center, cocktail hours and dinners with Rams retirees and influencers.
- Mark Miles, President and CEO of Penske Entertainment, told SBJ’s Adam Stern that IndyCar expects sponsorship revenue to grow by 20% over the next year.
- SBJ’s Thought Leaders Retreat began last night with a reception at The Meadows in the Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe. More than a hundred sports industry executives, friends, spouses and important others gathered this week for SBJ’s first in-person event in more than 18 months. As the brisk fall weather set in and the risk of forest fires subsided, attendees reunited with long-time employees and began creating new ones, all under the supervision of Safe Space, a company that safely runs live events in the age of COVID.