Jason Smith is the VP of Corporate Sponsorships & Events at Mountain America Credit Union, a Utah-based credit union that is making big waves in the sponsorship industry. In this week’s edition of “Sponsorship Essentials” he speaks towards his experiences on both the property and corporate sides, the assets that a company should fight for to have a successful sponsorship, and the skills that have gotten him to where he is today.
Thomas Wills is the President and CEO of Bonham/Wills & Associates. By 30, he was heading up one of the bigger players in the sponsorship, valuation, and negotiating world. Today, in part one in our series, "Sponsorship Essentials", he sits down with us and lends us valuable insight into the sponsorship and naming rights industry, (all done in 10 minutes or less).
In our last post, we examined a few instances of brands dealing with the fallout emerging from their sponsored properties falling on the wrong side of law and/or public opinion. This time, let’s take a look at the other side and see what properties do when the brand that’s sponsoring them meets the same fate.
Ryan Lochte being dropped by four of his major sponsors makes him the latest in a string of high profile athletes and bodies that have seen premature ends to their sponsorship agreements. Today’s post analyzes some of the incidents from the recent past and looks at some strategies that brands can employ in order to mitigate the damage arising from transgressions from their endorsers.
The first companies to experiment with Big Data are household names within the e-com world. Initial small scale projects were developed by the likes of Google, LinkedIn and E-Bay to improve analytic models on a trial basis. They used these trials to identify how and if they could make improvements based on introducing new data sources.
Emotional connection when creating an advertisement has become increasingly important. As the public consumption has reached an all-time high, the subconscious has adapted to blocking out many forms of advertising to the point where brand recognition is comparable to breathing for our younger generations. How often do we really remember the advertisements that we see? What captivates us these days? Innovation and emotion are the 2 main factors we recognise in Virgin mobiles Usain Bolt add below.
Over the years, municipal and public facilities such as parks, beaches and sporting facilities have witnessed a decline in government funding which as a result has led to difficulties in conducting maintenance and upkeep.
In order to combat this, properties have historically looked towards donors and more recently, corporate sponsors. This brings up an interesting debate about over-corporatization, with commentators on both sides of the fence making their opinions heard, including prominent personalities like Bill Maher in this video.
A front runner within the wearable side of technologies is Catapult. It has been a breakthrough company with major investors like Mark Cuban, and multinational brands Adidas, Reebok and Nike. This micro-sensor (essentially) is currently utilised by over 300 teams around the globe and it provides a more analytical perspective in “real-time”. When partnered with the visual assistance such as Sport VU. This allows sports scientists access to a full breakdown of the game, player performance, coordination and a series of algorithms quantifying player interactions generated by the raw data.
The Negotiation phase is one of the most critical stages when forming a successful partnership. When you think of the meaning behind Negotiation, some may tend to lean towards the idea of a “win/loose” outcome. This idea may indeed be relevant in the real estate market, automotive sales or company buyouts/takeovers. But when it comes to creating a long term partnership within the sponsorship realm, no matter what side of the table you are sitting on, it is imperative that the “negotiation process” is a discussion utilized to build the strong foundation needed to support the relationship for years to come.
Though the origin of naming rights may be debated, certainly a watershed moment in their development was the 1972-73 naming rights agreement between Rich Products, a Buffalo food manufacturer, and Erie County which enabled the former to put its name on a new football stadium in Orchard Park, New York, the home of the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills. The agreement called for Rich Foods to pay $1.5 million over 25 years in exchange for signage at the stadium and a commercial association with the franchise.
