Successful sponsorships

Most sports, if not all, have an alliance with one or more brands to sponsor events and teams. This has been able to bring sports into the next level and help support not only the team but also the fans expectations towards the franchise.

Take the NFL teams for example. All of the arenas and stadiums around the country have a sponsored name. The “Sun Life Stadium” in Miami, the “Heinz Stadium” in Pittsburgh and the newly named “Mercedes-BenzSuperdome” in New Orleans where the car manufacturer arrange to contribute with 20 million dollars to the Saints franchise in exchange for the name in the next 10 years.

But everything from stadiums to memorabilia and jerseys are at stake for potential sponsorship agreements. In the last decade the American company Nike has gained some terrain into the soccer market around the world. They are now the main sponsor for international teams such as Holland, the United States, Portugal, Brazil and Portugal, some big names in the industry. Proof of this is the challenge that the now represents for the world sponsor leader in this discipline Adidas. A current report states that Nike has been gaining some terrain in this matter. “Sales of soccer goodswill top 4 billion euros in 2012, according to Peter Rohlmann at Germanconsulting firm PR Marketing. He estimates Adidas' market share at 38 percent,with Nike closing in quickly at 36 percent.”

Finally athletes themselves identify now with certain brands in order to gain awareness and of course some revenue. An excellent example of this marketing trend is what the Michael Jordan name brand has done for the 2012 presentation of it’s new “Jordans” the legendary snickers that have now become a cult product amongst basketball fans. For the presentation AJ2012 the marketing team gathered a group of people to create a completely customized shoe that will adjust to the fan’s desires. Three different shoes are represented by three different styles of basketball players in this case, Chris Paul from the LA Clippers, Carmelo Anthony from the NY Knicks and Dwayne Wade from the Miami Heat. The all represent one of the three kinds of shoes that AJ2012 is branding all done by an spectacular display of graphics and images worth checking out! AJ2012