Archive for the ‘Sponsorship News’ Category
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
 Yesterday, I spent the day at the SF Giants game, as BSS was again responsible for coordinating a Community Outreach day on behalf of our client PG&E. It was a beautiful, warm day in San Francisco that made it easy to note how dramatically our climate has changed over the past few decades. On Earth Day, it’s important to note how much there is to do to generate awareness and remind consumers to give their business to companies that support the environment and commit to sustainability.
Given the “green fatigue” that has developed in some quarters of the marketplace, we must remember that the sustainability movement is still advancing, with eco-friendly initiatives now commonplace and almost routine. One only needs to follow news coming from industry newsletters like SmartBrief on Sustainability, CSRwire, or Joel Makower’s blog GreenBiz to see daily reports of actions being taken by corporations to address environmental and bottom line interests through green policies.
While walking through the ballpark on a Green Ballpark Tour, I was struck by how much the Giants and their partners – most notably PG&E – do to achieve lofty sustainability goals. The Giants have won MLB’s Green Glove Award as the greenest franchise five years running now – going back to when PG&E first partnered with them to place solar on the ballpark and to obtain LEED Silver status, which they received in 2010. Hearing head groundskeeper Greg Elliot talk about the creative ways they conserve water and use organic products and natural landscaping techniques for a more conscious approach to field maintenance, one is struck by how well the greening of sports is progressing.
Still, I realized how the green messaging we heard on the tour must sound like background noise to many people, and wonder how much it really feels relevant to the average person. It seems to me that sustainability messaging is more important than ever, and that those of us in the communications space must continue to find new ways to connect with people directly in a language that will reach them. Using sports, entertainment and other sponsorship-friendly platforms to communicate relevant sustainability messaging remains an extremely viable and powerful tool for corporations and NGOs to reach diverse audiences with both their own messaging and consumer calls-to-action. We have to keep being more creative and effective, and not give up our efforts to grab the audience’s attention.
As our work at BSS has evolved the past couple of years, we have spent a great deal of time on civic projects with inherent green strands. While not leading with sustainability messages, these projects and the organizations driving them have shown how sustainability can be a natural feature of any major event, community project or new building. We’ll review some of these projects in the days ahead and suggest ways that new properties can be thinking of sustainability through strategic partnerships of many varieties, including sponsorship.
Sustainable sponsorship is in our future to stay. Let us know how we can help your organization engage in this vital and challenging practice – just one of many ways BSS can help organizations enhance their bottom line and community connection through sponsorship and strategic partnership.
-Kevin
kevin@sponsorshipstrategies.com
Tags: CSRwire, Earth Day, Green Glove Award, GreenBiz, Joel Makower, LEED, MLB, PG&E, San Francisco Giants, Smart Brief on Sustainability Posted in Bartram Sponsorship Strategies, Climate Change, Sponsorship News, Sustainable Sponsorships | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 28th, 2012
With so many events and major sponsorship properties developing in the San Francisco Bay Area, it’s a great time for sponsorship marketers and corporate buyers to consider new options. With the recently concluded and highly successful America’s Cup World Series races proving the viability of that property, the year ahead will have an entirely new sports property in the mix, along with new opportunities associated with pro sports, museums, and major celebrations.
Some exciting opportunities to consider include:
- America’s Cup – events in October 2012, then summer and fall of 2013
- 49ers new stadium – opening in 2014
- New Exploratorium science center – opening on the Embarcadero in April 2013
- Bay Bridge re-opening celebration – part of a 2013 Year of the Bay program, opening to take place Labor Day weekend 2013
- Orpheum Theatre naming rights and year-round Broadway series naming – on the market for the first time
- Snow White 75th Anniversary at the Walt Disney Family Museum – November 2012-March 2013, followed by other world class exhibitions
- SF Giants and Oakland A’s post season – MLB is thriving in the Bay Area and it’s not too early to consider sponsorship of the 2013 season
Companies considering exploration and investment in any of these properties can receive expert counsel and an inside perspective from BSS, the regional leaders in major corporate sponsorship development. Give us a call or drop a note to discuss these or other large scale regional opportunities. We negotiate smart, creating strategic, commercial programs to leverage the best sponsorship properties available.
We wish you the best for the rest of the year and for all your sponsorships and events to come.
-Kevin
Tags: 49ers, America's Cup, America's Cup World Series, Bartram Sponsorship Strategies, Bay Bridge, BSS, Exploratorium, Kevin Bartram, MLB, Oakland A's, Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Giants, SHN, Snow White 75th Anniversary, sponsorship, Walt Disney Family Museum, Year of the Bay Posted in Bartram Sponsorship Strategies, Local Sponsorship News, Sponsorship News, Sponsorship Opportunities | No Comments »
Thursday, May 31st, 2012
 For a great example of how to effectively leverage a sponsorship using the principles of integrated marketing, look no further than Wells Fargo’s work on the Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary program (GGB75). Wells Fargo fully utilized the rights granted as a lead sponsor of the year-long program to promote the anniversary and, by so doing, to remind the public of the company’s high level support of the celebration.
Included in their rights package were a rich array of benefits including brand integration at the new Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion (a visitor center at the Bridge), lead history sponsorship of the Golden Gate Festival on May 26-27, inclusion in a wide array of outdoor and mass media promotion, and access to some very unique hospitality. They also received tools for involving employees and the right to promote the sponsorship via various channels. It was this last benefit that became so valuable for the financial services company, as they made sure they told their story through creative ATM and in-branch promos, transit ads and wraps, and use of GGB imagery at other special events and properties they sponsor. It was, in short, a brilliant campaign that required a lot of work from a well-coordinated team, led by Senior Vice President and Regional Marketing Director Alec Hughes.
In conducting this work, Wells Fargo remembered something that so many companies seem to forget – that a sponsorship’s success is largely dependent on the manner in which the company leverages its benefits – and is not limited by what the sponsored property does for the company. A well-designed sponsorship package provides the sponsor company with many valuable benefits that directly generate real value, visibility and associative rights that allow the company to access exclusive IP that non-sponsors cannot utilize. This IP becomes extremely important when dealing with a public domain property like the Golden Gate Bridge, as ambush opportunities abound. In the case of the GGB75 program, official sponsors were granted the right to use the official seal and promote the fact that they are sponsors of the anniversary celebration, a benefit that lasts the entire calendar year. Non-sponsors did not have these rights. The key to success with this particular sponsorship was to effectively use the IP rights, just as an Olympic sponsor must do with the rings.
Wells Fargo, through a wide range of creative activation tools, a fully integrated marketing campaign and a great deal of hard work by a team of internal specialists, made the most of a significant sponsorship investment and, as a result, stood out among a dozen sponsor companies. Congratulations to Wells Fargo, an iconic brand supporting an iconic landmark.
Tags: Alec Hughes, GGB75, Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary, Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion, Golden Gate Festival, Wells Fargo Posted in Bartram Sponsorship Strategies, Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary, Local Sponsorship News, partnership, Sponsorship News | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2012
 For the sixth straight year, PG&E is teaming up with the San Francisco Giants to support ballpark greening and to promote the community partnerships supported by each organization. This year’s sponsorship focus is on a series of community actions that will be activated at the ballpark. PG&E’s community and education program partners will be invited to take part in special behind the scenes “green” ballpark tours and on-field ceremonies at a number of games throughout the season. Guests will be hosted by PG&E with game tickets in a special section, where they will watch the game after having seen the inner workings of the greenest ballpark in the country.
The Giants won their third straight Green Glove Award in 2011, an honor given to the MLB team that operates most sustainably. With a LEED Silver-certified ballpark, an aggressive waste diversion program, green garlic fries stands (powered by PG&E), and the distinction of having been the first solar ballpark (thanks to PG&E), the Giants walk the walk when it comes to sustainability.
PG&E will also work with the Giants to tell community stories via various media channels and in-stadium, including features on PG&E’s Solar Schools program, New Energy Academies and new scholarship initiatives. On July 15th, PG&E will host a large contingent of education and sustainability partners at the Madison Bumgarner bobblehead day game. In a special on-field ceremony before the game, one dedicated California teacher will receive the third annual PG&E Solar Schools Teacher of the Year award. The winner of the award will throw out a first pitch along with one of the company’s most active employee community volunteers.
We salute PG&E for its ground-breaking green ballpark work and recognize the company for its foresight in helping the Giants be the first baseball team to use solar to power their stadium. Go Giants!
Tags: Green Glove Award, LEED, Madison Bumgarner, MLB, New Energy Academy, PG&E, San Francisco Giants, Solar Schools Posted in Bartram Sponsorship Strategies, Local Sponsorship News, partnership, PG&E, Sponsorship News, Sustainable Sponsorships | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
 We are pleased to have launched a new corporate sponsorship program for SHN (Shorenstein Hays – Nederlander Theatres), the leading producer of Broadway shows in the San Francisco Bay Area and the owner of three historic SF theatres – the Orpheum, Golden Gate and Curran. SHN has had corporate sponsors in the past but allowed their program to wind down over the past couple of years so that a fresh new offering could be taken to market.
 We are now seeking sponsors for the lead position of their season series as well as for targeted category positions. Perhaps most exciting is the opportunity for one company to place their name on the Orpheum Theatre, with brand integration throughout all related media, event promotion and at the venue. This will be the highest-profile naming opportunity in San Francisco since the opening of Pacific Bell Park in 2000 (also developed by BSS), and will be handled with just the right balance of corporate branding and historic preservation.
SHN has been the face of Broadway in San Francisco for 35 years, bringing the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed shows to Bay Area audiences. SHN presents celebrated new works, popular classics, and pre-Broadway World Premieres including Wicked, Mamma Mia!, Legally Blonde and Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway – all of which premiered at SHN venues before becoming smash hits in New York and around the world.
The sponsorships include integration into annual media valued at over $10 million along with access to all three theatres, visited by 800,000 people per year attending hundreds of performances. In the 2012-2013 Season, the wildly popular Book of Mormon makes its Bay Area debut. SHN audiences can also look forward to encore performances of The Lion King, Jersey Boys and Wicked, as well as the pre-Broadway World Premiere of Diner and the family favorite Mary Poppins.
Please download a one-sheet describing the 2012 – 2013 sponsorship opportunities at SHN here, and do contact us right away if your company or an agency client might be interested in considering these unique opportunities. With the incredible value included in the sponsorship offerings, we are expecting that the lead season position and the theatre naming opportunity will be snapped up quickly.
Tags: Book of Mormon, Broadway, Curran Theatre, Diner, Golden Gate Theatre, Hugh Jackman, Jersey Boys, Legally Blonde, Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins, Orpheum Theatre, Pacific Bell Park, San Francisco, SHN, Shorenstein Hays - Nederlander, The Lion King, Wicked Posted in Bartram Sponsorship Strategies, Local Sponsorship News, SHN, Sponsorship News, Sponsorship Opportunities | No Comments »
|
Yesterday, I spent the day at the SF Giants game, as BSS was again responsible for coordinating a Community Outreach day on behalf of our client PG&E. It was a beautiful, warm day in San Francisco that made it easy to note how dramatically our climate has changed over the past few decades. On Earth Day, it’s important to note how much there is to do to generate awareness and remind consumers to give their business to companies that support the environment and commit to sustainability.
