Temple ranks sixth all-time in NCAA basketball in wins, but the Owls haven't been to the Final Four since 1958, so the best I ever felt about my alma mater in March was in 1988. That was when they lost in the East finals and Duke made it to the finals. four. It was the second tough loss of the season for the Owls, but I was sitting two rows in front of the university president. Thank you, Jimhost.
“I prefer unanswerable questions to unanswerable answers.” — Physicist Richard Feynman
In this week's magazine column, I mentioned Bitcoin's resurgence, and at the time of writing last week, Bitcoin was trading at all-time highs. It then fell from $73,083.50 last Thursday to $64,813.45 on Wednesday, so perhaps it was cursed.
Still, many see a recovery in cryptocurrencies as a sponsorship category. Some brands have flamed out in spectacular fashion, like FTX, which gave its brand to MLB umpires for several seasons and won things like a nameplate for the Heat's home arena and the naming rights to an esports team.
Industry giant Binance has cited political and regulatory issues in the U.S., and Voyager, another major brand that went bankrupt, also provided major sponsorship to Mavericks. There was also confusion among some NFT and related blockchain brands, including Socios, which withdrew from the U.S. market last fall.
SponsorUnited counts 118 crypto brands doing some kind of sports marketing in the US and Europe. “It's still a broad category for most real estate,” said Sponsored United founder Bob Lynch.
The UFC has been sponsoring Crypto.com since 2021, which includes prominent kit branding. It remains one of the biggest deals for the MMA circuit. Grant Norris-Jones, who sells sponsorship assets for both the UFC and WWE as EVP/Global Partnerships for Endeavor's TKO Group, said: “We are both looking at ways to aggressively and aggressively expand that partnership. We are considering it,'' he said. “And if they're doing that with us, I'm sure there are opportunities like that across the market.”
UEFA also recently issued an RFP inviting bids for the Champions League from cryptocurrency exchanges.
Is the cryptocurrency category back for good?
Here's a reminder that some crypto brands never left.
CAA Sports co-head Mike Levine said he expects the market to be relatively active, especially in the second half of the year. “The untold story is that many of these companies with large sponsorships actually survived multiple crypto winters before this recent growth spurt,” he said. said. “While the market should recover relatively quickly, version 2.0 of blockchain and sponsorship will make functionality more central to a brand's success. For NFTs, utility is more important than collectibility. It will be.”
The case is still pending and FTX's Sam Bankman Freed remains in prison. So can this category be fully revived in terms of sponsorship? Or will this decade of his be forever typecast as SpongeTech?
“Further regulatory relief would certainly be a big help,” NHL chief business officer Keith Wachtel said, “but the bigger concern with anything like this is always the reputational risk.” Ta.
As I pored over the various NCAA brackets for this year's March Madness season, I noticed a phenomenon that I and many others were unfamiliar with. That means there's more chatter about personalities, players, and potential opponents on the women's side than on the men's side.
That's what happens when you have legendary coaches like Iowa's Caitlin Clark, USC's JuJu Watkins, and UW's Geno Auriemma and South Carolina's Dawn Staley. When it comes to star power and commercial viability for NCAA women's hoops stars, it certainly looks like Clark is there, and so is the rest of the field.
Basia Wojcik, vice president of marketing and sports, said: “We've got Michael Jordan and others. …We've already seen a lot of deals with other athletes. However, most of them [NIL] The deal is not centered around television. There's a lot of socializing. [LSU’s] with angel lease [teammate] Frauge Johnson is very talented, Paige Backers is strong, and so is Juju, who is very marketable. ”
Wojcik and The Marketing Arm have assembled a roster of the most marketable players in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. The “Selected Seven” are as follows:
- caitlin clarke (Iowa State): All-time NCAA DI scoring leaders (men and women)
- angel wreath (LSU): Leads SEC in scoring and rebounding.
- juju watkins (USC): Freshman of the Year favorite, second in scoring.
- paige backers (UConn): Thoroughly consistent, shooting 61.1% from the field this season.
- Cameron Brink (Stanford): Most likely two-way player this season and most talented player in this year's NCAA women's tournament.
- Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame): Leads DI in steals this season and is one of the best defenders in the country.
- Jaycee Sheldon (Ohio State): The Buckeyes led the Big Ten in the regular season (even with Clark at Iowa) and were led by a dominant defense.
UW's Paige Backers and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo are among the most marketable women's college players
More of a symptom than a cure, connected TV will not solve the problems faced by linear rights holders, especially RSNs.
Still, a new report from The Trade Desk notes that the recent NFL Wild Card Game drew 23 million viewers to Peacock, and that WWE's 50-year plan to stream “Raw” exclusively on Netflix starting in 2025 He reportedly has a billion dollar contract and plans for ESPN and Fox Warner Bros. With the arrival of the Discovery streaming service in the fall, Internet-enabled television has “passed the tipping point.”
Key data points:
- 43% of Americans say they spend a lot of time on streaming platforms because of the content they love. Expenses are always visible.
- 95% of advertisers plan to maintain or increase their spend on programmatic connected TV this year, and 49% say they will spend more on live sports than last year.
- 57% of respondents cited live sports as brand protection, and 54% highlighted targeting efficiency. 46% emphasized the ability to reach an engaged audience.
- Just in time for baseball season, Traeger and Louisville Slugger, manufacturers of premium wood pellet grills, will release limited edition Traeger Louisville Slugger pellets, SBJ's David Broughton reports. The maple wood used in the pellets is sourced from forests in New York and Pennsylvania that Louisville Slugger has used for years to make bats.
- SBJ's Ben Portnoy points out that the NCAA is working with CLC and Topps to release a new series of trading cards featuring male and female college basketball stars. This series will feature players such as Catilyn Clark (Iowa), Angel Reese (LSU), Zach Eady (Purdue), and Reid Shepard (Kentucky).
- SBJ's Wes Sanderson points out that Nike remains the top provider of shoes and jerseys to teams in the men's NCAA Tournament. Nike and his Jordan Brand affiliate are on 42 of the field's 68 teams, up two from last year's 40 teams. Meanwhile, Sanderson said Nike and Jordan Brand represented 41 of the 68 teams in the women's field, a slight decrease from last time. A total of 44 teams, the highest number in a year.
- As reported by SBJ's Alex Silverman, MLS Next Pro will introduce a new position on the back of players' jerseys and above the number on the right leg of their shorts this season, allowing teams to play more on-field games. They say they are making kit sponsorship inventory available for sale. This move brings the total number of sponsorship positions on Next Pro players' uniforms to four, as previously branding was allowed on the front of the kit and on the right sleeve.
- SBJ announced the nominees for the 17th Annual Sports Business Awards this week. Some of the people involved in sports marketing, sponsorship and advertising include:
- Best in Real Estate Consulting, Sales and Client Service: AEG, CAA, Legend, OVG, WME/IMG.
- Agency of the Year (Brand Consulting):160over90, CAA, Genesco, MKTG, Octagon, Optimum Sports, Wasserman.
- Brand Activation of the Year: Gainbridge x Parity Week, Grant Thornton x Two Tour. One Competition (Wasserman), Humana x National Mall of Pickleball (GMR Marketing), Johnnie Walker x Watch Women's Sports (Wasserman), Marriott x Manchester United Summer Tour (160over90), and PopTarts Bowl (Weber Shandwick).
- Sports Sponsor of the Year: Ally, American Express, Diageo, Kia America, MGM Resorts International, T-Mobile.
