Latest Thinking from IEG

Sponsorship, The Final Frontier: NASA As The Next Formula 1
Last December, testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Science, Space and Technology Committee, former Rep. Robert Walker (R-Pa.) called upon the federal government to embrace the idea that long-term, cost-saving public and private partnerships are a viable solution for obtaining the resources needed to make future NASA missions achievable.

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Filed under: government/municipal, assets

Italian Cultural Partnerships Bear Watching
As oil is the Middle East’s natural resource, culture is Italy’s. The country is home to more UNESCO World Heritage sites, museums and archeological sites than any other in the world.

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Filed under: backlash, cause marketing, destination/tourism, fashion, government/municipal, international, museums/zoos/aquariums, arts

Events Gain Well-deserved Support From Tourism Offices
Although event and festival producers often act as de facto marketing arms of cities, regions or countries—attracting visitors, generating positive media coverage, enhancing quality of life for residents, etc.—rarely do they get strategic, sustained support from their tourism bureaus.

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Filed under: events, festivals, government/municipal, international, destination/tourism

U.S. Congress Launches another Misguided Attack on Sponsorship
For the second year in a row, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D.-Minn.) has added an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would prohibit the U.S. armed forces from spending any money to sponsor sports. The entire bill, including the amendment, was approved by the House Appropriations Committee yesterday, as reported in USA Today.

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Filed under: government/municipal, legislation, NASCAR, sports, backlash

Bad Faith: Big Brother Pulls the Rug Out from under Venue Sponsorship
Unsettling news came out of Vancouver last week, as the provincial government of British Columbia killed a deal for telecommunications company Telus to obtain naming rights to BC Place Stadium.

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Filed under: Canada, contracts, government/municipal, in-kind, naming rights, negotiating, telecommunications, valuation, venues, backlash

Sponsorship Issues: Are Recent Government Moves Protection Or Interference?
Two developments within the last month raise some fascinating questions over the involvement of government in the affairs of private rightsholders and their partnerships.

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Filed under: Canada, government/municipal, IEG conference, legislation, pro sports, sports, telecommunications, trends, ambush marketing

Time For Municipal Marketing To Realize Its Potential
“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized.”

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Filed under: government/municipal, guidelines, how to get sponsorship, local, what is sponsorship, assets

A Rare Look At The Numbers Behind A Major Event

The City of Chicago has long been one of the only major municipalities to produce and market annual festivals and civic celebrations in house, through the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, which due to a departmental reorganization recently became the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

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Filed under: events, festivals, government/municipal, local, destination/tourism

How to Make Rest Stops a Viable Sponsorship Opportunity

Plenty of bandwidth has been spent on this site discussing how government entities get it wrong when dealing with sponsorship. And this Philly.com article on a plan to sell naming rights to rest stops on the New Jersey Turnpike will do little to reverse that trend. The stops are already named for New Jersey’s most famous sons and daughters, so corporate naming rights can be expected to inspire particularly heated backlash.

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Filed under: government/municipal, naming rights, backlash

Should Toyota and Cardiac Science Product Recalls Have Any Impact on Their Sponsorships?

Usually when we’re talking about recall and sponsorship in the same conversation, it’s a discussion of figuring out whether audience members had a positive recall (aided or unaided) of a given property's sponsors as measured by a survey. Today, however, we’re talking about product recalls and what should be done by (and for) properties that have the manufacturers—if not the product brands themselves—as sponsors?

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Filed under: government/municipal, guidelines, NASCAR, non-traditional categories, sports, contracts