Shout Out To Long-term Sponsorships
Posted: 2/18/2010 3:57:39 PM by
Jim Andrews | with 0 comments
If you have checked out Sponsorship.com’s News section you may have read the February 17 release from the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning announcing a renewal of the title sponsorship that began in 1993.
This makes the partnership between the event—run by the inimitable Howard Freeman—and the convenience-store chain the second-longest running title partnership of a major non-sports event in the U.S. Only Southwest Airlines’ 19-year-old title of the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco has been around longer.
(What about Macy’s 83-year-old title of the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City? That event is owned by Macy’s, so doesn’t fit the bill as a partnership for the purposes of this discussion. However, I continue to believe the all-time benchmark for a successful sponsorship is the fact that New York’s Thanksgiving Parade is commonly referred to as the “Macy’s Day Parade” as if the fourth Thursday in November was designated a national holiday to celebrate the joys of department store shopping.)
By my glance at the IEG database, there are an additional 14 U.S. sports events with title sponsorships older than Quick Chek’s balloon fest deal, excluding venue naming rights agreements and events owned and operated by the corporation that titles them.
When you think of all the work that goes into keeping a sponsor partnership relevant, fresh and producing positive results, you have to tip your hat to all 16 of these properties for being able to maintain such significant relationships—not just a low-level cosponsorship—for two decades or more—through recessions, corporate ownership changes, etc.
Perhaps I’m thinking about the work that goes into maintaining such partnerships because my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. (My mother, even though she doesn’t know you, nor you her, insists nonetheless that I tell you—truthfully—that she was a teenager when she got married.) Congratulations and best wishes for many more years to my folks and to these other timeless relationships:
- Int’l Rolex Cup Regatta (1973)
- Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf (1978)
- Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (1980)
- Honda Classic (PGA Tour stop) (1982)
- Kroger 200 (NASCAR Nationwide Series race) (1982)
- Coca-Cola 600 (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race) (1984)
- AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (1986)
- Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo (1987)
- Fed Ex Orange Bowl (1991)
- Gatorade Duel (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race) (1991)
- Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade (1991)
- Times-Picayune Crescent City Classic 10K (1991)
- Budweiser Shootout (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race) (1992)
- Food City 500 (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race) (1992)
- Shell Houston Open (PGA Tour stop) (1992)
- Quick Check New Jersey Festival of Ballooning (1993)
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