Opinion
Assertions
11/2/09: Despite its being rather casually mentioned in this issue’s story on the
rental car category, word that the
NHL was able to forge a deal on behalf of
Enterprise Rent A Car that
included rights and benefits with
all 30 of its teams holds some
significance. Anyone who has ever tried to construct an agreement where a sponsor fee is paid to a “parent” organization and then
divided among constituent bodies–be they teams, chapters, etc.–knows how
difficult it can be to please everyone involved. Especially interesting is that the NHL was able to
split money evenly among all the teams without clubs in New York or LA demanding a larger share than those in Calgary or Pittsburgh on the presumption that a similar package of benefits is
worth more in a
larger market. Can’t imagine
Jerry Jones agreeing to those terms if this were an NFL deal. In fact, it appears the NHL has been able to accomplish something with which the
NFL is
struggling. The NFL and
Bank of America have reached somewhat of an
impasse over
renewal of the company’s league sponsorship because Bank of America isn’t interested in returning unless it also can have
non-exclusive rights to issue
debit and credit cards using the name and logos of each of the
32 NFL teams. The league apparently is having difficulty getting clubs to agree to such a deal, with the teams
fearing conflict with current or future
local bank sponsors. Therein lies the
big difference between the Bank of America and Enterprise deals and the reason we have to stop short of crediting the hockey folks with being better dealmakers than the football people: Teams
are far less likely to have current or potential conflicts in the rental car category than in banking, making it much easier to say yes to the league initiative.
The fact that
Enterprise’s team relationships are
not exclusive leaves open the possibility that a
competitor could
ambush its hockey program with club deals in key markets. We wonder if the company
pursued exclusivity but found it
cost-prohibitive or whether it was
not concerned about others in the category being able to impinge its ability to build
brand loyalty among hockey fans.
Although in the news recently for its
groundbreaking deal to name the
Staples Center “in perpetuity,” Framingham, Mass.-based
Staples, Inc. did not make it into our “
Who Does What” look at sponsorship by
big-box retailers. That’s because the country’s largest office supply chain
isn’t all that active beyond its LA venue and connections to the NHL and NBA teams playing there. The company
was once an official
NFL sponsor, but dropped that deal in ’04. A year later it had nine NFL team deals, but is now down to only two, the
Chicago Bears and
Philadelphia Eagles. Staples has
activated both ties with consumer promotions that employee a
cause overlay, including the
Dream Park Challenge, which it conducted in Philly last year and which is currently running in Chicago. The program asks consumers to vote for one of 14
local parks to receive
$25,000 for improvements and a celebration party featuring a player from the team. Consumers cast their votes online; those who visit an area Staples and pick up a free “power card” can use it to have their online vote counted 10 additional times. The program is overseen by sponsorship vet
David Paro’s Oak Brook, Ill.-based
Deep Alliance Marketing, which assists Staples with sponsorship strategy, negotiation and implementation.
Jim Andrews