The Baltimore Ravens recently announced a non-traditional partnership with Jos. A. Bank, a high-end men's clothing retailer. As part of the partnership, ten (10) Jos. A. Bank store locations in the Baltimore, MD and York, PA DMA will run a "Purple Fridays"promotion, encouraging fans to wear purple to work on Fridays throughout the 2011 season. Each of the stores will dedicated a special section within their stores to sportshirts, ties, sweaters, and dress shirts in shades of purple.
It will be interesting to see if more professional sports organizations look to form partnerships with similar high-end retailers, as it generates buzz and awareness in non-traditional retail outlets and enables teams to target a higher-income fanbase.
Jos. A. Bank will support also its partnership with the Ravens through direct mail, radio, television, and online advertising and it would be intriguing to see if they also consider running a sweeps that offers free suite tickets to a game.