Virginia Tech Electrifies Its Crowd with Metallica's Sandman

Metallica's hit song, "Sandman" electrified the crowd of Virginia Tech fans in attendance for the team's game against Georgia Tech on Thursday night.  It clearly signifies what college football is all about!

Check it out below:

Puma Scores with WPS Breast Cancer Campaign

During the month of October, Puma supported Breast Cancer Awareness Month by leveraging its sports affiliations to drive awareness and donations for breast cancer research. Puma created a Project Pink campaign, supported by its partnership with Women's Professional Soccer, that raised $62K+ funds and generated awareness via 17K+ tweets.

Puma highlighted the efforts of campaign through a tremendous digital recap that should serve as a benchmark for any brand/organization looking to highlight the results of their campaign in an impactful, shareable way.

Check it out below:

The Admirals Provide Giant Beach Ball Entertainment

The Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL) have found an interesting way to entertain fans during select intermissions - a giant beach ball. The team features a Beach Ball Bounce game on the ice that features two (2) teams of four (4) helmeted participants competing to knock the beach ball, filled with helium, through open boards at both ends of the ice (where the zamboni's drive in).

The promotion could serve as a great way for organizations to cross-promote other sports in town (local soccer club, basketball team with giant branding on a ball), local businesses (giant bowling ball, pool ball), lotteries (giant lottery ball), casinos, and more.

Check out the Admirals' execution of the Giant Beach Ball Bounce below:

Select Fans Pay Their Age at the 2012 London Olympics

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games recently announced an interesting ticket promotion designed to benefit senior citizens and kids. To keep ticket prices affordable and accessible to as many people as possible, Locog is offering a "Pay Your Age" promotion that allows anyone who is 16 and under at the start of the Olympic Games on July 27, 2012 to pay their age in pounds and senior citizens ages 60 and older to play a flat rate of 16 pounds.

The London Organising Committee is offering 1.3 million tickets available to senior citizens and schoolchildren via the "Pay Your Age" promotion and are also planning to offer 120,000 free tickets to London schoolchildren so that one (1) in eight (8) will have the chance to see the Olympic and Paralympic games live. Standard pricing for tickets to the 2010 London Olympic Games will range from 20.12 pounds to 2,012 pounds for the Opening Ceremony and 20 pounds to 725 pounds for sporting events.

The promotion serves as a great benchmark for sports organizations looking to adopt new ticketing strategies to fill the seats at their stadium venues with senior citizens and school children. The promotion is attractive, relatively easy to understand for consumers, and can serve as a great way to demonstrate value to fans who usually cannot afford to pay to attend live games.

Using the Power of Social Media to Drive Merchandise Sales

Sports organizations looking for new ways to drive merchandise sales should benchmark a recent tactic that major retailers across the nation are adopting. Realizing the success of the Groupon model, Walmart and other retailers are launching special offers that are determined by the number of "likes" they receive via social media.

Walmart recently unveiled a Crowdsaver app on their Facebook page that unlocks a discount price when enough consumers opt in to "like" a product. The promotional offer encourages consumers to share the deal with their friends, family, and colleagues, in an effort to eventually benefit from purchasing said product at a lower price if enough people "like" it.

Walmart tested the promotional pricing model by offering a $500 plasma television at a discount rate of 18% if 5,000 consumers "liked" the product on Facebook and the company received an overwhelming response in less than 24 hours.  

Sports organizations can consider creating a similar application/pricing model on their Facebook pages and team websites to drive merchandise sales, ticket sales (if they are in control of inventory), and concessions items. While the model would need to be tested, teams could offer "Deals of the Day" and "Deals of the Week" and where fans can purchase apparel and other merchandise items at a discount price if "X" number of people "like" the item. This promotional model could serve as a great way to drive repeat traffic to social media sites, new interest in apparel and promotional items, drive group ticket sales, and provide new means of value for consumers.

Consider implementing a similar "If the deal gets enough likes, the price drops for everyone" model within your organization!

Clippers Fans "Get Their Red On" in 2010

The Los Angeles Clippers celebrated their new brand new red jerseys and the start of the 2010-11 NBA season by featuring a "Get Your Red On" promotion that truly benefited fans. The promotion allowed fans who purchased a red jersey or red shirt on Clippers.com to receive a free lower bowl ticket to the team's game against the Dallas Mavericks.

The Clippers offered the deal on a first-come, first-serve basis, with a limited number of tickets being made available. However, it served as a great way to drive merchandise sales, drive interest and awareness around the team's new jerseys, and build some early season excitement around the club, especially with the return of start PF Blake Griffin.

While some clubs may not have a comparable amount of lower bowl inventory available to run a similar promotion, upper bowl tickets would still present a compelling offer for fans.

Boston College Delivers a Unique Ice Jam Experience

The Boston College Athletic Department recently teamed up with the Undergraduate Student Government of Boston College (UGBC) to create an unforgettable Ice Jam Event designed to drive interest in the University's basketball and hockey programs.

Boston College students, alumni, and fans were treated to a free unique sports experience that featured the Conte Forum arena transformed into a half sheet of ice and a half parquet. The BC-style Midnight Madness event allowed fans to enjoy a plethora of entertainment provided by the men's and women's basketball teams and the men's and women's hockey teams.

To make the event truly something special, Boston College Athletics called on legendary sports commentator Bob Costas to serve as celebrity emcee and Vanilla Ice to provide some relevant music entertainment. The Boston College Ice Jam event served as a terrific way to bring the University's college basketball and hockey fans together and build excitement for the four (4) programs' upcoming seasons, especially the defending national champion men's hockey team. Check out some great photos of the event here. 

BC student athletes created a humorous viral to drive excitement for the Ice Jam Event:

The BC Athletic Department created a great promotional spot of their own to drive interest in the event:

The Boston College Ice Jam lived up to all expectations, with slam dunk competitions and special guest appearances:

Capital One Offers Fans a Chance to Rule LSU's Death Valley

Capital One leveraged its designation as the Official Bank of LSU Athletics by offering fans the chance to "Rule Death Valley" for a day. The promotion, launched in August, allowed fans a chance to win an ultimate LSU Football experience that included reserved VIP parking, premium club seats, pre-game sideline access, and a chance to partake in the pe-game coin toss.

The VIP experience also included a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cox Sports Production Facilities, meet-n-greets with Athletics Director Joe Alleva, the "Voice of the Tigers" Jim Hawthorne, the LSU cheerleaders and the mascot, a Les Miles autographed football, and official LSU merchandise. The parties marketed the promotion as a way to "Stand on the Field, Watch from the Club, and Hang in the Booth".

Fans could enter for a chance to win simply by visiting any one of Capital One Bank's 176 Louisiana branches. The promotion allowed Capital One an opportunity to collect consmer data, drive traffic to brand locations throughout Louisiana, and drive awareness and buzz around the start of the 2010 LSU football season. LSU Athletics and Capital One were able utilize the promotion to generate a tremendous amount of sales leads with a unique prize package that in reality had a pretty low cost of prizing elements involved.

Check out some marketing elements supporting the promotion below:

A special thanks to Chris Kosmala of LSU Athletics for his insights and contributions to this column. Congratulations on implementing such a successful promotion! 

Miami Heat Fans are Feeling the Team's New Player Intro

The Miami Heat recently unveiled a new player introduction video for the 2010-11 season that has become an instant hit with fans. The vignette, to the tune of Phil Collins' hit song "In the Air Tonight", showcases the team's players in a new, stylish light off the court. The video is non-traditional, yet directly coincides with the Miami lifestyle and culture.

Check it out below:

Under Armour Protects the Ravens' House

Under Armour does a tremendous job leveraging its partnership with the Baltimore Ravens in-game with an engaging scoreboard feature. The catchy vignette has become a hit with fans attending the team's games at M&T Bank Stadium.

Check it out below:

Toronto FC and adidas Let Fans Design the 2012 Team Kit

Sports organizations looking for new ways to leverage apparel providers should closely monitor a new promotion that adidas and Toronto FC have teamed up to offer the team's fans in Ontario. The two parties are allowing the team's followers an opportunity to design the 2012 supporters kit (team uniform) for the chance to win the first official 2012 kit prototype, signed by the entire Toronto FC squad.

The promotion is very engaging because it allows fans to create their own design based on their stylistic interests yet it's offered in a relatively controlled manner on the official "Create Your Kit" microsite. Toronto FC fans living in Ontario have been very receptive to the initiative, with 4,000+ fans submitting their favorite designs in less than 48 hours since the site's launch on October 26th (the promotion runs through November 22nd).

Take a moment to check out the site's design and page elements below:

Red Bull Jumps the Trojan Horse in an Unforgettable Display

Red Bull has built brand equity across the globe in 2010 with an international freestyle motocross exhibition series called the Red Bull X-Fighters Jams. The series has traveled to alluring destinations across five continents, including Rome, Madrid, London, Cairo, and Moscow. At each location, the Red Bull X-Fighters have drawn enormous crowds of onlookers interested in seeing the best flip tricks in the world.

While the tour has proven to be a huge success with fans, their latest event in the Turkish city of Canakkale, the ancient city of Troy, was truly the most memorable. The Red Bull X-Fighters showcased an unforgettable performance in front of 40,000 spectators that featured hundreds of flip tricks over the iconic Trojan Horse. The event once again demonstrated Red Bull's uncanny ability to create iconic events that have the substance it takes to become viral sensations.

Check out some amazing highlights of the Red Bull X-Fighters event in ancient Troy below:

Monitoring Trends in the Collegiate Marketplace

NACMA members, thank you for coming to Partnership Activation. Enclosed is a deck detailing new trends in the collegiate marketplace that I will be walking through during our teleforum this afternoon (1-2pm EST).

Please feel free to leave comments if you have any questions or share ideas/best practices with me at bgainor@partnershipactivation.com and on Twitter at @BrianGainor.

Thanks!

Brian

Pepsi Teams Up with CFL Players to Refresh Canada

There's no question that Pepsi's "Refresh Project" has been an astounding success since it was launched in 2009. The initiative has impacted and inspired the lives of many as Pepsi has donated millions of dollars to fund great ideas to make communities around North America a better place. 

From a promotional standpoint, the platform has proven to be terrific for Pepsi on all fronts as it's easily applicable to all of Pepsi's touch points, including team and league partnerships. Pepsi recently teamed up the Canadian Football League and eight (8) CFL players (each representing a different team) to create a captivating campaign that features each of the players competing for a $50,000 Pepsi Refresh Project grant to support an idea that makes a positive change in their community.

The CFL Challenge initiative, which runs through Wednesday, November 24th, encourages CFL fans to vote for their favorite players' campaigns in a head-to-head competition that will decide who will win the $50,000 grant. The initiative allows notable CFL players to work hard off the field for a good cause and leverage the support of their avid fan base - a "win-win" for all parties involved.

Here is a quick breakdown of the campaigns each of the CFL players are supporting:

• Jason Arakgi, BC Lions - Camp Goodtimes
• Patrick Kabongo, Edmonton Eskimos - Wellspring Edmonton
• Wes Lysack, Calgary Stampeders - Canadian Cancer Society Patient Care Kits
• Rob Bagg, Saskatchewan Roughriders - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada
• Luke Fritz, Winnipeg Blue Bombers - Winnipeg Harvest Hunger for Hope Program
• Andre Durie, Toronto Argonauts - Community Living Mississauga
• Marwan Hage, Hamilton Tiger-Cats - McMaster Children's Hospital
• Anthony Calvillo, Montreal Alouettes - The Cedars Cancer Institute

Check out the initiative below:

Nike Builds Suspense With Its Latest Ronaldo Soccer Viral

Sports organizations looking for new ways to utilize their YouTube channel to drive buzz around a product/season ticket launch should take a close look at Nike's latest viral campaign entitled "Only the Fastest".

Nike launched the campaign yesterday (10/26) with a 35-second viral designed to drive buzz for the launch of Cristiano Ronaldo's new soccer boots. The clip takes viewers along for a ride as Ronaldo's boots leave Nike Global HQ in Portland and are shipped out to their final destination for the product launch on October 28th. The viral, which has generated 130K views in less than 48 hours, leaves viewers with a level of suspense, as no one can really expect what is coming next.

Nike does a tremendous job using simple tactics (the copy block underneath the video) to drive people to its "Only the Fastest..." Facebook page. Thus far, 10,000+ consumers have opted to "attend" the special event (which is rather vague) while another 3,400 are possibly attending (translation - 1 in 13 consumers who viewed the viral opted in for the Facebook event).

Check out the viral and the Facebook page below:

VIRAL

YOUTUBE CHANNEL (WITH CALL-TO-ACTION IN COPY BLOCK)

FACEBOOK PAGE

GMR Marketing Showcases New Technologies at Tech Petting Zoo

GMR Marketing recently hosted an Event Tech Petting Zoo that gave employees, clients, and reporters an inside look at the marketing technology of the future. The event, held at the company's headquarters in New Berlin, WI debuted 35 cutting edge, interactive products and exhibits, including digital graffiti walls, the world's first flexible LED wall, gesture-based projection screens, 3D televisions, fog screens and more.

The event helped GMR showcase new technologies to their clients that will truly take their marketing and activation plans to a whole new level.

Check out the video enclosed below that details some of the amazing new technologies that were showcased at the GMR Event Tech Petting Zoo:

For more information about GMR Marketing and/or some of the technologies featured at theGMR Event Tech Petting Zoo, please feel free to contact Brian Gainor at bgainor@gmrmarketing.com

Bud Light Goes Head to Head with UFC Fighter Rashad Evans

At the recent Bud Light National Convention in New Orleans, UFC fighter Rashad Evans (@SugaRashadEvans) was challenged by a company representative to remove a single, empty can from a Bud Light pyramid that was stacked 6,545 cans high. As depicted in the video, Evans accomplished the task and then opted to create a highlight reel of his own, crashing into the display.

The moment was captured by several onlookers and is beginning to gain traction online. The Bud Light pyramid serves as a great display for properties to demonstrate affiliation awareness as long as consumers aren't given the ability to benchmark Rashad Evans' actions, which destroyed a pyramid that took 16 hours to construct.

Check out the video below:

Monster Energy and Prokos Rentals Align with Ohio Athletics

Courtesy of Ohio Univ. Media RelationsAt the dawn of the 2010 NCAA basketball season, Ohio University Athletics partnered with Monster Energy Drink to attempt a Guinness World Record for the most Monster Energy Drinks opened and consumed at one time.

The Ohio University Athletics marketing department teamed up with a local Pepsi distributor to bring in 2,200 cans of Monster Energy in for the men's basketball team's Hardwood Hysteria event, a practice session that offered high-flying dunks, a skills challenge, and an intrasquad scrimmage for fans to enjoy free of charge.

While Ohio University Athletics failed to distribute 2,200 cans of Monster Energy in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record, the event served as a great benchmark for sports organizations looking to set niche records. The promotion serves as a great example of ways that mid-major athletic departments can attempt to attract fans looking to be a part of a historical moment.

Courtesy of Ohio Univ. Media RelationsThe Ohio University Athletic Department also activated its partnership with Prokos Rentals, a local Athens realtor, at the Hardwood Hysteria event. Prokos Rentals allowed select registrants a chance to compete for the title of "Ms. Bobcat" through a series of competitions that included a costume contest, a dance competition, a skills competition, and a trivia contest. Lisa Kirk, an Ohio University Sports Management senior, was declared the winner of the competition, taking home free rent, a salon prize package, and $500 cash!

A special thanks to the Executive Board of The Ohio University Sports Business Association for their insights and contributions to this column. The Ohio University Sports Business Association is an organization of individuals who wish to enhance their educational experience outside of the classroom with like minded individuals who are all working toward a common goal of improving themselves and their peers through practical experiences. Follow The Ohio University Sports Business Assocation on Twitter at: @ohiousba.

Seattle Bank Leverages Player Appearances to Create Ultimate Fan Debit Cards

Seattle Bank has teamed up with the Seattle Seahawks to offer fans a chance to receive the "Ultimate Fan Debit Card". The regional bank is leveraging player appearances through their partnership with the Seahawks organization to offer fans the chance to have their picture taken with their favorite player and printed directly on their debit card.

Seattle Bank's custom debit cards featuring Seahawks player likenesses serve as a great way to drive account conversions, promote affiliation awareness, and keep their retail locations top of mind in the wallets and minds of their customers.

October 2010 Partnership Activation 2.0 Newsletter

Thank you for coming to check out PartnershipActivation.com. I am excited to share with you the new October 2010 Partnership Activation 2.0 Newsletter.

I am truly excited about the content featured in this month's newsletter. I want to thank you for your continued support and willingness to share the newsletter and content featured on the site with your friends and colleagues. It's remarkable that in just 2+ years, newsletter readership has spread to 60+ countries across the globe- a true testament to your support!

This month's newsletter features a collection of insights, including:

• The Fist Pump Cam
• Creative Promotional Tactics from Across the NFL
• Special Vehicles to Leverage Athlete Endorsers
• St. Louis Rams' Green Week
• The Leverage Daily Buzz
• A Look at the October 2010 Partnership Activation Rising Stars
• Brands Doing an Effective Job Leveraging Athlete Endorsers
• College Music Videos (I Love My Ducks / Teach Me How To Bucky)
• Versus' New Outdoor NHL Campaign
• 2010 Ryder Cup Insights
• Creative Activation Tactics
• The Coors Light Beer Box
• Unique Ways to Leverage Pizza Companies as Partners

Click here to check out the October 2010 Newsletter now and be sure to also join the Official Partnership Activation - Users Connect! LinkedIn Group today!

One side note for this month, I encourage you to consider attending the 5th Annual Ivy Sports Symposium on Friday, November 19th in Princeton, NJ. The event, which costs $50 for students, $150 for alumni, and $200 for industry professionals, is truly one of the best sports conferences in the United States!

If you are interested in signing up for the newsletter, please send an email with "Subscribe" in the subject line to newsletter@partnershipactivation.com. In the body of the email, please include your name, company affiliation, and contact information when subscribing.