UPS has signed three major multi-year sports agreements to expand its collegiate sportssponsorship programmes in the USA.
The sponsorships with IMG College, the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences provide access to collegesports fans in top markets across the USA as well as multi-tiered marketing relationships with manyof the country’s elite collegiate athletic programmes, the company said.
IMG College is the leading multimedia, marketing and licensing/brand management company inAmerica representing more than 200 of the nation’s top collegiate properties including the NCAA andits 88 championships. As a division of IMG Worldwide, it offers UPS sponsorship opportunities with68 IMG university partners across the country.
Through the new partnership with IMG College, UPS receives rights to various marketing assets,channels and intellectual property to reach college sports fans, game day activation at 250 collegevenues. It can profit from high impact media across TV, radio and digital channels and customisedintegrated marketing platforms aligned to UPS business objectives.
Also under the agreement, UPS will enjoy exclusivity for all marketing and promotional rights inthe shipping, freight and logistics category related to the schools’ athletic programmes. Inaddition, the company will become the official provider for logistics, package delivery and retailbusiness services in all forms of sponsor recognition in athletics, including on-campus,in-stadium, licensing, and broadcast, print and web outlets. The marketing rights and businessdevelopment opportunities also extend to The UPS Store, which will allow the company to activateits sponsorship at a local level.
“This is truly a historic announcement in the annals of sports marketing,” said George Pyne,President of Sports and Entertainment at IMG Worldwide. “IMG has built the first national collegesports marketing platform allowing blue chip brands like UPS to reach the largest and most affluentfan base in sports. We’ve assembled the intellectual property, marketing assets, media channels andservice infrastructure for one-stop shopping, which was never previously available. We areconfident UPS will be the first of many national brands to capture the pride and passion of collegesports through this new national marketing opportunity.”
UPS’s new agreements with the Big Ten and Pac-12 provide similar marketing rights with eachconference, including category exclusive rights for UPS and The UPS Store, tickets and hospitalityfor UPS customers and employees at conference championship events and key individual school gamesthroughout the year.
The Big Ten Conference is an association of world-class universities whose member institutionsshare a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and publicservice. The broad-based athletic programmes of the 12 Big Ten institutions sponsor 298 teamscompeting for championships in 25 official conference sports, 12 for men and 13 for women.
The Pac-12 Conference earns 442 NCAA Championships, including more than 175 team titles over thepast 20 years, and has led USA in NCAA Championships in 45 of the last 51 years.
“Through these new alliances, UPS secures one of the largest sponsorship profiles in Division Icollege sports, opening the door for exciting B to B growth opportunities with the conferences andindividual schools along with an unprecedented range of marketing, advertising, branding andhospitality assets,” said Ron Rogowski, UPS vice president, sponsorships and events. “Thesepartnerships also give us a compelling communications platform to share the message that whetheryou’re a small business owner or a championship football coach, UPS’s mastery of logistics can helpyou succeed.”
