Tonight in Unpacks: Soccer is TelevisaUnivision’s sports bread and butter, but as Olek Loewenstein explains to SBJ’s Austin Karp on this week’s Sports Media Podcast, its viewers are looking for more than just the beautiful game.
Also tonight:
- Hawks retain Oak View Group to sell jersey patch
- NYCFC inks 20-year stadium naming rights agreement with Etihad Airways
- SponsorUnited’s AI tool shines light on sponsorship spend throughout sports
- The Bears bring in fans, old and new, with virtual HQ tour
Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Austin Karp and Mollie Cahillane wrap up the Media Innovators conference, sharing takeaways such as the business potential of podcasts, the rising problem of discovery resulting from the fragmentation of rights and more.
SBJ’s Reader Survey is back. This year’s questions take a broad look at the industry and the many changes that have occurred in recent years. The survey will take no more than six or seven minutes to complete. Cast your votes and look for the results in SBJ the week of Dec. 9. You can take the survey here.
This week’s Sports Media Podcast features a special segment from SBJ’s Media Innovators conference in Manhattan, with TelevisaUnivision Global Head of Sports Olek Loewenstein joining co-host Austin Karp to discuss the company’s success and strategy in targeting Hispanics in the U.S. — and how it’s finding viewers outside its traditional audiences.
On TelevisaUnivision’s success with the Euros and Copa América: “It was a very good combination of events we had, with the Euros during daytime on our platforms and leading into Copa América games proved to be a fantastic combo for many reasons. One, we brought much younger audiences to our screens. Two, we beat ratings records, as I said. … We had very big numbers, even better than the World Cup. It was a very good success. … And Copa América was fantastic. We were lucky that Colombia and Argentina were in the final, with Argentina winning and Messi lifting yet another trophy.”
On Liga MX’s performance: “We’re victims of our own success in the sense of the growth of soccer in the U.S. We started with our sports network in 2012. We’ve been big advocates of soccer in the U.S. It was a very Hispanic-centric sport 10 years ago. As we know, Mexican Americans make up the majority of those Hispanics, and it was a big league back then. Younger generations in the U.S. have grown to explore the sport. Many of the other leagues, the German league, the Premier League, the Spanish league, have grown in interest. Liga MX keeps being the most-watched soccer league in the U.S. as because it’s in prime time. It’s broadly available, and there’s tonnage on our networks. You can use any numbers to justify anything, like any growth … but as of today, Liga MX continues to be the biggest soccer consumed in terms of reach and in terms of ratings in the U.S.
On the importance of airing the Super Bowl and World Series: “It’s very important to diversify, one, in terms of sports, and two, because the second and third generation of Hispanics that are coming up and starting to consume more content than before are not only interested in soccer anymore. They’re probably college educated. They’re watching football. They’re watching baseball. Baseball is a very local sport in that sense. And Hispanics in New York are very attached to their teams, Hispanics in L.A. are very attached to their teams, which speaks to the success of what we had now in the first game of the World Series. So, we’ve explored those deals. We’re looking to explore them more, potentially in basketball, potentially with flag football, potentially in other sports.”
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The Hawks retained Oak View Group to sell its uniform ad patch rights, reports SBJ’s Terry Lefton, which have been held by the YMCA of Metro Atlanta since the beginning of last season. OVG will go to market with the patch early next year.
Hawks and State Farm Arena CCO Andrew Saltzman said the choice marked the continuation of a longstanding relationship with OVG. It has sold uniform ad patches for the Trail Blazers along with five NHL teams; the Coyotes, Hurricanes, Islanders, Kraken and the Wild.
The deal, arranged jointly by the partnership teams of NYCFC and its parent company, City Football Group, strengthens a relationship that’s spanned NYCFC’s existenceNYCFC
NYCFC and Etihad Airways have a 20-year deal for the naming rights of the club’s under-construction stadium, which will be called Etihad Park, reports SBJ’s Bret McCormick.
The deal, arranged jointly by the partnership teams of NYCFC and its parent company, City Football Group, strengthens a relationship that’s spanned NYCFC’s existence; Etihad was the club’s first front-of-kit sponsor in 2014. The UAE-based airline also has deep connections with City Football Group; both Man City and NYCFC have Etihad’s name on the front of their jerseys and now their stadiums. The agreement is distinctly between Etihad and NYCFC, and not an expansion of the existing deal between the airline and the broader City Football Group.
Verizon sponsors Will Power’s No. 12 car for Team PenskeImagn Images
When SponsorUnited launched in 2018, it was described here as being a road map of the sponsorship industry: an interactive guide for who was doing what in sponsorship, authored by those with genuine industry acumen to all the assets and activations across every sports property. Now, the privately owned company, which tracks $9 billion in deals, across more than 52,000 properties and athletes worldwide, has a new offering which promises to solve one of the industry’s most persistently confounding questions, writes SBJ’s Terry Lefton: How much did that sponsorship actually cost?
In this week’s SBJ Marketing newsletter, Lefton explores just what SU’s Sponsorship Price of Negotiated Deals system can tell us about sponsorships.
Bears
The Bears rolled out the Virtual History Tour at Halas Hall, a digital walkthrough of the building’s memorabilia-laden lobby that acts as a Bears’ history lesson. The collaboration featured a multidepartment effort, said Dan Yuska, who oversees operations and historical affairs for the Bears, as well as help from Illinois-based virtual tour firm Mass Interact, reports SBJ’s Ethan Joyce.
Also in this week’s SBJ Tech newsletter, Joyce reports on the early success Paylocity (a HR/payroll firm) is seeing with its sponsorship of the NHL’s Stars.
- League One Volleyball secured $100 million in new funding led by Atwater Capital alongside existing investors Ares Management and Left Lane Capital, reports SBJ’s Xavier Hunter.
- The SailGP racing series is starting its fifth season this weekend in Dubai with a new title sponsor, as Rolex signs on for a 10-year deal, writes SBJ’s Terry Lefton.
- Kentucky-based Maker’s Mark has a new collaboration with Heat C Bam Adebayo to launch his custom blend “Bam & Marilyn’s 1 of 1,” which is now available at select retailers in Miami, notes SBJ’s Austin Karp.
- Learfield unveiled Edge Marketing Agency, designed to deliver digital marketing strategies to help brands better engage consumers and drive revenue, writes SBJ’s Ben Portnoy.
- Sportradar agreed to a multiyear deal with MLB to offer amateur scouting video and data services, notes SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo.
- DirecTV extended its title sponsorship of the Holiday Bowl, reports Portnoy.
