Getting Into the Game

How Learfield is Helping Brands Partner with Your Favorite School

Sports and brands are synonymous with one another. The Boston Red Sox are known for the famous Citgo signs that resides beyond the Green Monster. The University of Oregon goes hand-in-hand with apparel and shoe giant Nike, and the University of North Carolina is tightly associated with the jump man himself and the Jordan Brand logo that graces its uniforms. There is no doubt that brands have made a lasting impact on fan bases everywhere thanks to sports.

One of the ways that brands are taking a different approach to those sponsorship opportunities has ties into the way that they are using Learfield’s network of schools to broaden its reach.

“We’ve certainly seen people take that lens to say, ‘How could I treat this as a national platform to get my brand out there and to engage with fans?’” Davis said. “We’ve also seen the reverse, where maybe a local credit union will have a relationship with the university, and through their analysis of their customer base and our analysis of our fan base have determined that there are a lot of Wisconsin fans that don’t live in the shadow of the stadium. They’re not in their home state, but they live in California, or they live in New York, or they live in Texas and they could very potentially be customers of this credit union or customers of other brands that have that affiliation with the school. We’ve seen that reverse where a company who wants a national reach is using college, their affiliation with a particular school or a group of schools to go national. Being able to tailor the programs to the individual needs of the brands is part of the secret sauce that we can bring to bear.”

—

Related posts:

Thank you for joining us. This installment we will cover the term ‘CFD’, which is an acronym for ‘Contract-for-Difference’. A CFD refers to a financial asset which is not available for physical…

Like many writers on Medium, I want to improve my writing. I read a lot of books about writing. But it takes a while before any instruction or advice seeps into my prose. Four months later and I’m…

Do we have a purpose, or can we be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI)? This is the schism we are unknowingly neck-deep in and I will offer three propositional questions that may help us see the…