Corporate Sponsorship

Figure 1. Eddie the Coca Cola Bear

Hi everyone, my name is Eddie the Coca Cola bear. Have you ever heard of Coca Cola? The name is everywhere! You see, large businesses like mine have big offices with lots of employees that make the big important decisions. One of those things they have to decide upon is a way to get their business better known to the public. They use many many strategies to do this, but one of the most important ones is a form of advertising called Corporate Sponsorship. Corporate sponsorship is a long term agreement between a company and another event. This agreement is beneficial for both groups involved.

Corporate Sponsorships come in all different types and are very common in sports. Sponsorships vary in all sizes as well. For example in sports, different companies will sponsor an entire sports league, one team, or even one individual athlete. In this short commercial below, Gatorade and the NHL worked together to create an idea that Gatorade increases the player’s skills. Gatorade is a major sponsor of the NHL and if you pay close attention during a hockey game, you will notice all of the player’s have the same green Gatorade bottle. This is a part of the agreement between the sponsorship.

One man you may know, a basketball legend named Michael Jordan got his claim to fame for his basketball skills and made a lot of money off of teaming up with bigger companies to eventually make his own brand of clothing. Back in 1985, Michael Jordan was at the prime of his basketball career and another company called Nike noticed. The company and the athlete teamed up and collaborated on basketball shoes, which eventually spiraled into Michael Jordan’s own brand called Air Jordan. The very first shoe, called the Jordan I, was an instant hit. Now, we are all the way up to the 31st pair, stylized as Jordan XXXI. This relationship between Michael Jordan and Nike became iconic, and it created many other opportunities for corporate sponsorship that all were because of the Jordan I. Michael Jordan is the highest paid athlete, and while he worked hard all his life, never gave up, and never stopped practicing his unmatched skill earned him the relationship with Nike and the endless fortune to come.

Figure 2. A photo of an Eagles helmet and Wawa hoagies

Sponsorships don’t need to be on a national level, they can be smaller scale on the local level too. The Philadelphia Eagles, a professional football team has a partnership with a convenience store called Wawa. This is different than a company being associated with the NFL. Wawa only has locations in six states and is a relatively small company. To get their name out there they teamed up with the Eagles and during football season Wawa will advertise “the official hoagie of the Philadelphia Eagles” and on the other hand you will see the name Wawa plastered all over the Eagles stadium. Or maybe during an eagles game on television, you might hear an announcer say something like “brought to you by Wawa.” Wawa also has gift cards with the Eagles logo, they wrap hoagies with Eagle themed paper, and many other different things.

Corporate sponsorship is everywhere you look, even when you aren’t looking for it. Sponsorships help both companies make money because of the initial deal they have between them, as well as the long term partnership that will always have the two companies going hand in hand. Eventually, people naturally associate the two without even thinking about it because the most successful corporate sponsorships will last for years.