SBJ Marketing: Another sponsorship check for the NFL

If it goes the maximum, there’s a chance for a Nov. 1 World Series game, and that “if necessary” matchup would be played in ... Toronto. Brrr.

Uncertain whether I’d rather live with that or the statistical aberrations that a truncated MLB regular-season schedule would produce. How about you?

Words of Wisdom: “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” -- Henry Ford

Industry sources tell me that U.S. Bank is close to completing an NFL sponsorship that would designate it as the league’s “Official Bank” starting next April.

Those retail banking rights have been held by Truist since early 2021, as part of a pass-through in Visa’s broad NFL sponsorship, which included credit card, banking and peer-to-peer banking rights. That deal, which has 30-year-old roots, is in its lame-duck year.

The NFL had no comment.

Since those Truist rights aren’t up until after this season, several sources suggested that the U.S. Bank deal is, in fact, completed and in limbo until next year.

Minneapolis-headquartered U.S. Bank’s sponsorship portfolio includes naming rights of the Vikings home stadium there, along with local tie-ups with the T’Wolves, Twins and Wild; complemented by deals with the Clippers, Premier Lacrosse League and the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games, which will be held in Minnesota next June.

U.S. Bank’s last big national sports deal was as a WNBA Changemaker sponsor from 2022 to 2025, since replaced by Ally Financial.

Tony Ponturo and Doug Smoyer, two veteran sports marketers, are teaming with two other industry vets in launching Echelon, a boutique agency specializing in brand and property consulting, packaged with a specialty that seems right for the times -- management, measurement and the promise of ROI for corporate hospitality and other sponsorship assets -- through Best Day Ever, which has been operating independently since 2019.

Ponturo, who’s been prominent industrywide as Anheuser-Busch’s former media and sports czar, will be Echelon’s executive chairman. Other principals at Echelon, which totals 15 employees, are Smoyer (who held sales and marketing positions at the Penguins, Redskins, Giants and NFL HQ, followed by stints as chief sales officer at Van Wagner Sports and SVP/global partnerships at Legends) and Patrick Luckett (who co-founded Best Day Ever six years ago and is listed as president) along with John Maguire (BDE’s chairman) and the other cofounder.

Echelon has been in “stealth mode” for 18 months, according to Smoyer, though Best Day Ever will be the company’s event agency. Other Echelon capabilities aimed at servicing both brands and properties: full-service agency offerings, like sales consulting and packaging, branding, venue activation, ROI metrics/analytics and the hospitality/events area, managed by Best Day Ever. Ponturo said the shop will not offer third-party sales, but it will assist in property and media packaging and evaluations for sellers and buyers.

“I like the group we’ve assembled as far as being able to listen to and evaluate client needs, which is a bit of a lost art,” said Ponturo.

Clients to date include NRG Energy, TGL parent TMRW Sports, Voit (rightsholder for the official LIGA MX soccer ball to ramp up its brand visibility in anticipation of next year’s FIFA Men’s World Cup) and longtime NFL player and ball-tracking technology provider Zebra Technologies (which collects the data powering the NFL’s Next Gen Stats used by teams and broadcasters).

Said Zebra Tech CMO Rob Armstrong: “They’ve been helping our team with marketing programs like our ‘Measuring Greatness’ campaign, where we sign NIL players, and with the sponsorship assets which we receive from being a league partner and being one with 14 [NFL] teams. Usage of those sponsor benefits, including tickets, used to be at around 50%, but now it’s around 93%. And they’ve helped us a lot, as far as getting more value from our hospitality at Super Bowl, where we’re usually entertaining around 25 people.”

Echelon is not the first agency, startup or otherwise, to tap into Ponturo’s years of experience and influence. He joined the Leverage Agency as chairman in 2009, and in 2016, he linked with Turnkey Sports & Entertainment to help it launch an executive coaching division.

As for Echelon’s “unique selling proposition,” within a marketing world that often seems to have an excess of agencies, perhaps there’s a surplus of personnel overall, considering the pending Omnicom/IPG amalgamation.

“There are some phenomenal agencies out there,” said Smoyer, “but we believe ours has a unique perspective, and a differentiated option for brands and properties.”

For the NBA’s tipoff, we checked with EVP Matt Holt to see what’s hot on the licensing side of the house. The answer continues to be trading cards and other collectibles, which have been eluding their historic yo-yo sales pattern and spiking upward since COVID.

Trading cards, a category in which Fanatics’ Topps brand is the new NBA exclusive rights holder (pending lawsuit notwithstanding), are attracting many new fans. “There’s just a lot of innovation happening,” said Holt. “At [card] shows, you see a lot of kids and families now, and across the collectibles business there’s a lot of innovation. It just feels very healthy.”

Also enjoying that burst of health are three-dimensional collectibles, like the toys from Funko, and, likewise, Zuru’s NBA Ballers figures.

Lifetime Products has taken over the portable backboard and hoop system license, with team-logoed products available at sporting goods, big box and DTC.

• Mastercard renewed the MLB sponsorship it has held since 1997. The renewal continues Mastercard’s status as presenting sponsor of the MLB All-Star Game, a position it has held since 2016. The sponsorship was last renewed in 2021.
• Susanna Swartley joined Excel Sports Management as the first global head of accounts in its brand marketing division. Swartley will be based in Excel’s Manhattan HQ, report to Head of Brand Marketing Tuck Burch and begin work on Oct. 27.
• Casey Collins is the new head of the NFL’s multibillion-dollar licensing business, filling a vacancy created when Joe Ruggiero left the league in July after five years as SVP and head of consumer products.
• David Bruce reversed the trend of people leaving the U.K. to work in the U.S., leaving MLS in 2024 to become the chief business officer of Sunderland AFC, his hometown team, and its off-field metrics are climbing.
• Former WinCraft Chairman Richard J. “Dick” Pope, a seminal figure in the ascendance of sports licensing, died Friday in Wayzata, Minn. He was 89.
• The NBA, WNBA and G League extended their marketing arrangements with Adidas, as part of an ongoing plan to align the sneaker brand with ascending young players on their respective digital platforms, reports SBJ’s Tom Friend.
• EA Sports and the NFL extended their exclusive licensing deal for console and PC video games, along with expanding their work content and experiences such as the MaddenCast and for EA Sports College Football, writes SBJ’s Jason Wilson. The deal lasts through 2030.
• NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports added defense and space industries contractor Anduril Industries, giving the company another avenue to connect to a fanbase that over-indexes on military members, notes SBJ’s Adam Stern.