Sep 18, 2008 6:04 AM, PROMO Xtra, By Richard Tedesco

In these turbulent economic times, sports remain a safe haven for fans and sponsors alike.

That was the consensus of a panel of buyers and sellers at Sports Business Journal’s Sports Sponsorship Symposium in New York City yesterday.

“Baseball is sort of comfort food,” said John Brody, Major League Baseball senior vice president, corporate sales and marketing. “Sports in general are pretty low risk. In an environment like this, brands aren’t going away.”

There could be significant shifts in media spending, according to Keith Wachtel, National Hockey League senior vice president, corporate sales & marketing, who said leagues must address the situation with different tactics:

“From the league standpoint, we need to be a little bit smarter,” he said..

Representatives from the buyers’ side indicated that long-term plans were problematic in an uncertain economic climate, and media plans typically are on hold, with no new sponsorships being considered.

“It’s not about new, it’s about activation,” said Judah Ziegler, associate vice president, retail and consumer marketing, for Sharp Electronics. Ziegler noted that leagues can help buyers by offering fully integrated marketing packages to them.

“The biggest mandate we have right now is ‘We have a lot of stuff, let’s get more out of it’,” said Ray Bednar, senior vice president and global sponsorship marketing executive for Bank of America.

Bank of America currently maintains sponsorships with MLB, the National Football League and the Olympics.

One seller on the panel currently seeing an upside is the New York Jets, which is reaping the benefits of Brett Favre’s arrival in the Big Apple, according to Matt Higgins, Jets executive vice president for business, who said he expects the team’s sponsorship revenues to grow by 10% this season.

“Even in this challenging environment, [advertisers] are interested in being involved with us,” he said.

“If you have a great opportunity,” Brody said. “Brands will find a way to participate in it.”

Mark Tatum, the National Basketball Association’s senior vice president of marketing, said the economic climate makes it necessary to discern marketers’ needs in crafting sponsorship plans. He cited T-Mobile’s current NBA sponsorship as a case in point: T-Mobile ranked fourth in consideration among NBA fans when it started its program, and now ranks first.

The fact that the NBA is a global player, and also has the WNBA as a marketing vehicle improves its overall viability.

 “One of the benefits the NBA has right now is that we’re diversified,” Tatum said.

The tenor of the discussion from both sides was that buyers and sellers simply need to ride out the rough economic waves.

“Right now, for some of our smaller teams, it’s about weathering the storm,”
NASCAR CMO Steve Phelps said.

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