Asics, which had a record $1 billion in sales in North America and Brazil last year, up 15 percent, also is being replaced as Los Angeles Marathon title sponsor by the Skechers Performance division of the shoe and apparel company Skechers. That marathon’s name will be changed beginning next year from the Asics L.A. Marathon to the Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon.
In a statement, Asics, which was a New York City Marathon partner for 25 years, said its withdrawal from the event was “a strategic business decision.” It declined to be specific beyond providing written answers to questions from Gene McCarthy, Asics America president and CEO, who said Asics is in a stronger position than it was 25 years ago when it began its New York sponsorship and has taken a new look at its marketing plans.
NYRR officials said they were looking for a partner willing to support not just the flagship marathon, but its many other running events year-round, which New Balance has agreed to do. That also moved up the start date of the deal, which was not supposed to begin until the Asics contract runs out after the 2016 marathon; New Balance will begin to sponsor other NYRR races next year and the marathon in 2017.
It’s the biggest marathon sponsorship for New Balance, which is a sponsor of the smaller Rome and Rotterdam marathons and whose best-known title sponsorship in the U.S. is with the Falmouth Road Race.
The company has previously practiced a sort of guerilla marketing at major marathons, including the London Marathon and Boston Marathonin its hometown.
In Boston, where Boston Marathon parent the Boston Athletic Association has an “official supplier and outfitter” deal with Adidas that runs through 2023, New Balance buys up advertising on bus shelters and billboards along the marathon route and where runners congregate, last year for a campaign called “Nobody Runs Like Boston.” It also deploys street teams that hand out free New Balance T-shirts and merchandise.
In London, whose outfitter also is Adidas, New Balance has plastered the city with advertising during marathon month, including along the ramp from a light-rail station to the runners’ expo, with its logo and the tag line, “Let’s Race, London.”
These may be scrappy and eye-catching, but the value of official sponsorships like the one the company has now reached with the NYRR is much greater, said Matt Powell, sports-industry analyst with the NPD Group.
“It’s about prestige—you want to be associated with the biggest events, the most well-known events—but the real value of these deals comes from having your logo on the bibs, on the apparel, on the official publications,” Powell said.
As more running events are televised, “They’re getting the logo exposure, the eyeballs,” he said. “That kind of advertising is why they do this. All of that adds up. I’m sure there won’t be one second of one shot of the New York Marathon without the New Balance logo in it.”
That included at the news conference to announce the deal, where executives of the company and the NYRR all wore new NYRR-branded black running jackets made by New Balance with the New Balance logo.
But Rob DeMartini, New Balance president and CEO, said the partnership, which will include a New Balance retail store in the NYRR’s new running center in Columbus Circle, is about “something much bigger than running jackets.”
He said the company was drawn to the chance to help the NYRR’s programs for youth. A pair of shoes will be given to a young runner for every pair sold in the new store, DeMartini said.
“If the sport is going to continue to grow and be healthy, we need new people coming in,” he said in an interview. “The sponsor and the merchandise and your name association—those are all tactical business benefits, but the real long-term benefit is the health of running.”
The running industry is as competitive as it is massive, with a few brands battling for a share of the market.
Nike continues to control 58 percent of sales, the NPD Group reports, but New Balance and Skechers have climbed into second place, tied at 5 percent apiece and slipping ahead of both Asics and Adidas, with 4 percent apiece.
“When you look below the top line, there has been tremendous volatility, so these brands are really fighting across the landscape,” Powell said.
And, as DeMartini said, “Part of developing a brand is having it associated with things that consumers look up to and think are legitimate, and obviously nothing legitimizes a running brand more than being associated with the biggest marathon in the world.”
New Balance is also developing its own elite running team and building a new headquarters complex that will include a practice facility for the Boston Bruins.
Meanwhile, events such as the New York City Marathon and their parent organizations are on a crusade for revenues.
“Of course that has to come into play and we would be foolish not to say that’s part of what we need to analyze and look at,” said Peter Ciaccia, the marathon’s race director and the NYRR’s president of events.
The budget of the NYRR jumped last year from $74 million to $83 million, with help from no fewer than 26 corporate partners, including, starting last year, Airbnb and Toyota. (Runner’s World also is a media partner with the marathon.)
The premier sponsor is Tata Consultancy Services. New Balance will join “foundation sponsors” United Airlines, Airbnb, and the Rudin Family Foundation.
That money helps pay for other programs than the marathon, Ciaccia said.
“The way we approach the partnership here, it’s really a different model,” he said. “We were looking for a foundation partner that would come in and be with us year round.”
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
No comments:
Post a Comment