Daily Buzz

By Karl Greenberg

Taking a page from its 2008 playbook, Visa is updating its “Go World” campaign with ready-made pieces to congratulate the company’s sponsored athletes when they win a medal.
“We know through research that the way consumers connect to the games is through the athletes and their stories,” Jennifer Bazante, head of global brand marketing for Visa, tells Marketing Daily. “It helps extend the window of the breakthrough moment for the athlete.”
As a major sponsor of the games, Visa has already aired three commercials congratulating sponsor athletes. One commercial, celebrating downhill skier Julia Mancuso, animates a drawing the athlete made when she was a little girl depicting her winning medals at the Olympics. “Well, she doesn’t have to draw her own posters anymore,” says a voiceover from Morgan Freeman, as the video cuts to Mancuso celebrating her triumphant run. (Mancuso won silver in the downhill and super combined events.)

By Karl Greenberg

The California Milk Processor Board, the state-market trade group that created the original “Got Milk” campaign, is launching an iteration of its four-year-old California-focused Hispanic-market “Toma Leche” (drink milk) campaign. The new effort, which carries the theme “More than Just Milk” (Mucho Más Que Leche), is the board’s biggest Hispanic-market effort to date. It is also the first that uses radio ads.
The campaign, by Long Beach, Calif.-based Grupo Gallegos, touts the nutritional benefits of milk with three 30-second Spanish-language spots: “Dentist” (Dentista), “Hair” (Pelo) and “Sports Drink” (Bebida Deportiva). The first two set up a conceit suggesting the product is toothpaste and shampoo, respectively.

By Daniel Kaplan

The ATP World Tour is in advanced negotiations to tab Corona as the circuit’s top sponsor, said multiple tennis sources, which would make a beer company the top backer in the sport for the first time.
The sides had not signed a contract as of late last week, but talks were far enough along that ATP board members were told to prepare for a conference call. Exact terms could not be determined, but sources place the first year of the deal in the high- seven-figure range, and the second year in the low eight figures, about comparable to the $13 million annually that Mercedes-Benz was paying before it bowed out of its deal at the end of 2008.
The ATP has had a few false starts in trying to replace 13-year sponsor Mercedes-Benz. In the summer of 2008 it came close to signing insurance company Aviva, but the global financial meltdown scuttled that deal. Last fall, Toyota also came close, sources said, but the deal fell apart suddenly. Thinking he had the car sponsor in hand, sources said, new ATP Executive Chairman Adam Helfant told reporters in September that he expected a deal by the end of the year.

By Michael Smith

Patrón Spirits will be the presenting sponsor of the American Le Mans Series, a move that ALMS Chief Executive Scott Atherton called a monumental step forward for the sports car racing series.

By Jon Show

The PGA Tour recently dropped most of the restrictions that kept tournaments and players from accepting sponsorships from distilled spirits companies, opening the door for the first title sponsorship from a liquor brand.

By John Ourand

Papa John’s has signed on to become the presenting sponsor of Versus’ NBA D-League telecasts through the league’s postseason in April.
It was the D-League, not Versus, that took the lead in completing the deal even though Versus is handling ad sales for the games.

The U.S. Army has “shifted some of the focus of how it uses its NASCAR sponsorship, not only cutting from 23 to 15 races as a primary sponsor in 2010 but also how it goes about trying to recruit people.”
U.S. Army pays $500,000 per race for sponsorship.