SBJ Marketing: Verizon adds, shuffles sports agencies

Verizon, normally referenced within these pages as one of the largest, if not the biggest, spender on sports media, has quietly redistributed its agency assignments across a handful of the leading sports shops. For some time, IPG’s Momentum Worldwide had most of that business, and it retained a chunk.

From a more elevated viewpoint, the wireless category represents the biggest aggregate marketing spenders per se, and across sports. So, this reshuffling will reverberate across the nexus of U.S. sports and sponsorship.

That comes into even sharper focus considering Verizon’s portfolio of top-shelf sponsorship rights, which include the FIFA World Cup, NFL, NHL and NASCAR, along with scores of team and venue deals. "We wanted each agency doing what they do best, so we created these 'pillars of excellence' within which each one is doing what we think they do best," said Verizon sponsorship chief Nick Kelly.

Under the new arrangement, independent agency Genesco receives two assignments. One is the NFL, where Verizon has been a corporate sponsor since 2010 and more recently has splashed its brand on coaches’ headsets . Genesco also will handle FIFA, with whom Verizon started a deal in September designating it the "official telecommunication services sponsor" for the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Verizon also got U.S. rights as a “tournament supporter" the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil.

Around 13 months after losing longtime telecom client T-Mobile, Genesco looks like a winner in this reshuffle. Duly noted here is the overlap in FIFA and NFL sponsors now serviced by Genesco (Frito-Lay and Anheuser-Busch InBev) and the fact that each of the 11 FIFA World Cup host cities in the U.S. will be staging games at NFL stadia.

Excel Sports Management also garnered some impressive business, as it will handle NBA, NHL and MLB business, and most of Verizon’s athlete-marketing deals.

Horizon Sports & Experiences' assignments include Verizon’s motorsports strategy and activation assignments, which encompass the sponsorship of Penske’s IndyCar team, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR league rights for the Straight Talk Wireless brand.

Momentum retained broad experiential/activation responsibilities for Verizon, and it will also take charge of sponsorship-based frequency/loyalty programs.

Another intriguing aspect of this “anti-consolidation": with premium event hospitality at premium events becoming preeminent, Verizon has now centralized those responsibilities with an unnamed startup shop. "Those made more sense to centralize,” said Kelly.

These agency moves come some around 10 months after Verizon brought on a new CMO in Leslie Berland.

While smiles were tough to come by at Yankee Stadium following the Bronx Bombers' loss in Game 5 of the World Series, sales execs were likely smiling at licensed merchandise sales at the "House Ruth Didn’t Build," which ended up at all-time highs.

Several sources tell me that merch per-caps for the three games in the Bronx were around $50, which is around Super Bowl levels.

Neither Legends nor MLB would confirm those per-cap numbers. However, MLB called Game 1 at Dodger Stadium and Game 3 at Yankee Stadium "the top two games for merchandise sales in World Series history."

Legends also claimed record sales during the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.

BlueTriton Brands, finishing its first year an MLB corporate sponsor , is looking hard at adding teams and perhaps players to support its three-year league deal. Its Poland Spring brand has been a longtime Yankees team sponsor.

“The MLB brand is global, but the relationship fans have with the game is extremely local, so we’re looking to reinforce that," said BlueTriton VP/Marketing Michael Craig.

BlueTriton didn’t finalize its MLB rights until just before the start of this season. Nonetheless, it was able to put World Series indicia on its packaging beginning in late August on six of its spring water brands, along with its Pure Life purified water program at 30 of its largest retailers. Craig said there will be two full-fledged promotional periods next season, including heavy support for the Deer Park brand in conjunction with the MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta next July.

Private equity-backed BlueTriton, which purchased the former Nestle Waters N.A. in 2021 for $4.3 billion, owns more than 10 water brands, including six large regional spring water labels -- Poland Spring, Deer Park, Ozarka, Ice Mountain, Zephyrhills and Arrowhead.

Excel Sports Management is BlueTriton’s sports marketing agency.

• Fox is officially sold out of Super Bowl ad inventory, notes SBJ's Mollie Cahillane.

• A new study from the University of North Carolina's Jonathan Jensen suggests sports sponsors might be more dedicated after pandemic.