The Homa Files

TakeAway:    Brands can find reasonably priced, celebrity sponsors within 96 hours on brandaffinity.com.  What used to be a long and painful process is now quick and easy…and cheap(er). Whether it works to drive sales is another question …

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Excerpted from NYTimes, “A Place Where Sponsors Sign Athletes,” By Stuart Elliott, October 19, 2009

Marketers have been playing a new, more cautious game when it comes to signing athletes as endorsers, winnowing their rosters of jocks peddling products to proven performers with national — or international — profiles …

The rising costs of signing athletic talent to build brands … have made advertisers wary of rookies, single-game sensations, one-season stars or even talents with local appeal.

So what is a player like Drew Brees, the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, to do? He is no slacker, to be sure, but neither is his surname Manning.

Mr. Brees and his representative … have signed with a company called Brand Affinity Technologies, which offers a Web site (brandaffinity.net) as a one-stop-shopping opportunity for advertisers seeking star power in more efficient, and affordable, forms …

Brand Affinity’s goal is to automate the process by which marketers offer contracts to athletes, along with the process by which ads featuring those endorsers are created and produced. The Web site promises that those transactions will take no more than 96 hours …

That fast pace … “reduces risk and provides flexibility, because you’re not tied into long-term deals” … “We can change out the talent very quickly” …

In addition to the agreements with the athletes, Brand Affinity has signed deals … for online ads; … for billboards, signs and posters; … for radio commercials; … for print and Internet ads …

In addition to athletes, Brand Affinity matches marketers with actors and other celebrities … and may expand into the realm of musicians and bands …

Edit by TJS

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Full Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/business/media/19adcol.html?ref=media

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This entry was posted on October 29, 2009 at 7:17 am and is filed under Celebrity endorsements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.