Asian Sport Business Round Up 24th March 2012

[Callum]

The third week of March led into the 2012 F1 schedule with new endorsement deals. The warm weather in the West also brought news of this year’s baseball season as well as basketball news. There were a couple of campaigns announced by sports equipment makers Puma and Reebok as well as an update on the 2014 Asian Games.


Red Bull Racing has signed a deal with the Japanese food and beverage group Hanshin Shuhan that will provide the reigning champions with its sake brand Joraku.
The multi-year deal guarantees the premium brand will be included in all of Red Bull’s partner listing areas and will be served in the team’s hospitality areas on race days.
The next race is set for this weekend. The 2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur will feature some stiff competition for the Red Bull team from McLaren. The British group won the Melbourne race last weekend.

There were some heavy weight campaigns announced by two major sports equipment makers. Reebok signed up iris Worldwide to put out an integrated campaign to spread brand awareness of its RealFlex shoe line across China.
The three-month integrated project will include activation activities in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou backed up by an onlline interactive site as well as in-store activation and traditional media.
Puma is out to turn people off TV. A new campaign by Droga5 is taking aim at the reality TV genre with the focus: “go out and live your life”. The agency won last year’s Cannes Film Craft Grand Prix award for its Puma ad “After Hours Athlete”.

The initiative, featuring apparel, footwear and accessories from the 2012 Puma Social Collection, runs in Brazil, China, Russia, France, Japan and the US and will finish off at the London Olympics. The company opens its largest Puma Social Club, the Puma Yard in East London next summer.

In baseball news, the mobile phone app developer Gloops is the title sponsor for Major League Baseball‘s opening series in Japan. The Seattle Mariners meet the Oakland A’s in two games to be played in Tokyo on March 28-29. The Gloops logo will be displayed on the teams’ batting helmets. Other sponsors include Boeing , Bank of America, Lawson Ticket and Ito Ham.

The New York Knickerbockers of the National Basketball Association have partnered with the Taiwan-based computer maker Acer. Industry observers say the deal is in connection with the success of team player Jeremy Lin whose parents are from Taiwan. 
Financial details were not released. Under the terms of the agreement, the company logo will be displayed next to the team’s bench at courtside in Madison Square Garden.

The week ended off with news that Korean Air has joined the 2014 Asian Games as prestige partner. The agreement gives the airline the right to display the Asian Games logo in advertising. Korean Air’s parent company, Hanjin Group will build a marina and accommodation facilities for the athletes. The Asian Games will be held in the South Korean city of Incheon.

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