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BY JERRY MILANI
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The offseason is a time for NBA teams to build their rosters – of both players and corporate partners – for the coming year. While these are difficult times, to be sure, on the sponsorship front, the New Jersey Nets have not only renewed all of their major sponsors, but have also signed 10 new agreements with national and regional brands, each including an element tailored to that company's goals.
The new Nets sponsors include Mars, Zappos.com, LTJ Arthur, MetroPCS, CURE Auto Insurance, Electronics Expo, the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Hotelplanner.com, Lucky Strike Lanes, and Pirate's Booty snack food.
Partners continuing their work with the Nets include McDonalds, Wrigley's, Vonage, LG, and Canon.
Which is not to say that Nets CEO Brett Yormark is resting on those developments. This week, he is in London, following up on leads with additional international brands.Those negotiations have a decidedly different feel than in years past, when the NBA and the Nets were among the hottest brands in an economic environment which tilted in the direction of teams and leagues and in which many potential partners were flush with marketing cash.
"First off, everyone is looking for more for their money," said Yormark, as he boarded the plane Sunday for the trip across the pond. "As a seller, we have to be in a position to deliver. We also have been looking wider – what I mean by that is that we have to look at more prospects to align with the Nets brand, some of whom we may not have reached out to in the past."
Yormark sees a benefit in that circumstance.
"The good news is that many companies which may have felt they were priced out in the past can now get into sports marketing,'' he said. "Teams, including the Nets, are more flexible."
Some examples of new sponsors working with the Nets to maximize that flexibility include Mars, which will add an M&M's candy and merchandise store on the Izod Center concourse; Zappos.com, which will participate in an initiative in which NETS players will give their game-used shoes to randomly selected fans after select home games; and Lucky Strike Lanes, host of the NETS "Basketbowl" charity event.
And though the Nets have announced plans to move to Brooklyn in the future, they maintain a strong New Jersey fan base. This is reflected in some of their partnerships, new and old.
"Because we play in New Jersey and have a strong fan base here, there are New Jersey companies, for example new sponsor CURE, that would like to reach those consumers," said Yormark. "But we also have companies that are based in New Jersey but are national, such as Vonage, and international brands who want to market to consumers in the heart of world commerce, the New York/New Jersey metro area."
