Having served as the team president of the Miami Marlins for 15 years, David Samson is no stranger to making deals.
And when it comes to the subject of naming rights in sports, the Nothing Personal host has an interesting perspective.
Appearing on an episode of Meadowlark Media’s “Sporting Class” alongside Pablo Torre and John Skipper, Samson discussed the news that YouTube influencer MrBeast’s food brand will be the jersey patch sponsor for the Charlotte Hornets for the upcoming season. And in doing so, Samson revealed how the Marlins would pitch potential sponsors on such deals.
“What did I say as the president of a team or what do I actually think?” Samson answered when asked by Torre about the value of naming rights sponsorships.
“I would like the lie and then the truth,” Pablo replied.
“So the lie is that when you’re associated with our brand as a jersey sponsor or as an outfield wall sign or as the naming rights to our ballpark, here’s what you get,” Samson said. “You’re on the news X times, you’re on ESPN X times. You have this number of impressions around the world. In each of the cities where you do business, we can measure — you do business in 10 cities where the Marlins play and you’re going to get exposure in those 10 cities. Then we’re going to give you seats and we’re going to give you on-field first pitches, which are valued at $20,000 a pop. And we’re going to give you giveaways where we give 18,000 bobbleheads, yada yada yada horse crap horse crap horse crap. But that’s how we sell. That’s how we sell.”
And the truth?
“I wouldn’t spend one penny of Meadowlark’s money to have the naming rights of anything,” Samson said. “Because I have never been convinced by anybody that it actually drives one person. And the theory is — the way marketing people sell it — is they say, ‘hey, more people are going to drink Pepsi than Coke because we’re associated with the Hornets. More people are going to go to LendingTree when they need a loan because they’re associated with the Hornets.’ I have yet to meet a consumer who made a consumption decision based on a team partnership, but maybe I’m wrong.”
Skipper — the former president of ESPN and Meadowlark Media’s co-founder — agreed.
“I’ve always felt there’s a high correlation between the personal interest of the CEO or CMO and sponsorships,” Skipper said. “I don’t think anybody makes these decisions completely flippantly, but if you want to do it, you can figure out some reason to do it. I’ve always suggested that golf sponsorships were among the most lucrative and easy to sell because you have a higher proportion of CEOs and CMOs who play golf than rugby.”
Since so much of the value of naming rights is rooted in the concept of brand awareness, it’s difficult to put an exact figure on how much they’re worth. A survey on the subject performed by Sportico last December showed mixed results, with several additional factors determining the effect that naming rights have had on consumers.
Nevertheless, the cost of naming rights continue to go up and the opportunities for companies to purchase in-game sponsorships only seem to be increasing. It will be interesting to see how long that trend continues, or whether the bubble eventually bursts.
[The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz]
