NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL Life Insurance Company has signed as the newest official corporate partner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in a deal brokered by CBS Sports and Turner Sports.
The second-tier partnership deal guarantees the life insurance company advertising and presenting sponsorship broadcast inventory, as well as pure sponsorship rights for NCAA-approved trademarks and logos for 89 championships across 23 sports.
The immediate focus of the partnership will see Northwestern take a visible role during 2012’s NCAA March Madness televised on TBS, CBS, truTV and TNT. This includes media rights to the presenting sponsorship of the telecast of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament First Four games, televised on truTV, as well as in-game telecast graphic enhancements and custom in-studio videos to air within game coverage.
“We’ve built a comprehensive customised activation plan across March Madness television, digital and mobile which will showcase and integrate Northwestern Mutual into the fabric of the Turner/CBS coverage,” said Will Funk, senior vice president of NCAA Partnerships and Branded Programming within Turner Sports ad sales. “We’ve also created unique grass roots marketing opportunities for the Northwestern Mutual financial advisors to get involved at the local level across all 89 NCAA Championships."
As the above indicates, the partnerships business objective revolves around the college sports demographic, which Northwestern Mutual company says is the same as many its clients and prospects. The media exposure provided with the new partnership will also help Northwestern Mutual achieve its goal to recruit thousands of new financial representatives and financial representative interns in 2012.
The NCAA has three official marketing corporate champions: AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola.
Northwestern Mutual joins a roster of corporate partners that includes Buick, Enterprise, Infiniti, LG, Lowe’s, Planters, Reese’s, Unilever and UPS.