Next Level Sports Marketing

Anheuser-Busch is known in the sports advertising world for locking up “exclusive” deals with teams, stadiums and leagues. Those deals, some of them quite expensive, gave A-B the sole sponsorship rights, locking out rivals such as Miller and Coors. But now, those deals are becoming a little less common, reports trade publication Advertising Age. A story published this week examines the issue and asks whether A-B backing out doesn’t give competitors an opportunity to sweep into sporting events. From the story:

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the top spender in sports wielding a $365 million marketing budget, is giving up a number of prized exclusive deals with major leagues — a major shift in strategy for the marketer.

In recent months, the brewer has reworked more than a dozen pro-team partnerships involving the National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer in ways that sacrifice exclusivity for cheaper deals. The move has allowed beer-industry rivals to step in and pick up key deals once off limits to them.

The story, by Ad Age reporter Jeremy Mullman, notes that A-B has dialed down previously exclusive deals with the MLB’s San Diego Padres, NBA’s Miami Heat, the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets and other professional teams. That trend might go back a while: Apparenly, 86 percent of A-B’s sports deals were exclusive in 2004. Today, 56 percent are. It is not clear exactly how many of the deals were reworked since mid-November, when A-B was officially purchased by InBev of Belgium.

The piece continues:

A-B’s willingness to allow rivals access to pro-sports venues it once dominated is a sea change for the country’s leading brewer, who practically invented the practice. “It’s common now to see brands try to blanket a facility and lock out their competitors, and, historically, you’d probably give [A-B] credit” for coming up with it, said Paul Swangard, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. “But, in some ways, they may now see an opportunity to cash in on the equity they’ve built up with the previous strategy, because people may naturally connect them with these properties after all this time.”

It’s an interesting point. One thing remains perhaps less clear: Will competitors ante up the cash to sponsor some of these teams? It’s not clear MillerCoors will, although the combined company is no slouch in sports marketing (Coors Light is the official beer sponsor of the NFL, for example). Something to watch, escpecially since MillerCoors is under pressure to cut costs as well.