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Max Lenderman
Its sponsors know a good thing when they see it, so there's not much surprise that ESPN's 1999 Summer X Games has sold out its gold sponsorships for their fifth annual event in San Francisco June 25 through July 3.
Not wanting to let the lucrative young male demo slip away, all six gold sponsors are incumbents to the show: adidas America, 1-800-Call ATT for Collect Calls, Mountain Dew, Chevy S-10 Pickup/Pontiac Sunfire, Taco Bell and Snickers/Starburst Fruit Chews.
The surprise came at how quickly the gold sponsors jumped on the X Games bandwagon. Paul Slagle, VP-sales and marketing, attributed the speedy sell out to ESPN's move to push up its selling process and chase the sponsors more aggressively.
ESPN is also about to sell out all of its 10 associate sponsorship packages, with Visa, the Marines, Lee Jeans, Heineken, Speed Stick Ultimate, Sony Electronics, Milk and the Office of National Drug Control Policy already on board. Heineken, Milk and the ONDP are new to the summer games but were already involved with ESPN's 1999 Winter X Games.
Both the gold and associate sponsorships are category-exclusive, Slagle said. The packages also include incumbency clauses, giving returning sponsors a three-week window for commitment.
Sponsorship benefits include exposure on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, a 10-market "Xperience Show" and on-site signage. Each sponsor will get extra eyeballs in a special, 24-page "Guide to the X Games," which will be distributed in ESPN The Magazine.
In related news, ESPN's "SportsCentury," an 18-month multimedia event presented by General Motors, kicked off a 30-city mall tour February 5. Each weekend, the interactive tour will feature a theater, telecast booth, photo collections, animatronics and memorabilia highlighting the greatest athletes and moments of the past century.
"ESPN SportsCentury is the most ambitious marketing and programming endeavor that ESPN has created," said Tom Hagle, VP-integrated sales and marketing.
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