The Advantage of New Brands – Old Brands are Scrambling

Posted by Colin Clark on Nov 11th, 2009 | View Comments home title

On Monday night I went out to show my support of IU basketball by attending their exhibition game against St. Joe’s. The Hoosiers performed admirably with a 95-67 win.

As usual, I observed the marketing and advertising that was all around me. Most of the sponsors were established brands like Bank of America, Marathon, and of course… Coca Cola.

I began to wonder what it would cost to sponsor Hoosier basketball. Surely a newer brand like mine, that’s had a lot less exposure would experience a much greater ROI than the existing sponsors that have already been established for many years.

It makes little difference to me if I buy my gas from Marathon or Speedway or anyone else for that matter. Gas is gas as far as I’m concerned. I’m going to buy from whichever station happens to be closest when I need it. Their advertising dollars were essentially wasted.

I, on the other hand, could spend a few thousand dollars to have Tribeswell sponsor IU Basketball and I’d get massive exposure. I imagine that I would recoup the money I invested in the sponsorship pretty quickly.

This is a paradigm shift that a lot of smaller businesses need to wrap their heads around. Sometimes it’s worth it to invest big bucks if you need to make a big impact on your market.

Will you see my logo on the marquee any time soon? Who knows?

Tribeswell Sponsors Hoosier Basketball