VOLVO TO PRESENT "BIGGEST FAN OF THE BIG EAST" PROMOTION
Season-Long Program to Include 16 Schools and Conference Championship Tourney
NEW YORK, NY - The BIG EAST Conference and Volvo Cars of North America have agreed to a sponsorship designating Volvo as "The Official Vehicle of the Big East Conference & Championships." As part of the agreement, Volvo will sponsor a season-long promotion surrounding the 2010-2011 basketball season that will culminate with the selection of the "Biggest Fan of The BIG EAST" at this year's conference championship tournament, March 8-12, at Madison Square Garden.
The partnership between Volvo and The BIG EAST will be managed by ISP Sports, the exclusive multimedia rights holder for the conference. Volvo media agencies of record MPG and Media Contacts, and social media agency Cake, all part of Havas Media, are handling traditional, digital and social media responsibilities for the campaign,
The unique sponsorship engages alumni that are "social media influencers" from each of The BIG EAST's 16 member institutions. A selected representative from each university attended BIG EAST Basketball Media Day in New York City on October 20th to officially launch the promotional campaign for his/her school. Following this week's event, each school representative will now responsible for providing daily posts on a custom micro-site - mybigeastvolvo.com throughout the upcoming basketball season. All 16 alums will also win a weekend trip back to their alma mater where they will be provided an all-new Volvo S60 to drive around campus, take to basketball game and enjoy throughout their stay. Officials of The BIG EAST and ISP will monitor all postings over a four-month period and then select one fan who will win an all-expense paid trip to New York for The BIG EAST Championship Tournament.
"We are excited to have a world-class brand like Volvo on board as a major BiG EAST corporate sponsor," said Commissioner John Marinatto. "We think this unique new promotional campaign will provide Volvo with a creative, innovative and effective way to extend their brand to BIG EAST fans across the country."
"We believe this exciting partnership with The BIG EAST is a perfect way to spotlight our all-new S60, which is a real game changer for Volvo, said Rick Bryant, Vice President, Northeast Region, Volvo Cars of North America." The all-new S60 features a 300-horsepower turbocharged engine, advanced safety features and a stunning design. We are excited to get all 16 alumni behind the wheel over the course of the campaign and experience all the 'official vehicle of The BIG EAST' has to offer."
As the official vehicle of The BIG EAST Conference and Championship, Volvo will additionally receive substantial sponsorship exposure during the regular season and conference tournament.
Prior to the tournament, Volvo will be a featured sponsor of BIG EAST Game of the Week national radio broadcasts and on the official website of the conference (www.BIGEAST.org).
At Madison Square Garden in March, Volvo's presence will include exposure with tower banners outside the building, courtside signage, LED ribbon board and center-hung scoreboard promotions within the "world's most famous arena." Volvo will also be a featured sponsor of the national radio broadcasts of The 2011 BIG EAST Championship on the ISP network.
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About Volvo
Volvo Cars of North America, LLC, (www.volvocars.com/us) is a subsidiary of Volvo Car Corporation of Gothenburg, Sweden. VCNA provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to Volvo automobile retailers in the United States, and oversees Volvo operations in Canada.
THE BIG EAST CONFERENCE
The BIG EAST is the nation's largest Division I-A conference with 16 members. Those institutions reside in nine of the nation's top 34 media markets, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Milwaukee and Cincinnati. BIG EAST markets contain almost one fourth of all television households in the U.S. Since its founding in 1979, the league has won 26 national championships in six different sports, including five men's basketball titles and seven women's basketball crowns. In 2009, BIG EAST schools comprised four of the eight teams in the men's and women's Final Four events, a feat that has happened only once before in NCAA Championship history.
ISP - AMERICA'S HOME FOR COLLEGE SPORTS
ISP is the country's largest and fastest growing collegiate multimedia rights holder, with partnerships involving more than 60 NCAA member institutions, conferences, bowl games and venues. The ISP family of leading universities and conferences reaches into 34 states from the Northeast through the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, while extending across the Southwest and most of the West coast as well. The company, which is based in Winston-Salem, NC, produces a variety of sponsorship opportunities and services for its partner schools and corporate clients, including publications, radio/TV networks, internet sites, game event promotions and stadium/arena signage.
About MPG
MPG anchors the world's fastest growing global media network, Havas Media. MPG provides media planning & buying, strategic consulting, branded entertainment and interactive marketing services for a range of clients in every region of the world. With offices in over 100 countries, MPG consists of over 3,500 media professionals working across a broad variety of disciplines and categories.
About Media Contacts
Media Contacts ("MC") is the global interactive media network of Havas Digital - the interactive division of Havas Media. MC provides data driven media solutions across all interactive channels: digital, direct response, relationship based media.
MC brings together professional expertise, proven strategic insight, and Artemis®, Havas Digital advanced proprietary technology platform, to maximize impact of the advertiser's interactive media investment.
Since 1997, and in 32 countries in 42 cities across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania, Media Contacts has been the trusted partner of more than 400 clients, including the market leaders in many industries, such as Air France, Expedia, Fidelity, France Telecom, ING Direct, Nike, Peugeot/Citroën, Repsol, Reckitt Benckiser, Sears and VW, amongst others.
Please go to http://www.mediacontacts.com/ for more information.
About Cake
Cake is an ideas company that helps brands become a part of peoples' lives, delivering domestic and global integrated campaigns through social media, PR and live experiences in the UK and USA.
Established in 1999, Cake first burst onto the scene with the launch of Nintendo's Pokemon in the U.K and across Europe. Cake works in collaboration with Euro RSCG Worldwide PR in the USA.
Acquired by Havas Media in April 2008, Cake's has a roster of clients that includes Motorola, Volvo, Nestle and Havaianas in the USA and Sky, Orange and Coors in Europe.
About Havas Media
Havas Media is the global media network of Havas.
Havas Media represents one of the world's fastest growing media networks and its agencies have grown from 10 markets in 1999 to 116 markets in 2010.
Havas Media services its clients through a portfolio of specialist global networks and agencies. The group is organized to maximize local market dynamics whilst leveraging the extensive global insight and strategic support within Havas Media. The range of companies within Havas Media include: MPG (Havas Media's global media network), Arena Media (Havas Media's network for tailor-made communication services), Havas Digital (Havas Media's global interactive network) and Havas Sports & Entertainment (Havas Media's global sports and entertainment communication network).
Further information can be found at www.havasmedia.com
