Rams sponsorship revenue up 25% on new partnerships
About a year and a half ago, St. Louis Rams President John Shaw reorganized the club's marketing department to better leverage the Rams brand and enhance its value in the community.
Today, sponsorship revenue is at an all-time high, up 25 percent over last season, and the team has sold out its luxury suites for the first time since 1997.
The Rams do not disclose a revenue breakdown, but the team reported $160 million in total revenue in 2005. About $100 million of that comes from the NFL's national television rights contracts.
The push to increase revenue began when Shaw hired consultant Bob Reif of Los Angeles-based Endeavor Talent Agency to help revamp the team's approach to sales and marketing. Reif joins James McCallum, Rams vice president for business affairs, and Phil Thomas, Rams vice president of sales and marketing, to jointly make up the franchise's chief marketing office.
Previous corporate sponsorships typically consisted of signage and hospitality experiences at a game or other team event. Focus groups revealed the Rams did not enjoy the same brand value as other St. Louis institutions, including the St. Louis Cardinals or Anheuser-Busch.
So Reif, McCallum and Thomas took a new marketing approach. They started selling marketing platforms that help sponsors get the most out of their relationship with the team year-round.
Instead of just signage and beer-pouring rights, Anheuser-Busch now sponsors the Rams live-game experience. When the team is in the red zone, for example, beer advertisements are posted on the stadium's LED boards and heard on the radio broadcasts.
Hotshots Sports Bar and Grill bought the Rams cheerleaders platform, which makes Hot Shots the presenting sponsor of the cheerleaders calendar and poster. The deal includes a tailgating tent in Baer Park outside the Edward Jones Dome and game-day "watch parties" at Hotshots locations.
Jeweler Cartier signed a two-year deal with the team through Clayton-based retailer Simons Jewelers. The jeweler awards a $7,000 Cartier Roadster watch to the player of the week on the weekly coaches show on FSN Midwest. Head Coach Scott Linehan wears the same model watch on the show.
And by sponsoring the Rams media platform, U.S. Cellular can reach fans by pushing text messages and other content to their cell phones during games with statistics, game updates and directions to additional content on the Rams Web site.
Sponsorships are no longer just emotional buys, but rather rationalized purchases," said Dan Migala, a sports business consultant and publisher of The Migala Report in Chicago.
The Rams long-term local TV broadcast deal with Fox includes coverage of the team's preseason games produced by Bud Sports. This year the deal also has included special coverage of Draft Day, training camp, the season kickoff and occasional lifestyle specials.
The Rams have improved the game-day experience for fans and sponsors by expanding activities at Baer Park, where Fox hosts its pregame show; installing four, 125-foot LED ribbon boards inside the Dome; and replacing 30-second, in-stadium commercials with sponsored features such as "MasterCard Priceless Moments" in Rams history.
The team's successful marketing approach is being closely watched by other NFL teams and will probably find itself copied in other markets, Migala said.
"The Rams, in the eyes of the NFL and sports marketing community, is an organization that thinks beyond this year," Migala said. "They have stepped up and said they want long-term partners and a long-term strategy. Next year at the league meetings, I expect there will be a lot of teams wanting to take the Rams executives out to dinner to pick their brains."
Reif said he hopes the recent efforts will continue to increase the team's asset value and strengthen the connection between the Rams and their fans.
"The city needs to own this team," Reif said. "We want to be a matter of civic pride."
ctritto@bizjournals.com