AKRON (April 8, 2016) — Nexen Tire America Inc. and American Tire Distributors Inc.'s Tire Pros dealer group have renewed and expanded sponsorship deals with Major League Baseball teams.
Ironically, both Nexen and Tire Pros renewed separate sponsorship deals with the Texas Rangers — Nexen's covers outfield signage at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, while Tire Pros' includes “prominent” field level signage, season tickets, radio spots and digital assets.
The Rangers are the defending American League Western Conference champions.
Nexen also renewed a deal with the L.A. Angels covering ads on the stadium's LED screen board during home games and signed a first-time partnership with the Pittsburgh Pirates that covers outfield signage at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Tire Pros second deal is with the New York Yankees.
Nexen's arrangements with the Rangers, Pirates and Angels also will allow the company to promote its brand alongside South Korean-born baseball players, Shin-Soo Choo, Jung-Ho Kang and and Ji-Man Choi, respectively.
Mr. Kang played for the Nexen Heroes in South Korea before being signed by the Pirates.
"Nexen Tire's dynamic brand image aligns with the image of MLB, which is one of the premier sports leagues all over the world, and loved by many,” Nexen said. “Through these partnerships, we look forward to enhancing Nexen Tire's brand awareness among the vast amount of MLB fans around the globe. Moving forward, Nexen Tire will continue to reinforce its sports marketing activities to become a familiar brand for sports fans everywhere.”
Yokohama Tire Corp. also has a sponsorship deal with the L.A. Angels, covering outfield signage, and Sumitomo Rubber North America's Falken brand is the "official tire" of Major League Baseball.
For Tire Pros, its relationships with the Rangers and Yankees are meant to benefit Tire Pros-affiliated dealers in those teams' marketing areas.
“The partnership with the Texas Rangers allows our Tire Pros dealerships across Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas to build strong brand equity in our local markets in association the strong Texas Rangers brand and popularity,” said Perry Leonard, owner of eight Tire Pros locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“The typical independent dealer would not be able to establish this type of partnership on their own,” Mr. Leonard added. “It's the scale and power of the independent dealer united together under the Tire Pros brand along with the marketing knowledge and resources available from the franchise that has made this possible.”
On behalf of the dealer group from the Tri-State area 15 dealers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Tire Pros negotiated a multi-media package with the Yankees, which boasts more than 6.8 million fans in the area, the most of any professional sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
Tire Pros will have TV-visible baseline signage, in-stadium TV coverage, print, online, social media and on-site activation. In addition, Tire Pros and the Yankees will offer two grand prize sweepstakes in which two lucky fans will win a new set of Continental tires and an opportunity to engage with the team and players at a future event.
“As the Tire Pros dealer base continues to grow in the northeast and with our name side-by-side with one of the biggest names in baseball and in the sports world, our brand awareness among consumers will continue to grow,” said Anthony Porfido, owner of Freeway Tire Pros in Dover, N.J. “I never thought that my local business would have this type of high level opportunity exposing ourselves to millions of New York Yankees fans.”
According to Quick Chadwick, Tire Pros' director of marketing, “It's truly exciting for Tire Pros to align itself with both the Yankees and Rangers, two of the most popular teams in this country and the world for that matter. The relationship is a natural fit, considering our increasingly growing brand, dealer base and of course, our passionate and loyal consumer advocates.”