Novartis Boots Up with NBA Deal and Grant Hill

Brandweek, April 3, 2000 by Terry Lefton

Netting its first new corporate sponsorship since Anheuser-Busch replaced Miller prior to the lockout-marred 1998-1999 season, the NBA has signed Novartis to a three-year corporate sponsorship deal. The Rx and health care product marketer will use its new NBA rights to support Lamisil AT athlete's foot cream, launched last June after a switch of the anti-fungal Rx to an over-the-counter medication. The NBA package includes media on both NBC and Turner's NBA coverage. TV (likely one 30-second spot and two 15s) and print ads from Grey Advertising, New York, will include Detroit Pistons star Grant Hill via a separate endorsement deal, The ads should break with the NBA playoffs in late April, with print slated for sports mags.

Creative continues the theme: "To be the best takes strength, speed and endurance" and shows Hill playing basketball in uniform and in various other athletic pursuits, including weight lifting, rowing and running, to prove that both share the characteristics of strength, speed and endurance.

Novartis has been buying NBA time since Lamisil's launch, so the league, in a concentrated sales push, was happy to make the conversion. The No.3 brand in the $313 million athlete's foot care category is trying to put pressure on its top rivals, Schering-Plough's Lotrimin and Tinactin.

Both S-P brands saw their shares fall last year, despite an 11% boost in category sales, no doubt generated by the $20 million plus in advertising that Novartis put behind the launch of Lamisil AT. And hey, what other sports property has an "official athlete's foot remedy" the designation granted to the NBAs newest sponsor?

Elsewhere in the world of bucks and baskets, the NBA and the Asian Basketball Confederation are on the street with a yet-to-be-announced NBA Legends Tour of China. Three games against the Chinese national basketball team that will compete in the Olympics in September are set for Aug. 10-19 in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and will be televised to about 125 million Chinese households. Sponsor benefits include on-court and uniform branding and ad boards. Asking price for the title sponsorship is $375,000. No word on which retired players have committed for the games; a similar tour in 1998 included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Walter Davis and was coached by Oscar Robertson.

With the dictate from on high that Major League Baseball's corporate marketers should concentrate on larger sponsors, several of the league's smaller ex-sponsors are finding other ways to continue their baseball affiliation. Longtime MLB sponsors General Mills, along with Hershey's Twizzlers brand are going with Players Association-only deals, with Twizzlers prepping a huge card promo.

Meanwhile, Thompson's Water Seal, which had rights under a now-expired MLB deal for parent Sherwin-Williams, is hooking up with the Baseball Hall of Fame for a sweepstakes and baseball cap promo this June.

Seeking to further exploit itself commercially Harlem's Rucker League, aka The Entertainers Basketball Classic, a summer league frequented by pros, has taken on a marketing and licensing agency. Game Face Ventures, N.Y., will try to secure a TV deal, sponsorship, licensing and perhaps even move a game or two from 155th Street and Eighth Ave. downtown to gain exposure.

Extra Innings: Following its work with E*Trades sponsorship of the recent Super Bowl halftime show, Millsport, Stamford, Conn., has picked up additional duties from the client: targeting new markets, helping with a possible renewal of its halftime rights among other projects [ldots] NHL corporate sponsor Nortel Networks has shot a print ad featuring Detroit Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood [ldots] Sources at Broadband sports say the company's IPO is on schedule, with a road show due to start this week [ldots] Continuing to expand its tennis sponsorship portfolio, Ericsson has added a five-year title sponsorship of the Orange Bowl junior tennis championships, played at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park and home to the first Ericsson Open, the recently re-titled Lipton tourney [ldots] Former NFL Quarterback Club marketer Steve Horowitz is heading to Microcast, N.Y., as vp-sports and entertainment programming [ldots] Mary Reiling Spencer is the new vp-marketing partnerships at the NBA, where she'll head internation al and WNBA corporate deals. She's been with the league since 1994, most recently as vp-managing director of Asia/Pacific.