Don Garber

As we head into mid-July, what has normally been a slow season for sports brand activation has unveiled a host of positive programs and good signs for sports on all levels. Starting with Mixed Martial Arts and the hundreds of brands and thousands of fans that have descended on Las Vegas for UFC 100 this weekend. The LA Times had a good look at the UFC’s success and its ability to build fans around the experiential platform that they have created and can execute for their followers, both on site and on pay per view. Great weekend for the UFC, which continues to be the only true national brand in the sport.

As we head into mid-July, what has normally been a slow season for sports brand activation has unveiled a host of positive programs and good signs for sports on all levels. Starting with Mixed Martial Arts and the hundreds of brands and thousands of fans that have descended on Las Vegas for UFC 100 this weekend. The LA Times had a good look at the UFC’s success and its ability to build fans around the experiential platform that they have created and can execute for their followers, both on site and on pay per view. Great weekend for the UFC, which continues to be the only true national brand in the sport.

Within a 24 hour period this week, the brand value sport of professional soccer in the United States took a huge jump.

Innovative brand integration is become more key as partners count their dollars more efficiently. Logos on apparel, nets, side backboards, virtual signage are all accepted and used now, but the NBA this coming weekend will take naming rights to a new place, renaming the most popular part of TNT All-Star Saturday Night from HORSE to GEICO. Now is it a cheesy sellout, as Barry Horn pointed out in the Dallas Morning News, or is it a bit more innovative as Darren Rovell seems to think. If you are the NBA and the brand, neither matters.