Foxwoods Resort Casino has extended its contract as sponsor of Madison Square Garden. The multi-year agreement makes Foxwoods an Official Partner of the Knicks NBA team, Rangers NHLIn addition to arena signage, in-game promotions and features, and outdoor visibility on the garden's marquees, the resort gets something unusual: "Foxwoods Final Five," wherein the casino gets exclusive advertising rights to the final five minutes of the three teams' game telecasts on MSG and MSG Plus. The garden says the partnership is the first in which a sponsor has acquired exclusive in-game promotions during the last five minutes of a game telecast.
Foxwoods' sponsorship of the New York Liberty WNBA team inked early this year puts the resort's logo on the Liberty's team jerseys and on-court.
Foxwoods this year also grabbed naming rights to the Times Square Broadway house that used to be the Hilton Theater but is now Foxwoods Theatre. The theatre is home to the most expensive musical to date, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark." The casino also sponsors the New York Racing Association in a deal that gives it naming rights to three stakes races.
Greg Elliott, SVP of marketing partnerships, MSG Sports, said the final minutes are, from an on-air perspective, "clearly one of the most exciting points in the game. This is a new way to create inventory and serve viewers; the integration is very sophisticated but doesn't intrude."
Art Ventura, SVP of sales, MSG, says that both the network integration and in-arena signage are digital. "We have launched all new graphics packages in all hockey and NBA. The on-screen animation for Foxwoods Final Five will launch at an opportune moment, like play stoppage," he says, adding that during that final five minutes the Foxwoods Final Five graphics continue in line-of-sight locations in the arena.
"The key is making it organic," says Elliott. "It has to fit within the framework of what fans are watching." He adds that fan demographics, psychographics and geographics are a bull's-eye for Foxwoods. "We had a Rangers party at Foxwoods last year. Since then we have gotten dozens of letters asking when we are going to do it again.
Tara Gregson, VP of brand strategy for Foxwoods Resort and MGM, says media ratings jump during the last quarter of hockey and basketball games. "Those are the most widely watched periods, so there is media value from a ratings standpoint that backs into the proposal they came with for the Rangers and Knicks. It was so innovative that it took many weeks just going back and forth to work it out."
She says the effort is aimed at building brand awareness for Foxwoods for both gamers and non-gamers looking for a nearby entertainment vacation, and that in 2011 the company will focus advertising in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Boston, and Pennsylvania. "From a competitive standpoint," she says, "we like to view our property as an entertainment destination."
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