LG Gets US College Sports Promotion
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
LG Electronics wants to become a household name among American consumers, something its bitter rival Samsung Electronics has finally managed to do.
The company believes riding the immense popularity of U.S. college football and basketball seasons would be a good start in improving brand recognition.
LG announced Monday that it has become an official corporate partner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The three-year deal allows the company to connect its marketing efforts with 23 collegiate sports starting from this month, although American football and basketball are clearly what matter most.
LG will be allowed to use the logos of NCAA schools for its commercial efforts, as well as the content of CBS, the U.S. television network that owns the broadcasting rights for NCAA games. CBS will also be required to expose LG logos during broadcasts.
There are more than 1,000 athletic programs organized by the NCAA, representing more than 54,000 athletes.
College sports are a serious business in the U.S., where NCAA games sell more than 100 million tickets per year and generate a massive amount of dollars from advertising and broadcasting.
Samsung has been running circles around LG in its sports-related marketing efforts, renowned as the sponsor of the Olympic Games and Chelsea football club of the English Premier League.
Of course, having LG logos flash around the screen in a super-intense North Carolina-Duke basketball match in March could help close that gap, at least in the U.S.
``The partnership with NCAA will allow us to gain an exclusive position in the marketing efforts for our big three U.S. products, which are mobile phones, white goods and displays,'' said an LG spokesman.