Recent Press July 18, 2010 Sports Stars Become Attainable for the Smallest of Firms Small Biz Watch Celebrity endorsements help sell products, but let's face it, most celebrities don't team up with the smallest of businesses that have the shallowest of pockets. read article July 14, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies Connects Advertisers with Athletes TrendHunter With a focus on small-scale advertisers and less famous athletes and celebrities, Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) is a platform that connects those two parties in order to build brand value and campaign performance. read article July 13, 2010 Site Connects Athletes with Brands Seeking Endorsements Springwise It's long been recognized that celebrity endorsements can help sell products, but typically it's only the biggest brands and the brightest stars that are lucky enough to strike such deals. Aiming to bring celebrity endorsements into the realm of possibility for all the other brands and professional athletes out there, Brand Affinity Technologies has created a platform focused on creating the right match. read article July 7, 2010 Bubba sweats, but gets into British Open Pensacola News Journal How a workout last weekend turned into a British Open celebration for Milton grad Bubba Watson and two other Pensacola area athletes enjoy their own future opportunities. A year ago, Bubba Watson played at storied St. Andrews Golf Club as a tourist. Next week, he returns as a competitor in the British Open. read article July 1, 2010 Bubba Watson Top List of Rising Stars to Watch in July Earth Times The PGA's Bubba Watson, tops a debut list of Rising Sports Stars to watch in the month of July. The list ranks the top ten U.S. professional athletes from all major sports who experienced the greatest relative growth in popularity during the prior thirty days. Watson survived a six shot deficit and a nail-biting three-way playoff to emerge the victor of the Travelers Championship on June 27. read article June 4, 2010 PepsiCo Issues Open Call for Innovation Incubator Program PepsiCo PepsiCo today launched an innovation incubator program called PepsiCo10,an open call for promising start-ups in media, communications and technology. In this unprecedented initiative, PepsiCo will select up to 10 aspiring entrepreneurial groups, match them with industry mentors, and join with them to activate pilot programs with PepsiCo brands. Entrepreneurs can find out more information about the PepsiCo10 and apply online now through June 24, 2010: www.pepsico10.com. read article June 2, 2010 Marketers Look for Safe Endorsers Phone Marketing Insider While most of the analysis of the marketing consequences of the scandals faced by Tiger Woods since November 2009 has focused on what this new world would mean for Woods himself, the great Stuart Elliot points out that the golfer is not, in fact, the only athlete affected by the biggest sports story of the last six months. Elliot convincingly makes the case that marketers, newly sobered by the Tiger Woods endorsement experience, are now embracing safe endorsers, most of whom take the form of retired athletes. read article June 1, 2010 Player's Choice Wired Magazine For every Derek Jeter streaking across a Gatorade bottle, there are dozens of other great athletes like Giants pitcher Matt Cain who can only dream of selling their likeness to a sports drink. Brand Affinity Technologies hopes to change that. The company connects athletes to clients large and small -- from AT&T to the local Nissan dealer. BAT's system is the Moneyball of endorsement deals, extracting value from previously overlooked players. In the process, it's creating a new Web-based advertising model. read article May 28, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies = Celebrity Trafficking + Local Store Marketing... Huh? Balihoo As Wired Magazine and the New York Times recently reported, garnering celebrity endorsements (and more specifically, professional athlete endorsements) for TESTIMONIALS is about to become quite the turn-key affair. A company called Brand Affinity Technologies has created an online marketplace that connects local advertisers and what Brand Affinity might call a 'regional celebrity' for use in local marketing and media creative. read article May 27, 2010 BAT Named Best in Sports Technology for 2010 Sports Techy The subscribers of SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily have declared Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc., the company reinventing endorsement and celebrity marketing, Best in Sports Technology for 2010. read article May 26, 2010 BAT Voted Best in Sports Technology by SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily Subscribers Forbes Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. (BAT), the company reinventing endorsement and celebrity marketing, was declared Best in Sports Technology for 2010 by the subscribers of SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily. The distinction recognized BAT's excellence and outstanding achievement in the business of sports. read article May 20, 2010 BAT and Intuit Named as 2010 American Business Awards Finalists for Standout Ad Campaign Market Watch Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. (BAT), the company reinventing endorsement and celebrity marketing, and Intuit Inc., were named as finalists in the 2010 American Business Awards for best financial services ad. BAT and Intuit were selected from more than 2,700 nominees and are one of nine finalists in their category for their work on the 2010 TurboTax TurboTron endorsement campaign. Winners will be announced June 21 in New York City. read article May 19, 2010 Sports Business Awards: Best in Sports Technology Sports Business Journal Brand Affinity Technologies Highlights: Struck partnership to gain access to portions of Getty Images' extensive editorial library; Partnered with Microsoft Advertising to embed the BAT platform within the software giant's online ad platform; Expanded significantly the roster of athletes and celebrities available for use in the digital advertising platform read article May 7, 2010 Nutrisystem Success Story: Matt Stairs Nutrisystem.com I've been in baseball for 21 years now--half my life. I've always been in pretty decent shape, but my weight was gradually going up as I got older. After we won the championship in Philadelphia in 2008, I noticed that I had really gained weight. It finally started to bother me because my size 36 pants weren't fitting any longer. I knew that if I wanted to get healthy and prolong my career, I'd have to drop the extra pounds. read article April 19, 2010 Social Media, Two Bears, and a Bull: My Night Out with Johnny Knox, Robbie Gould, and Hakim Warrick ChicagoNow Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to score an invite to a quadrantONE/Brand Affinity Techonologies' social media marketing event at 33 Club in the Gold Coast. For those of you who don't know, quadrantONE sells advertising space to national advertisers across hundreds of local news, broadcast and entertainment websites. The event last week highlighted the power of the local audience and their loyalty to niche blogs and websites. In this age of media modernization, many of us wake up and grab our iPhones or laptops to check out the latest news and, if you live in Chicago, especially the sports news. This makes sports websites an idea place for many advertisers to sell their products. read article April 19, 2010 BAT, Getty strengthen partnership SportsBusiness Journal Brand Affinity Technologies Inc. and Getty Images have expanded their photo archive deal to include licensing of BAT's photo and video content and co-marketing of each outfit's services. In the new, three-year pact, Getty will act as a distribution outlet for BAT's own advertiser-ready still photos and videos of athletes and celebrities. That builds on the companies' prior deal, reached last year, in which Getty's editorial library, amounting to several hundred thousand pictures, was accessible to BAT clients. read article April 5, 2010 Athletes' Stock Rises In Fashion Industry Black Book Magazine Forget plus size models. Female athletes, according to a story today in the New York Times, are pushing the boundaries of what the public perceives as 'classic beauty.' Guy Trebay pegs his argument on a long roster of muscular, yet cosmetic endorsement-ready sports stars--from Maria Sharapova and Mia Hamm to the Williams sisters. read article March 23, 2010 O.C. marketer buys sports collectibles firm Orange County Register Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc., an endorsement marketing firm in Irvine, has acquired Beelya, a La Jolla creator of virtual sports collectibles. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition allows BAT to expand its portfolio of endorsement offerings of athlete and celebrity brands. The U.S. market for virtual goods is expected to reach $1.6 billion in 2010 compared to $1 billion in 2009, according to research firm Inside Network. read article March 22, 2010 Lamar Odom, and the Kardashian Effect ESPN.com When you're watching television for six to eight hours a day -- which many of us do during the NCAA tournament's opening rounds -- you see the same commercials over and over again. Two that stuck out to me last weekend were cell-phone ads. One commercial, for Palm, featured an unknown but flier-than-a-fly-girl woman walking down a city street in a red dress to the timpani rhythm of Mos Def's "Quiet Dog." The other, for Samsung, featured an increasingly familiar pitchman -- Lamar Odom. read article March 19, 2010 Samsung Mobile Drafts L.A. Laker Odom MediaPost Samsung Mobile has drafted Los Angeles Lakers center Lamar Odom to appear in a new ad campaign touting its Omnia II phone. In the ad, which will air extensively during the NCAA Basketball Tournament, Odom highlights features of the phone, including a Swype keypad (that allows one to swipe their fingers over the letters rather than tapping) bright screen and fast speeds. read article March 19, 2010 Sports Endorsement Firm Eyes Music World Reuters A small company that has opened the door for companies to quickly sign endorsement deals with top athletes is eyeing the music world as its next target market. Brand Affinity Technologies matches companies as large as Sony, or as small as a Houston air conditioning, firm with athletes in two weeks or less to endorse products or services. Now it wants to do the same for top singers. read article February 19, 2010 Internet Advertising News iMedia Connection Brand Affinity Technologies Inc. (BAT), an endorsement marketing company, has acquired privately held La Jolla, Calif.-based Beelya, a creator of authentic, virtual sports collectables. The acquisition allows BAT to extend its portfolio of endorsement offerings, as advertisers look to tap into the power of athlete and celebrity brands. read article February 4, 2010 Brand Affinity Technology acquires virtual sports collectibles firm Beelya OC METRO Athletic endorsement marketing firm Brand Affinity Technologies has acquired Beelya, a privately held La Jolla company that specializes in virtual sports collectibles. The deal will allow Irvine-based BAT to extend its portfolio of endorsement offerings, which includes appearances and digital, radio, outdoor, print and television advertising featuring more than 3,000 contracted athletes and celebrities. read article February 3, 2010 Tax Rivals Square Off in Social Media ADWEEK TurboTax and H&R Block are gearing up to do battle again during the tax season, with each banking on social media as a cornerstone of its marketing efforts. Intuit's TurboTax has bet big on Facebook and Twitter integrations, inviting users to review its products and then share their thoughts with their social networks. It hopes to goose that along by unleashing Team TurboTax, consisting of 40 experts to address tax questions posted on Twitter. The company has an ambitious marketing goal this tax season: get 150 million earned media impressions thanks to consumer chatter. read article February 2, 2010 TurboTax Hitches Ride on 'Super' Buzz MEDIAWEEK Intuit is hitchhiking on the online buzz surrounding the Super Bowl for its latest digital campaign to promote TurboTax. In fact, TurboTax all but tackles consumers by taking over the portal homepages of Yahoo, AOL and MSN both on Super Bowl weekend and the weekend preceding the event. For the host of the TurboTron, Initiative partnered with Brand Affinity Technologies, a sports endorsement online platform for the digital rights to Chris Berman, a nationally renowned ESPN sports anchor. read article February 2, 2010 Manning's Global Opportunity Forbes SportsMoney Last week we broached the subject of what a second Super Bowl win might mean for Peyton Manning in terms of his standing among the all-time great NFL quarterbacks. How about off-the-field though? Manning already is the NFL's most marketable player by a mile. His endorsements with the likes of MasterCard, Sprint, Gatorade (owned by PepsiCo) and Oreo (owned by Kraft) are worth in the neighborhood of $10 million annually, more than twice as much as any other NFL player. The closest NFL guys to Manning in terms of off-the-field income are two fellow QBs he knows well: his brother Eli and the Patriots' Tom Brady. They both make an estimated $4 million annually. read article February 1, 2010 Steelbergs' Brand Affinity Technologies Makes Acquisition Orange County Business Journal Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., an advertising startup with technology that aims to automate celebrity endorsement deals, said Monday it bought La Jolla-based Beelya for undisclosed terms. Privately held Beelya strikes licensing deals with professional athletes and other celebrities and sells what's known as virtual sports memorabilia. read article February 1, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies Buys Virtual Sports Memorabilia Service Beelya paidContent Brand Affinity Technologies, a sports marketing firm founded by the two Steelberg brothers (who sold dMarc to Google), has done its first acquisition: it has bought La Jolla, CA-based Beelya, the creator of virtual sports collectibles. BAT was launched in 2007, and now says it has 3,300 athletes and celebs in its system; it helps these athletes in endorsement deals in digital, radio, outdoor, print, and TV advertising, appearances, and now, virtual memorabilia, through this acquisition of Beelya. read article October 29, 2009 BAT brings star power to radio INSIDE RADIO One in ten American commercials includes a celebrity. The reason is simple, they drive sales. Aiming to take that tool to local radio advertisers, dMarc Broadcasting founder Ryan Steelberg's new company Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) has signed 3,000 athletes and celebrities to its roster and brings them to radio. BAT has developed a software solution that not only tracks 20,000 brands but also sorts through mind-numbing details like licensing and copyrights. Steelberg says, "By putting all that data into a platform and building the direct relationships with the buyers, athletes and agents, we can transact very complex negotiations in a couple of days." It also makes it easier for advertisers to do cross-media or radio campaigns targeted to specific region. read article October 21, 2009 Is New Endorsement Company The Future? CNBC The New York Times recently had a story on Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT). It's a company that seeks to match up corporations and athletes for endorsement deals four days or less. Right now the business is mostly online, so a company can pick an athlete and, if the deal is accepted, that athlete's name and likeness can be in the ad almost immediately. read article October 19, 2009 A Place Where Sponsors Sign Athletes The New York Times Marketers have been playing a new, more cautious game when it comes to signing athletes as endorsers, winnowing their rosters of jocks peddling products to proven performers with national -- or international -- profiles like LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Serena Williams and Derek Jeter. read article October 19, 2009 Endorsement Speed Dating! New Contracts Inked In Four Days The Business Insider Those flashy, millions-of-dollars shoe contract deals can take months to hammer out. One company is streamlining the process, offering professional athletes a way to secure endorsement deals in four days. NYT: [New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew] Brees and his representative, Chris Stuart of Encore Sports and Entertainment, have signed with a company called Brand Affinity Technologies, which offers a Web site (brandaffinity.net) as a one-stop-shopping opportunity for advertisers seeking star power in more efficient, and affordable, forms. read article October 19, 2009 Athletes Available for Endorsements via Quick-and-Easy Tool MediaBuyerPlanner Marketers wishing to sign athletes to tout their products and services have a new tool: Brand Affinity Technologies is a company that offers a website that it calls a "one-stop shopping opportunity" for advertisers who want to line up athletes, quickly and affordably, for their campaigns. read article October 19, 2009 Four Days is All it Takes for An Advertiser-Athlete Hookup mediabistro.com That seems to be the mantra for Brand Affinity Technologies, a start-up that offers a "one-stop shopping opportunity" for advertisers to hook up with athletes quickly and somewhat on the cheap for TV, outdoor, radio, print and/or online campaigns. Founded by online ad vets Ryan and Chad Steelberg, BAT uses its Platform as its place of business. According to the New York Times, the company, whose platform features more than 3,000 top athletes and celebrities in markets nationwide, aims to "automate the process by which marketers offer contracts to athletes, along with the process by which ads featuring those endorsers are created and produced. read article October 19, 2009 Whose your favorite human capital brand? THE CHEAP SEATS It seems the days of companies falling over each other to get any one who can shoot a puck, throw a ball or generally perform feats of strength on a professional level are over. Perhaps brands are sick of dealing with the little inconveniences that go along with dog-fighting, drunk-driving, murder, drugs, guns and, maybe worst of all, declining skills. So in order to improve the endorsement opportunities for athletes that find themselves below the LeBron-Tiger-Sidney pantheon, one company has planted its flag in the ground. So to speak. read article October 19, 2009 Advertising agency hopes that Red Wings fans have 'affinity' for Nicklas Lidstrom Mlive.com Things you didn't think you'd know about Nicklas Lidstrom, entry, um...One. According to the New York Times' Stuart Elliott, Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom is affiliated with a company called "Brand Affinity Technologies," which allows potential advertisers to connect with high-profile clients (like New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees) and speedily cinch endorsement deals. read article October 8, 2009 Emmis Partners With BAT To Offer Celeb Campaigns Radio INK Emmis Radio is partnering with Brand Affinity Technologies to offer advertisers more than 3,000 athletes and celebrities to endorse their products across Emmis' platforms. The partnership is designed to give regional and national advertisers the ability to easily launch geographically and contextually targeted campaigns. read article September 10, 2009 BAT, CBS Outdoor Ink Partnership MEDIAWEEK Marketers can now, more easily, bring the endorsements of hometown heroes to hometown billboards. CBS Outdoor has announced a partnership with endorsement marketing company Brand Affinity Technologies which has a network if more than 3,000 athletes and celebrities. The relationship will allow advertisers to incorporate the endorsements of athletes and celebrities from across the country into out-of-home campaigns. read article August 24, 2009 Corinthian Cuts Back Print, Steps Up Social Networking Orange County Business Journal Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., which looks to hook up celebrities and athletes with advertisers, has struck a pact with Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., parent of the Orange County Register. Brand Affinity has spent the past six months since its inception building alliances with national and local players including Microsoft Corp. and Centro LLC, a Chicago online media planning and buying company. read article August 17, 2009 Shaquille O'Neal gives you the real deal LA Times Shaq's new reality show is just one in a series of programs recently that give viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of top sports stars. Dan Durbin, a professor at USC's Annenberg School of Communications who specializes in pop culture and sports media, isn't surprised at the proliferation of such sports-star shows scattered across network and cable television. "Athletes have a built-in audience," he said. "Second, athletes have overblown personalities. Reality shows love extreme characters. For example with Terrell Owens, you're seeing extreme outrageous behavior. And that's the point. You want the situation, whatever that situation is, to explode." read article August 13, 2009 BATting A Thousand At The Hill MediaPost Oh, Murray Hill, you do not disappoint. Ordinarily I avoid Murray Hill because last time I was passing through I got burnt on my algebra teacher arm (you know, the tick-tock skin part) by a cigarette-wielding, slurring, fratboy wannabe. Why wannabe? Because he was at least 45, wearing a rugby shirt, and his cap was on backwards. If not 45, then a rough-looking 30. However, when I got the invitation to attend "The Next Frontier: Endorsement Marketing in the Digital Age" sponsored by Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), Microsoft Advertising, Fox Sports and Centro, my excitement to actually walk to an event won over my fear of a male-saturated, Jerry Maguire-suited huddle. read article July 15, 2009 How Your Brand Can Grab Star Power iMedia Connection The Steelberg brothers have had an incredible string of success with startups in the advertising industry dating back to 1995. Combined, Ryan and Chad Steelberg have raised more than $150 million in funding and managed more than 400 employees, while creating billions in shareholder value through acquisitions and mergers. read article June 30, 2009 Changing The Rules Of The Sports Endorsement Game MediaPost's Marketing Daily: Sports Across the nation, fans support their local sports teams with great passion and near-religious devotion. Hometown players aren't just members of the team but part of the extended family. In a single swing of the bat or release of a last-second three, everyday players morph into mythic heroes. They're remembered as saviors and honored as legends. Yet despite the meaningful connections between these beloved athletes and their fans, marketers rarely tap them to endorse products. read article June 8, 2009 Video: Millard, Steelberg and Romanelli Talk About Celebrity-Endorsement Business At EconAffinity PaidContent.org One of the highlights of our EconAffinity: Capitalizing on User Engagement conference last week was an interview Media Link President Wenda Harris Millard conducted with Brand Affinity Technologies President & CEO Ryan Steelberg and Getty Images VP of Sports Business Development Carmin Romanelli. In the interview, they discussed how BAT—in partnership with Getty Images—is trying to change the athlete- and celebrity-endorsement business. Play VIDEO May 18, 2009 Centro and BAT Step to the Plate MediaPost Brand Affinity Technologies -- which matches mostly pro athletes with online advertisers -- has partnered with online media planning company Centro to target consumers in local markets. read article May 4, 2009 Microsoft Advertising Will Offer Customers Access To Pitchpeople paidContent Microsoft's online advertising arm is throwing its weight behind Brand Affinity Technologies, which is trying to bring celebrity product pitches to the web. read article May 4, 2009 Brand Affinity Reaches Deal With Microsoft Advertising SportsBusiness Journal California-based Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) has struck a partnership with Microsoft Advertising in which BAT's online Platform for creating and executing celebrity endorsements will be embedded within the software giant's ad platform that is among the largest on the Internet. read article May 4, 2009 Microsoft Advertising and Brand Affinity Technologies Team Up to Add Celebrity Star Power to Advertisers' Digital Campaigns Smart Brief New, innovative advertising medium puts athlete and celebrity endorsements at the fingertips of advertisers and publishers. read article May 4, 2009 Microsoft in Deal to Support Pro Athlete Endorsements in Web Ads ClickZ Product endorsements from athletes are a natural for advertising, but problems of scale tend to restrict such deals to a small number of marketers and big name sports figures. That could change under a preferred portal relationship between Microsoft and Brand Affinity Technologies. read article May 1, 2009 OC METRO's 40 Under 40: Ryan Steelberg OC METRO Magazine Thirty-five-year-old Ryan Steelberg has earned a reputation as one of the leading experts in digital and online media, and his company, Brand Affinity Technologies, matches an impressive number of athletes and other celebrities with advertisers. read article April 6, 2009 Brothers Launch Latest Startup for Celebrity Ads Orange County Business Journal Orange County technology startup veterans Ryan and Chad Steelberg are at it again. read article March 30, 2009 Getty Images, BAT strike deal on photo use SportsBusiness Journal Getty Images has struck a partnership with California-based online advertising startup Brand Affinity Technologies in which Getty's extensive library of athlete and celebrity photos will be accessible to BAT clients. read article March 19, 2009 Celebrity Endorsements: New Data Valuable The Sports Business Advisor Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), a service matching celebrities (including athletes) with advertisers, funded a study showing a linkage between endorsements and advertising “return on investment.” read article March 18, 2009 Athletes' Endorsements A Hit For Online Advertisers MediaPost Celebrity endorsements are as old as advertising itself, and a new study conducted by Insight Express finds that the practice has remained relevant in an increasingly digital world. read article March 17, 2009 Branding Service Offers up Athletes and Celebrities for Online Ads ClickZ "A Slam Dunk for Your Legal Needs," reads the online ad for LegalZoom.com that features an image of Basketball Hall of Fame member Walt Frazier dribbling a basketball. Another ad for the online legal document service shows off the fast footwork of Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Hester reads, "My Best Offense." read article