Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment has signed a multiyear marketing partnership with Campbell’s. The all-encompassing deal makes Campbell’s an official sponsor of four major pro sports franchises that are owned by a single entity, the first deal of its kind.
Campbell’s products will be aligned with the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils and Joe Gibbs Racing, as well as the Devils’ home arena, the Prudential Center in Newark.
Specific activations will be announced throughout the year, but both companies have picked which brands will be featured across the individual teams.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“This is a truly unique marketing partnership that will enable us to activate our portfolio of leadership brands across some of the most high-profile, storied franchises in sports,” Mark Clouse, Campbell’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Each home arena or stadium of the HBSE teams will have food and beverage integrations, in-game features and retail promotions where Campbell’s products are sold. Players on these teams will also help produce lifestyle and sports content promoting the goods. Campbell’s will also make their offerings available in the venues. As for Joe Gibbs Racing, in which HBSE holds a minority stake, Campbell’s will have fan engagement activations at select NASCAR races starting next season.
“We are proud to partner with an iconic company like Campbell’s and provide them opportunities to elevate and expand the reach of their world-class brands to millions of fans across some of the most influential markets in the U.S.,” HBSE’s chief executive Tad Brown said.
Those media markets Brown referred to are among the most populated in the country: Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York. (Though Newark, where the Devils play, is in northern New Jersey, major marketers and media companies consider it as part of the NYC metro region.) Campbell’s engagement with Joe Gibbs Racing can give the brand a presence at NASCAR tracks outside of the northeast.
Already one of the prominent league-wide sponsors of the NFL, Campbell’s is now directly aligned with one of the more active companies in all of sports in HBSE. The Josh Harris/David Blitzer-led firm recently picked up support for a new downtown 76ers arena from Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, though that has not come without controversy. It also expanded its youth sports operation, Unrivaled Sports, to include a new flag football division.
The Campbell’s deal includes the Commanders, but only Harris, a Maryland native, is part of the team’s ownership group as its managing partner. The team sold the naming rights to their current stadium to Northwest Financial in August in a deal worth more than $8 million per year. HBSE is managing non-NFL events at what’s now called Northwest Stadium while Harris continues to pursue a new stadium in the DC area.