Elk Grove Village buys ad time during White Sox broadcasts
Elk Grove Village has used sports marketing as a way to tout its business park all over the world - from its partnership with three USA Olympic teams this summer to the unconventional sponsorship of college football bowl games in 2018 and 2019.
And while its first major advertising push started with commercials and banner ticker ads during Cubs games in 2015, the Northwest suburban village is now turning its latest marketing efforts to the South Side of town.
Officials announced this week a $55,000 ad buy that will include Elk Grove commercials and in-game features during 157 White Sox games on NBC Sports Chicago. That includes an Elk Grove-sponsored inning with its "Makers Wanted" tagline and placement of its logo on screen.
"Yes, the Cub man here is sponsoring the Chicago White Sox," Mayor Craig Johnson said at a village board meeting Tuesday night. "The Sox have a phenomenal team. Just like we jumped on the Cubs bandwagon at the right time, we think we're jumping on the Sox bandwagon at the same time."
Johnson, the town's major booster and marketing guru, has seen the publicly-funded sponsorships as a way to elevate the profile of the six-square-mile industrial park - the nation's largest contiguous one - as a global destination for business.
The initial $300,000 village sponsorship of the Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl in 2018 led to the groundbreaking last Friday of a 7,600-square-foot Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores station in the business park, after a company executive heard about Elk Grove on the broadcast.
The White Sox deal, brokered through Chicago-based sports marketing agency 4FRONT, is an addendum to the agreement inked last summer with the governing bodies of three Olympic teams. The village is paying $100,000 to have its branding associated with USA Track & Field, $50,000 for USA Wrestling and $25,000 for USA Triathlon.
4FRONT also helped broker the village's sponsorships with ESPN Events for the football games in Nassau, Bahamas.