The Slanch Report

It’s not surprising that an advertising agency comes up with a clever idea to represent a product, although rarely is the product the agency itself. BooneOakley, a full-service agency based in Charlotte, is auctioning off the naming rights for a basketball arena, their own in-office half-court stadium. Previously known as H-O-R-S-E Arena, BooneOakley is offering, for one-year, scoreboard and sideline signage, in addition to roof signage, visible from space. You can’t BUY that kind of publicity. Well, actually, you can, by bidding on their eBay auction, currently at $250.

Pitching their case, BooneOakley points out that Bank of America paid $140 million for the naming rights of the Panthers stadium, a place open 10 days a year as compared to the BO offices, open 363 — closed Christmas and for partner Phil Smith’s birthday. Even better, BooneOakley says you can count on attendance at their stadium in the vicinity of 32 people, often every day!

John Boone says, “Imagine the signal a marketer could send in this economy by securing their own naming rights deal for about one-tenth of that!”