MutualFundWire.com: Find Yourself Watching the Patriots, With a Little Help From Putnam

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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Find Yourself Watching the Patriots, With a Little Help From Putnam

Bob Reynolds and his team are continuing their multi-year sponsorship of their hometown football team, and that includes continued support of a social-media-friendly way of engaging fans.

Robert L. Reynolds
Putnam Investments
President, Chief Executive Officer

Today Mark McKenna, head of global marketing at Putnam Investments [profile], confirms that the Boston-based mutual fund shop will again be a big sponsor of the nearby New England Patriots NFL team. Putnam continues to sponsor the Putnam Club, which includes some 6,000 seats on both sides of the stadium, and Putnam also sponsors a tailgating area around the stadium.

A big part of Putnam's deal with the Patriots involves the Patriots Fancam. Fans who attend a Patriots homegame at Gilette Stadium can go online and find a picture of themselves at the game. Putnam has sponsored the Patriots Fancam since the team rolled it out for the final game of its 2014 season, and Putnam will sponsor the Fancam this season, too.

"Being able to share that in-game experience has been an important component of driving attendance," McKenna tells 401kWire. "Fancam is going to carry the brand."

We see on average well over six minutes of time spent on the Fancam site. Everybody throughout the stadium can leverage this product ... We like to call it one 360-degree selfie. Every fan at every game can have this experience.

McKenna says that Fancam reached nearly 1 million page views and more than 22 million social impressions in the 2015 season. The Patriots, he notes, "have the biggest Twitter following in the NFL."

The Patriots partnership is part of Putnams' Performance in Motion marketing strategy.

"While media organizations are challenged, particularly in the print space, what is still very healthy is TV ... People don't DVR the game," McKenna says. "That's where the eyeballs are going, to live television, live sports ... In football, the NFL has over 100 million viewers on a weekend."

In addition to sponsoring the Patriots, Putnam also sponsors pro-golfers, the U.S. ski team, the NBA's Boston Celtics, and MLS' New England Revolution.

"We feel as though we've got the full calendar covered," McKenna says.

Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=54795

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