Featured Press

IEG / SPONSORSHIPS.COM :: APRIL 2009

Clothing Makers Find Good Fit With Sponsorship

Properties would be wise to try the apparel category on for size.

Building on a trend that began nearly two years ago, makers of non-sports clothing are continuing to increase their sponsorship spending to create integrated marketing platforms tailored to their individual needs. The end goal: build brands, drive retail traffic and increase sales.

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EVENT MARKETER :: APRIL 2009

Pop-Ups: Original Penguin Pops Up On College Campuses

Original Penguin Clothing by Munsingwear kicked off a partnership on April 8 with American Collegiate Intramural Sports (ACIS) to bring the lifestyle brand to 20 college campuses all over the U.S. Penguin will tap into ACIS’s existing infrastructure and staff to promote the pop-ups while helping out local charities.

The pop-ups will be in place for two to three days on each campus, giving away Penguin gifts and selling Penguin clothes, all the while driving traffic to Penguin’s website, penguinclothing .com. Each pop-up will have a charitable partner that will do pre-promotion and provide on-site staffing. In return, Penguin is donating t-shirts to the charity to sell as a fundraiser. Students who make a purchase will get a free backpack or music CD and everyone who attends will get a chance to enter a sweepstakes for a $100 Penguin gift card and a grand prize trip for two to Miami Beach, $1,000 cash and a $1,500 shopping spree at the Original Penguin retail store.

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BRANDWEEK :: APRIL 2009

Pop-Up Stores Come to College Campuses

Sportswear brand Original Penguin will join in an effort to bring pop-up retail stores to 20 college campuses this month and next, in a pitch tied to a charitable cause and designed to highlight an array of fashion apparel.

In conjunction with American Collegiate Intramural Sports, the marketing platform will include free gifts, selected student giveaways, and a gift-card.

The roster of participating schools, with a collective population of over 360,000 students, includes Cornell, Hofstra, U.-Mass., Cincinnati, Xavier, Temple, Cal State Long Beach, UNLV and South Carolina.

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IEG / SPONSORSHIPS.COM :: MARCH 2009

IEG SR One-on-one: Ian Leopold, President, American Collegiate Intramural Sports

Leopold is the founder and president of American Collegiate Intramural Sports, the largest daily on-campus marketing program in the nation.

The origin of ACIS started in 1986 when Leopold founded Campus Concepts Inc. – publisher of the first Unofficial Student Guide – while a senior at Hobart College. Undeterred by an economics professor's failing grade for the company's business plan, Leopold moved forward on the project. The guides, loaded with important phone numbers, event listings and other information, was supported by local advertisers trying to reach the college market.

In 1992, Campus Concepts tapped into the most popular extracurricular campus activity by promoting intramural participatory sports at colleges across the country. Leopold soon transitioned from local to national advertisers, saving his company overhead and time.

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NYSPORTSJOURNALISM.COM :: MARCH 2009

Q&A: Ian Leopold

As difficult as it may seem, someone has been able to convince more than 3 million college students at 250 campuses nationwide to leave their videogames, put down their cell phones, iPods and BlackBerrys (temporarily, at least) and participate in sports. That's what American Collegiate Intramural Sports can boast via programs that include football, basketball and fitness. Since 2004, ACIS, based in New York, has overseen intramural competitions in flag football (fall) and basketball (spring), and this month extended its fitness program from six months to year round. Considering that the participants - 18-24, who spend more than a combined $50 billion a year just on food, beverage, electronics and entertainment - on also are high on the list marketers deem as target demographics, it is no surprise that ACIS lists among its marketing partners Microsoft, Nike, P&G, General Mills, Hershey's, Kodak and Philips.

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BRANDWEEK.COM :: MARCH 2009

Nike, Playtex, Aquafina Join Fitness Challenge

The American Collegiate Intramural Sports group has signed six corporate sponsors, including Playtex Sport, Aquafina and Nike, to take part in the ACIS Fitness Challenge being conducted this spring on 200 college campuses.

The multifaceted promotional activity aims to motivate the 2.7 million students at participating schools to make more than five million visits to a gym and to burn more than 750 million calories this month and in April.

Tinactin skin cream, Jelly Belly Sports Beans and Schwinn bicycles are the other sponsors on board.

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IEG / SPONSORSHIPS.COM :: OCTOBER 2008

Slingbox Goes National, Younger With Latest Sponsorship

Sling Media, Inc. has chosen American Collegiate Intramural Sports as its first national sponsorship for its flagship Slingbox product.

Sling will title ACIS Football, which encompasses 200 college campuses and culminates in a national championship tournament Dec. 28-31 in New Orleans.

The company began sponsoring for Slingbox–a device that lets consumers watch live cable, satellite and DVR-recorded TV programs on Web-enabled computers, PDAs and mobile phones–two years ago.

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SPORTSEVENTS :: OCTOBER 2008

Talking Points With With John Meinke, ACIS Flag Football National Championships

As vice president of university relations and programming for American Collegiate Intramural Sports (ACIS), John Meinke oversees programs on 200 member campuses, including the ACIS regional and national football and basketball championships. Since 1995, Meinke has worked with the University of New Orleans to organize and provide sponsors for the ACIS Flag Football National Championships, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary Dec. 28-31. Meinke offers some tips for sustaining long-running events.

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BRANDWEEK :: SEPTEMBER 2008

SlingBox Targets College Students With ACIS Alliance

by Barry Janoff

American Collegiate Intramural Sports said that Sling Media has signed a deal for its SlingBox division to become title sponsor of the 2008 ACIS football program. ACIS SlingBox Football runs now through December, and will culminate with the SlingBox ACIS Football National Championship tournament in New Orleans, Dec. 28-31.

Sources put the one-year deal at about $1 million. ACIS has also secured two other new sponsors, Sara Lee's Ball Park Franks and Twinlab. Five other brands have also renewed their alliances with ACIS: Philips Norelco, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Gold Bond, Jelly Belly's Sport Beans and Nike.

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FORBES :: SEPTEMBER 2008

ACIS Takes Slingbox to School as the Title Sponsor for 2008 Slingbox ACIS Football

American Collegiate Intramural Sports (ACIS), the nation’s largest college sports property has secured Slingbox as the new title sponsor of the 2008 Slingbox ACIS Football. The program, which will allow Slingbox to reach more than 2.6 million college students on 200 college campuses culminates with the 30th annual Slingbox ACIS Football National Championship tournament from December 28-31 in New Orleans.

ACIS has also secured two other new sponsors, Sara Lee’s Ball Park Franks and Twinlabs. In addition, five other brands renewed – Philips Norelco, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Gold Bond, Jelly Belly’s Sport Beans and Nike.

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SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL :: OCTOBER 2007

Firm Takes Brands Beyond the Stadiums at College Campuses, Into Intramural Events

by Michael Smith

Major brands such as Pontiac, Kodak, Norelco and Xbox have put money behind intramural sports on college campuses as their newest form of sports sponsorship.

American Collegiate Intramural Sports, representing more than 200 colleges and universities, has aggregated the intramural and promotional rights on those campuses and turned it into a sports property that sells a variety of sponsorship levels and activates mostly through experiential marketing.

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BRANDWEEK :: SEPTEMBER 2007

The Game

Kodak Pictures ACIS in Future

by Barry Janoff

Eastman Kodak, which put the "first simple camera into the hands of a world of consumers" in 1888, wants to do the same with its EasyShare printers through a deal with American Collegiate Intramural Sports.

ACIS is an organization formed three years ago that organizes intramural competitions in basketball (spring), fitness (fall and spring) and flag football (fall) on more than 200 college campuses, involving two million students per week.

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ENTREPRENEUR.COM :: AUGUST 2007

College Business Plans that Made the Grade

Find out how these entrepreneurs took their business plans from the classroom to the real world.

by Kristin Edelhauser

It was 1986, and student Ian Leopold was just one class away from graduating. That’s when his economics professor failed his business plan assignment. Other students may have taken the failing grade as a sign the plan wasn’t viable. But not Leopold. “If he hadn’t failed me, it’s very possible I wouldn’t have continued with my plan,” says Leopold, now 43. “Part of me wanted to prove him wrong. I did.” Leopold, forced to stay at Hobart that summer, earned his degree and in his spare time turned his business plan into a reality, entering Northwestern’s Kellogg School in the fall.

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ESPN MAGAZINE :: JUNE 2007

Intramurals Go “Big Time”

Dunk winner’s dream comes true

by Jesse Baumgartner

There’s only one rule when you’re ballin’ in the house that MJ built. You better bring your “A” game.

The men’s squad from the University of North Texas did just that at the Pontiac ACIS Basketball National Championship, taking home the title with a 56-52 victory over Morehouse College and proving that their team name, “Guaranteed", was for real.

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SI ON CAMPUS :: MAY 2007

Woman of Power

Meet UW-La Crosse’s resident strongwoman

by Nicki Jhabvala

Of the 53 teams and more than 500 participants in the 2007 Pontiac ACIS Basketball National Championships in Chapel Hill, N.C., it may be safe to assume that most of them did not have nearly the “;practice” regimen of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Amanda Wilfer.

Most probably took shots in the gym, had team practices, competed with other IM squads on their campuses – the usual.

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SI ON CAMPUS :: MAY 2007

One-Armed Warrior

Iowa’s Caleb Recker wins the 2-ball title...with one hand

by Nicki Jhabvala

Caleb Recker wanted to be crowned the 2007 ACIS Basketball National Champion so bad that he was willing to do almost anything for it.

The senior from the University of Iowa picked up an all-expense-paid trip to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus with his intramural basketball team, UISSC, to vie for the national title after the team won the Nebraska ACIS Basketball Regionals on March 4.

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ESPN MAGAZINE :: JUNE 2006

Intramurals Go “Big Time”

This ain’t your father’s intramurals.

by Darryl Howerton

Oh, hell no!

High-flying 6'4" NFL prospect A.J. Bryant was leaping over bodies for dunks. 6' 1" sexy-big-and-beautiful Kaci Fulton was knocking bodies out of the way and men and women from the title-winning teams were draining 3’s like no tomorrow. The 2006 Pontiac ACIS Basketball National Championships in Anaheim on May 14 played like a mix of NCAA Championships meets Streetball, when the Georgia Southern men and Tarleton State women won the tournament in dynastic fashion.

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EVENT MARKETER :: MAY 2006

Good Sports

Blue-chip brands put sponsorship dollars into college intramurals

Pontiac hits millions of eyeballs with its three-year-old NCAA sponsorship, adn the brand buys plenty of media to support the program. (If you caught any of this year’s men’s basketball tournament on CBS, you can attest to that.) It’s quality exposure through a top-tier property, but excitement about the brand doesn’t automatically trickle down to future car buyers at the participating schools.

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SI ON CAMPUS :: MAY 2006

The Happiest Place on Earth

IM hoop champs square off at Disneyland

by Adam Maya

It had been almost two hours since A.J. Bryant flew over the competition in the dunk contest. While his Georgia Southern teammates celebrated after beating Northern Kentucky to win the American Collegiate Intramural Sports (ACIS) national men’s basketball championship, Bryant asked for one final assist.

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SMALL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES :: APRIL 2006

Marketing Magic

How big biz connects with the very hard-to-reach $200 billion college market.

American Collegiate Intramural Sports (ACIS) has recently announced the tip-off of 2006 Pontiac ACIS Basketball, offering major advertisers a unique, powerful and proven channel to connect with the valuable, hard-to-reach $200 billion college market.

Sponsors spend a lot of money for banner exposure in professional and varsity college sports. With the intramural exposure afforded by ACIS, sponsors spend less and reach more students (not just alums) and they get to really sell their product through experiential sampling among student participants. ACIS helps companies connect with a valuable audience that is very difficult to reach. It’s an excellent opportunity for sponsors.

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IEG / SPONSORSHIPS.COM :: FEBRUARY 2006

Surveys Prove Beneficial To Property And Its Sponsors

Actions speak louder than words and American College Marketing has the sponsor retention rate to prove it.

Recognizing that the fortunes of its American Collegiate Intramural Sports property are inextricably linked to sponsors’ success, AMC chose not to rely on assumptions that the target audience would respond to corporate partners. Nor did it place responsibility for measuring return solely in the hands of those sponsors.

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