In the seven months since AT&T Inc. completed its merger with BellSouth Corp. and began integrating and rebranding the companies' Cingular Wireless operations under its corporate moniker, the telecommunications giant has both refocused and expanded how it works with properties. In addition to existing goals, such as obtaining category exclusivity that allows AT&T to promote all of its phone, wireless, and broadband Internet and cable offerings (IEG SR, May 1, 2006), the company's new priorities are:

• Placing wireless services at the core of its sponsorship activity
• Seeking a broader array of content to further connect with consumers
• Monetizing acquired content by re-selling rights to advertisers

"We are really wireless-centered now, which is a big paradigm shift for us," said Eric Fernandez, AT&T's executive director of sponsorships and events. "The Cingular brand had a lot of equity, so we are trying to wring all the value we can out of the name and focus activation around wireless and the AT&T brand." In addition to rebranding former Cingular sponsorships, AT&T may sign new deals in markets that were not part of the pre-merger AT&T footprint, said Tom Hughes, the company's associate director of sponsorships and events. "We have a whole new set of markets to evaluate over the next six to 18 months because Cingular has made us a national company," Hughes said. Previously, AT&T's primary territory was the Midwest and West Coast domain of predecessor SBC Communications, Inc. The company's newest national sponsorship, this past weekend's AT&T National PGA Tour stop near Washington, D.C., included a wireless activation effort that the company would like to integrate into other partnerships, Fernandez said. AT&T provided its Wireless Caddie to 500 attendees each day at the Tiger Woods-hosted tournament.

The smartphone device, which the company introduced earlier this year at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am PGA Tour event, lets users receive statistics, pairings, scores, maps and current course locations of players. Beyond reinforcing its brand in new markets and touting its wireless prowess, access to content-which has been a key requirement for AT&T's national entertainment and sports partnerships-has become a key component of local deals, as well. For example, through its sponsorship of Texas' University Interscholastic League, the company offered Webcasts through its Blue Room portal of the state's high school championship basketball and football games this past school year. "We were surprised at the number of visitors that viewed the games," Hughes said. "Blue Room started off broad, but now we are looking for niche content that will allow us to make deeper connections and stay relevant in current and new markets." Hughes noted that AT&T's sponsorship portfolio "nearly doubled" following the merger, adding that the company has retained the vast majority of Cingular and BellSouth deals.

Former Cingular sponsorships that are now branded AT&T include a re-signed presenting sponsorship of the Vans Warped Tour, a property Cingular previously co-presented with Samsung Wireless. AT&T has expanded the partnership with on-site and mobile activities that showcase wireless services. Other deals taken over by the corporate brand include sponsorship of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City, a tie-in to Fox TV's American Idol and primary sponsorship of a Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Nextel Cup team, which the company recently renewed for another three years despite the fact that NASCAR is still challenging the renaming in court. AT&T has integrated key BellSouth and Cingular sponsorship personnel into both its corporate office and more than 20 regional offices. Former Cingular sponsorship head Dave Garver remains in Atlanta as executive director of segment marketing and sponsorships for AT&T's wireless business. "We've taken the best people and brought them in. They know the business best, so we want to capitalize on that," said Fernandez, acknowledging that the company did lay off some sponsorship staff as a result of the merger. While wireless is the focal point for sponsorships, AT&T's U-verse digital Internet-protocol-based TV and high-speed Internet service also is coming on strong. "IPTV is a growth product for AT&T," said Hughes. "We are going to see a lot of revenue growth for it in the next three years, so it's an important product that we are going to promote." The service currently has about 40,000 subscribers in its 23 markets, which include Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, San Antonio and San Diego.

AT&T is keeping its eyes open for opportunities to sponsor on behalf of U-verse in those markets, as well as making sure rights to promote it are part of all of its deals as the service rolls out. AT&T funds sponsorship out of both corporate headquarters and regional offices. Regional vice presidents and general managers typically approve local and regional deals, with corporate involved if content access is key to the deal, such as the Texas UIL sponsorship. Dallas-based The Marketing Arm continues to help AT&T screen, implement and manage sponsorships. AT&T also has retained Norwalk, Conn.-based Velocity Sports & Entertainment-Cingular's longtime sponsorship agency-to help manage and implement programs.

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