Partnership Marks First to Encompass All 12 Schools, Conference
The Big Ten Conference heads into basketball season with a brand-new corporate partnership with The Libman Company®, giving the Big Ten its first-ever marketing agreement encompassing all 12 member schools and conference assets.
Libman, a family-owned, leading manufacturer of high-quality brooms, mops and brushes in the U.S., was founded in 1896 with corporate headquarters situated in the heart of Big Ten country. Libman’s relationship with the Big Ten Conference marks a significant milestone for the company – its initial foray into college sports marketing. Effective this basketball season, the Arcola, Ill.-based Libman will serve as the “Official Hardwood Floorcare Provider of the Big Ten Conference” and receive other partnership benefits as part of the comprehensive agreement.
Libman will provide specially designed mops for cleaning all 12 member schools’ courts during the 2012-13 men’s and women’s regular season basketball games, as well as for the 2013 Big Ten Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments. The member schools also will receive Libman branded T-shirts for the staff responsible for using Libman’s special hardwood floor cleaning products during games. Its conference-wide partnership also entails digital assets, in-venue signage at the Big Ten Basketball Tournaments, and a retail promotion with Menards home improvement stores throughout the Big Ten footprint for the chance to win a VIP trip to the men’s basketball tournament including being a part of the on-court cleaning crew.
”As a Big Ten graduate and long-time fan, I couldn’t be more thrilled to be the ‘Official Hardwood Floorcare Provider of the Big Ten Conference’,” said Andrew Libman, one of the fourth generation company owners. “This is an excellent opportunity for our company to increase our brand awareness and highlight our superior floorcare cleaners and mops.”
The partnership with Libman was secured by Big Ten Sports Properties, a property of Learfield Sports, which holds the respective multimedia rights for eight member institutions – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. Big Ten Sports Properties has been driving the corporate partner platform for the conference since 2008.
“It is exciting to have Libman join our roster of corporate partners,” said Big Ten Sports Properties’ General Manager Scott Bailey. “The tie-in was a natural, and it’s great to be able to provide them with exposure at all of our schools in addition to the conference partnership. We look forward to working with them and helping reach their objectives.”
The Libman Company is a family-owned company that has been making quality cleaning tools in the U.S. since 1896. The company manufactures products from brooms and mops to more specialized tools for kitchen and bathroom cleaning and industrial uses. Libman proudly manufactures most of their products in the United States, including the company’s well-known Wonder® Mop and Freedom® Spray Mop. For more information about the Libman Company, please visit www.libman.com.
The Big Ten Conference is an association of world-class universities whose member institutions share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and public service. Founded in 1896, the Big Ten has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics in student-athletes’ lives and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness. The broad-based athletic programs of the 12 Big Ten institutions sponsor 298 teams competing for championships in 25 official conference sports, 12 for men and 13 for women. Big Ten universities provide in excess of $136 million in athletic scholarship aid to nearly 10,000 men and women student-athletes, the most of any conference. For more information, visit www.bigten.org.
Learfield Sports, which manages multimedia rights for more than 50 collegiate institutions and associations, also titles the prestigious Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. The company’s multi-media rights encompass numerous content distribution platforms to deliver the passion of college athletics across radio, television and digital networks to fans globally. Learfield Sports’ exclusive sports programming reaches more than 50 million television households nationally and delivers nearly 17,000 hours of radio programming on more than 1,000 radio stations.