BDA Named Premium Vendor for the NCAA; Acquires Evigna
Bensussen Deutsch & Associates, Inc., a top branded merchandise agency specializing in sports and entertainment, has been designated as the Preferred Premium Vendor of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA).
The work will include developing and executing co-branded merchandise, consumer promotions and other key initiatives for the NCAA and its corporate partners.
BDA’s ProActivation Group will lead the work. The group is a new division within BDA focused on creating brand affinity and building customized sponsorship activation campaigns with teams, leagues and their corporate partners.
“Having worked with nearly every major sports league over the past quarter century, we’ve developed our ProActivation business model to focus on maximizing value for teams, leagues and their corporate sponsors,” said Jay Deutsch, CEO and co-founder of BDA in a release. “We look forward to helping NCAA partners design, build and implement the most innovative activation campaigns in the market.”
In other news, BDA has acquired Evigna, a Detroit-based merchandise distributor that counts numerous Fortune 100 companies as long-standing clients and works with many of the world’s most prominent automotive brands including Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Sports, Land Rover and Jaguar. Other clients include GE, Shell, BlueCross BlueShield, Cummins, WellPoint, Marriott and HBO. The deal is expected to close in May 2010. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
BDA ranked No. 4 on the 2009 Promo 100 with 2008 U.S. net revenue of $229.3 million. The firm is also the No. 1 Promo 100 branded merchandise agency with a specialty in promotional products.
