Washington Redskin’s new hot prospect, Robert Griffin III, has brought in another sponsor in the shape of protective gear company Evoshield.

Justin Niefer, Evoshield’s director of product development, said that RGIII was wearing Evoshield since his freshman at Baylor, thanks to a relationship the company had made with the football team’s equipment managers and trainers.

With more people than ever before paying attention to preventative protection on the field, companies in the sports protective gear space have seen sales skyrocket. Niefer says that Evoshield’s revenues have doubled every nine months for the last couple years.

“In the past, no one wanted to wear protective gear until after they got hurt,” Niefer said. “But that has changed. “Schools, teams and now players themselves are finally realizing that their body is their biggest investment. Guys like RGIII have worn our stuff not after he got hurt, but to protect himself from getting hurt.”

The company liked the speedy RGIII to be its first football endorser to help them shed the stigma that protective gear has to be bulky. 

As a growing company, Evoshield has spent the majority of its marketing dollars traveling around talking to athletes, trainers and equipment managers. Over the last two years, the brand has flourished in baseball.

Niefer said that the company will advertise its relationship with RGIII mostly through social media, videos and good old public relations. RGIII, who joined Twitter on April 3, already had more than 217,000 Twitter followers.

Said Niefer: “We talk to the shoe and apparel companies on a regular basis. It’s what drives us to gain more and more market share. We want to be in a position so that if they try to copycat us, our brand means more. That’s one of the reasons we’re doing this deal with RGIII.”

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.,a global leader in the consumer electronics industry, announced the renewal of its sponsorship agreement with the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Samsung has been a proud sponsor of CAF’s Orange Africa Cup of Nations since 2008; providing CAF with electronics and telecommunications equipment, to support for the smooth running of the tournament. After successful five years, Samsung and CAF are renewing this agreement to continue their collaboration for three more years; until 2015. Building on the unique activities, both parties offered African football fans throughout the last five years, Samsung and CAF will come together again to provide fans with innovative ways to engage more with the game; both inside and outside football stadiums.

“We are excited to be extending our partnership with CAF and believe that our relationship will lead to more engagement and interaction with African football fans. Considering the fact that football is the most popular sport in Africa. Therefore, we are deeply committed to share our consumers’ passion, through sponsoring the prominent African tournament,” said Mr. Seokmo Yoon, Vice President of Samsung Electronics Africa.

Mr. Amr Shaheen, CAF’s Marketing and TV Director, added: “We are delighted Samsung have decided, once again, to renew their relationship with CAF. The current advances could not have been achieved without the support of our partners and we hope that our relationship with Samsung will enable football in our continent to continue to flourish.”

Samsung is constantly looking for ways to engage with consumers through sports sponsorship. During the Orange Africa Cup of Nations Gabon and Equatorial Guinea 2012, Samsung organized a fan park called ‘Samsung Football Fest’ for the first time in the African continent and it brought matches close to the fans in a very real way, even for spectators outside the stadium.

Samsung also organized ‘Pop-Up Stadium’ in African countries to offer football fans the opportunity to enjoy the matches and share their enthusiasm outside host countries. Moreover, Samsung has established a digital hub dedicated solely to the football and gamesto keep fans abreast of the latest news taking place during the tournaments.

Mr. Yoon said, “As a responsible supporter of African football, we will strive to come up with unique approaches to be part of African football fans. With Samsung’s smart technology, African football fans will have more chance of enjoying and sharing their passion for football. In this regard, today’s sponsorship is our commitment to continue enriching African fans’ passion towards football.”

Farmers Insurance, the sponsor of the PGA TOUR’s Farmers Insurance Open, has announced a partnership with the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) as the presenting sponsor of the Academic Team Awards.

The partnership builds upon the success of “University Day” at the Farmers Insurance Open where players have been encouraged to support their alma maters during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open the past two years. In 2012, $20,000 was awarded to the Florida State University golf program on behalf of top finisher Jonas Blixt and $10,000 to Georgia Tech’s program on behalf of runner-up Cameron Tringale.

“Farmers is proud to extend our support of education and University Day throughout the year,” said Chuck Browning, Head of Sponsorships for Farmers Insurance. “It is a perfect fit for us — it is an opportunity for our agents around the country to get involved with our golf platform and academic institutions on a local level and we are proud to honor top performing academic men’s golf programs in the country.”

The Academic National Champion Awards honor teams with the highest collective GPA in men’s college golf, with a champion from NCAA Divisions I, II and III, as well as NAIA and NJCAA DI and DII. Established in 2009 by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA), the award program also recognizes All-Academic Teams in each of those divisions with a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or higher. Approximately 300 men’s golf programs have been named All-Academic Teams in the three-year history of the award.

GCAA President Bruce Brockbank, said: “This award program recognizes not only our student-athletes for their performance in the classroom, but also their school’s commitment to academic excellence and the support of their coaches and athletic departments. We are extremely pleased to partner with Farmers Insurance to bring national recognition to these programs and student-athletes.”

Australian Rugby League team, Manly Warringah Sea Eagles have announced world-leading IT security software company Kaspersky Lab will continue as the club’s major sponsor for the next three years.

American Ethanol and Iowa Speedway have announced that both NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races, sale now have an entitlement sponsor – the America Ethanol 200 on July 14 and September 15.

In September of 2011, prescription it was announced that Iowa Speedway would add another NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race for the 2012 season. Conrad Clement, treat Chairman of Iowa Speedway’s Board of Directors, explained what this sponsorship would mean for Iowa Speedway and its race fans.

“To have a company like American Ethanol, which is a very recognizable brand to race fans, sponsor both NASCAR Truck Series races will only help expand racing in Iowa and the Midwest at Iowa Speedway,” said Clement. “We have terrific sponsor support because of the terrific fan support, so next time you are at the pump remember to fill up with ethanol. Remember all of the top series of NASCAR run on E15 racing fuel. Ethanol is good for America, and it’s good for your car,” Clement said.

“We are proud to be working with the Iowa Speedway to promote American Ethanol and E15. This is a fantastic venue that has tremendous support from around the region and we are excited to partner with them and promote NASCAR events and American Ethanol,” stated Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy.

“Our efforts here are to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by producing home grown energy. We are creating jobs in America that can’t be outsourced, producing a fuel that is better for the environment and saves American motorists at the pump.”

The July 14 American Ethanol 200 race weekend will also feature the Prairie Meadows 200 ARCA race on Friday night, July 13. The September 15 event weekend will be accompanied by the ASA Midwest Tour series on the September 14th. The September weekend will also be the final race weekend of the 2012 race season at Iowa Speedway.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has a new sponsor for the London 2012 Olympic Games after teaming up with Indo Nissin Foods Ltd (INFL).

IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra has expressed confidence that more businesses and entrepreneurs will now come forward after INFL completed the deal for their product “Top Ramen” noodles to co-sponsor the squad.

Malhotra hopes others will take part in the country’s Olympic movement by sponsoring teams and players and he is looking for the competitors to play their part.

He said: “This is the first time the IOA will be spending all the sponsorship money on sports persons qualified for 2012.

“This is part of our commitment we had made to those qualified for the Olympics that they will get their due share.

“I hope they will bring laurels to the nation. We in IOA have kept our promise and we hope they (sports persons) will keep theirs; that is to give their best at the Games.”

Malhotra stressed the IOA was acting with total transparency and all the sponsorship agreements have been notified and explained.

The co-sponsorship agreement was signed by IOA secretary general Randhir Singh and INFL managing director Yuji Tabeta.

INFL is the latest on IOA’s sponsors list after Samsung and Amul, who are the principal sponsors of Indian contingent for the London Games.

NASCAR is set to be the first professional sports league to become direct partners with Twitter starting with next month’s Pocono 400 race.

The social media giant and NASCAR have long been linked but the new partnership will allow Twitter to bring fans of the drivers closer to the action by promoting the #NASCAR hashtag.

A statement on Twitter’s blog says: “During the race, viagra 40mg we’ll curate accounts from the NASCAR universe and surface the best Tweets and photos from the drivers, click their families, erectile commentators, celebrities and other fans when you search #NASCAR on Twitter.com.”

Twitter is also launching a new product on June 10th that will show a stream of NASCAR related content along with editorial commentary from the company itself.

Twitter stated there will be a new algorithm driving this experience, which will mix live tweets from fans along with the editorial content.

Omid Ashtari, who works for Twitter’s business development team, referred to the arrangement as “part search algorithm and part editorial.”

Ashtari said they chose NASCAR since races draw fans of dozens of drivers at one time which will give Twitter a chance to experiment and learn rapidly about how to curate tweets and step into a more editorial role.

NASCAR has been working with Twitter promotions for some time and recently launched a campaign for fans usernames to feature on drivers’ cars.

At this stage there appear to be no monetary arrangements in place with both companies looking to see how fans react before cementing their relationship.

General Motors (GM) will not advertise during this year’s Super Bowl game after the American car giant refused to accept a price hike.

Advertisers paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30 second ad during last year’s Super Bowl which saw GM return after a two-year break.

According to their executives the ads last year were very effective but GM’s global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, said the company would not pay the new rate.

He said: “”It’s just getting too expensive and we’re not just going to do the same thing every year.”

Another GM spokesman, Pat Morrissey, said: “We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the increased price, we can’t justify the expense.”

Morrissey added GM would not see a decrease in its overall ad spending and may see more money spent this year.

Ads for the Super Bowl are said to be up around 9%, with a 30-second spot costing $3.8 million according to media buyers.

GM is the third largest Super Bowl advertiser having spent $82 million on ads during the game between 2002-2011, behind only Anheuser-Busch InBev and PepsiCo in figures calculated by Kantar Media.

Building on its successful 3 year partnership, viagogo, Europe’s largest online ticket marketplace has renewed its partnership with the French Tennis Federation to operate the Official secondary ticket market place for both Roland Garros and BNP Paribas Masters.

The regained partnership will provide consumers with a safe and secure ticket exchange to buy and sell tickets at face value for the two world class events. With every transaction guaranteed, fans will be safe in the knowledge that they will receive their tickets in time for the event. Tennis enthusiasts will also be able to access premium hospitality tickets via the exchange for the Roland Garros tournament.

Nathalie Sergent from the French Tennis Federation said: “Over the past three years, viagogo has clearly demonstrated to us why they are Europe’s number one online ticket marketplace. The exchange has proved an invaluable service to our customers and we are delighted to offer this service again this year.”

Alex Zivoder, European Managing Director for viagogo added: “Roland Garros and the BNP Paribas Masters are two of the biggest and most prestigious sporting events in France, so we are delighted to be working with the organisers again to enable fans to trade tickets in a safe and secure way.”

Roland Garros takes place at the Stade Roland Garros, Paris between 27 May and 10 June.

The Lotus F1 Team and Angry Birds creators Rovio are joining forces for next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Both are celebrating significant milestones as Monaco will see Lotus contest their 500^th Grand Prix while Angry Birds has just reached 1 billion downloads.

To commemorate these achievements Rovio’s game will become the Lotus F1 Team’s “Official Angry Partner” in Monte Carlo.

The Finnish video game developer already sponsors fellow countrymen Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen.

But, remedy in addition, pilule Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean’s E20s will feature Angry Birds “eye-catching” branding.

Patrick Louis, Chief Executive Officer at the Lotus F1 Team, said of the deal: “For the last 18 months, Lotus F1 Team has chosen a very different approach in its communications and brand positioning strategies.

“We wanted to celebrate our 500th Grands Prix in a special way and the innovative tie-in with Rovio highlights our commitment to taking the brand to new audiences.

“Angry Birds is the largest game in the world and we’re looking forward to offering its 20 million daily users an exciting experience with our exclusive game. The Angry Birds branding on our cars should once more highlight our distinct identity within Formula 1.”

Harri Koponen of Rovio said: “This collaboration has been simply fantastic. Lotus F1 Team has a uniquely dynamic approach to new channels and media, and we share the same creative spirit.

“We’re proud to be Lotus F1 Team’s Official Angry Partner for their 500th race, and we had much fun creating a special game experience that reflects the spirit of both brands. We hope that fans of both Lotus F1 Team and Angry Birds will enjoy the fruits of our collaboration.”