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After nearly 15 years of going it alone, the University of Hawaii athletic department is seeking a national marketing partner.
UH has bucked the college trend in handling its marketing in-house since 2003-04 after severing a two-year relationship with Leigh Steinberg.
Athletic director David Matlin declined to say which companies UH is talking to, but they are believed to include the industry leaders in college sports marketing, Learfield Sports of Plano, Texas, and IMG College of Winston-Salem, N.C.
Learfield lists 110 college partners, including nine of UH’s 11 Mountain West Conference peers. IMG lists 74 colleges, including Air Force and Nevada-Las Vegas of the MWC.
“Obviously one of the big metrics is financial and (who) will put us in a better position financially,” Matlin said. “The benefit of looking at a company that has a national reach is that we don’t get a lot of national and regional dollars (now), so it will help our program. The people that have that reach have those (national) relationships.”
Matlin said UH hopes to make a decision “in the next month and get up and running for 2017-18.”
One of UH’s most successful enterprises has been its local corporate partner program, which has been credited with bringing in approximately $5 million in cash and trade per year. John McNamara, who headed that initiative as associate athletic director until November 2015, became president of the marketing and public relations firm CommPac.
Matlin said the department’s current sales staff would still be involved.
Typically, UH said, the partner provides the school a minimum annual guarantee, after which revenue is shared on an incremental basis.
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