PlayStation seeing dividends as title sponsor of Fiesta Bowl
PlayStation return as the Fiesta Bowl title sponsor as part of a multi-year agreement with ESPN. As one of the annual College Football Playoff New Year’s Six Bowl games, the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl will be played on Tuesday, Jan. 1, at 1 pm ET / 11 am local time at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
“PlayStation has been an unbelievable partner over the last two years. Its brand personality and everyday audience match what we’re aiming to connect with,” said Fiesta Bowl Executive Director Mike Nealy. “PlayStation is fully on board and actively participates with all of our organizational activities in and around the game. We look forward to many more years together.”
The category exclusive deal secures PlayStation as the official gaming and virtual reality sponsor for the College Football Playoff and its New Year’s Six Bowl games. ESPN will once again collaborate with PlayStation on multimedia content integrations across ESPN programming, featuring the PlayStation brand messaging “Greatness Awaits” to drive excitement and anticipation for the bowl season and throughout the regular season.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with ESPN to sponsor the Fiesta Bowl, one of the most exciting and highest ranking college football games of the year,” said Eric Lempel, SVP, Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment. “As entertainment leaders, this collaboration gives us the opportunity to tap into the shared passion for invoking the extraordinary that both college football and video games elicits. We are honored to participate in this unique activation that builds upon their love of the game.”
“Our audience insights tell us that college football fans are more interested in video games, more likely to play them and more likely to stream sports through a gaming console compared to the average person,” said Rob Temple, SVP, Sports Marketing. “Together with PlayStation, ESPN will stay highly engaged with this passionate and valuable audience across the platform throughout the season and especially with the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl, as one of the most highly anticipated bowl games in college football.”
This multimedia deal (TV and digital) is part of a broader agreement that includes other marquee ESPN programming throughout the year. It builds on an already successful relationship between ESPN and PlayStation, including the ESPN app for PlayStation 4 and the ESPN networks available for streaming on PlayStation Vue.
PlayStation and the Fiesta Bowl organization are also engaged in a partnership where PlayStation integrates into the gameweek activities. PlayStation game characters and the PlayStation gaming truck have been fixtures throughout the Valley of the Sun at events such as participating team’s player lounges, team community service projects, media days, pregame parties, and the Fiesta Bowl game itself. Last year, the university bands came together to play a medley of scores from PlayStation games during halftime of the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl in a unique performance.