Home Depot’s Sports Marketing Portfolio

While Home Depot may have switched its CEO recently and had concerns with profit numbers, the company still understands the importance of sports sponsorship. They continue to find innovative ways to get in front of their target audience – men.

The company has become a major, major player in the world of sports sponsorships. They are on the same plateau as Coke, MasterCard, Visa and even Bank of America.

Sponsorships contracts include

* The Olympic Games
* Olympic Employment Program
* The Home Depot Center
* National Football League
* NASCAR Racing
* ESPN
* Six Flags
* The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award
* Federación Mexicana de Fύtbol (Mexican National Soccer Team)
* International Speedway Corporation
* Local team sponsorships: The Home Depot also has local team sponsorship agreements with the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins, Denver Broncos, Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks/Atlanta Thrashers/Philips Arena, Kane County Cougars Chicago ADI), Yakima Bears, Georgia Institute of Technology Yellow Jackets and University of Hawaii.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle noted the following additional sponsorships that were recently signed:

* Home Depot reported a multi-year integrated marketing partnership making it the "official home improvement sponsor' of the National Football League." Home Depot said its partnership includes marketing rights to the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, community affairs activities, NFL Network-related programming and designates it as the presenting sponsor of The NFL Experience theme park.

* Home Depot became the official postgame sponsor of NFL Network's eight regular season games, called "The Home Depot PostGame Show," which began on Thanksgiving night and ran through the final week of the regular season. Also under the agreement, The Home Depot obtains rights to NFL Kickoff, NFL Playoffs, Super Bowl XLI, XLII, XLIII, the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Pro Bowls.