Brand Affinity Technologies

Recent Press November 11, 2011 $5 Million in 140 Characters Men's Journal A month after announcing his retirement -- on a Twitter-linked video that shot across the planet -- Shaquille O'Neal and his marketing squad welcomed 30 brand executives into his Orlando, Florida, home. After touring Shaq's Bentley collection and indoor basketball court, they settled into his massive living room to talk about his future as a pitchman. The suits from Oreo, Icy Hot, and Toys 'R' Us talked about the usual partnerships -- television, print ads, and live events in which the NBA star could draw crowds. But the main topic of discussion was Twitter. read article

October 17, 2011 Percenteries Help Celebs Surf Social Wave Variety Talent agencies are establishing ties with a new generation of start-ups that specialize in managing celebrities' footprint across social media. read article

August 5, 2011 Following the Famous with Fantapper Media Bistro While we're familiar with Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), the platform that connects brands with athletes for sponsorships, we only just noticed they've developed a tool called Fantapper that could be quite useful for the PR industry. BAT's original offering solved a onerous problem for brands with its massive clearinghouse of athletes, complete with "affinity metrics" and the tools to quickly identify and license the right talent for the job. read article

August 4, 2011 Fantapper Hopes To Change Fan Media Consumption CNBC Athletes have never been able to monetize their Web sites. Content just hasn't been steady enough for those sites to drive regular page views and therefore sell ads. read article

May 2, 2011 Dodgers Web musings: Andre Ethier, you are sports' biggest rising star Los Angeles Times That's right, the Dodgers' own Andre Ethier is not only the hottest thing on the baseball diamond right now, but also the biggest sports star to watch this month. Anyway, so says a marketing research company that puts out a monthly list it calls "Rising Sports Stars." read article

April 28, 2011 Green Bay Star Gives Twitter Advice to NFL Draftees ClickZ Green Bay running back Ryan Grant remembers when teammates would mock him and others for having a Twitter account. That was last year, prior to the Packers winning Super Bowl XLV and word spreading throughout the sports entertainment community that leveraging social media could help an athlete's personal brand. read article

April 25, 2011 Celebrity Influence - and Economy - Grows Online Wedbush Over the last two years, we've seen a seismic change in the relationship between celebrities and fans. Online media provides 24/7 access to news, gossip, and anything and everything consumers want to know about their favorite celebrities. Social media takes this dynamic further: people can easily follow commentary directly from stars on Facebook and Twitter. read article

March 28, 2011 NASCAR'S Trevor Bayne Ranked Top Rising Sports Star FOX Charlotte Local Charlotte, NC hero Trevor Bayne is ranked as a top rising sports star by Brand Affinity Technologies. read article

March 18, 2011 Nielsen: Celebrity Fans Wield Star Power in Social Media Technorati In social networking, fans of celebrities and fans of brands go hand in hand, according to new research by The Nielsen Co. The research showed 64 percent of adult Internet users in the United States who follow a celebrity on Facebook or Twitter also follow a brand via social networking. Nielsen said that means a celebrity follower is four times more likely to follow a brand than the average American adult who's online. read article

March 10, 2011 Tweet This: Social Endorsements Beat Social Media Ad Buys MediaPost The art and science of social media advertising and marketing is still nascent, but new research being released today suggests that brand endorsements streamed by celebrities directly to friends and followers on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, is significantly more effective than conventional display ads placed on social media pages. The findings, which are based on an analysis of more than 200 celebrity endorsement campaigns on Facebook and Twitter vs. a corresponding number of ads on Facebook, indicated "performance lifts" that were a minimum of 50% greater for streamed celebrity endorsements. read article

February 25, 2011 Kardashian Sisters to Tweet For Gilt Groupe During Oscars ClickZ Luxury fashion brand Gilt Groupe has brought aboard reality TV stars Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian for an Academy Awards marketing stunt on Twitter. The Kardashian sisters have a combined 4.7 million followers on the micro-blogging site. read article

February 1, 2011 The Clay Matthews Social Media Combine MediaPost If you missed MediaPost's Social Media Insider Summit this week in Florida, you can still learn a lot by paying attention to just one person, albeit someone who wasn't even there. His name's Clay Matthews III, and he says on Twitter that he's "just an average American... with extraordinary hair!!" Most know him better as the Green Bay Packers linebacker who will soon play in the Super Bowl. read article

February 1, 2011 BAT Launches Social Media Efforts With Celebrities Social Tech Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), a company that uses data and technology to match celebrity endorsers with marketer's brands, launched @BAT, automatically managing endorsement deals across social media. Initial marketers using the system include IHG (International Hotels Group), soccer training device marketer Goalshot, and Jeetyet Productions. read article

January 31, 2011 Brand Affinity, GMR Ink Deal To Collaborate On Athlete Marketing SportsBusiness Daily Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) and GMR Marketing today formally announced that they have signed a multiyear partnership "in which they will work together on athlete-related endorsement and marketing efforts." The agreement gives GMR preferred access to BAT's online endorsement platform "involving more than 3,700 celebrities and athletes, real-time research and analytics, and new products." BAT will be GMR's "preferred outlet for any digital celebrity-related work". read article

January 31, 2011 BAT Unveils Social Endorsement Platform, Former NBA Star Salley Explains Why He Goes To Bat MediaPost Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), a company that uses data and technology to match celebrity endorsers with marketer's brands, launched @BAT, automatically managing endorsement deals across social media. Initial marketers using the system include IHG (International Hotels Group), soccer training device marketer Goalshot, and Jeetyet Productions. read article

January 20, 2011 Announcing the 2011 OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies AlwaysOn AlwaysOn is excited to announce the 2011 OnMedia 100 Top Private Companies list of leading digital media companies operating in the advertising, marketing, and content publishing sectors. While compiling the OnMedia 100 and interviewing the top CEOs, our editors were amazed by how big and even profitable many of these startups had become, which appeared to be a sign that the market was beginning to mature. But just when you start to believe that Madison Avenue has finally figured out how to play the digital game, you learn that the advertising spend compared to where the eyeballs are going is still severely out of whack. read article

January 11, 2011 Jenny Craig, Oprah's Network, Celebrity Endorsements and Brand Affinity's Ryan Steelberg This Week in Marketing This week marks the premiere of This Week in Marketing with hosts Scott MacDonell and Daniel Granger. They are joined in studio by Brand Affinity Technologies' Ryan Steelberg. They discuss Google, dMarc, and new marketing strategies. Plus they ask we will care in 12 months about net neutrality, social media, the resurgence of print media, and the frenzy over the web on your TV. In the Does It Sell? segment they look at commercials for Jenny Craig, Oprah's OWN Network, and the Superbowl Club for Visa. read article

January 3, 2011 Green Bay Packers' John Kuhn Tops January List of Top Ten Rising Sports Stars USA Today Green Bay Packers' running back John Kuhn has earned the top spot on the list of Rising Sports Stars to watch in the month of January. Kuhn scored three touchdowns in Green Bay's Dec. 26 win against the New York Giants and has emerged as a fan favorite, gaining notice for key downs and special teams play. Kuhn's popularity has increased 79% over the past 30 days, and cheers for "KUUUUUUUHN" ring out when he carries the ball. Jimmy Graham of the New Orleans Saints and Brandon Bass of the Orlando Magic round out the top three. read article

December 15, 2010 NFL superstar Drew Brees gets closer to fans online USA Today New Orleans Saints' QB Drew Brees has had one memorable year: Super Bowl MVP. Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. Now he's part of a customized high-tech application to stay connected to tens of thousands of his fans online. read article

December 1, 2010 Cowboys rookie and coach make top 10 list Dallas Morning News Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) listed its top 10 rising sports stars for the month of December and Cowboys cornerback Bryan McCann topped the list. read article

November 24, 2010 Fantapper Free Web Download for Celebrity News Access Merge Media Fantapper is a free web download that adds interactive apps to online images and test of celebrities. The Fantapper apps give people access to celebrity YouTube videos, Twitter & Facebook feeds, news and more. If you are an avid celebrity or sports fan, then you have to get Fantapper. You will get updates on the downloaded toolbar and be able to follow new music videos, news, Twitter and Facebook feeds that will keep you updated on your favorite Hollywood stars. read article

November 17, 2010 Fantapper will Change How you View Athletes & Celebrities Online Buy Athletes Today, Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) continued its push for sports marketing and advertising world domination with the acquisition of Fantapper, which is a leading celebrity mobile application company. read article

November 15, 2010 Clearinghouse for generating celebrity-based advertising; Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,809,603 OC TechInnovation U.S. Patent No. 7,809,603, issued on October 5, 2010 to Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. of Irvine, CA, discloses a clearinghouse to match prospective celebrity endorsers with products/services to be advertised. read article

November 2, 2010 David Bowens Gaining Notoriety Football News Now According to Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) list of Rising Sports Stars, David Bowens is the number one rising star after his historic performance in Week 7. read article

November 1, 2010 Entrepreneurs in the News Inc. Brothers and serial entrepreneurs Ryan and Chad Steelberg have raised $20 million for their latest venture, Brand Affinity Technologies, which uses algorithms to match advertisers with celebrity endorsers. "We live in a celebrity culture,' Ryan Steelberg says. "If there's a company with sound business fundamentals, strong growth, and a celebrity angle, VCs are not immune to that." read article

October 25, 2010 Step Up to BAT: PepsiCo Partners with Brand Affinity Technologies Brand Channel Now PepsiCo is partnering with Brand Affinity Technologies to create new online advertising real estate by turning photos into applications called netBAT. read article

October 19, 2010 PepsiCo Experiments with Photos as Apps AdWeek PepsiCo has linked with Brand Affinity Technologies to sponsor netBAT, a system that turns photos within editorial into sources of additional content on the subject pictured. BAT has constructed a content database mapped to 40,000 celebrities and athletes, including links to video, photos and other information, that is featured when people mouse over a photo. BAT will also show a PepsiCo button, which launches a promotion for the Pepsi Refresh Project. read article

October 13, 2010 Hass Avocado Teams With Fox For College Football Ad Campaign SportsBusiness Daily The Hass Avocado Board today announced that it has launched a new ad campaign targeting college football fans. Created by Fox Sports in partnership with Brand Affinity Technologies, the campaign includes a 30-second TV spot and online placements. The effort stars Fox NFL analyst John Lynch and will run through December (Hass Avocado). read article

October 13, 2010 BAT Inks Deal With RCA/JIVE Label for Artist Endorsements ClickZ Irvine, CA-based Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) announced a deal with RCA/JIVE Label Group to add music stars to its already successful pro athlete endorsement platform. The agreement will enable even local brands to potentially leverage cost-effective endorsements from high-profile RCA/JIVE artists such as Adam Lambert, Britney Spears, Ke$ha, Santana and Usher. read article

October 12, 2010 Hass Avocados A-Peel To College Football Fans MediaPost Football season is prime season for avocado consumption, in no small part due to the popularity of guacamole dip at game parties. But this year, the Hass Avocado Board (HAB) has launched an ambitious campaign to encourage college football fans to enjoy the fruit in a wide range of game-friendly recipes. read article

October 12, 2010 Brand Strikes up Band Variety Sports-based endorsement management company Brand Affinity Technologies has inked a deal with the RCA/Jive Label Group to represent the label's artists for short- and long-term endorsement deals. read article

September 7, 2010 Steelberg Brothers Raise Another $20 Million For Celeb Company BAT TechCrunch Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), which uses research and interactive technology to market a massive roster of celebrities, has closed a $20 million third round led by Miramar Venture Partners. Other participants in the round included existing investors Newport Coast Investments (the private investment fund of BAT co-founders Chad and Ryan Steelberg), RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, Ad Pepper Media International--and new investor the Ueberroth family's CGI Opportunity Fund II. (That's as in uber-sports marketer Peter Uberroth, the former MLB commissioner and successful 1984 Olympics organizer.) BAT plans to use the funding to push the rollout of its first consumer product, netBAT; to add music and other celebrity categories to its endorsement platform; and to expand internationally. read article

September 1, 2010 Victor Cruz Named "Top Rising Sports Star" For Sept GiantsFootballBlog Brand Affinity Technologies, a company that "calculates daily consumer affinity based on a proprietary combination of media exposure, performance, awards, popularity, engagement, and fan base, among other indicators, for more than 38,000 athletes and celebrities", has named Giants rookie WR Victor Cruz their top player to watch for the month of September. read article

August 24, 2010 BAT's Strike Endorsement Model Working CNBC Last year, I wrote a story about a company called Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT). It's a company that basically does what sports marketers do -- match athletes with brands. Unlike sports marketing firms, which only have permission work with a small number of athletes, BAT has a huge roster (now up to 3,600), and can pair an athlete and a company in an Internet campaign within a couple days. read article

August 24, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies Raises $20M To Match Celebs With Endorsement Deals TechCrunch Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), the company that creates a technology that matches celebrities with endorsement deals, has just raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Miramar Venture Partners, with existing investors Newport Coast Investments, RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, CGI Opportunity Fund II, and Ad Pepper Media International also participating. This brings the company's total funding to $26 million. We?ve heard that the pre-money valuation was in the ballpark of $60 to $80 million. read article

August 24, 2010 Brand Affinity Raises $20M, Expands Celeb Roster Media Post Brand Affinity Technologies -- which specializes in teaming up pro athletes with online advertisers -- has raised another $20 million, the company plans to announce Tuesday. The Series C round of financing was led by Miramar Venture Partners, along with participation from existing investors, including Newport Coast Investments, RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital and Ad Pepper Media International. read article

August 24, 2010 Steelberg Brothers Raise Another $20 Million For Celeb Company BAT paidContent Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), which uses research and interactive technology to market a massive roster of celebrities, has closed a $20 million third round led by Miramar Venture Partners. Other participants in the round included existing investors Newport Coast Investments (the private investment fund of BAT co-founders Chad and Ryan Steelberg), RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, Ad Pepper Media International--and new investor the Ueberroth family's CGI Opportunity Fund II. (That's as in uber-sports marketer Peter Uberroth, the former MLB commissioner and successful 1984 Olympics organizer.) BAT plans to use the funding to push the rollout of its first consumer product, netBAT; to add music and other celebrity categories to its endorsement platform; and to expand internationally. read article

August 24, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies Completes $20M Venture Capital Round SportsBusiness Daily Digital marketing and endorsement outfit Brand Affinity Technologies has completed a $20M Series C venture capital round, continuing a period of marked growth for the company. Miramar Venture Partners led the round, along with existing BAT investors Newport Coast Investments, RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, Ad Pepper Media International, as well as the Ueberroth Family's CGI Opportunity Fund. The funding is being targeted for a series of initiatives, including the continued buildout of BAT's new interactive product netBAT, a push of the endorsement platform into the music industry, and international expansion. read article

August 18, 2010 Sports and Celeb Websites Go Live with Interactive Content Experience EarthTimes Sports and celebrity websites FantasyFootball.com, Rotowire.com, Hollywoodrag.com, PathToTheDraft.com, SportsAgentBlog.com, and usfutblog.com are now offering consumers an interactive editorial content experience related to their favorite stars. netBAT (www.netbat.com) transforms celebrity images and articles into "portals of engagement" containing multimedia apps highly relevant to the featured content. Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) created this new content experience which makes it easy for people to access and interact with news, video clips, information, social media feeds and more -- without leaving the page they're on. The publishers join popular websites such as New York Daily News and North Jersey Media Group in a bid to keep consumers engaged on-site with the sports and celebrity content that interests them most. read article

August 16, 2010 Instant Endorsements Wonderful Machine Cog Stock photography made it possible to standardize the licensing of images, but a company in Irvine, CA called Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) has taken this to a new level. A recent article in Fortune explains how BAT has converted the celebrity endorsement into a fully automated digital process. read article

August 16, 2010 Former Football Pro-Bowler and USC Legend Pat Haden Tops August List of Rising Sports Stars News-fire Top-ten list ranks greatest monthly popularity gains among sports pros. Pat Haden - the former LA rams quarterback top notched in the August Top 10 list of Rising Sports Stars. Rising Sports Stars releases monthly top ten lists to recognize top 10 sports professionals from all walks of sports who accumulated unusual popularity on the previous month. read article

August 10, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies Selected as AlwaysOn Global 250 Winner Yahoo Finance! Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the AlwaysOn Global 250 winners. Inclusion in the AlwaysOn Global 250 signifies a company's leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players in the "Global Silicon Valley." read article

August 5, 2010 New and Improved USfutblog thanks to netBAT! USFutBlog USfutblog has recently made some changes that we feel will greatly enhance the user-experience on our site. By partnering up with netBAT, users can access twitter, youtube, google, amongst other apps DIRECTLY on our blog without having to leave the page. read article

August 4, 2010 Shaquille O'Neal really wants to go out as a winner! Los Angeles Times Shaquille O'Neal seems desperate for another title...The Big Shamrock won't be the first to play for the Lakers and Boston Celtics, nor would he be the first to win championships with both teams, according to Elias Sports Bureau... read article

August 4, 2010 The future is now: Adventures in advertising CNNMoney.com When my wife, Tatiana Keegan, recently decided to go back to professional competitive ballroom dancing after a six-year absence, I wasn't so much worried about her new partner, a dashing Austrian fellow named Werner Figar with zero body fat and dazzling Latin moves. No, I am a modern man: I was worried about money. As with most minor sports, the economics of ballroom dancing are weighted heavily against athletes (and their long-suffering spouses). There are travel costs, entry fees, equipment, and outfits (in our case, rhinestone-studded dresses) that can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars a year -- all in pursuit of meager prize money. read article

August 4, 2010 Technology to liven up your creative iMedia Connection Advanced targeting and buying the audience are all the rage now. With retargeting, social graph targeting, psychographic targeting, etc., the options are endless for advertisers to cut down on "wasted impressions." Add in the dozens of data providers that allow you to target in-market consumers with ease and the ability has never been higher to reach the right user at the right time. read article

August 3, 2010 Making News Sites Stickier With Apps that Summon the Web Advertising Age NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Websites from Fox Sports, the New York Daily News, the San Antonio Express-News, the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle and others are trying a new system to fight, or rather accommodate, web surfers' fleeting attention spans. read article

August 3, 2010 A New Scheme to Get Web Surfers To Stay Put: Photos All Things Digital Thanks for visiting! Hey! Where are you going! That's a common refrain for most Web publishers, who see readers stop by their sites for a very brief looksee, then bounce away, drawn by a new link. And it's one of the reasons publishers are so smitten with the idea of apps, which promise to keep readers corralled. read article

August 2, 2010 The Future Is Now Fortune Magazine The Internet has upended the music, newspaper, and retail industries. Will it do the same to the $1.1 billion-a-year sports endorsement market? Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), an Irvine, Calif., startup, has developed a suite of web-based tools that help marketers connect with second-tier celebs and essentially "click and drag" their images into advertisements. read article

August 2, 2010 Site Connects Athletes with Brands Seeking Endorsements Digital Digest It's long been recognized that celebrity endorsements can help sell products, but typically it's only the biggest brands and the brightest stars that are lucky enough to strike such deals. Aiming to bring celebrity endorsements into the realm of possibility for all the other brands and professional athletes out there, Brand Affinity Technologies has created a platform focused on creating the right match. read article

July 23, 2010 Bubba Watson Tops List of Rising Stars to Watch in July Sports Networker PGA Tour Travelers Cup champion, Bubba Watson, topped a debut list of Rising Sports Stars to watch in July. Watson survived a six shot deficit and a nail biting three-way playoff to emerge the victor of the June 27 tournament and recorded his first ever win in a PGA Tour event. read article

July 7, 2010 Bubba sweats, but gets into British Open PNJ.com A year ago, Bubba Watson played at storied St. Andrews Golf Club as a tourist. Next week, he returns as a competitor in the British Open. His entry was solidified Sunday night, thanks to England's Justin Rose winning the AT&T National. read article

June 4, 2010 PepsiCo Issues Open Call for Innovation Incubator Program Pepsi PepsiCo today launched an innovation incubator program called PepsiCo10,an open call for promising start-ups in media, communications and technology. In this unprecedented initiative, PepsiCo will select up to 10 aspiring entrepreneurial groups, match them with industry mentors, and join with them to activate pilot programs with PepsiCo brands. Entrepreneurs can find out more information about the PepsiCo10 and apply online now through June 24, 2010: www.pepsico10.com. read article

June 2, 2010 Marketers Look for Safe Endorsers Phone Marketing Insider While most of the analysis of the marketing consequences of the scandals faced by Tiger Woods since November 2009 has focused on what this new world would mean for Woods himself, the great Stuart Elliot points out that the golfer is not, in fact, the only athlete affected by the biggest sports story of the last six months. Elliot convincingly makes the case that marketers, newly sobered by the Tiger Woods endorsement experience, are now embracing safe endorsers, most of whom take the form of retired athletes. Here's Elliot on Yogi Berra-the 85 year-old former Yankees catcher-and his new endorsement deal: read article

June 1, 2010 Player's Choice WIRED For every Derek Jeter streaking across a Gatorade bottle, there are dozens of other great athletes like Giants pitcher Matt Cain who can only dream of selling their likeness to a sports drink. Brand Affinity Technologies hopes to change that. The company connects athletes to clients large and small-from AT&T to the local Nissan dealer. BAT's system is the Moneyball of endorsement deals, extracting value from previously overlooked players. In the process, it?s creating a new Web-based advertising model. read article

May 28, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies = Celebrity Trafficking + Local Store Marketing... Huh? Balihoo As Wired Magazine and the New York Times recently reported, garnering celebrity endorsements (and more specifically, professional athlete endorsements) for TESTIMONIALS is about to become quite the turn-key affair. A company called Brand Affinity Technologies has created an online marketplace that connects local advertisers and what Brand Affinity might call a 'regional celebrity' for use in local marketing and media creative. read article

May 20, 2010 BAT and Intuit Named as 2010 American Business Awards Finalists for Standout Ad Yahoo Finance Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. (BAT), the company reinventing endorsement and celebrity marketing, and Intuit Inc., were named as finalists in the 2010 American Business Awards for best financial services ad. BAT and Intuit were selected from more than 2,700 nominees and are one of nine finalists in their category for their work on the 2010 TurboTax TurboTron endorsement campaign. Winners will be announced June 21 in New York City. read article

April 19, 2010 Social Media, Two Bears, and a Bull: My Night Out with Johnny Knox, Robbie Gould Chicago Now Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to score an invite to a quadrantONE/Brand Affinity Techonologies' social media marketing event at 33 Club in the Gold Coast. read article

April 19, 2010 BAT and Getty Images Expand and Extend Partnership NBC.com Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc. (BAT), the company reinventing endorsement and celebrity marketing, and Getty Images, the world's leading creator and distributor of visual content and other digital media, have expanded their partnership to further ease activation and drive adoption of endorsed advertising campaigns. BAT and Getty Images are making a coordinated effort across sales, marketing, and creative fronts to introduce more advertisers to endorsement marketing opportunities. read article

April 4, 2010 Athletes' Stock Rises in Fashion Industry BlackBook Magazine Forget plus size models. Female athletes, according to a story today in the New York Times, are pushing the boundaries of what the public perceives as 'classic beauty.' Guy Trebay pegs his argument on a long roster of muscular, yet cosmetic endorsement-ready sports stars--from Maria Sharapova and Mia Hamm to the Williams sisters. But a new face, that of women's basketball player Brittney Griner, is apparently giving the cause even more steam. "She is part of a slowly unfolding civilized response in the country to the slightly androgynous female," a scholar tells the paper. "I can imagine a market for that," Paul Rowland--a revered scout at the modeling agency, Women--adds of his potentially signing a gender-bending, yet conventionally "good-looking" female athlete such as Griner. read article

March 23, 2010 O.C. marketer buys sports collectibles firm OC Register Brand Affinity Technologies, Inc., an endorsement marketing firm in Irvine, has acquired Beelya, a La Jolla creator of virtual sports collectibles. read article

March 22, 2010 Lamar Odom, and the Kardashian Effect ESPN When you're watching television for six to eight hours a day -- which many of us do during the NCAA tournament's opening rounds -- you see the same commercials over and over again. Two that stuck out to me last weekend were cell-phone ads. One commercial, for Palm, featured an unknown but flier-than-a-fly-girl woman walking down a city street in a red dress to the timpani rhythm of Mos Def's "Quiet Dog." The other, for Samsung, featured an increasingly familiar pitchman -- Lamar Odom. read article

March 19 2010 Sports Endorsement Firm Eyes Music World Reuters A small company that has opened the door for companies to quickly sign endorsement deals with top athletes is eyeing the music world as its next target market. Brand Affinity Technologies matches companies as large as Sony Corp (6758.T), or as small as a Houston air conditioning, firm with athletes in two weeks or less to endorse products or services. Now it wants to do the same for top singers. read article

February 19, 2010 Internet Advertising News iMedia Connection Brand Affinity Technologies Inc. (BAT), an endorsement marketing company, has acquired privately held La Jolla, Calif.-based Beelya, a creator of authentic, virtual sports collectables. The acquisition allows BAT to extend its portfolio of endorsement offerings, as advertisers look to tap into the power of athlete and celebrity brands. read article

February 4, 2010 Brand Affinity Technology acquires virtual sports collectibles firm Beelya OC METRO Athletic endorsement marketing firm Brand Affinity Technologies has acquired Beelya, a privately held La Jolla company that specializes in virtual sports collectibles. The deal will allow Irvine-based BAT to extend its portfolio of endorsement offerings, which includes appearances and digital, radio, outdoor, print and television advertising featuring more than 3,000 contracted athletes and celebrities. read article

February 3, 2010 Tax Rivals Square Off in Social Media ADWEEK TurboTax and H&R Block are gearing up to do battle again during the tax season, with each banking on social media as a cornerstone of its marketing efforts. Intuit's TurboTax has bet big on Facebook and Twitter integrations, inviting users to review its products and then share their thoughts with their social networks. It hopes to goose that along by unleashing Team TurboTax, consisting of 40 experts to address tax questions posted on Twitter. The company has an ambitious marketing goal this tax season: get 150 million earned media impressions thanks to consumer chatter. read article

February 2, 2010 TurboTax Hitches Ride on 'Super' Buzz MEDIAWEEK Intuit is hitchhiking on the online buzz surrounding the Super Bowl for its latest digital campaign to promote TurboTax. In fact, TurboTax all but tackles consumers by taking over the portal homepages of Yahoo, AOL and MSN both on Super Bowl weekend and the weekend preceding the event. For the host of the TurboTron, Initiative partnered with Brand Affinity Technologies, a sports endorsement online platform for the digital rights to Chris Berman, a nationally renowned ESPN sports anchor. read article

February 2, 2010 Manning's Global Opportunity Forbes SportsMoney Last week we broached the subject of what a second Super Bowl win might mean for Peyton Manning in terms of his standing among the all-time great NFL quarterbacks. How about off-the-field though? Manning already is the NFL's most marketable player by a mile. His endorsements with the likes of MasterCard, Sprint, Gatorade (owned by PepsiCo) and Oreo (owned by Kraft) are worth in the neighborhood of $10 million annually, more than twice as much as any other NFL player. The closest NFL guys to Manning in terms of off-the-field income are two fellow QBs he knows well: his brother Eli and the Patriots' Tom Brady. They both make an estimated $4 million annually. read article

February 1, 2010 Steelbergs' Brand Affinity Technologies Makes Acquisition Orange County Business Journal Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., an advertising startup with technology that aims to automate celebrity endorsement deals, said Monday it bought La Jolla-based Beelya for undisclosed terms. Privately held Beelya strikes licensing deals with professional athletes and other celebrities and sells what's known as virtual sports memorabilia. read article

February 1, 2010 Brand Affinity Technologies Buys Virtual Sports Memorabilia Service Beelya paidContent Brand Affinity Technologies, a sports marketing firm founded by the two Steelberg brothers (who sold dMarc to Google), has done its first acquisition: it has bought La Jolla, CA-based Beelya, the creator of virtual sports collectibles. BAT was launched in 2007, and now says it has 3,300 athletes and celebs in its system; it helps these athletes in endorsement deals in digital, radio, outdoor, print, and TV advertising, appearances, and now, virtual memorabilia, through this acquisition of Beelya. read article

October 29, 2009 BAT brings star power to radio INSIDE RADIO One in ten American commercials includes a celebrity. The reason is simple, they drive sales. Aiming to take that tool to local radio advertisers, dMarc Broadcasting founder Ryan Steelberg's new company Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) has signed 3,000 athletes and celebrities to its roster and brings them to radio. BAT has developed a software solution that not only tracks 20,000 brands but also sorts through mind-numbing details like licensing and copyrights. Steelberg says, "By putting all that data into a platform and building the direct relationships with the buyers, athletes and agents, we can transact very complex negotiations in a couple of days." It also makes it easier for advertisers to do cross-media or radio campaigns targeted to specific region. read article

October 21, 2009 Is New Endorsement Company The Future? CNBC The New York Times recently had a story on Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT). It's a company that seeks to match up corporations and athletes for endorsement deals four days or less. Right now the business is mostly online, so a company can pick an athlete and, if the deal is accepted, that athlete's name and likeness can be in the ad almost immediately. read article

October 19, 2009 A Place Where Sponsors Sign Athletes The New York Times Marketers have been playing a new, more cautious game when it comes to signing athletes as endorsers, winnowing their rosters of jocks peddling products to proven performers with national -- or international -- profiles like LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Serena Williams and Derek Jeter. read article

October 19, 2009 Endorsement Speed Dating! New Contracts Inked In Four Days The Business Insider Those flashy, millions-of-dollars shoe contract deals can take months to hammer out. One company is streamlining the process, offering professional athletes a way to secure endorsement deals in four days. NYT: [New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew] Brees and his representative, Chris Stuart of Encore Sports and Entertainment, have signed with a company called Brand Affinity Technologies, which offers a Web site (brandaffinity.net) as a one-stop-shopping opportunity for advertisers seeking star power in more efficient, and affordable, forms. read article

October 19, 2009 Athletes Available for Endorsements via Quick-and-Easy Tool MediaBuyerPlanner Marketers wishing to sign athletes to tout their products and services have a new tool: Brand Affinity Technologies is a company that offers a website that it calls a "one-stop shopping opportunity" for advertisers who want to line up athletes, quickly and affordably, for their campaigns. read article

October 19, 2009 Four Days is All it Takes for An Advertiser-Athlete Hookup mediabistro.com That seems to be the mantra for Brand Affinity Technologies, a start-up that offers a "one-stop shopping opportunity" for advertisers to hook up with athletes quickly and somewhat on the cheap for TV, outdoor, radio, print and/or online campaigns. Founded by online ad vets Ryan and Chad Steelberg, BAT uses its Platform as its place of business. According to the New York Times, the company, whose platform features more than 3,000 top athletes and celebrities in markets nationwide, aims to "automate the process by which marketers offer contracts to athletes, along with the process by which ads featuring those endorsers are created and produced. read article

October 19, 2009 Whose your favorite human capital brand? THE CHEAP SEATS It seems the days of companies falling over each other to get any one who can shoot a puck, throw a ball or generally perform feats of strength on a professional level are over. Perhaps brands are sick of dealing with the little inconveniences that go along with dog-fighting, drunk-driving, murder, drugs, guns and, maybe worst of all, declining skills. So in order to improve the endorsement opportunities for athletes that find themselves below the LeBron-Tiger-Sidney pantheon, one company has planted its flag in the ground. So to speak. read article

October 19, 2009 Advertising agency hopes that Red Wings fans have 'affinity' for Nicklas Lidstrom Mlive.com Things you didn't think you'd know about Nicklas Lidstrom, entry, um...One. According to the New York Times' Stuart Elliott, Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom is affiliated with a company called "Brand Affinity Technologies," which allows potential advertisers to connect with high-profile clients (like New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees) and speedily cinch endorsement deals. read article

October 8, 2009 Emmis Partners With BAT To Offer Celeb Campaigns Radio INK Emmis Radio is partnering with Brand Affinity Technologies to offer advertisers more than 3,000 athletes and celebrities to endorse their products across Emmis' platforms. The partnership is designed to give regional and national advertisers the ability to easily launch geographically and contextually targeted campaigns. read article

September 10, 2009 BAT, CBS Outdoor Ink Partnership MEDIAWEEK Marketers can now, more easily, bring the endorsements of hometown heroes to hometown billboards. CBS Outdoor has announced a partnership with endorsement marketing company Brand Affinity Technologies which has a network if more than 3,000 athletes and celebrities. The relationship will allow advertisers to incorporate the endorsements of athletes and celebrities from across the country into out-of-home campaigns. read article

August 24, 2009 Corinthian Cuts Back Print, Steps Up Social Networking Orange County Business Journal Irvine-based Brand Affinity Technologies Inc., which looks to hook up celebrities and athletes with advertisers, has struck a pact with Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., parent of the Orange County Register. Brand Affinity has spent the past six months since its inception building alliances with national and local players including Microsoft Corp. and Centro LLC, a Chicago online media planning and buying company. read article

August 17, 2009 Shaquille O'Neal gives you the real deal LA Times Shaq's new reality show is just one in a series of programs recently that give viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of top sports stars. Dan Durbin, a professor at USC's Annenberg School of Communications who specializes in pop culture and sports media, isn't surprised at the proliferation of such sports-star shows scattered across network and cable television. "Athletes have a built-in audience," he said. "Second, athletes have overblown personalities. Reality shows love extreme characters. For example with Terrell Owens, you're seeing extreme outrageous behavior. And that's the point. You want the situation, whatever that situation is, to explode." read article

August 13, 2009 BATting A Thousand At The Hill MediaPost Oh, Murray Hill, you do not disappoint. Ordinarily I avoid Murray Hill because last time I was passing through I got burnt on my algebra teacher arm (you know, the tick-tock skin part) by a cigarette-wielding, slurring, fratboy wannabe. Why wannabe? Because he was at least 45, wearing a rugby shirt, and his cap was on backwards. If not 45, then a rough-looking 30. However, when I got the invitation to attend "The Next Frontier: Endorsement Marketing in the Digital Age" sponsored by Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), Microsoft Advertising, Fox Sports and Centro, my excitement to actually walk to an event won over my fear of a male-saturated, Jerry Maguire-suited huddle. read article

July 15, 2009 How Your Brand Can Grab Star Power iMedia Connection The Steelberg brothers have had an incredible string of success with startups in the advertising industry dating back to 1995. Combined, Ryan and Chad Steelberg have raised more than $150 million in funding and managed more than 400 employees, while creating billions in shareholder value through acquisitions and mergers. read article

June 30, 2009 Changing The Rules Of The Sports Endorsement Game MediaPost's Marketing Daily: Sports Across the nation, fans support their local sports teams with great passion and near-religious devotion. Hometown players aren't just members of the team but part of the extended family. In a single swing of the bat or release of a last-second three, everyday players morph into mythic heroes. They're remembered as saviors and honored as legends. Yet despite the meaningful connections between these beloved athletes and their fans, marketers rarely tap them to endorse products. read article

June 8, 2009 Video: Millard, Steelberg and Romanelli Talk About Celebrity-Endorsement Business At EconAffinity PaidContent.org One of the highlights of our EconAffinity: Capitalizing on User Engagement conference last week was an interview Media Link President Wenda Harris Millard conducted with Brand Affinity Technologies President & CEO Ryan Steelberg and Getty Images VP of Sports Business Development Carmin Romanelli. In the interview, they discussed how BAT—in partnership with Getty Images—is trying to change the athlete- and celebrity-endorsement business. Play VIDEO

May 18, 2009 Centro and BAT Step to the Plate MediaPost Brand Affinity Technologies -- which matches mostly pro athletes with online advertisers -- has partnered with online media planning company Centro to target consumers in local markets. read article

May 4, 2009 Microsoft Advertising Will Offer Customers Access To Pitchpeople paidContent Microsoft's online advertising arm is throwing its weight behind Brand Affinity Technologies, which is trying to bring celebrity product pitches to the web. read article

May 4, 2009 Brand Affinity Reaches Deal With Microsoft Advertising SportsBusiness Journal California-based Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT) has struck a partnership with Microsoft Advertising in which BAT's online Platform for creating and executing celebrity endorsements will be embedded within the software giant's ad platform that is among the largest on the Internet. read article

May 4, 2009 Microsoft Advertising and Brand Affinity Technologies Team Up to Add Celebrity Star Power to Advertisers' Digital Campaigns Smart Brief New, innovative advertising medium puts athlete and celebrity endorsements at the fingertips of advertisers and publishers. read article

May 4, 2009 Microsoft in Deal to Support Pro Athlete Endorsements in Web Ads ClickZ Product endorsements from athletes are a natural for advertising, but problems of scale tend to restrict such deals to a small number of marketers and big name sports figures. That could change under a preferred portal relationship between Microsoft and Brand Affinity Technologies. read article

May 1, 2009 OC METRO's 40 Under 40: Ryan Steelberg OC METRO Magazine Thirty-five-year-old Ryan Steelberg has earned a reputation as one of the leading experts in digital and online media, and his company, Brand Affinity Technologies, matches an impressive number of athletes and other celebrities with advertisers. read article

April 6, 2009 Brothers Launch Latest Startup for Celebrity Ads Orange County Business Journal Orange County technology startup veterans Ryan and Chad Steelberg are at it again. read article

March 30, 2009 Getty Images, BAT strike deal on photo use SportsBusiness Journal Getty Images has struck a partnership with California-based online advertising startup Brand Affinity Technologies in which Getty's extensive library of athlete and celebrity photos will be accessible to BAT clients. read article

March 19, 2009 Celebrity Endorsements: New Data Valuable The Sports Business Advisor Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), a service matching celebrities (including athletes) with advertisers, funded a study showing a linkage between endorsements and advertising “return on investment.” read article

March 18, 2009 Athletes' Endorsements A Hit For Online Advertisers MediaPost Celebrity endorsements are as old as advertising itself, and a new study conducted by Insight Express finds that the practice has remained relevant in an increasingly digital world. read article

March 17, 2009 Branding Service Offers up Athletes and Celebrities for Online Ads ClickZ "A Slam Dunk for Your Legal Needs," reads the online ad for LegalZoom.com that features an image of Basketball Hall of Fame member Walt Frazier dribbling a basketball. Another ad for the online legal document service shows off the fast footwork of Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Hester reads, "My Best Offense." read article