Yokohama Tire Signs Baseball Sponsorship Agreement

Yokohama Rubber’s North American manufacturing and marketing arm, Yokohama Tire Corporation, has added baseball to the range of sporting codes its sponsors through the signing of a deal with the Los Angeles Angels. The company comments that the Angels’ signing of free-agent Hideki Matsui – the Japanese player affectionately known as “Godzilla” – made the team a good fit. The agreement between Yokohama Tire and the Los Angeles Angels includes signage behind home plate and in the “Angel Stadium of Anaheim” outfield; pre-game, post-game and in-game spots on the Angels flagship radio station throughout the season; in-stadium displays and in-game announcements on the public address system and LED scoreboard; as well as hospitality opportunities at select games.

“Yokohama has had great success the last three years with NFL sponsorships in Baltimore and Cleveland, with the NBA in Boston and San Antonio and with college football teams like USC and UCLA,” said Dan King, Yokohama vice president, sales and marketing. “Our dealers are able to generate store traffic and create local consumer excitement within the communities.

“Sports sponsorships offer incredible brand visibility and are a great platform to promote our line-up of tyres, King added. “Now we’ve entered baseball, a perfect fit for us because of its immense popularity in the US and Japan.”

According to Yokohama Tire president and CEO Takao Oishi, the tyre maker worked with the Angels to create a package focused on raising brand recognition and driving consumer traffic to its dealers in the Los Angeles/Orange County region. “We partnered with the Angels to develop a deal that is advantageous at various levels,” said Oishi. “YTC is receiving amazing exposure throughout the second largest market in the country and, as we’ve experienced with our NBA and NFL sponsorships, we expect our dealers to increase their sales through our connection with a sports team that has loyal, dedicated fans like the Angels have.

“We were considering baseball sponsorship opportunities even before Matsui signed with the Angels in the off-season,” Oishi added. “Now it makes even more sense for Yokohama to get involved with the ballclub, which plays less than ten miles from our US headquarters, and to support the team that’s the new home for one of Japan’s sports icons.”