If you’re thinking about buying flowers on Valentine’s Day, perhaps Drew Brees can now help convince you.
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Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints looks to pass against the Minnesota Vikings during the NFC Championship Game at the Louisiana Superdome on January 24, 2010 in New Orleans, LA.
Provide Commerce, owner of online flower Web site ProFlowers, signed a deal this week that will give the company the rights to use the New Orleans Saints quarterback’s image in its digital advertising for a period of two weeks beginning next Monday, Feb. 1.
The deal was made possible through Brand Affinity Technologies or BAT.
The company aggregates the rights of athletes in advance and promises to be able to match them up with interested parties within a couple of days. Deals like Brees’ ProFlowers contract are the easiest since the quarterback won’t have any speaking role, but the fact that a deal has been struck since the Saints made it into the Super Bowl is a good sign for the company.
BAT CEO Ryan Steelberg told me that his company is ideal for athletes and companies looking to capitalize on something like the two-week marketing window before the Super Bowl.
BAT has 22 Saints and 18 Colts on its roster of players willing to hear proposals from companies. Steelberg suggests that savvy companies might want to sign a player to a deal before the big game that extends beyond it.
“We have Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, Marques Colston and Pierre Thomas,” Steelberg said. “We can do deals for these guys within 24 hours.”
Edible Arrangements recently signed Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma for an online and social media campaign that will begin this Thursday and run through the Monday after the Super Bowl.
BAT has previously helped Brees sign a national digital deal with Ford, but Steelberg says the Internet and e-mail marketing campaign with ProFlowers proves that Brees’ success is opening up the doors to more deals.
“Drew’s appeal definitely ranges outside those who are interested in the core sports,” Steelberg said. “The fact that a flowers company wants to do something with him says that he doesn’t just speak to men, but to women as well.”
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