Apple confirms it’s become official sponsor of Super Bowl Host Committee

Apple ad 1984

Friday, Apple confirmed to Daniel Roberts at Yahoo Finance that it’s signed up for the first time to become a sponsor of the Super Bowl Host Committee.

In sponsoring the host committee, which finances and organizes the logistics behind putting on the big game, Apple won’t be offered the same perks that are available to companies that sponsor the Super Bowl itself, such as billboards and signage around the stadium or use of the NFL’s official logo.

That may not matter to Apple at all, however, as the move is probably linked to this week’s news that the company is trying to get the rights to stream NFL games in London.

“Apple was the very first company of all our sponsors to step up. And the reason they did that is because they realized that it was important to Silicon Valley,” said Super Bowl Host Committee CEO, Keith Bruce.

He said the company told them a few years ago that such sponsorship would be a smart move. “This is the right thing to do. We’re building a mega campus that will be a stone’s throw from the stadium,” said Apple.

Here’s Apple’s legendary “1984” Super Bowl commercial for the original Macintosh.

“They have no interest in the marketing rights, they have no interest in using our logo. But they’re promoting the partnership a lot internally to their employees,” said Bruce.

So why isn’t Apple interested in use of the NFL’s official logo? “Their opinion,” Bruce says, “is that the NFL should pay them for the right to use their mark. Because their mark is more valuable than the NFL shield.”

In addition to Apple’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, other Silicon Valley companies will have a seat on the host committee advisory board this year, including Yahoo’s boss Marissa Mayer, Google’s senior vice president of corporate development, David Drummond, HP’s executive vice president and senior customer officer, John Henshaw, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and SoftBank CEO Nikesh Arora.

Which brings me to this: does Apple’s sponsorship deal hint that the company might run a Super Bowl ad during this year’s game?

Source: Yahoo Finance