What does Pioneer have to gain by sponsoring the Las Vegas Bowl?

Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

Who: BYU (10-2) vs. Oregon (7-5)

Where: Sam Boyd Stadium

When: 5 p.m. Dec. 21

Tickets: Sold out

TV: ESPN

It might be hard to quantify, but officials from Pioneer Electronics are convinced that their three-year association as title sponsor of the Las Vegas Bowl is paying dividends.

The Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl, which kicks off at 5 p.m. Dec. 21 at Sam Boyd Stadium, will pit BYU against Oregon in a game that is sold out for the second year in a row.

While a capacity crowd is a nice touch, the fact that the event is the only college bowl game that evening and is being televised nationally on ESPN is of greater importance to the game's sponsor.

"That it's on ESPN nationally on a good day at a good time with some good teams - those are probably the most important and beneficial factors," said Lisa Herdman, vice president and associate director of network programming for Rubin Postaer and Associates, the advertising agency that brought together Pioneer Electronics and the Las Vegas Bowl.

Pioneer's decision to extend its title sponsorship for a third year was made a little easier when last year's game, which featured BYU and Cal, drew a 2.4 national rating and was the seventh most-watched of the 20 bowl games ESPN broadcast last year.

Actually, Pioneer's sponsorship of the Las Vegas Bowl is only one part of a larger alliance between the company's Home Entertainment Division and ESPN. Pioneer is the high-definition sponsor of every college football game broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2 this season and regularly advertises in the network's magazine and on its Web site. (ESPN Regional Television, a subsidiary of ESPN Inc., owns the Las Vegas Bowl.)

"We actually are involved in this event to align ourselves with high-definition sports performances," said Russ Johnston, senior vice president of marketing and product planning for Pioneer's Home Entertainment Division.

"From a business perspective, we sell high-definition plasmas, we sell high-definition Blu-ray optical disc players, and for us to continue to align with people who enjoy sports and also enjoy high-definition, (the bowl-game sponsorship) was a very critical element for us."

College football is a natural vehicle for a company that is in the business of selling high-definition plasma TVs, according to RPA marketing director Kirt Danner.

"We've targeted ... college football sports programming as a very bull's-eye target for who is out there buying HD plasma television," Danner said.

And while it's impossible to determine how many units Pioneer is selling as a direct result of its title sponsorship of the game, Johnston said, he couldn't be happier with his company's association with the Las Vegas Bowl and believes his company is achieving what it set out to accomplish by serving as the title sponsor.

"For us, we have to remind people that we're in the category," he said. "Once they get to the store, they're definitely going to see our performance and see our product ... and when they do see us, it gives them a bit more confidence when they're putting down $2,500 or $5,000 on a television."