Castrol’s sponsorship went well beyond just banner ads. The entire site was skinned with Castrol logos and its colors. Plus, it cleverly branded some of buttons and site features. The result was that the Sporting News was the number one referring site to Castrol (even more than Google, how many sites can say that?). For Castrol, clearly this was a very successful campaign.

It is great to see an example of advertising working in the fantasy sports industry. But, something to note is that Castrol’s presence was a persistent one. Frequent visitors associated the brand with the fantasy football game and eventually needed to check out Castrol’s site. If you just run banner ads, you do not get that kind of response. If you fully integrate with a site, you can still get some great results.

By the way, the site now appears to be sponsored by Prestone anti-freeze, another product that appeals to that mostly male demographic.

Kudos to Sporting News and Castrol for developing a relationship that worked for the both them.

The chance to interact with a football legend is definitely a big thrill for some fantasy players, and should help Trench Fantasy get more attention. Historically, endorsement by real athletes has had mixed results for fantasy sports companies, but since Trench Fantasy is appealing to a different kind of fantasy player, it may work. Fantasy players that are interested in defenses may get a much bigger thrill out of competing against Ronnie Lott than a regular fantasy player might.

In addition to Ronnie Lott, Trench Fantasy has also signed on Richard Dent, Lincoln Kennedy, John Randle, and a number of other trench legends, as it outlined in its article Play Trench Fantasy Heads Up Against Our Ambassadors!

I will now leave you with this Ronnie Lott highlight reel: