How Avnet’s Diamondback jersey sponsorship is paying off

The postseason success the Arizona Diamondbacks have had the last few weeks has put the young team in front of a lot more eyes on a national level. Also getting a lot more attention is Phoenix-based technology distributor and solutions provider Avnet Inc. (Nasdaq: AVT), which has its logo on the Diamondbacks jerseys.

An Avnet logo patch is featured on the sleeve of the Major League Baseball team and is visible on TV throughout the game — but especially when the Diamondbacks are up to bat.

The team and the company track how many impressions the logo is making each game and Phil Gallagher, Avnet’s CEO, told the Business Journal that he was already satisfied with the sponsorship deal — but seeing the team sweep through the first two rounds of the playoffs and make the NLCS is icing on the cake.

“We’re in a bonus lane now with the playoffs – this is huge now with the national scale that we’re going to get in visibility,” Gallagher said. “We’re very pleased. Our employees are enjoying it.Not to mention that we get some customers and suppliers that like to get out to the game.”

Avnet is one of 11 companies that have sponsored a jersey patch for an MLB team. When the Diamondbacks and Avnet announced the deal in February, it was only the third to do so.

Not the usual sponsor

Avnet, which is a B2B company, doesn’t do a lot of mass marketing and doesn’t fit the profile for a usual sports sponsor, which made the patch pitch a little harder for them.

“We’re a B2B. We’re not selling beer and potato chips,” Gallagher said. “In order to come up with a hard ROI I can’t just sell more beer and more potato chips.”

But after a lot of discussions with Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall, Cullen Maxey, the team’s executive vice president of business operations, and Steve Mullins, the D-backs senior vice president of corporate partnerships, Gallagher and his leadership team realized the return on his investment won’t just be getting new customers. Rather, the partnership could fulfill some of his company’s goals with working in and giving to the community. For the first year, the most visible return on Avnet’s investment has come in the form of community and employee engagement.

“The D-backs are all about the community,” Gallagher said. “What they do for STEM – science, technology, engineering, math – education, their giving back to the community, the work they do with St. Vincent de Paul, it all really aligned with our values.”

Over the season, Avnet sponsored several giving events with the Diamondbacks, including the 50-50 raffle at the games and awarding a total of $250,000 in college STEM scholarships to 14 unsuspecting students at a surprise ceremony during a Diamondbacks game in May.

“We had never done anything like this before,” Gallagher said. “This is a big step for us, but we felt that the two A’s aligned together – the Arizona Diamondbacks and Avnet.”

Employees and clients notice

The excitement of the 2023 season wasn’t limited to Chase Field, where the D-backs play their home games. Gallagher said the team has become part of the Avnet work life, with members of the Diamondbacks and even the mascot Baxter making appearances at the Avnet offices. Avnet was also able to have an employee day at Chase Field — employees and their families got to go on the field, hit balls and check out the World Series trophy.

“From employee recruiting and engagement perspective, it’s really been terrific,” Gallagher said.

A lot of Avnet’s clients and suppliers have reached out to Gallagher when they saw the patch on TV. One CEO even called Gallagher up after seeing the patch on national TV and asked him some details about doing a sponsorship like that.

The patch also has been noticed by other sports teams and companies, and Gallagher said he and his marketing team have been getting a lot of calls and pitches to sponsor other teams and events across the country.

“We’re sticking with the D-backs right now. It was a bit experimental, but we signed up for a multiple-year opportunity with the D-backs and we’re going to stick with that,” Gallagher said.

Still, Avnet has been increasingly doing more sports related marketing. The company was involved with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee this past year and is working with the Final Four Host Committee and the WM Phoenix Open. Gallagher said he’s only getting involved with sports in Arizona right now because that is where the company is headquartered and that is where he wants to embrace the broader community.

Diamondbacks’ perspective

Diamondbacks executive Hall told the Business Journal that Avnet’s involvement has led to some inquires from new sponsors — he expects Avnet’s happiness with the deal to help the D-backs land new sponsors in the future.

“We’re going to be able to point to Avnet as being a success and that others can do it too,” Hall said.

With the success of the team, Hall said he’s been able to sign on several new partners during the 2023 season, including Chas Roberts A/C & Plumbing Inc., which inked a multi-year deal with the Diamondbacks.

But Hall is appreciative of Gallagher and Avnet’s commitment, which happened before the season when Hall and Gallagher didn’t know what to expect from 2023 team.

“The way the team’s playing far exceeded [Gallagher’s] expectations and they’re hearing from a lot of customers about how exciting it is for them to see the Avnet logo [on TV and at the games],” Hall said. “And we’ve heard that from a lot of the corporate partners.”

While Hall says the exposure in the playoffs is beneficial for its corporate sponsors, Gallagher jokes that Avnet has also been a “good luck charm for Derrick and the D-backs.”

“I just sent him an email, telling him ‘you can, he can thank me later,'” Gallagher said.