Looking to expand its popular Super Bowl party concept beyond the big game, Maxim magazine has teamed up with sports marketing company Skylight Entertainment to launch parties based around major sporting events throughout the year.
The expanded Maxim party schedule begins in just weeks, at April’s Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA. Here, the “Maxim Country Club” aims to create an upscale club feel in a smaller, more intimate setting than is usual for a Maxim party. Features of the Masters party will include Odyssey golf, as well as Lamborghinis displayed onsite.
The following month, the party moves to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, where, on the eve of the race, patrons are promised a memorable evening featuring signature cocktails. As with previous Maxim parties, the target audience for these events will be corporate executives and their clients who want the chance to mingle with athletes and celebrities.
In recent years, the market for such events has grown steadily, as corporations — and celebrities — look to capitalize on the natural promotional opportunities surrounding large-scale sporting events while boosting their brands in the process. For example, at this year’s Super Bowl, the Dallas Cowboys offered fans the opportunity watch the game on big screen televisions in a party plaza outside the stadium. Tickets to the screening cost $200 each, and prices escalated to $330 each in the final days leading up to the game.
Skylight Entertainment president Robert Tuchman recently spoke with TicketNews, stating that he has been a keen observer of the power of the Maxim brand and what it can do. “I realized… when the Maxim Super Bowl ticket was going for more money on the secondary market then an actual Super Bowl ticket, there was tremendous value there.” Tuchman is pleased with his company’s new working relationship with the popular magazine: “I love it, it has opened up a lot of doors and the ability to be creative with brands that want to be part of the Maxim experience.”
The task of setting up such events can be enormous, though Tuchman, who has nearly fifteen years of experience in the field, said he appreciates how much easier it has become over the years. “The good thing is we control all the ticket inventory, so it’s very different from when I was having to go out and purchase tickets for events. I like this side of the table a lot better.”
Since launching his own sports and celebrity marketing and promotion business in 1997, Tuchman has spent many years cultivating relationships with corporate executives, indentifying and managing theirs and their clients’ entertainment needs. Following the 2006 sale of his company, Tuchman continued to work with the new interest, Premiere Global Sports, which in recent years has developed into one of the largest sports hospitality companies in the country. Then, in February of this year, Tuchman launched The Skylight Group, with hopes of developing a variety of sports and entertainment businesses from this base. Included in this plan is Skylight Entertainment, with its primary goal of building and expanding Maxim’s party roster.
“Events are becoming much more about all the happenings around the event rather than the game or tournament itself,” says Tuchman. “It’s pretty incredible, but these events have become spring break for corporate types.” Tuchman hopes that with the new partnership, Skylight and Maxim together can capitalize on this new and growing market.
