by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
If you listen to AM-1010 in the morning, you have probably heard Dan Hicken, Jeff Prosser or Tony Boselli mention more than a few times it’s “MPS Group Tuesday.”
Go to a Jaguars game and look towards the south end zone — there’s the MPS Group Terrace Suite.
You may have gone to a Jacksonville University basketball game last year courtesy of MPS Group and there’s another freebie coming this season.
All of these and others are facets of the staffing company’s local sports sponsorship portfolio. The addition of the annual WTA event — now the MPS Group Championships — last week marks the company’s entry into women’s tennis.
MPS Group is a Jacksonville-based Fortune 1000 company that just happens to be one of the biggest staffing companies in the country. The company has eight divisions and does business in Canada, the United Kingdom and in other parts of Europe. You might know them best as the company that occupies several floors of Independent Square. Or, depending on your needs, you may know them as the company that provides everything from temporary attorneys to IT consulting. Overall, MPS Group includes technology companies Beeline, Modis, Modis International and Idea Integration; Special Counsel (legal); Soliant Health; Entegee (engineering); and Badenoch & Clark and Accounting Principals, two accounting and finance staffing firms.
None of these have much to do with sports or sports sponsorship. However, throughout the company is a prevalent emphasis on two things: personal fitness and giving back to the Jacksonville community. Company executives say they stress both internally and externally.
“I think it’s a way to give back to the community and it’s all done in places that let our employees participate,” said Tyra Tutor, senior vice president of corporate development for MPS Group.
Tutor said the company also sponsors the Gate River Run Expo and encourages employees to run by paying their entry fee and providing new running shoes to those who want them. MPS Group also used to sponsor Patton Park, the City’s multi-use athletic facility on San Pablo Road.
At face value, the multiple sponsorships put the MPS Group name and logo in front of tens of thousands of people on an annual basis. From a corporate perspective, the sponsorships accomplish what every sponsor seeks — name recognition, whether it’s locally or on a national stage. Tutor said the sponsorships also help in the recruitment of employees by making the MPS Group name familiar to both veteran jobseekers and college graduates looking for their first “real” job.
Mark Stevens, vice president of marketing and strategic sales support for MPS Group, said the sponsorship of the tennis tournament — which is moving from Amelia Island to Sawgrass Country Club — will cost a “good chunk of change” and added the combined costs of sponsoring the tournament and the Terrace Suite exceeds $1 million annually. In his role, Stevens is responsible for the logistics of the company’s sponsorships and assuring the name is marketed effectively.
While it may seem as if MPS Group will sponsor just about any worthwhile event that comes along, Stevens said he does say “no” on occasion. Because of the company’s wide reach in Jacksonville, its corporate connections run deep. And, yes, there are requests to sponsor lesser events and even youth teams and organizations.
“Sometimes you have to say no, especially if it goes against the framework of our business goals,” said Stevens. “We do a lot on the charity side. But, we have to be opportunistic regarding our sponsorships.”
The biggest — and most expensive — sponsorship opportunity in town is home to the Jaguars. Since the deal with Alltel expired after the 2006-07 season, the stadium has carried the generic, non-revenue-producing name of Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Given the number of football games played every year in Jacksonville — eight Jaguars home games and three major college games — both Tutor and Stevens acknowledge the lure of the stadium. They also both realize it represents a whole new level of sponsorship commitment — one that’s multiyear and in the tens of millions of dollars.
“I think we feel pretty comfortable where we are in Jacksonville,” said Stevens, adding the company will likely look first to other markets such as Washington, D.C., the company’s largest market. “We will continue to explore our opportunities.”
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