General Motors? Chevrolet is promoting its Cruze sedan with an exclusive sponsorship of the ESPN College Bowl Mania mobile Web portal.

In this game, college football fans pick the winners of each bowl game and can also enter confidence values for each game, with the objective to get the most games correct with the highest confidence. With its sponsorship, Chevrolet is targeting ESPN's audience of sports enthusiasts, whose demographics skew male. 

?We aim to serve sports fans, and none are more passionate than those of college football,? said Jay Lee, senior director of mobile product development and digital media at ESPN, Bristol, CT. ?With the app and mobile Web, we wanted to deliver great content from our BCS and college football experts like Brad Edwards, Todd McShay and Erin Andrews.

?Both are also great ways to drive tune-in including ESPN?s exclusive coverage of the BCS,? he said. ?The target demographic is college football fans ages 18-54.?

The Chevrolet Cruze is a globally developed compact sedan that is designed, manufactured and retailed by GM.

Chevrolet targets sports fans on the go
Fans can access Bowl Mania from ESPN Mobile Web, from ESPN?s Bowl Bound application for iPhone and Android, or by entering http://espn.mobi/bowl into their phone?s Web browser. 

Sponsored by Chevrolet, this game uses the standard Pick?Em engine in place on ESPN?s mobile Web site.

The header of the mobile portal says ?Presented by Chevrolet Cruze? with the brand?s logo.

Banner ads of various size carry rotating messages such as ?College Bowl Mania presented by the all-new Chevrolet Cruze,? ?Two front-row seats to featurepalooza. The all-new Chevrolet Cruze? and ?Small just got big. The all-new Chevrolet Cruze. Learn more.?

Users that click on the Cruze ads are redirected to Chevrolet?s mobile Web site, which has information about various vehicles.

There are also click-to-download banners promoting various applications, including Chevrolet Showroom and Chevy Baseball.

ESPN Bowl Bound 2010 app
ESPN  has launched the new ESPN Bowl Bound 2010 application for iPhone and Android devices.

Bowl Bound is the fan?s companion to all 35 college football bowl games, including all five BCS games exclusive to ESPN for the first time.

The free application features video highlights, analysis and interviews featuring ESPN?s football experts, players and coaches, as well as weekly projections for all 35 bowl games from ESPN?s BCS expert Brad Edwards.

The rankings section of the application includes BCS and ESPN power rankings with a comments section.

The application also features premium video from ESPN talent including Brad Edwards, Todd McShay and Erin Andrews, as well as video alerts, injury updates and upset alerts.

Users of the application can access bowl news, columns and blogs, as well as scores and schedules including tune-in for all bowl and BCS matchups on ESPN?s family of networks.

Additionally, for $2.99, fans will be able to access exclusive, premium video content unavailable on any other platform.

ESPN is getting the word out about the application and the College Bowl Mania mobile portal with cross-channel marketing spanning online, mobile on-device and TV adverting across ESPN platforms.

?Sponsorship opportunities are relevant for this audience, in addition to upselling premium content,? Mr. Lee said.

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Marketer

Draftfcb's Kim Luegers

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