Venue management company ASM Global is expanding its partnership division with Jason Oberlander, who has been hired as chief commercial officer. Oberlander will be tasked with expanding ASM’s naming rights and marketing partnerships for the company’s arenas, stadiums, theaters and convention centers.
“We have the scale, consumer touchpoints and ability to integrate brands in—to music, sports, business, tech and more—that will drive value for the brands, content providers, venue partners and guests,” said ASM President and CEO Ron Bension in a release. “Jason’s extensive experience, particularly with IMG in forging new national partnerships with Fortune 1000 brands, will provide far and away the most diverse and enriching opportunities the industry has ever seen.”
Oberlander was most recently the svp of national sales for sports marketing company Learfield IMG College, which holds the multimedia rights to more than 200 of the nation’s top collegiate athletic properties.
“ASM’s growth potential is unlimited,” Oberlander said in a release. “We’re the world’s largest live-event marketing platform, which enables us to deliver fan-engagement opportunities to brands across the guest journey; and we can do it on a scale that no one else can deliver.”
ASM Global was formed in 2019 as a merger between AEG Facilities and SMG to create a standalone venue management mega-company with a portfolio of more than 325 venues. ASM Global, in concert with AEG Global Partnerships, has been active in recent months in securing naming rights and other ASM Global corporate partnerships. Key naming rights include the Coca-Cola Music Hall and Distro T-Mobile in Puerto Rico; the renamed T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri; and the AO Arena in Manchester, England.
“Fans are craving live-event experiences more than ever, and brands will want to be a part of those moments. No one has the breadth of events, venues, tenant partners and boots on the ground like ASM,” Oberlander added. “At a full run, there are 164 million people coming through our venues. That’s more than the four major U.S. professional sports leagues combined. We are very excited to show brand partners what we’re planning.”