Toyota Motor North America signed on as North American Launch Partner of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s Overwatch League, a professional video gaming competition with esports franchises in Boston, London, Los Angeles, Miami-Orlando, New York, San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai.
The partnership, a first for the Plano, Texas-based automaker, will include an Access Granted video series that features behind-the-scenes content, “centered around the unique journey of the esports athlete.” Blizzard Entertainment’s MLG division will produce the series and promote it during live match broadcasts from Blizzard Arena Los Angeles. Toyota also plans to display its C-HR crossover at the venue.
“When we were building the league, our desire was to create a premium experience for players and fans, and partners like Toyota are helping us do just that,” the president and chief executive of Blizzard Entertainment’s MLG division, Pete Vlastelica, said in a statement.
Blizzard is based in Irvine. Its parent company, Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard Inc., bought esports league Major League Gaming in 2016 for an estimated $40 million. “Overwatch” is a first-person, multiplayer futuristic shooter game with 35 million subscribers that’s grown into a $1 billion business for Activision Blizzard since its May 2016 launch. The first season of the Overwatch League began on Jan. 10 and runs through May—tickets for all four days of opening week were sold out. Playoffs and finals are scheduled for July.
PIRCH at SoCo
South Coast Collection shopping center in Costa Mesa was abuzz last week when prominent appliance tenant Pirch hosted a gathering to celebrate the “brand’s return to its California roots.” Amid bites made on premises and lively tunes played by the Gypsy Dolls band, the Oceanside-based company introduced a trade-loyalty program—PIRCH BLACK—that enables customers to amass points for each dollar spent with the retailer.
The 300,000-square-foot center, known as SOCO, fronts the San Diego (405) Freeway and focuses on interior design, culinary and boutique tenants, including HD Buttercup, Roche Bobois and Room & Board. Pirch’s assortment of brands includes BainUltra, Bertazzoni, Duravit, DXV, La Cornue, Gaggenau, Gessi, Graff, Kalamazoo, Kallista, Kohler, Miele, Rohl, Sub-Zero, Wolf, Thermador, Watermark and Viking. Its other locations are in Glendale, Rancho Mirage and San Diego.
Lemons’ Le Mans
Yokohama Tire Corp. in Santa Ana is sponsoring 24 Hours of Lemons, a “madcap race series featuring cars that cost $500 or less (not including tires, of course, plus safety equipment, wheels, etc.).”
The parody of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s oldest active sports endurance race held annually since 1923 in France, often features “stretch limos, junked Maseratis to sturdy Toyotas, beaten-down BMWs and Camaro-eating Mustangs” in the lineup.
“Even really bad cars deserve really good tires,” said auto journalist Jay Lamm, who launched the race in 2006. “Lemon racers need all of the help they can get, and I’m delighted that Yokohama is onboard and giving us some credibility.”
The sponsorship is “unconventional to say the least,” said Fardad Niknam, Yokohama’s senior director of consumer product planning and product marketing. “But everyone has a good time and it’s certainly the first racing series we’ve been involved with where the tires cost more than the cars.”
Yokohama is the North American manufacturing and marketing arm of Tokyo-based Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd., a global manufacturing and sales company of tires since 1917.
Bits & Pieces
Bruni Media LLC in Aliso Viejo acquired Minneapolis-based Click Media on undisclosed terms. Chief Executive Sam Bruni referred to the deal as a “merger” representing “another step in our strategy to offer a full service, modern day agency with both traditional and digital media opportunities for our clients specializing in marketing, advertising, media planning, e-commerce, digital/data transformation and production.”
