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Verve Energy drink has announced that they will be sponsoring the NBA’s first outdoor basketball in over 30 years. The event, which will feature the Phoenix Suns (who the company already has a deal with) and Denver Nuggets, will be called the Verve Classic. The healthy energy drink company is hoping that the game will become an annual event.

The preseason game will be played on October 11th at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, CA, just outside of Palm Springs. The Tennis Garden is a relatively new arena that was chosen because it has the look of an NBA arena, but without the roof. The center holds over 16,000 people and has 44 suites.

Tickets range in price from $10 dollars to $100 dollars and can be purchased through ticketmaster. You can also check out the Verve website for more info. Verve, along with its parent company, Vemma-www.vemma.com will be holding a contest where winners can get free tickets.

The game will be aired nationally, exclusively on the TNT network.

Popularity: 1% [?]

YTB Travel Network Inc. - a direct sales company that sells travel packages through independent agents, is partnering up with the Kansas City Chiefs professional football team to help provide travel to the games for all of their fans.

The Travel Company will work with the professional football team to administer all online and fan based travel through the teams official travel website, www.chiefstravel.com

Chiefs fans who book through the site can chose from a variety of travel packages, and also get the opportunity to win some pretty cool prizes, including autographed memorabilia, a trip on the official Chiefs celebrity cruise, tickets to use a suite on game day and even the opportunity to become a “chief for a day.”

“Fan support at home and also on the road has been a vital ingredient in the success of this franchise over the last 20 years,” Chiefs President Carl Peterson said in a statement. “Moreover, with this new travel program we can reward our fans for that support, as each time they book travel -whether business or personal, related to Chiefs games or not -they have the opportunity to win any number of special prizes from watching a pre-season game from a luxury suite, becoming a Chiefs player for a day and enjoying other fan friendly experiences.”

I’m not sure if every team has a website dedicated to fan travel, but if not, it’s a great idea. Fans are what keep the team going, and for many fans, they are very willing to spend big bucks to see their team play and win, even if it means traveling to another state. Another plus is that many NFL fans are male, and men Love someone doing all the planning for them. Now, the Chiefs fans can simply go to the fan travel site and have the entire game trip experience done or them.

The move by YTB is beginning to look like a trend for MLM companies partnering with professional sports teams. Just two months ago, Verve (Vemma) did a deal with the Phoenix Suns which was the first of its kind as well. Expect to see more of these strategic deals as they provide great exposure to the companies that hook up with these franchises.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Everyone knows the energy drink business is going through the roof.  Larger companies like Red Bull, Monster, RockStar and so many others have been leaders in this craze which is starting to account for a significant percentage of beverage sales across the US.  Network Marketing firms have latched onto this buzz (no pun intended) and added their own varieties - most of which are all natural and contain high amounts of nutrients and organic products.

ForeverGreen launched Amplifire and has seen some pretty amazing sales of its product.  While the company wont release specific details of the product sales until its convention next month, in looking at some of their financial reports we can pretty much presume that they are generating almost $500k per month and growing (Their flagship product FrequenSea accounts for about $1.3M per month in sales). 

While $6M a year in revenue for an energy drink may seem like a small amount considering the multi-billion dollar marketplace, as companies like Vemma know with their product Verve, if you start getting a following, people will want the product and consume it frequently.

In May we are going to do a profile on all of the Energy Drinks in the market and give a review to hopefully let people know what we think works and what is just fizz.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Each year, MLM Insider conducts a poll in which thousands of people vote in select categories related to the Network Marketing industry. For 2007, the results have just been released and while some may be a given, there were a few surprises as well.

The number one Distributor Choices Best Companies in Network Marketing for 2007 was USANA. They were followed by:
2. XanGo
3. Agel
4. 4-Life
5. Bestway
6. Isagenix
7. Sisel (new comer)
8. Intway
9. Monavie
10. Freelife

They also had an Editor’s selection of the best companies in 2007 and the results were a bit different:
1. Amazon Herb
2. ForeverGreen
3. Freelife
4. Isagenix
5. Jerky Direct
6. Oxyfresh
7. Reliv
8. USANA
9. Vitamark
10. XanGo

What was interesting about the differences in the lists was that 70% of the editor’s picks didnt make it to the Distributors choices. Hmmm…how many of the companies on the Editors list are advertisers?  Nothing wrong with a little support of your sponsors.

There was also a top five Distributors Choice for Best Trainer:
1. Dennis Waitley (Featured in The Secret)
2. Randy Gage (Author of “Why You’re Dumb Sick and Broke”)
3. Michael Oliver (Founder of Natural Selling Sales Training)
4.  Tim Sales (Owner of Brilliant Exchange)
5.  Dani Johnson (Author of Spirit Driven Success)

Noticeably missing were companies like - Herbalife, Avon, Mary Kay, Tahitian Noni and Quixtar. 

We have prepared our own list of companies to watch for 2008:

1. OGI
2. Vemma
3. Jus
4. Zrii  

Popularity: 2% [?]