SANTA MONICA, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Recording Academy) - Today, The Recording Academy proudly announced its official sponsors for this year's 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards. CBS Interactive, Delta Air Lines, Harman International, Hilton Hotels Corporation, MasterCard, PEOPLE, T-Mobile Sidekick, USA Today and Westwood One
Radio all are supporters of The Recording Academy and its GRAMMY Week events. Nokia has partnered with The Recording Academy for the second year as the official international handset partner. Promotional partners also contributing to this year's excitement include Borders, Evite, Hard Rock Cafe and iTunes.
"In today's dynamic marketplace, the importance of strategically aligning with the right brands cannot be overstated," said Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer of The Recording Academy. "These world class partnerships with many of today's industry-leading brands help dramatically expand our footprint into areas that the GRAMMY message does not traditionally reach."
CBS Interactive returns as the official online marketing partner of The Recording Academy and GRAMMY Awards. This year CBS.com partners with The Academy on its third installment of "My GRAMMY Moment" which allows participants to upload their sing-along videos of current GRAMMY nominee Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" for a chance to have the video played during Perry's performance on the GRAMMY Awards. In addition, CBS.com will feature exclusive GRAMMY content including interviews with GRAMMY nominees, photos, games and more.
Delta Air Lines returns for the second year as the "official airline" sponsor. Delta flights during January and February will feature in-flight GRAMMY programming consisting of a dedicated GRAMMY radio channel, ads in Delta Sky Magazine as well as on-screen in-flight GRAMMY promotions. In the months of March and April, Delta will feature the 2009 GRAMMY Nominees CD tracklist as part of its programming.
New sponsor Harman International becomes an "official sound partner" of the 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards, a title sponsor of the exclusive Clive Davis and Recording Academy Pre-GRAMMY Gala, and a participating sponsor of The Academy's GRAMMY Viewing parties. Harman also will provide products to be integrated into the official backstage GRAMMY green room, as well as in the official gift bags handed out to GRAMMY presenters and performers.
To kick off another multi-year sponsorship, longtime Academy and GRAMMY sponsor, Hilton Hotels, has partnered with the GRAMMY Museum to launch an online, interactive contest focused on developing local music industries by raising awareness and providing grants to communities across the country. In celebration of the 51st GRAMMY Awards, Hilton Hotels will host a special promotion offering discounts at Hilton properties.
MasterCard signed a multi-year deal with The Recording Academy to become the "official financial services and payment sponsor" of the GRAMMY Awards. MasterCard's partnership includes support of key GRAMMY Week events, including the MusiCares� Person of the Year and the official GRAMMY Celebration� after party, where artists will perform on the MasterCard stage. MasterCard also is the presenting sponsor of select "GRAMMY Salute To" events as part of the music series held throughout the year. This music series highlights genres including rock, country and various others. Additionally, MasterCard will participate in the GRAMMY Celebration Concert Tour presented by T-Mobile in various cities across the United States.
PEOPLE is pleased to be the "official print media partner" of The Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Awards for the fifth year consecutive year. In addition to PEOPLE's presence at the 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards and official 2009 GRAMMY Celebration after party, this partnership extends to the GRAMMY Foundation, MusiCares, and other initiatives throughout the year. PEOPLE will celebrate its 35th birthday in 2009.
T-Mobile Sidekick signs on for the second year as the presenting sponsor of the GRAMMY Celebration Concert Tour which launched last year. The tour again will offer Sidekick users the opportunity to see GRAMMY-nominated and GRAMMY-winning artists in an intimate exclusive setting throughout the United States. T-Mobile Sidekick's partnership also includes a title sponsorship of the exclusive star-studded Clive Davis and Recording Academy Pre-GRAMMY Gala at the Beverly Hilton the night before the GRAMMYs. In addition, the partnership includes a national sweepstakes launched in early December with T-Mobile Sidekick, offering a chance for two lucky fans to win a trip to Los Angeles to experience the biggest night in music and attend the 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards.
USA TODAY, the "official national newspaper" of the GRAMMY Awards and GRAMMY Week activities for the third year, will promote this year's GRAMMY Awards and the MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute honoring Neil Diamond with advertising and promotion, and will bring three lucky readers to the GRAMMY Awards as part of its USA TODAY GRAMMY Sweepstakes. In addition, USA TODAY will participate in the national GRAMMY Telecast Viewing Parties in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Memphis, Tenn., Hollywood, Fla., Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
Westwood One Radio Network will produce its annual "Backstage at the GRAMMYs" radio remotes, bringing in more than 40 radio stations from across America, as well as radio stations from 14 countries around the globe to broadcast live from GRAMMY rehearsals.
The Recording Academy has partnered with Nokia for the second year. As the official international digital music retail and handset partner, Nokia will promote the GRAMMY Awards to its worldwide users, providing content never before available in the Nokia Music Store in 12 countries across three continents.
The Academy is proud to once again collaborate with promotional partners Borders, Evite, Hard Rock Cafe and iTunes. In its third year of partnership with The Academy, Borders has created a dedicated GRAMMY page at BordersMedia.com/grammy where music fans can purchase GRAMMY-nominated music, enjoy clips of red carpet interviews, memorable performances and acceptance speeches from past GRAMMY Awards. In addition, Borders stores act as the GRAMMY music headquarters across the country featuring and promoting the 2009 GRAMMY Nominees CD as well as all GRAMMY-nominated music.
Hard Rock Cafe partners with The Academy for the third year as the official venue for the GRAMMY Viewing Parties. Consumers also can host their own viewing parties with their friends at participating Hard Rock Cafes across the United States.
Hard Rock will once again send a lucky patron to the GRAMMY Awards to experience the show and all its excitement.
As a company that focuses on philanthropy, Hard Rock Cafe has created a collectible 51st GRAMMY pin that is available online at hardrock.com with a portion of the proceeds benefiting The GRAMMY Museum and its music programs.
Evite is collaborating with The Academy and Hard Rock Cafe to promote the GRAMMY Viewing party experience by creating custom GRAMMY / Hard Rock online invitations.
Apple iTunes has partnered with The Recording Academy for the second time to offer Academy voting members the opportunity to listen to all GRAMMY-nominated music in a variety of categories. iTunes also is promoting GRAMMY-nominated music on its homepage - the world's most heavily trafficked online music destination.
The 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles. The show will be broadcast live by the CBS Television Network (8 - 11:30 p.m. ET/PT), supported on radio via Westwood One worldwide and covered on the Internet at www.grammy.com.
For more information on our sponsors, please log on to: www.cbs.com, www.delta.com, www.harman.com, www.hilton.com, www.mastercard.com, www.people.com, www.tmobile.com, www.usatoday.com, www.wastemangement.com, www.westwoodone.com, www.itunes.com, www.borders.com, www.hardrock.com, www.evite.com.
