By Anav Silverman/TPS
An Israeli cloud-based web development platform announced last week a sports sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees. Wix, headquartered in Tel Aviv, will be the official website design partner for the New York Yankees during their 2016 baseball season.
Founded in 2006 by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan, Wix provides a free website building platform with a wide range of tools and features, which are utilized by over 90 million users in 190 countries. Wix has offices in Miami, New York, San Francisco, San Francisco, Berlin, Beer Sheva, and the Ukraine.
The New York Yankees is not the Israeli company’s first sports sponsorship deal. Half a year ago, following a sponsorship deal with the City Football Group (CFG), Wix became the official website design and hosting partner of CFG’s Manchester City Football Club in the UK. In light of their team sponsorship with Manchester City and two successful Super Bowl advertisements, Wix set its sights on the New York Yankees.
“We wanted to see how we could expand our activities in the United States and looked at different NFL and MLB teams,” Wix CMO, Omer Shai told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).
“We saw that the New York Yankees had a very engaged fan base and we wanted to work with that,” said Shai, who noted that through web and social media platforms, Wix finds innovative ways for sports clubs and teams to engage with fans.
“We are very excited to begin our relationship with Wix as the “Official Website Design Partner,” said Michael J. Tusiani, New York Yankees Senior Vice President of Corporate Sales & Sponsorships. “Wix is offering our fans, worldwide, an innovative way to exhibit passion for the team through its unique website design and mobile platforms.”
“We also look forward to working with Wix to strengthen its already established global brand,” said Tusiani.
As part of the sponsorship deal with the New York Yankees, Wix is campaigning to locate the number one New York Yankees fan, asking die hard fans to post a video showing their Yankee pride with the hashtag #BiggestYankeesFan to Wix’s Facebook page by September 5. Among the many videos posted so far, one Yankees fan demonstrated her team spirit by baking blueberry, lemon, and coffee cream pies in homage to different Yankee players, while another fan covered his entire kitchen with classic Yankee pinstripes.
The winner of the Wix video contest will be introduced to fellow fans at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, September 13 when the Yankees host the Los Angeles Dodgers, and will have the opportunity to build a personal fan page with the help of Wix under the domain, thebiggestyankeesfan.com.
Shai told TPS that he believes Wix is the first Israeli company to work with a Major League Baseball team. “It’s amazing to see what can be done with the passion of sports,” he said.
“Sports unite not only fans but entire cities and a global community,” pointed out Shai. “The strength of the bond lies in the team’s ability to deliver results, and fans in turn respond with love and loyalty. We applaud and admire the passionate, creative and voracious fandom and can’t wait to celebrate at the greatest address in sports.”
