And it's probably part of the reason why the percentage of Houstonians who have have signed up for electricity from competitors during the pilot program for deregulation is double the total from other parts of Texas. The idea behind corporations buying naming rights is it's cheap advertising. Every time the name gets mentioned in the sports pages or over the air, the company gets a plug. It didn't do the company a lot of good. It later dropped to just 19 cents a share before it was delisted.
Continental name flies high Some times the naming deal works.
Continental Airlines, for example, bought naming rights at the basketball arena in New Jersey used by the National Basketball Association. Not that companies are always going to get lots of free plugs. During the 1996 NCAA basketball championships at the facility named for Continental, the broadcasters did not use the name. Quoted in a Wharton School of Business study on naming rights, Kelly says relevancy and interactivity are the two prime considerations. He cites the Philips Arena in Atlanta, home of the Atlanta Hawks NBA team.