Bad Boy Mowers, the Batesville zero-turn mower maker known for its sports marketing, just refreshed its playbook.
After three years of sponsoring the Bad Boy Gasparilla Bowl, an NCAA bowl game in Tampa, the company ended that tie and has added a hunting-related sponsorship with Chad Belding, star of “The Fowl Life” on the Outdoor Channel.
The company has ongoing sponsorships in NCAA basketball, the National Football League, pro bull riding and parks like SeaWorld and Busch Gardens.
“Bad Boy Mowers and I share the same values, in terms of looking good means feeling good, and that includes your lawn,” said Belding, a lifelong hunter, fisherman and outdoorsman. “The brand also supports the heritage and culture behind hunting, which made this a natural fit for us.”
The partnership will kick off with a sweepstakes July 4 through Thanksgiving, said Justin Luedecker, a spokesman for Belding. The winner will join Belding and his crew on a January hunting trip to California.
That trip will be featured on the TV show, now entering its 12th season, and promoted in Belden’s podcasts and social media posts. Entries will be available at Bad Boy dealerships for anyone who tests a Bad Boy mower.
“I couldn’t be more excited about our association with Chad and The Fowl Life organization,” Bad Boy Marketing Director Lennie Foree said in a statement. “Bad Boy Mowers is located right along the richest vein of duck and waterfowl hunting anywhere in the world, and we understand better than anyone the care, upkeep and conservation planning that goes into keeping this sport, and lifestyle, growing for generations to come.”
Belding, a Reno native residing in Sparks, Nevada, is also co-founder of Banded, a video production and merchandising company specializing in waterfowl and turkey hunting gear.
Bad Boy, which bills itself as the fastest-growing zero-turn mower maker on the planet, has about 800 employees in Batesville and is one of the region’s larger manufacturers.
The company, long a favorite of country stars like Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, who died in 2016, signed a three-year contract to sponsor the Gasparilla Bowl in August 2017. That deal has concluded, but Bad Boy is introducing its brand to NCAA basketball fans as the title sponsor of a Bahamas basketball tournament, Battle 4 Atlantis.
The 10-year-old tournament, on the Atlantis resort’s island in the Caribbean, is now the Bad Boy Mowers Battle for Atlantis, featuring eight teams in a Thanksgiving week tournament, COVID-19 permitting. The lineup includes Memphis, Ohio State and Duke.
Bad Boy, in its 18th year of business, has also sponsored the “Small Town Big Deal” TV show, in which hosts Rodney Miller and Jann Carl travel the country in search of stories, featuring unique communities and inspirational people. It also supports country singer Zac Brown’s “Camp Southern Ground” for children and teenagers with special needs. Bad Boy is also in the middle of promotional deals with the pro bull riders’ tour, PBR, and the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
The PBR partnership puts Bad Boy’s brand in front of 30 million fans on TV and 700,000 fans at live events in normal times. And the deal with the Chiefs, similar to arrangements it has with Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals, will make Bad Boy a presenting partner for one home game for each season of the multiyear deal, and will give the company space in the Ford Fan Experience outside Arrowhead Stadium each game day.
Bad Boy’s founder, Phil Pulley, who welcomed a $261 million investment late last year from the Sterling Group, a private equity firm in Houston, called the Chiefs tie-in personal when it was announced. “Partnering with the Chiefs is an easy decision for me, since I consider myself one of their greatest fans and have been for most of my life,” he said. It’s a great association with a great organization.”
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