In Brief: Discover Renews ESPN Affiliation

RIVERWOODS, Ill. — Discover Financial Services this fall will sponsor a contest awarding trips to college football’s Rose Bowl under a two-year renewal of its affiliation with the ESPN network’s “GameDay” TV show.

Discover, which is less active than MasterCard and Visa in sponsoring sports events, will also underwrite “Discover Card Tailgate” on ESPN. Some winners in the Rose Bowl promotion, “Discover Gets You on GameDay Challenge,” will make a cameo appearance on ESPN’s “College GameDay” Jan. 1.

“Discover Card’s overall goal is to leverage its media plan and the excitement of ESPN College GameDay,” said John Birmingham, a manager of integrated marketing at Discover Financial Services Inc. “We approached ESPN with a plan that would bring our cardmembers off the sidelines and into the action.”