Komatsu America Markets with Chicago Blackhawks for 2018-2019 Hockey Season

Komatsu America Corp. has announced plans to partner with the Chicago BlackHawks for the 2018-2019 hockey season.

Oct. 24, 2018

Komatsu's logo on the ice at United Center for Chicago Blackhawk home games.

Komatsu America Corp. has announced plans to partner with the Chicago BlackHawks for the 2018-2019 hockey season. The Komatsu logo will appear prominently on the ice for all regular season home games. As Komatsu’s first agreement with any Chicago professional sports franchises, the presence will raise the company’s local profile and expose the brand to a more mainstream, national and international television audience.

“Earlier in the year, Komatsu announced plans to move into the city of Chicago in 2020,” said Rich Smith, vice president, products and services, Komatsu America. “As part of a broader goal to invest more in local communities where we live and do business, we thought this would be an impactful way to increase our brand awareness, while supporting a storied hometown sports franchise.”

With local distributors in several North American markets with NHL teams, such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Winnipeg, Phoenix, Las Vegas and more, the hospitality component allows Komatsu’s sales teams to continue to deepen customer relationships during slower winter months and find distributor cross-collaboration opportunities at home and away games.

About the Author

Michael Roth

Editor

Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.