Rain Locks in LendingTree as College Bowl Game Title Sponsor

PORTLAND, OR — January 6, 2019 — R2C Group is proud to announce it negotiated and secured LendingTree as the title sponsor for a coveted 2019-2020 college bowl game. College Bowls are traditionally a high value, premium branding opportunity. With performance goals in mind, R2C Group was able to structure the deal in a way that will allow the agency to measure the impact of this investment against LendingTree’s overall campaign goals, informing future sponsorship decisions and potential for additional scale in this space.

“We could not be more excited about the LendingTree Bowl,” said Rob Brown, Head of Brand at LendingTree. “We know our customers are passionate about sports and this bowl partnership is a great platform to expose new customers to the LendingTree brand and what we stand for.”

With the knowledge that distinct opportunities tied to sports have been a growing priority for LendingTree, R2C Group tapped its key relationships to identify, negotiate, and secure the timely bowl title sponsorship to connect LendingTree’s potential audience, media seasonality, and overall campaign goals. Collaboration and ease of communication between the bowl, R2C Group, and LendingTree allowed the agency to compress many months’ worth of preparation into weeks without sacrificing on quality.

“This deal truly is a win for every party,” said Shasta Gibson, Director of Strategic Partnerships at R2C Group. “Sponsorships of this nature can in fact accomplish branding goals and business goals all at once. The importance of being methodical in our research, asking the hard questions, and looking at the opportunity from every angle cannot be overstated.”

R2C Group holds these high-reach deals to the same level of accountability that it does with any other component of a clients’ marketing mix, and the agency utilizes proprietary in-house tools to measure their business impact. These types of opportunities can still achieve business KPIs directly when negotiated and structured with that focus as a priority. The agency has a successful history of securing opportunities of this caliber for its clients. Placements include:

• Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions brought to you by Consumer Cellular
• LendingTree’s sponsorship of HGTV’s Smart Home
• Peloton’s sponsorship of HGTV’s Dream Home, and a live demonstration in a Today Show broadcast from the 2018 Winter Olympics
• CNN Heroes sponsorship by Humana

The LendingTree Bowl will be played on January 6, 2020, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST and aired on ESPN.

About R2C Group
R2C Group is an independent, women-led, performance-minded advertising agency for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. We link strategy, creative and production with state-of-the-art audience targeting, dynamic media buying and advanced analytics to deliver on sales and branding goals simultaneously, without compromise. Our approach, called Transactional Brand Building, is proven to produce transformational growth for clients ranging from DTC fast companies and category disruptors to established brands with traditional models. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon and co-founded in 1998 by Michelle Cardinal, R2C now has over 200 employees in four offices across the U.S. For the last 20 years R2C has been scaling businesses such as Humana, Peloton, 23andMe, Chewy, SimpliSafe, SmileDirectClub, and Wayfair. For more information, visit https://www.rainforgrowth.com

About LendingTree, Inc.
LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE) is the nation’s leading online marketplace that connects consumers with the choices they need to be confident in their financial decisions. LendingTree empowers consumers to shop for financial services the same way they would shop for airline tickets or hotel stays, by comparing multiple offers from a nationwide network of over 500 partners in one simple search and choosing the option that best fits their financial needs. Services include mortgage loans, mortgage refinances, auto loans, personal loans, business loans, student refinances, credit cards, insurance and more. Through the My LendingTree platform, consumers receive free credit scores, credit monitoring and recommendations to improve credit health. My LendingTree proactively compares consumers’ credit accounts against offers on our network and notifies consumers when there is an opportunity to save money. In short, LendingTree’s purpose is to help simplify financial decisions for life’s meaningful moments through choice, education and support. LendingTree, Inc. is headquartered in Charlotte, NC. For more information, please visit www.lendingtree.com