Baseball Is Key to Raising US Profile for Korea’s Doosan – Bloomberg

Doosan Group, the oldest business organization in South Korea, is looking to raise its profile in the U.S. To do so, the Seoul-based conglomerate is teaming up with ‘America’s Pastime.’

For the next four years, Doosan will advertise throughout the Major League Baseball playoffs, put up signs in MLB stadiums, and sponsor baseball’s live Facebook content. It will also be the presenting sponsor of the American League Divisional Series, the first time baseball has sold a first-round playoff series.

“Any place you see the games, you’re going to see them,” said Noah Garden, baseball’s executive vice president of business.

By sponsoring Major League Baseball, Doosan will get access to a wide swath of North America. The sport claims over 113 million adult fans and is by far the most attended league in the U.S. Most importantly, it is popular in rural parts of the country — especially in the midwest and the south — where Doosan sells things like forklifts, excavators, steel moldings, diesel engines and generators.

Doosan entered the North American market in 2007, when it purchased farm and construction outfitter Bobcat and other Ingersoll-Rand Co. equipment units for $4.9 billion, at the time the biggest overseas acquisition ever for a South Korean company.