Paragon Marketing Group, an engagement marketing consultancy, owns and operates the GEICO High School National Tournament. We develop marketing platforms grounded in sports, entertainment, music, arts, cause and media partnerships. These platforms are created to develop engaged, sustainable relationships with our clients’ target audiences. Additionally, we are committed to creating a culture that delivers a great place to work and engenders long-term, healthy business partnerships.
Since our inception in 1995, we have grown from 3 people to over 80 marketing professionals, all of whom have a passion for sponsorship marketing. Our core competencies include sponsorship targeting/identification, evaluation, negotiation, activation, execution and measurement. Additionally, many of our clients have trusted Paragon to deliver value in the areas of event creation, mobile marketing, digital/social marketing platforms and television/digital content production.
In 2002, we secured the rights to put LeBron James, Cleveland’s then star high school basketball player, on ESPN2. Their subsequent broadcast of the game against Oak Hill Academy garnered the highest ratings ever for the channel and created a new television category — live national broadcast of high school football, basketball, and lacrosse. Since then, our relationship with ESPN has grown into a strategic partnership showcasing the top high school football and basketball teams and players to a national audience each season.
To date we have partnered with ESPN to televise over 550 high school events featuring teams from 35 states. Games featured some of the biggest names in sports including Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Tim Tebow, Jadeveon Clowney, Julio Jones, AJ Green and Jameis Winston.
Paragon partners with ESPN on the following live properties:
GEICO ESPN High School Football Kickoff & Showcase
GEICO ESPN High School Basketball Showcase
GEICO State Champions Bowl Series
GEICO High School Basketball Nationals
GEICO High School Lacrosse Nationals