• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 10, 2009

Men's media company Yardbarker Network has signed a sponsorship deal with Coors Light that will run throughout the NFL's pre-season and 17-week regular season.

The sponsorship will feature custom-designed, components that will showcase Coors Light and its Cold Activated Bottle and Can "technology." (In case you're wondering, the cans and bottles use thermochromic ink, which turns from white to blue when the Coors Light is certifiably cold.)

"Yardbarker came to us with some exciting and creative brand integration opportunities," said Jon Tauber, manager of digital media for Miller Coors. "Their partnership proposal struck us as a great way to connect with engaged consumers in a less conventional football context."

One component of the sponsorship package, "The Cold Activated Story of the Day," plays off the bottle technology by turning a visual of the Rocky Mountains from white to blue before the user can link onto the day's top Yardbarker NFL story.

Another element of the sponsorship is an original video and blog series called "The Right Brain Fantasy Report," billed as an entertaining and "refreshingly stats-free" look at off-the-field news that could have an impact on players' fantasy football value for any given week. The report will feature popular sports blogger Dewey Hammond.

The sponsorship package, which will launch on August 13, is the first for Coors Light on Yardbarker.

The deal was negotiated with Yardbarker by the Seattle office of Razorfish, the digital advertising agency.

In March, Yardbarker signed ad deals with Panasonic, Major League Baseball and the National Football League. For the deal, Panasonic used the YBN college channel to run March Madness college basketball campaigns, while Major League Baseball used its top baseball sites to help build awareness for MLB Network.

The National Football League's Web site, NFL.com, meanwhile, used YBN sites to promote the NFL Draft Dream Sweepstakes, and drive traffic to NFL.com draft content.

YBN passed 14 million unique visitors in January, according to measurement site Quantcast. YBN is based in San Francisco, with offices in New York City, Los Angeles and Detroit.