• The Boston Globe, Thursday, May 1, 2008 10:30 AM

Boston Red Sox phenom Jacoby Ellsbury has just cut a radio ad for Concord, Mass.-based Owater and the company is mulling other marketing events to help "maximize Jacoby's stuff," says Kim Stewart, Owater's vp of marketing. In return, Ellsbury, 24, is getting a small ownership stake in the company.

Companies are increasingly offering ownership stakes to their marketing partners. It often establishes deep ties, says Rohan Oza, svp of marketing at Coca-Cola's Glaceau beverages unit, and drives home the notion to consumers that famous folk "believe in the product." Glaceau, which makes Vitaminwater and Smartwater, enlisted diverse celebrities including rapper 50 Cent and Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, and offered stakes in the firm.

The partnerships also give the celebrities more of a sense of being involved in the product, rather than just having their names or likenesses used. Oftentimes, these sorts of deals attract "celebrities/athletes that really understand marketing and business and simply just 'get it'," says David Schwab, managing director of First Call, a celebrity-marketing consultancy.

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