Dr Pepper Snapple Group Gears Up College Basketball Promotion; Latin Music Sponsorship
Posted: 12/11/2009 1:15:21 PM by
William Chipps | with 0 comments
Looking for a point of differentiation in an increasingly cluttered category, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, inc. is ramping up promotional activity in the first quarter of ’10 for at least two of its brands.
For Sunkist, DPS will leverage partnerships with the Big 10 Conference, Big East Conference, Pac-10 and other college sports conferences with a national promotion featuring college athletic personality Dick Vitale.
For 7-Up, DPS plans to build on the brand’s seven-month-old Sevenisima Hispanic marketing campaign with a sponsorship of a major Latin music property. The Sevenisima campaign was designed to play up 7-Up’s healthier refreshment positioning by celebrating “flavorful moments experienced through a natural, real lifestyle.” The campaign featured a sweeps this past summer that dangled family vacations, shopping sprees and other prizes.
7-Up is the most widely consumed lemon-lime product among Hispanic consumers, according to company documents.
As its largest brand, DPS puts the bulk of its sponsorship dollars behind Dr Pepper. The brand largely focuses on pro and college sports, the latter of which it frequently shares with Sunkist (Dr Pepper sponsors football, while Sunkist sponsors basketball). Deals include title of Frisco, Texas’s Dr Pepper Ballpark—home to minor league baseball’s Frisco Roughriders—the NFL Dallas Cowboys, MLB Texas Rangers (a deal renewed this year through ’13), AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic and Major League Gaming.
More recently, Dr Pepper this year partnered with ESPN to present the trophy that will be awarded at the ’10 Citi BCS National Championship Game. The deal includes sponsorship of ESPN college football programming including College GameDay Built by the Home Depot, College Football Live and ESPNU studio shows and primetime games on ESPN and ABC.
DPS also uses sponsorship to promote functional drinks. For example, the company this month announced a multiyear renewal of Andretti Autosport on behalf of Venom Energy drink.
Brand marketing staffers typically vet and approve deals. Dealmakers include Tony Jacobs, vice president of marketing for Dr Pepper, and Russ Schleiden, brand manager of Venom Energy.
Other DPS products include A&W Root Beer, Canada Dry, Snapple and Mott’s apple juice.
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Filed under: music, pro sports, soft drink, spending, sports, activation