The days of the ‘Sprite’ Slam Dunk Contest are gone. You won’t have that any longer.
Instead, prepare for the Mountain Dew Dunk Contest.
Alright, maybe not. I guess they’ll have time to work on it. After almost 30 years, the NBA and the Coca-Cola company will let their deal expire at the end of the 2014-15 season.
The NBA will instead partner up with PepsiCo and bring in their family of brands into the fold, including making Mountain Dew the leading soft drink in the partnership.
Following from Adage.com.
PepsiCo will make Mountain Dew its lead brand in the sponsorship. But the deal covers several of the company’s food and beverage brands, including Aquafina, Brisk, Ruffles and Doritos, according to a person familiar with the deal. The new sponsorship is expected to begin in July, after the current season concludes with the NBA Finals in June.
PepsiCo’s Gatorade has an existing relationship with the NBA that is not affected by this deal.A Coca-Cola Co. spokeswoman said in a statement that “we remain fans of the NBA and have shared remarkable experiences during our 28-year partnership, however we have made the decision not to renew our global contract at the end of the 2014/2015 season. The Coca-Cola Company has committed an incremental $1-billion toward its brands over the next three years, and with this commitment comes the need to focus on the most effective and efficient investments to maximize brand growth.”
The deal marks another significant move by PepsiCo into sports, giving the company sponsorship rights for the nation’s big three pro leagues. Pepsi has been an NFL sponsor since 2002 and last year PepsiCo renewed its long-running pact with Major League Baseball. PepsiCo is also a sponsor of the National Hockey League.
Is Drake going to be allowed at NBA events now? He’s got a deal with Sprite. This could be an issue for the Toronto Raptors.
Pepsi is going to dominate the sports world now and bring you all of your favorite snacks to a local NBA arena near you. I believe the fans should be able to vote on the new name of the Slam Dunk Contest because the contest is for the fans anyway, right? So instead of letting the fans vote on the Slam Dunk Contest, which they shouldn’t do, let them at least vote on the name.
In all seriousness, The NBA has scheduled a press conference for early this afternoon in New York. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver are scheduled to attend. This move is huge for PepsiCo because the new sponsorship means a huge number of television viewers, like the 18 million who watched the Spurs clinch the title last year over the Miami Heat, will now be seeing Pepsi signage and products instead of Coca-Cola. That number will only grow with the new television deal that the NBA has coming soon.
The NBA is quenching everybody’s thirsts and making some big moves.
