Coca-Cola To Hear From Eight Agencies Eyeing Its Sports Accounts

Eight marketing agencies Thursday in Atlanta will "make their pitch to lead some of Coca-Cola's most visible sports platforms," according to Michael Smith of the SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The effort to re-evaluate and consolidate its sports agency roster is "part of a larger effort by Coca-Cola North America to reduce redundancies among its marketing partners." Sources said that the Coke brand's Olympic business "will not be part of this agency search," nor will Sprite's NBA sponsorship and its relationship with Cavaliers F LeBron James. The agencies are Barkley, Creative Presence Partners, CPC Marketing, IMG, Momentum, Octagon, Relay and Wasserman Media Group. Smith notes it is possible one agency "could be selected for strategy and execution or that one could be picked for strategy and one for execution" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/17 issue).