Major League Gaming Renews, Expands Sponsorship With Dr Pepper

Bottle Features MLG's Taylor

Major League Gaming (MLG) has renewed and expanded its sponsorship deal with Dr Pepper, with the new deal calling for the national release of 175 million Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper 20 oz. bottles featuring MLG star Tom “Tsquared” Taylor. The bottle promotion, marking the first time a pro athlete of any kind has been featured on a Dr Pepper bottle, will run nationally between January and April as a lead-up to the competitive video gaming circuit’s '09 season. Each bottle cap will contain a code granting access into a special bracket within MLG’s online series of competitions. “Successful marketing of major stars is what sports is all about, and this represents another important signpost along the way toward our becoming a major cultural force,” said MLG President & CEO Matthew Bromberg. The Dr Pepper multi-year renewal was for an undisclosed seven-figure sum. “As we grapple with the economy like everybody else, our first priority was how do we reach our target audience, and gaming remains an important avenue to do that,” said Richard Lyons, Dr Pepper Manager of Interactive & Emerging Media (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal). Bromberg: "What's really going on here is for tens of millions of young men, the aspiration to be a pro gamer is the new dream of sports stardom." In N.Y., Stephanie Clifford writes the promotion lets consumers "enter bottle-cap codes online to win points in tournaments and chances to win prizes like T-shirts and televisions." Dr Pepper Brand Manager Terry Hockens said that about 80% of the total number of Dr Pepper bottles on sale during the promotion will feature the special labels (N.Y. TIMES, 11/19).

GET IN THE GAME: Bromberg said all of MLG’s '08 sponsors, which also included Stride Gum, Panasonic, and Hewlett-Packard, among others, will be back either through multi-year commitments or renewals, with the sales efforts aided considerably since the September arrival of MLG Properties President Harlan Stone from Velocity Sports & Entertainment. “Harlan’s had an extraordinary impact,” Bromberg said. “The economic situation is obviously very real, but we’re going to be back with entire 2008 sponsor roster, and many new sponsors, because we’re making the case that in this time of re-evaluation, we represent value and have a very real and significant following within a powerful demo.” MLG’s expanded Dr Pepper deal also arrives as the rival Championship Gaming Series announced it was ceasing operations after two seasons. “We knew there was only going to be one major league. That’s how it is in every big sport,” Bromberg said. “Only one guy was going to win and it’s us. They had a TV-centric model without a lot of TV distribution, and that’s really tough when you’re dealing with a digitally focused sport like this" (Fisher).