BodyArmor has entered into partnerships with both St. John’s Univ. and the Atlantic 10 Conference, its first two marketing endeavors in the college space. The N.Y.-based sports drink brand, which replaces Powerade as St. John’s sponsor in the category, will receive signage, as well as branding on coolers, towels, cups and squeeze bottles at home games in all of the school’s sports. BodyArmor VP/Marketing Michael Fedele touted the national television exposure the brand will receive from the Red Storm's men’s basketball team, as well as the program’s prominence in the N.Y. metro area, particularly the five regular-season home games the school is scheduled to play at MSG. The brand will run in-game and social media promotions around the program. Meanwhile, BodyArmor will have a presence on the sidelines at all 17 of the A-10's championship events. BodyArmor has launched activation around both partnerships at retail through promotional contests. The brand is giving consumers around N.Y. the chance to win tickets for a St. John’s game at MSG. In A-10 markets, the brand is offering a fan a trip to the conference’s men’s basketball tournament at Barclays Center.
HEAVY COURSELOAD: Fedele said that the company sees the St. John’s partnership as an opportunity to experiment in the college space with the intent of ultimately getting involved with other institutions. Fedele: “It made a lot of sense for us to work with them and incubate from a college standpoint to find out what works and how to make the partnership work best in our backyard.” The brand in the past year has entered into team-level partnerships with the Angels and Rockets to accompany endorsement deals with a stable of prominent pro athletes, most recently Knicks F Kristaps Porzingis. Data cited in the most recent year-end issue of BevNet stated that BodyArmor’s annual dollar sales from October ’14 through October ‘15 exceeded $36M, a year-over-year increase of 216.34%.
