PepsiCo "has signed a five-year NBA deal, making it one of the league’s largest sponsors and ending a 29-year relationship between Coke and the NBA," according to Terry Lefton in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The deal "includes Pepsi’s extensive portfolio of salty snacks, like Doritos and Ruffles, and packages rights to the WNBA, NBA D-League and USA Basketball." The sponsorship "takes effect July 1 and covers North America and China." Included in the sponsorship "is the largest activation commitment of any NBA sponsor, several multiples of a fairly sizable commitment that Coke mounted annually for its Sprite brand." The activation commitment for China "is even larger than the one in North America." Pepsi "will focus much of its NBA activation on its portfolio of Mountain Dew brands." Pepsi’s Aquafina water "will support the NBA Fit initiative," and the NBA also will link with Pepsi’s Brisk "ready-to-drink tea brands." Pepsi "has around a dozen" endorsers under contract who play in the NBA, whose team affiliations "are currently about even between Coke and Pepsi." Sources said that the two sides "had been working on the deal since the fall and that things accelerated around the NBA All-Star Game in February." Face-to-face meetings between PepsiCo Chair & CEO Indra Nooyi and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver "helped things along" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/13 issue). BLOOMBERG's Scott Soshnick reported PepsiCo's Chinese partner Tingyi -- the largest domestic soft drink manufacturer -- "will position its Master Kong as the lead beverage of the partnership" (BLOOMBERG, 4/13).
