Edmonton-based juice and smoothie company Booster Juice signed Blue Jays RF/3B Jose Bautista to his first-ever Canadian endorsement deal as the company’s new ambassador beginning next month. Bautista will become the face of Booster Juice throughout Canada and other international markets throughout the next year. The company is developing 15- and 30-second TV spots featuring Bautista that will run in stores equipped with video, while a national billboard campaign will launch in August. Additionally, in-store displays will be created including life-sized Bautista cut-outs in all 265 Booster Juice stores across Canada (Booster Juice). MARKETING magazine’s Chris Powell noted Booster Juice’s in-house creative team “is still working on the creative for the billboard campaign.” Booster Juice President & CEO Dale Wishewan said that the TV spots supporting the four-year deal “will likely aim to establish a link between Bautista hitting prodigious home runs and drinking Booster Juice products.” Booster Juice is in the last year of a two-year sponsorship with the Blue Jays, and Wishewan said that he met with team officials Thursday "to talk about extending the agreement another three years” (MARKETINGMAG.ca, 7/28).
THE START OF SOMETHING BIG? SPORTSNET.ca's Michael Grange reported Booster Juice is the "first of what his management team expect will be a number of national endorsement deals." The Blue Jays "haven't had a player appear in a national campaign since the glory days of the '90s" when recent HOF inductee Roberto Alomar was endorsing McCain Foods. Bautista, who recently signed a deal with New Balance, said of the Booster Juice agreement, "This is my first endorsement deal outside of baseball, so it's something that is going to be a treat. It will be fun to see what we can come up with." However, Grange wondered if a car deal would not have been a "safer first choice." Bautista is leading MLB in home runs with 31 after hitting a league-leading 54 last year, and "baseball's premier post-steroid era slugger endorses Booster Juice, as in: It really is the juice" (SPORTSNET.ca, 7/28).
