After roughly a year's worth of negotiations, SMI and Coca-Cola on Sunday jointly announced the beverage giant has extended its deal with the track promoter through ’20. The deal, which now will extend into its 35th year, gives Coca-Cola pouring rights as the official soft drink, sparkling beverage, water, sports drink and enhanced water at four of SMI's eight major tracks -- Sonoma, Kentucky, Las Vegas and Texas -- and rights for non-alcoholic beverages at three others -- Atlanta, Charlotte and New Hampshire. SMI's eighth major track, Bristol, has an independent deal with Pepsi. The extension also includes standard assets like signage and hospitality, plus title sponsorship of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte. The announcement was made in victory lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where execs on hand included Coca-Cola North America President of Sparkling Brands & Strategic Marketing Wendy Clark and Dir of Motorsports Marketing Ben Reiling, as well as SMI CEO Marcus Smith and Senior VP/National Sales & Marketing Mike Burch. Financial terms were not disclosed, but a source valued the deal in the mid to high seven figures annually. Execs with Coca-Cola as high up as Chair & CEO Muhtar Kent signed off on the deal before it was finalized.
CREATING A FIZZ: In an interview this weekend, Burch said the Coca-Cola deal has become a lynchpin for SMI for reasons beyond bottom-line finances. For example, Coca-Cola introduced SMI to companies like Papa John’s and QuikTrip, both of which went on to develop business relationships with the company. Burch called the Coca-Cola deal “invaluable from that perspective, because they do business with everyone.” The companies also share various data points, further deepening ties between the sides. Burch and Smith said they were pleased with the term’s five-year length, with Smith adding of how he views the extension, “The biggest and most respected brand in the world loves what they’re seeing with the sponsorship and it works for them. That is a huge endorsement of the deal.” The extension continues a good run thus far in ‘15 for SMI, which already extended with Nationwide Insurance through ‘17 and signed a multiyear trackside merchandise deal with Fanatics.
