Despite the Spurs' roster turnover during the offseason, the moves “didn’t lead to creative chaos” for local grocer H-E-B when creating this season's ads, because H-E-B “ties the length of individual players’ contracts to appear in the commercials to the length of their Spurs’ contracts,” according to Joshua Fechter of the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS. San Antonio-based H-E-B kicked off the 14th year of its Spurs-centric commercials last night, and despite retiring after last season, Manu Ginobili will still “appear in two 30-second spots” with other former Spurs. H-E-B VP/Marketing & Advertising Cory Basso said that the chain “doesn’t find out who’s going to be in the popular spots" until the Spurs finalize their roster. New Spurs G DeMar DeRozan “will join commercial regulars” from the team -- G Patty Mills, Fs Rudy Gay, LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol -- in three of the five ads. Last year, the commercials “got 10 million views on Facebook and YouTube.” Basso said that H-E-B this season “aims to reach 20 million views.” H-E-B became the Spurs’ lead sponsor in ‘04 and “signed a five-year extension" in ‘13. Basso said that H-E-B and the Spurs again “renewed the partnership this year but wouldn’t disclose the length of the contract or compensation for individual players” (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 10/18).
