MLB corporate sponsor Pepsi will lead off its seventh year as a patron of the national pastime with an on-pack trading card promotion.
The "Take Home an All-Star" promo will be splashed across 7 million 24-pack "cubes" of Pepsi, Sierra Mist and Mountain Dew during April, mostly in grocery stores. Affixed to each cube is a single Fleer trading card depicting an MLB star, including Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds, Magglio Ordonez and Ichiro Suzuki. The set of cards includes a player from each MLB team.
Marketing support will be limited to point of sale.
"Our strategy is to leverage early as the weather gets warmer and demand is building," said Sean Tresvant, marketing manager within Pepsi's corporate sports group.
Other MLB activation this season for Pepsi includes a new national ad with the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa and New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi due to break around the start of the baseball season.
With rights passed through by Pepsi, quick-service-restaurant chain Subway and its 14,000-plus U.S. locations return as the retail balloting sites for the MLB All-Star Game for the second consecutive year; 4 million souvenir cups will include depictions of MLB stars as bulked-up superheroes, an ad theme that began last year.
A sweepstakes will offer either an All-Star Game or World Series trip as top prizes. Subway's marketing support includes tagging its own TV ads, and point-of-sale materials.
As for the All-Star Game itself, Pepsi will do the usual presence marketing around the event, to be held in Chicago this year at the newly rechristened U.S. Cellular Park, which pours Pepsi.
Pepsi also will create a "Pepsi Park" at Chicago's Navy Pier, complete with a faux diamond and a stage for media remotes and musical entertainment, similar to the Pepsi stage at NASCAR events.
