Wrigley’s Big Red chewing gum brand has been around for 35 years, but now gum aficionados, as well as fans of action sports, can expect another crimson confection. That’s because über-snowboarder Shaun White, perhaps the pre-eminent redhead in sports, has signed a multiyear, low-seven-figure endorsement deal with Kraft’s Cadbury Adams division.
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TV ad support was a big part of White’s deal with Cadbury Adams |
As part of the deal, Cadbury Adams will develop and market an extension of its
Stride gum brand that will include packaging and perhaps even a name based on White. Sources said the promise of TV advertising support was integral in signing White, who is visible in competitions but not well-exposed as a TV endorser especially relative to his Olympic accomplishments and his status as one of the most powerful youth icons across pop culture.
Stride ads traditionally have focused on the gum’s enduring flavor (“Ridiculously long-lasting”), which seems like an easy creative match for any athlete.
Sources tell us that the flavor, which likely won’t carry White’s “Flying Tomato’’ moniker, should be available at retail sometime in the second half of this year.
CAA represents White, whose other endorsements are with Burton Snowboards, Target, Red Bull, Oakley, HP and video game maker Ubisoft. White most recently signed a deal with tire manufacturer BFGoodrich, which used him to promote the brand’s sponsorship of the Winter X Games.
ALL-STAR OVERTIME: A few remaining tidbits from a triumphant NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, no small part of which was a celebration of everything AEG has done with its L.A. Live complex surrounding Staples Center. As someone who remembers sponsor activation in downtown parking lots the last time the All-Star Game was in the city in 2004, the week was rightly both a celebration of all things NBA and the beginnings of a downtown Los Angeles renaissance spurred by AEG’s development.
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T-Mobile, an energetic partner of the NBA, should be a slam-dunk sponsor renewal. |
As evidenced by nearly any current business metric (SportsBusiness Journal, Feb. 28-March 6 issue), the current season is one of the league’s most compelling in years. With a lockout in the air, you’d think any renewals on behalf of league sponsors would be shelved. However, at least two are in the slam-dunk category:
T-Mobile, which even with a new CEO and CMO puts all of its sponsorship eggs in the NBA’s basket; and
Pepsi’s
Gatorade, at 27 years the league’s oldest corporate patron and one that also sponsors the vast majority of NBA teams. Even with a work stoppage very possible, we don’t see either of those birds flying away any time soon. Still, it would be interesting to know what kind of lockout language they get.
Anheuser-Busch, an NBA sponsor since 1998, doesn’t appear quite as automatic, and one might ask what the NBA’s place is with A-B given the brewer’s deals with the NFL and the on-again/off-again/on-again MLB rights deal, which had some dubbing it the beer of choice amongst litigators. However, we’ve learned never to discount the value of incumbency among teams when it comes to a league deal, and A-B is solid there.
On the new business front, the NBA continues to fly the skies in search of an airline partner to replace Southwest Airlines, be it a domestic or foreign carrier.
ORANGE COUNTY CASH REGISTER: The possible move of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings 400 miles south to the more well-heeled Orange County and Honda Center in Anaheim has been much discussed lately. What hasn’t been broached is the impact such a move would have on Honda, the brand holding naming rights at the Anaheim building. Sources familiar with that naming-rights contract tell us that the original deal includes a clause that would increase what started as an annual $3.2 million payment by an additional $1.2 million annually if an NBA team moves into the building.
Honda signed the 15-year naming-rights deal, which has an option after 10 years, in 2006.
Terry Lefton can be reached at tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
