After a foray into basketball and Olympic sports, nutrition company PowerBar has refocused its efforts on mass-participant endurance sports by signing new deals and renewals with premier running, cycling and triathlon events.
In recent years, PowerBar has signed serieswide deals with the Competitor Group-owned Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon and TriRock triathlon series, and renewed long-standing deals with the Tour de France, New York Road Runners, Boston Marathon, Bank of America Chicago Marathon and Xterra triathlon series. The brand is one of the biggest spenders and most visible companies in the endurance space, with each deal valued in the mid-to-high six figures.
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PowerBar is concentrating on events like the Tour de France.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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“We’re getting back to the roots and the heritage of the brand,” said Marsha Anderson, senior brand manager at PowerBar. “We’ve had a broader sports target in the past, but recently [endurance] has been the focus.”
The brand’s rally around endurance marks a departure from its deals in pro basketball and Olympic swimming. PowerBar signed a leaguewide deal with the NBA in 2005, and heavily promoted stars Blake Griffin and Lamar Odom in its marketing until 2013. It also had a deal with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who appeared in PowerBar television ads around the 2008 Beijing Games.
PowerBar officials declined to discuss further details of the decision to refocus on endurance sports, or say whether the brand would target stick-and-ball or Olympic properties in the near future. In February, the brand was acquired by U.S. food conglomerate Post from Nestlé.
Anderson said PowerBar is using its wide footprint in endurance to preserve its dominance in the sports-nutrition category, which includes bars, energy gels and electrolyte lozenges. The brand’s messaging, she said, is to show that elite and amateur athletes can improve their performance by consuming the company’s products.
“We’ve chosen to align ourselves with a group of properties that nobody else can do,” Anderson said.
The sports nutrition category has become increasingly competitive in recent years, with new companies gobbling up sports sponsorships. In 2012, Bonk Breaker bars replaced PowerBar as the official partner of the Ironman triathlon series. In cycling, the Amgen Tour of California has a long-standing deal with Jelly Belly to promote its Sport Beans brand, and Colorado’s USA Pro Challenge has a multiyear deal with Clif Bar. Kind Bar also has entered the sports market as an official sponsor of San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers running race.
John Gassner, vice president of business development and strategic partnerships for the New York Road Runners, said PowerBar’s advantage is its ability to outspend its competitors.
“You don’t see the other folks making that huge of a commitment from an investment standpoint,” Gassner said. “[Other brands] look at things from a sampling standpoint, but PowerBar looks at it from a cash commitment standpoint, too.”
Still, sampling is perhaps the most important component of the partnerships. Gassner said that PowerBar provides more than 100,000 total bars and energy gels across its sponsored NYRR races.
Bill Pedigo, chief revenue officer at Competitor Group, said PowerBar provides nearly half a million bars and gels for the Rock ’n’ Roll and TriRock races. The importance of sampling at the finish line, Pedigo said, is to align the products with the activity in an organic situation.
“When you cross the finish line at our races, you get a Gatorade, a PowerBar and a chocolate milk,” he said. “These are all premium brands in the space, so it’s important to [PowerBar] to be there.”
PowerBar also activates heavily around the partnerships with grassroots promotions and sweepstakes aimed at fans as well as participatory athletes. In 2013, PowerBar asked runners to submit photos of their training via Facebook and Twitter for a chance to win spots in the New York City Marathon.
This year PowerBar held a sweepstakes around the Tour de France that awarded high-end bicycles and cycling components. In the past, the brand held sweepstakes to award trips to watch the Tour in person.
PowerBar held a similar drawing in the lead-up to the 2014 Boston Marathon, which awarded four spots into the race. Runners submitted written stories about why they wanted to run the Boston Marathon, and PowerBar assembled a panel of judges — including Meb Keflezighi, who won the 2014 race, and longtime running columnist Bart Yasso — to choose the winners.
Anderson said total sweepstakes entries grew 827 percent from 2013 to 2014. For 2015, she said PowerBar’s goal is to have more uniform activation across all of its events.
“We had some big wins this year from an activation standpoint,” she said. “Based on what we learned, we want to grow that.”
Fred Dreier is a writer in Colorado.
