Talking at the ISC Brands and Sponsorship Summit at Unilever House in London, Britt Hadris, Senior Marketing Manager, Global Sports and Partnerships for PepsiCo told over 100 industry professionals, that Sport and Music are now “the world’s biggest passion points”.
“Pepsico’s top sports brands, Lays, Pepsi and Gatorade are always looking for ways to keep young girls engaged in sport and one of those projects is a grassroots competition across 30 countries worldwide, with a final played at the Champions League Final,” added Britt.
Liseli Sitali, Director, Football and Music Partnerships, Expedia Group shed some light on their partnership with Liverpool FC footballer Virgil Van Dijk .
“Virgil actually asked to be an Ambassador for Expedia. We subsequently found out he had been a customer of ours since 2010. It’s absolutely great when a partnership is a two way thing like that and we get much more out of him than we expected. He has grown our new-customer base by almost 100%”.
And Benjamin Curtis, Global Brand VP – Magnum and Category Lead – Luxury Ice Cream , Unilever, confirmed their strategy of partnering with established celebrities and artists.
“We always look to link Magnum Ice Cream to partners with a great global reach. But finding that person isn’t easy because Magnum is so popular in so many different places. For example, American celebrities give us that reach but the highest number of Magnum consumers are in Turkey and China. So picking the right branding partner is vital.”