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A Drink Backed by a Sports Hero (Wielding
a Mean Game Controller)
Stephanie Clifford
The New York Times
November 19, 2008
DR PEPPER plans to announce on Wednesday that, for the
first time, it is promoting a professional athlete on
bottles that it will distribute nationally. But the
shaggy-haired athlete on the label is not a traditional
sports star: he’s a 21-year-old who has a three-year,
$250,000 contract to play video games.
Dr Pepper is featuring the Halo 3 player Tom Taylor, who
goes by Tsquared, on the labels, which will appear on
about 175 million 20-ounce bottles from January to
April.
It may seem a strange promotion for a national brand
like Dr Pepper. But video games are hugely popular with
young men, who are playing them instead of watching
television and reading magazines. Marketers are trying
to advertise their products to this group by sponsoring
tournaments or placing advertisements within the games
themselves. (The Obama presidential campaign, for
example, put ads on virtual billboards in the game
Burnout Paradise.)
Mr. Taylor may not have the name recognition of, say,
Derek Jeter, but he resembles him in other ways: he has
a contract with the sports association Major League
Gaming, puts in up to 15 hours a day practicing his Halo
3 skills, has an endorsement deal with Dr Pepper and has
a high profile among gamers.
“It’s not like I’m Tom Cruise or Usher walking down the
street or anything like that, but it’s gotten to the
point where you have to look your best when you go out,”
Mr. Taylor said. “I carry a Sharpie around, like Peyton
Manning,”
With the new labels, Dr Pepper is trying to grab the
attention of gaming fans, who at Major League Gaming are
largely men in their teenage years and early 20s.
“We think there’s an opportunity to bring more people
into the Dr Pepper franchise,” said Terry Hockens, brand
manager for Dr Pepper.
Dr Pepper struck the deal with Major League Gaming, a
New York City company that organizes teams and
competitions. This year, the league has 50 professional
teams, each specializing in one of five multiplayer
games, including Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. The teams
compete in six tournaments throughout the year (amateurs
can play at some), and a typical tournament draws 12,000
to 15,000 spectators over three days, according to the
league.
Fans can watch the competitions online at MLGPro.com.
They can also track each team’s performance at M.L.G.’s
sister site, GameBattles.com, which has 2.5 million
registered users.
Brands like Dr Pepper, Stride gum, Old Spice and
Panasonic have signed on as league sponsors, which means
they have signs and booths at events, promotion on the
league’s Web site and permission to use its logos in
their marketing.
“The successful marketing of major stars is what sports
leagues have always been about,” said Matthew Bromberg,
the chief executive of Major League Gaming. “What’s
really going on here is for tens of millions of young
men, the aspiration to be a pro gamer is the new dream
of sports stardom,” he said.
The Dr Pepper label promotion is the biggest retail
program for the league, Mr. Bromberg said.
The promotion lets consumers enter bottle-cap codes
online to win points in tournaments and chances to win
prizes like T-shirts and televisions. The labels
featuring Mr. Taylor will appear on regular and diet
20-ounce bottles.
About 80 percent of the total number of Dr Pepper
bottles on sale during the promotion will feature the
special labels, Ms. Hockens said.
Dr Pepper has had other label promotions, including one
for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
this year, and has run regional sports-themed
promotions, like one for the Dallas Cowboys. However,
this is the first sports promotion with national
distribution.
Dr Pepper began its league sponsorship this year.
“Initially, we were looking for a new way to reach our
target audience, and we knew that gaming as a genre was
extremely important to our target audience,” said
Richard Lyons, the manager of the interactive team at Dr
Pepper.
League executives suggested that Dr Pepper sponsor not
only the organization but also a team, and Dr Pepper
marketers liked the four members of the team Str8 Rippin,
including Mr. Taylor.
“They really are rock stars in their own little world,”
Mr. Lyons said.
Interestingly, the league itself does very little
promotion: no online ads, no television ads, no print
ads.
Still, said Billy Pidgeon, a games industry analyst for
the market research firm IDC, the group “has the highest
visibility” of any online gaming league in the United
States. Competitors include the World Cyber Games, with
sponsors including Samsung and Xbox 360, and the
Electronic Sports League. |
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