{"id":5381,"date":"2023-07-17T12:53:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T12:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/marketing\/pepsico-marketing-exec-on-gatorades-womens-sports-sponsorship-strategy\/"},"modified":"2023-07-17T12:53:39","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T12:53:39","slug":"pepsico-marketing-exec-on-gatorades-womens-sports-sponsorship-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381","title":{"rendered":"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who appeared alongside Jordan in a 1997 ad set to \u201cAnything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),\u201d where the two squared off in soccer, basketball, and other sports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">\u201cWe were putting, I believe for the first time, a female athlete at the same stature as, ultimately, the GOAT in basketball,\u201d Mark Kirkham, CMO of international beverages at PepsiCo, told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Gatorade and PepsiCo were among the most active nonalcoholic beverage brands in women\u2019s sports by number of sponsorships last year, according to SponsorUnited, with deals in the LPGA, WNBA, NWSL, and Australian women\u2019s rugby league. The parent company did a total of 44 deals, per SponsorUnited, including 30 for Gatorade alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Within women\u2019s soccer, Gatorade has continued to work with stars from Abby Wambach to Mallory Swanson. It partners with teams including Angel City FC and OL Reign, and also activates around the sport at a more grassroots level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">PepsiCo\u2019s beverage division isn\u2019t a sponsor of this year\u2019s FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup, which kicks off on July 20; Coca-Cola has been an official sponsor of the event since 1978 and has a standing partnership with FIFA through 2030.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Kirkham said PepsiCo and Gatorade are still deeply invested in soccer, including the women\u2019s game. Ahead of this month\u2019s World Cup, we talked to Kirkham about the company\u2019s approach to women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\"><em>This interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\"><strong>How do you hold a brand accountable for maintaining a somewhat equal gender split in sponsorships? <\/strong><em>(Editor\u2019s note: Figures regarding the breakdown between PepsiCo\u2019s investments in men\u2019s and women\u2019s sports were not available.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Taking an equal approach is about ensuring that you\u2019re looking at the opportunity from a consumer standpoint\u2026If your brand\u2019s job and role is to elevate sports, fueling athletes in their sport, and the athletes are now much more diverse and much more equal, then you need to take that same investment. There were days 50 years ago that I\u2019m sure most brands were only focusing on male sports. If you want to be relevant in sports today, you can\u2019t do that. It\u2019s not an equation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"style__InlineSubscribeWrapper-sc-8ccc5960-1 jArFiG\">\n<div id=\"inline-subscribe\" class=\"style__Container-sc-6fdcc87e-0 style__RoundedContainer-sc-6c630ac0-0 iTWzCH wGFGp\">\n<h5 class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 cVdxJM inline-subscribe\">Get marketing news you&#8217;ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 iEaGlZ inline-subscribe\">The email newsletter guaranteed to bring you the latest stories shaping the marketing and advertising world, like only the Brew can.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\"><strong>Why is soccer such a focal point for Gatorade?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">It\u2019s the largest participation and the largest watched sport in the world. In the US, obviously, we have huge assets in the NFL, we have assets in hockey, baseball, it\u2019s across almost all sports\u2026Internationally, soccer is the focus, but you\u2019re seeing more focus on soccer in the US. The last World Cup, the upcoming World Cup in the US, is obviously driving a lot more association there. The viewership of the Premier League, the performance of US players, both men and women\u2014it\u2019s just changing the role that [soccer] plays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\"><strong>Gatorade is the most heavily invested in the sports world, but which other PepsiCo brands are engaging with women\u2019s sports?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">Pepsi was always known to create these amazing ads not officially associated with any major tournaments, with [David] Beckham and [Lionel] Messi, even 10, 15 years ago. We\u2019ve always been able to tap into culture through storytelling through sport in a Pepsi way\u2026Back in 2014, we started bringing women players into our storyline. We\u2019ve had Lucy Bronze; we had Carli Lloyd in a Pepsi ad shot for international\u2026So Pepsi would be the second\u2026I think there\u2019s a role that each brand can play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\"><strong>Is there anything you can share about plans for the Women\u2019s World Cup?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-5a46198a-12 ggMJgB\">The US is a partner with them on the snack side, so there\u2019s a relationship we have there\u2026On the beverage side, we\u2019re less involved\u2026I do think what\u2019s important is, if you\u2019re getting involved in the women\u2019s game, it needs to be more than just sponsoring one tournament or doing one campaign. I think that is probably the most crucial thing to anyone who wants to get into women\u2019s sports commercially, because it becomes a blip. It becomes a one-off. It becomes not part of your long-term vision in sports\u2026We\u2019ve been investing in players and athletes, but it\u2019s that combination of storytelling, investment in education, and particularly with Gatorade, tying it up with key partnerships, and using those partnerships to elevate the narrative. These partnerships have to be more than just about brand awareness. These partnerships have to be about building authentic narratives that can help amplify the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketingbrew.com\/stories\/2023\/07\/17\/pepsico-marketing-exec-on-gatorade-s-women-s-sports-sponsorship-strategy?utm_source=&#038;utm_medium=syndication&#038;utm_campaign=feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who appeared alongside Jordan in a 1997 ad set to \u201cAnything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),\u201d where the two squared off in soccer, basketball, and other sports. \u201cWe were putting, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy | Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brandiary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-17T12:53:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-17T12:53:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1689598417_316aa963467ad92a2adab8abaa66b3a908ab5259-2858x1492.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\"},\"headline\":\"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-17T12:53:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-17T12:53:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381\"},\"wordCount\":819,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Marketing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381\",\"name\":\"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy | Brandiary\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-17T12:53:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-17T12:53:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"description\":\"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Brandiary\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png\",\"width\":381,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Brandiary\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy | Brandiary","description":"Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy | Brandiary","og_description":"Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who","og_url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381","og_site_name":"Brandiary","article_published_time":"2023-07-17T12:53:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-17T12:53:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1689598417_316aa963467ad92a2adab8abaa66b3a908ab5259-2858x1492.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4"},"headline":"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy","datePublished":"2023-07-17T12:53:36+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-17T12:53:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381"},"wordCount":819,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Marketing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381","name":"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy | Brandiary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-07-17T12:53:36+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-17T12:53:39+00:00","description":"Gatorade\u2019s roster of sponsored athletes runs deep, and it started with the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. The brand\u2019s second athlete was Mia Hamm, who","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=5381#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PepsiCo marketing exec on Gatorade\u2019s women\u2019s sports sponsorship strategy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","name":"Brandiary","description":"Latest Business and Startup News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#organization","name":"Brandiary","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/b-logo-1.png","width":381,"height":100,"caption":"Brandiary"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5062dafb0f932b59aa228f1a047332f4","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/avatar_user_1_1688031660-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com"],"url":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5383,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381\/revisions\/5383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}