Powerade uses NCAA basketball for 2011 campaign

Alex Rojas Daniel Peng Will Partain

Powerade and the sports drink market

Share of Market
1.30%

27.5%
Powerade Gatorade

71.2%

Other

Powerade and the sports drink market

Spending on Measured Media 1
30 25 20

24 Mill

15
10 5 0

10 Mill

2009 2009

2010 2010

The Strategy

Focus. Hustle. Hydrate. Believe.

Powerade has replaced Vitaminwater on 88 NCAA non-football championships, including baseball and basketball, giving it wide-ranging marketing rights.

The main focus of the campaign would be March Madness The first ad from the campaign featured Chris Paul, a point guard for the NBAs New Orleans Hornets, it was launched March 17th during the opening March Madness game Campaign included features such as the Ion4 Point Ranking System that references to the four electrolytes found in in Powerade

The Strategy

Focus. Hustle. Hydrate. Believe.

The marketing done during March Madness and the NCAA in general is part of a large market push by Coke/Powerade. Powerade also sponsors other large organizations and specific athletes and is pushing to acquire more acquisitions. These include: Major League Baseballs Ryan Howard National Football Leagues Chris Johnson FIFAs World Cup More than 200 colleges A dozen MLB franchises A handful of NBA Teams

The Big Picture

Sports Drinks in both the United States and around the world is still an unsaturated market, and firms such as Coke and Pepsi Co are both increasing ad spending tremendously to compete. Gatorade has long been the market leader but over the past few years, it has continuously lost market share due to perceived loss of brand value and brand identity Powerade has steadily chipped away at Gatorades market share. Powerade sales almost tripled between 2000 and 2009, and market share recently jumped past 27 percent for the first time. As a result of the increased competition, Powerade, Gatorade, and other firms have increased ad spending by significant amounts in addition to releasing multitudes of new drinks and suppliments

Questions

1.

Due to the amount of upsets in this years March Madness, do you think Powerades campaign will be effected? How do you see the future of the Sports Drink market playing out? Will Powerade eventually become market leader through careful marketing?

2.