As part of a four-year marketing and licensing partnership between the NBA and Mondelez … [+]
The NBA and Mondelez International
The four-year deal is Mondelez’s first partnership with a U.S. professional league since a licensing agreement was made in 2015 with Major League Soccer, per a company spokeswoman, though it has longstanding partnerships with the NCAA and Team USA Olympic sports. After on and off conversations for over a year, both parties agreed that each side had what the other was looking for in terms of a partnership. The NBA liked how Mondelez’s brands bring consumers together through snacking, while Mondelez liked the NBA’s appeal to families, younger audiences and gamers whose viewing and screen time experiences will be improved by its iconic line of snacks.
“We’re both in the business of creating moments where people can enjoy and for brands to engage with our fan base,” said Daniel Rossomondo, the NBA’s head of media and business development, global partnerships.
The first activation and campaign in the NBA-Mondelez partnership will center around Oreo cookies and the NBA’s dynastic franchises. Mondelez is rolling out special limited edition NBA Dynasty Oreos, available starting March 29, that will feature the logos of the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat on the cookies themselves.
Fans will have the ability to scan NBA Dynasty Oreo cookies and relive iconic moments like Kobe … [+]
“You’re literally tasting the greatness of our products and experiencing the greatness of the NBA,” said Rachel Lawson, Mondelez’s associate director of scale consumer engagement and retail. “We wanted to enable NBA fans to relive great moments of the NBA.”
In a first-of-its-kind experience for Oreo, each NBA team logo Oreo cookie will be scannable on TasteGreatnessVIP.com, where fans can watch great moments in the history of each team’s dynasty, as well as enter to win a trip to the 2022 NBA All-Star Game as part of the Taste Greatness sweepstakes across several Mondelez brands. There’s no QR code to enter while scanning the cookie on the website because the cookie itself, which will have the team logos placed within them through embossments, will be the actual code.
“Looking at the overall activation, we felt like having this Oreo dynasty pack was just the best expression of our overall campaign and sentiment,” Lawson said.
Logos on Ritz and Trident packaging will also have the ability to be scanned on that site as well. There will also be a social-digital campaign behind the overall promotion throughout the spring, Lawson said.
“I think we’ll be able to create a lot of conversation on our social channels as well about what we’ll do together,” Rossomondo said.
Mondelez is also especially excited to work with NBA 2K and its accompanying esports league. It was important for the company to understand what gamers look for in snack brands, and felt that the NBA was the best way to connect with them in an authentic way.
“In talking to people who snack across all age groups, five of the six things they’re doing while snacking is in front of a screen,” Lawson said. “So when we dug deeper and watched and spoke to consumers, we found that they were cheering on their favorite sports teams or chatting online socially. And it was most important for us to ensure we were joining with a partner that would enable us to continue making them feel that way.”