Dive Brief:
Molson Coors model Vizzy is the first-ever official laborious seltzer of the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) tour, based on a press launch.
The partnership consists of advertising and marketing efforts with on-site, out-of-home (OOH), social media, retail and influencer advertising and marketing integrations. Molson Coors manufacturers Miller Lite and Simply Spiked Lemonade, amongst others, may also be obtainable at choose PPA tournaments.
The partnership between the 2 entities displays not solely pickleball’s rising reputation, but additionally the continuing try by mainstream manufacturers to get in on extra niche sport partnerships and alternative routes of reaching drinkers.
Dive Insight:
As the first-ever official laborious seltzer of the PPA tour, Vizzy will likely be taking an lively function within the promotion of pickleball, which is taken into account to be the quickest rising sport within the U.S. In addition to laborious seltzer, Molson Coors can also be the official beer and flavored malt beverage accomplice of the group. Such a transfer could allude to the need to have a higher sports activities presence, as Molson Coors introduced plans to return to Super Bowl promoting this 12 months for the primary time in 33 years.
Pickleball, which presently boasts 4.8 million gamers, has seen large development throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Invented in 1965 and described as a cross between badminton, ping-pong and tennis, it has seen an 11.5% common annual development charge over the previous 5 years, with a 21.3% development charge from 2019 to 2020 alone. While many of the sports activities’ core gamers are over 65, the strongest development is amongst gamers below the age of 55. This fast-growing youthful demographic lends itself to fashionable company sponsorships, such as laborious seltzer and different malt drinks.
The sponsorship between Vizzy and the PPA additionally displays the model’s efforts to combine itself right into a niche market as the laborious seltzer business is in flux. Once the star of beer alternate options, laborious seltzer’s development has slowed significantly as oversaturation and competitors from various merchandise grows. Some of the corporate’s non-alcoholic choices such as ZOA Energy and ZenWTR alkaline water may also be part of the PPA’s current lineup of alcohol-free drinks.
While the large gamers in sports activities promoting stay basketball, soccer and baseball, extra niche sports activities are seeing an promoting push as viewer fragmentation grows. While massively common in the remainder of the world, soccer has seen important development in curiosity among the many U.S., particularly throughout girls’s groups. Other women-dominated sport leagues, such as the WNBA, have additionally seen new company sponsors be part of its ranks. Even extra niche actions, such as esports, are seeing main backing by manufacturers like Anheuser-Busch InBev. US Quadball, formally identified as Quidditch, has additionally seen sponsorship curiosity and lately aired on nationwide tv for the primary time.
https://www.marketingdive.com/information/vizzy-pickleball-sponsorship-ppa-hard-seltzer-molson-coors/633705/
