SNICKERS U.S. YOUTH SOCCER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
In 1993, M&M/Mars secured the title sponsorship of the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship to create strong positive brand associations and gain long-term brand loyalty for its SNICKERS brand. To maximize their investment, the M&M/Mars marketing team needed to ensure that they fully leveraged this sponsorship at the state, regional and national tournaments.
The PR challenge was to integrate SNICKERS branding and product placement into the tournaments themselves, and to secure media coverage of the SNICKERS brand in each of the tournament host cities.
To reach youth players and their families, exposure to the SNICKERS brand began at the airport where teams arrived. GCJPR worked with airports in each host city to arrange for prominent placement of welcome signage. When families reached their host hotel, they again were greeted with SNICKERS welcome signs and plenty of complimentary SNICKERS products at the front desk. GCJPR also worked with the volunteer host committees in each location to stage an Olympic-style opening ceremony that featured SNICKERS signage, giveaways, and speakers from M&M/Mars.
GCJPR also created a media relations program for each city to maximize coverage, during and after the event. To create awareness for the upcoming event, event calendars were sent to media outlets accompanied by mini soccer balls. News releases detailing the positive economic impact of the tournament were then shared with the media. Upon arrival in each of the host cities, GCJPR teams took a personal approach to creating media relationships by personally delivering media information packs to local newspapers and television stations.
The day prior to tournament start, GCJPR staged a kick-off event in each location with the intent of creating buzz about the tournament, and gaining early media coverage to set the stage for the coming days. These “kick-off” events were typically held in high-traffic downtown locations to take advantage of the lunch crowds. The appearance of an inflated SNICKERS “kick center” drew hundreds of participants at each location – either to take a shot at testing the speed of their kick or to win SNICKERS prizes and sample SNICKERS product.
To achieve fully branded site locations, GCJPR worked with M&M/Mars to design transportable SNICKERS-branded material kits for the soccer fields including pop-up tents to provide shade for competing teams, water coolers to surround the fields, golf umbrellas, hats and t-shirts for giveaways to participants and their families, and oversized inflatable SNICKERS candy bars resting atop soccer balls. GCJPR also worked with host committees to integrate SNICKERS product into tournament awards ceremonies, with each winning team receiving bags of SNICKERS candy bars. In many cases the happy and exhausted players wanted to get their hands on the SNICKERS before their trophy.
As a result of GCJPR’s efforts, SNICKERS received newspaper, television and radio coverage in all tournament locations. In nearly all locations, television stations covered the kickoff event and opening ceremonies with live remote broadcasts, and newspaper and television coverage continued throughout the duration of the tournament. In addition to local coverage, SNICKERS also received coverage in USA Today, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and the Today Show in New York, where the SNICKERS kick center was set up in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza with one of the national winning teams demonstrating their skills. In a formal survey of tournament participants, nearly 100 percent of the respondents identified SNICKERS® as a tournament sponsor.