SOUTHERN CONFERENCE DOES THE DEW; SEC INKS NEW PARTNER
Published
March 2, 2000
PepsiCo's Mountain Dew brand signed a one-year deal to
become the Official Soft Drink of the Southern Conference
Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments in SC this week.
Under the deal, Mountain Dew receives soft drink category
exclusivity for marketing and promotional rights at the Bi-
Lo Center, the site of the men's event, and at Furman
Univ.'s Timmons Arena, the site of the first two rounds of
the women's tournament. Mountain Dew also gets logo
placement on the floors of both arenas, on team benches and
at the scorer's table. Host Communications represents the
Southern Conference (Southern Conference). Host GM of the
Southern Conference account Marvin Julich told the
SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Jennifer Lee that although the
"timing" of the deal was "somewhat last minute," Mountain
Dew will have "adequate time to run" its promos around the
partnership. Julich said that "there are options to expand
the length of the deal and to expand" to the conference's
other championships. He added that "currently the deal is
approaching six figures, but an exact number was
unavailable," as Host and PepsiCo are "still in discussions"
(SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/28 issue).
COLLEGE DEALS: HomePoint Corp., an e-business
consultant to the home furnishings industry, inked a two-
year deal to become a member of the "SEC Corporate
Partnership Program." HomePoint receives print, radio and
TV ads, as well as merchandising packages for select SEC
sporting events, including the conference's men's and
women's basketball tournaments and football championship
(SEC)....The Univ. of AR "sent proposals for a five-year
contract" to "about" eight companies for rights to be the
exclusive telecom sponsor of the school's athletic teams,
but "only" Alltel and Southwestern Bell (SB) -- both
currently partners of the school -- responded. If SB lands
the deal, Alltel's logo "would come off the scoreboards" at
the school's athletic facilities (A-D GAZETTE, 2/28).
