Mondelēz International is scaling up its sports marketing by going regional. About a month after the World Cup concluded, the food and beverage giant announced two new sports deals: a sponsorship with the Kansas City Chiefs — the company's first with a pro football team — and a multi-school agreement spanning five NCAA programs.

The company, which owns Oreo, Ritz, Chips Ahoy!, Sour Patch Kids and Clif Bar, sees the deals as a new phase in its sports strategy, layering regional partnerships on top of its existing national and global presence in sports.

"Now, it's about…making sure we're meeting those expectations in how people are communicated to [based on] what kind of mood state they're in when their teams are playing," Nick Rogers, director of portfolio marketing and sponsorships at Mondelēz, told Marketing Brew. "We're having that bespoke, at-scale approach, driving frequency with our national campaigns, but then really cutting through on a comms level from a regional perspective. That's what retailers expect. That's what fans expect."

Chiefs kingdom

Across its sports sponsorships, Rogers said his team aims to reach all areas of the US and multiple generations. The Chiefs fit that bill: the franchise's marketing targets children as well as virtually every other demographic.

While the Chiefs mark Mondelēz's first NFL tie-up, the company has spent years in pro sports. Rogers said a partnership with Inter Miami CF, announced last year, helped shape its general approach to targeting sports fans.

Popularity alone doesn't drive the choice of sport, Rogers said.

"It doesn't necessarily need to be the No. 1 and 2 sports in the country," he said. "It's what that audience is passionate about, and if they're passionate about it, they come together as families. That means they're having watch parties, that means they're tailgating, and that means, naturally, the presence of our brands on people's snacking tables for decades will always be there. We need to make sure we're honing in on those audiences."

Five schools, more NIL

College teams command a similar level of devoted generational fandom. On Aug. 25, Mondelēz announced it is now the official snacking partner of the University of Arkansas, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Southern California and the University of Texas at Austin.

Rogers and his team selected the schools partly based on where they expect the partnerships to have the most impact on sales, and partly because the schools align with the company's prior work in college sports. Mondelēz has an ongoing relationship with USC women's basketball star JuJu Watkins, which will continue alongside the broader program deal.

"That means we can target people outside of basketball but then also use her as the face of our basketball plans for March Madness," Rogers said. "If you have the pillars in place with the federation, i.e., NCAA, and then you really pad that out with our talent and schools, it means across all touchpoints, across multiple age groups, we can be communicating our brand messages."

The new school partnerships include additional NIL deals, including one with Texas Longhorns wide receiver Ryan Wingo. The Mondelēz brand roster will appear across multiple college sports occasions, with a focus on the biggest ones: football and March Madness basketball.

Mood-based messaging

Activations will vary by team and game, but Rogers said the plan includes tailgate presence, player appearances, ticket and merchandise giveaways, and product sampling at games.

The goal, he said, is to use sports not just for "global commercials" but to reach specific audiences with messages tailored to their moods, whatever the sport.

"Having these all-year-round partnerships really allows us to flex through seasonal or occasion-based moments," Rogers said. "You can't go out with a positive football moment all the way through to November, December. If a school lost the last six games, but if they're excited and there's hope about their basketball program, that's up to us to then change our messaging."

Source: Marketing Brew (https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/mondelez-sports-marketing-chiefs-ncaa?utm_source=&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=feed) / Source: youtube.com (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSUFze6gy2M)