Energy Drink Succeeds POWERade As Title Sponsor

COMMERCE, Ga. — Beginning next season, NHRA’s top series will be known as the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
Coca-Cola North America’s Full Throttle energy drink succeeds POWERade as the title sponsor of NHRA’s premier professional drag-racing series. It’s the first major sports marketing play for the beverage company’s lead energy drink.
The change in title sponsor comes with a two-year extension in the partnership between NHRA and Coca-Cola, which now runs through 2013.
“It’s one of the great synergies of brand and sport,” said NHRA President Tom Compton, who orchestrated the original deal with Coca-Cola North America in 2001. “To have a title sponsor for what will be, at minimum, 12 years by the end of this current deal is a tribute to a great relationship between NHRA and Coca-Cola North America, Coca-Cola Enterprises, the POWERade brand and beginning in 2009, the Full Throttle brand.”
Full Throttle has been the official energy drink of NHRA since 2005 and currently sponsors the Full Throttle Pit Crew Championship, which awarded more than $250,000 last season. Fully integrated marketing plans for Full Throttle and NHRA will include at-track activation, out-of-home media support, online presence, retail programs and sampling.
“When you fuse the energy of Full Throttle with the speed and intensity of NHRA professional drag racing, you’ve got a combination that’s hard to beat,” said Rafael Acevedo, senior brand manager, Energy Drinks, Coca-Cola North America. “We mean it when we say, ‘Go Full Throttle or Go Home.’ We can’t wait to unleash the power of Full Throttle and cement the relationship between NHRA drag racing, NHRA fans and the ultimate energy drink.”
On the sponsor side, the partnership is going to be the main focal point for Full Throttle.
“One of the things that really attracted us to NHRA is how loyal the fan base is. And as you think about loyal fan base, we feel like that can really take our brand to the next level,” said Brad Goist, Coca-Cola vice president and general manager of water and beverage. “We believe that our marketing efforts in and around North America can really help take the NHRA to the next level, not just in your home markets where all these races take place, but everywhere else as well.”
The agreement also gives some latitude to other energy drink sponsors in the series, which include Monster Energy, sponsor of Kenny Bernstein’s Funny Car driven by Tommy Johnson, Jr., and Rockstar Energy Drink, sponsor of Don Schumacher Racing’s Funny Car driven by Jerry Toliver.
“Coke understands the importance of team sponsorship, and they’ve been extremely good to work with on that front,” Compton said. “All the teams that are currently with energy sponsors are grandfathered in, as long as they’re with the team owner that they’re currently with and they can do what they’re doing. They can scale back, they just can’t ramp up.”
Because POWERade will no longer be the title sponsor of the series after this season, Compton added that competing energy drinks will be permitted to sponsor cars at the primary level beginning in 2009 and in any manner in 2010.