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Coke Will Tout Full Throttle In Pre-Bowl Program

  • USA Today, Friday, January 20, 2006 12:31 PM
Not to be totally outdone by its biggest rival, Coca-Cola has decided to have a marketing presence at this year's Super Bowl after all. But instead of paying $2.4 million per 30-second spot as Pepsi-Cola is doing, Coke will instead highlight its Full Throttle energy drink as the primary sponsor during the last 30 minutes of pre-game programming. The "Full Throttle Kickoff Show" will include three ads for the drink Coke hopes can take sales from top-selling Red Bull. The first national push for the brand is part of Coke's strategy to make a bigger marketing splash in 2006 and to capture more of the growth in nontraditional soft drinks. "The competition was Coke vs. Pepsi 10 years ago," says Alison Lewis, Coke's senior vice president of integrated marketing. "Our business has evolved over the past 10 years, and with that evolution, we have entered into new categories." Energy drinks, with caffeine and additives such as ginseng, are the hot new category. Red Bull leads with a 47 percent share built with grassroots promotion. Full Throttle, only one year old, has a 7 percent share.

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