Mountain Dew® has announced that it has established partnerships with three major esports organisations; namely Team Dignitas, Splyce and Team SK Gaming.
These new partnerships will ‘provide gamers around the globe with exclusive content and access to some of the best gamers and esports celebrities in the world via the Mountain Dew Twitch channel‘.
Team Dignitas is owned and managed by the Philadelphia 76ers whilst Splyce is headquartered in the U.S. and partnered up with two US sports team in its own right – Delaware North and the Boston Bruins. Team SK Gaming meanwhile is based in Germany. The press release stated that Mountain Dew, which is owned by PepsiCo, selected these teams ‘for their innovative style, achievements and ultimately their embodiment of the DEW brand ethos’.
Manos Spanos, Global Senior Marketing Director, Mountain Dew commented: “We are excited to expand our support of esports through these partnerships with three world-class teams. Industry-first partnerships and authentic integrations that align with core Mountain Dew values and resonate with gamers and DEW Nation will continue to inspire us as a business.”
In 2016, Mountain Dew created the Mountain Dew League (MDL), a professional competitive gaming league with the purpose of helping amateur gamers turn pro. In partnership with ESL, Mountain Dew and Esports Entertainment Association League (ESEA) provide amateur teams the opportunity to qualify directly for a place in the ESL Pro League.
The MDL is back for a second year and another season with more teams and more content, it can be viewed on Mountain Dew’s Twitch channel Tuesday through Thursday.
PepsiCo as an entity is becoming an increasingly keen supporter across esports. Another of its brands which is lesser known in Europe but popular in the States is Brisk, which is one of the title sponsors of Rocket League’s RLCS alongside Old Spice. The company has also sponsored OpTic Gaming via Brisk. Doritos signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with MLG way back when (2009), but the brand hasn’t been used for anything major since this time. 
Elsewhere, and for a different target market, PepsiCo’s energy drink Adrenaline Rush is a sponsor of ESForce Holding owned organisation Virtus.pro. It has also sponsored a league, the Adrenaline Cyber League, which consisted of CIS and Russian teams.
Of course not all brands under the large umbrella make sense for esports, but it’s likely we’ll see more of them entering. Mountain Dew launched its Game Fuel flavour back in 2007, and as such it appears that the executives that be viewed a natural extension to this targeting of gaming fans.
Esports Insider says: Fans of Splyce, Dignitas and SK will likely be pleased that they’ll be able to get their hands on more exclusive content thanks to these deals. PepsiCo has been experimenting with esports sponsorships for years now but has stepped it up a gear in the past twelve months.
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