Teva is discontinuing its title sponsorship of the formerly named Teva Mountain Games after 11 years so that it can increase its spending on digital marketing by 40 percent over the next three years, company Founder and President Joel Heath told The SportsOneSource Group.
Heath confirmed that Teva has ended its sponsorship of both the summer and winter games. Heath said Teva still sees “great value in the Mountain Games” while also noting that as the founder of the games before taking over at Teva, he “personally and professionally” has long invested in and appreciated the event.
But he said that after 11 years, Teva “needed to make a change.” The major reason was a planned aggressive shift in marketing to support emerging digital adverting platforms that can provide a greater global reach for the brand.
“We will continue to be athlete-driven as we have always been in our marketing but the marketing environment has really changed since we created the Outdoor Games,” Heath said. “Digital communities exist that are like regular events and it just gives us more global reach that we can do.”
He also said that studies show that Teva has comparatively strong brand awareness, reducing the need to market around such a regional event. At the same time, the brand is largely known as a sandal brand and needed to do a better job getting the word out on its extensive footwear collections. The focus in the near term will be on its TevaSphere outdoors cross-trainer collection as well as the brand’s upcoming 30th anniversary.
He finally stressed that the shift represents an “incremental investment and refocus and not a reduction in expenditures” as implied in some coverage of its decision to end its sponsorship. Indeed, he noted that with the 40 percent increased marketing spend over the next three years, the brand will “close to double” its advertising spend versus a few years ago. Added Heath, “We're excited about what’s ahead of us.”
