B&T Opinion Coca-Cola & The Premier League: A Goal Scoring Partnership For 2025/26
At the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia, we’ve spent decades researching brand strategy. Coca-Cola’s return as the Official Soft Drink Partner of the Premier League for the 2025/26 season looks like a brand-building tap-in.
Dr. Will Caruso, senior marketing scientist, and Carlos Villanueva, marketing scientist, explain why this is a goal-scoring opportunity, firmly grounded in Ehrenberg-Bass principles of physical and mental availability. This is more than just putting a football logo on a can; it’s about embedding the brand deeper into memory, and consumer behaviour. But as with any shot at goal, it all comes down to execution, especially when limited edition packaging is in play.
The Power of Mental and Physical Availability
At Ehrenberg-Bass, we know brands grow by being easy to think of and easy to buy, through mental availability and physical availability.
Coca-Cola’s Premier League partnership hits the back of the net on both:
Mental Availability: The Premier League is a cultural behemoth with 95 to 100 per cent brand awareness in the UK. Coca-Cola itself sits at 98 to 100 per cent recognition. By tying itself to the emotional rollercoaster of football, Coca-Cola becomes more mentally available in key buying moments.
Physical Availability: Already present in 90 to 95 per cent of UK households, Coca-Cola now has an even stronger reason to be part of football rituals whether it’s on retail shelves, pub counters, or kitchen tables on game day.
Read the full article in B&T.