Post joins MLS as exclusive cereal sponsor

Get ready to see MLS players on the box of Honeycomb cereal in the grocery aisle.

That’s because the league has filled an important open sponsorship category with a multiyear deal with Post Consumer Brands, making it the exclusive cereal sponsor of the league.

The deal will see players appear nationally on cereal boxes in June and July for the first time in more than a decade, with limited-edition boxes spanning the Post cereal portfolio including Honey Bunches of Oats, the Pebbles line of cereals and Honeycomb.

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Post Consumer Brands CMO Roxanne Bernstein said the company is still determining which players will be highlighted.

Terms of the deal, handled by Soccer United Marketing directly with Post, were not disclosed. It comes after Post partnered with CONCACAF to sponsor its 2017 Gold Cup tournament, the brand’s first soccer sponsorship. That deal featured limited-edition packaging across 20 million cereal boxes that featured U.S. national team players Jozy Altidore, Alejandro Bedoya and Jordan Morris — all of whom play in MLS.

Bernstein said the feedback of that sponsorship from consumers and retail partners was the impetus to further invest in the sport with MLS.

As part of its MLS deal, Post will receive ribbon-board advertising during all matches, including national television broadcasts. The company also will activate around the league’s major events, such as the All-Star Game and MLS Cup. Bernstein said its MLS campaign will be the largest sports marketing endeavor that the company is engaging in but declined to comment further on the financial details of the deal. Post Consumer Brands does its marketing in-house.

Jennifer Cramer, vice president of partnership marketing for MLS, said having a sponsor in the cereal category will provide “tremendous exposure at retail, and engages consumers in something that is part of their everyday routines.”