Social Rocket
Sprite is using its new NBA partnership to create a direct path from the fan moment to brand interaction. With Nikola Jokić and Anthony Edwards as faces, limited cans with QR codes and local basketball activations, the Coca-Cola company is launching the global campaign platform "Never Stop Refreshing the Game". It was unveiled on 12 October 2026 and is set to roll out until 2027 – explicitly including Europe.
The real marketing idea lies less in the next star spot than in the connection between packaging, digital experience and the basketball community.
The can becomes the entry point into a digital fan journey
Sprite plans NBA and player editions with QR codes on the packaging. Behind them are interactive games and winning opportunities, including, according to the company announcement, courtside tickets, official Wilson basketballs and merchandise. Added to this are activations in NBA 2K, offers around game days and "Hoops of Refreshment": local basketball courts are to be upgraded with new murals.
This gives a classic sponsorship several points of contact. The TV or social spot creates attention, purchasing in retail brings the campaign into everyday life, and the QR code leads to a digital activation. Anyone who is to be addressed again after scanning needs clearly regulated consent and a sound data strategy for that.
The mechanic is particularly interesting for marketers because the packaging combines its own reach at the point of sale with a measurable action. A brand therefore does not have to buy the entire fan contact on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
Two players, different markets, the same brand idea
Jokić plays for Denver and, as a Serbian NBA star, has enormous international appeal. Edwards, by contrast, embodies a different kind of basketball personality, geared more toward entertainment and individual self-presentation. Sprite brings both together in a global platform, while individual markets can deploy their own creator, retail and event activations.
The NBA and Coca-Cola had already announced their renewed global partnership on 17 March. At the time they also named content on NBA channels, collaborations with existing 17 NBA teams and activations around international games. The October launch now turns this into a concrete consumer campaign.
The international game dates show why this matters for Europe: after Mexico City in November, Manchester and Paris are on the program in early 2027. Whether and in what form each promotion will be available specifically in Germany depends on the respective market.
Why Sprite doesn't just want to buy reach
In a conversation with Marketing Dive, Sprite brand chief Oana Vlad describes local creators and live experiences as important components. For the FIFA World Cup campaign of the group's flagship brand Coca-Cola, she cites more than 25 million collected first-party data points and more than nine billion digital and social views. These figures relate to the World Cup activation – not to the new Sprite launch.
The direction is nevertheless clear: sports rights are meant to deliver not just visual contact but recurring relationships, data and retail actions. A pure comparison of the view numbers of two campaigns would hardly show this value.
Similar questions arise with SharkNinja's long-term sponsorship of Formula 1 with McLaren. And our overview of NBA advertising in the 2026/27 season shows how basketball content spreads through streaming and creator channels.
What German brands should measure in sponsorship
The challenge is linking the brand campaign to genuine participation. For a similar setup, brands should not only count reach and video views. A more meaningful measure is a chain of QR scan rate, participation rate, newsletter or loyalty opt-ins, recurring activity and measurable sales.
Local clubs, courts or community events can create a stronger connection than interchangeable star posts. The role authentic athlete and creator partnerships play here is also shown by the CarMax WNBA creator programme.
Sprite's approach is ultimately an omnichannel funnel for basketball fans: the campaign starts on the court or on social media, can continue in the supermarket via the can, and ideally does not end at the first scan. What matters is how well local community, commerce and voluntary data relationships actually work together.