As of the beginning of this month, Arizona-based Sprouts Farmers Market has become the official grocer of the Southeastern Conference, known as the SEC.
The company has been a sponsor of college and professional sports before, but Alisa Gmelich says this is a new chapter.
Gmelich is the chief marketing officer for Sprouts. She joined The Show to talk more about this new partnership.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: What went into the decision to sponsor the SEC?
ALISA GMELICH: Well, our journey actually begins almost two years ago when we as a brand actually decided to broker 50 female athlete NIL deals in 2022 to support the 50th anniversary of Title IX. And if you think about the connection to Sprouts, well over 50% of our customers are women of all ages. And when you think about the connectivity to sprouts and female athletes, our mission is really to help people live and eat better, and that is probably even more so important for women in general.
And so this really started in 2022 and I think we just decided to dip our toe in the water with those NIL deals. Then we became the first founding Backa kit sponsor for Angel City in 2021 for the ‘22 season, and we actually just extended that deal in April 2024. And we were so amazed by the outpouring of support that we received just by sponsoring Angel City. They, so many of their values really align with our values as a company in supporting women, in supporting female athletes, and as you know, for them, supporting, you know, women as business owners as well.
And so we really sort of have taken that sort of to the next level as we think about the SEC with the sort of the fall of the Pac-12, we really decided that it would be incredibly worthwhile for us to think about partnering with the SEC because we're expanding in that part of the country and if you marry that with our mission of advancing, you know, women both in equity and in sports, it really was kind of a match made in heaven if you think about it.
BRODIE: So when you talk about, you know, sponsoring NIL deals for particular athletes or the, you know, the, the sponsor on the back of the jersey for the, for the soccer team, it seems like it's a pretty big leap to go from those to the SEC, which is a big time conference, especially in sports like football and basketball. Do you expect to get the same kind of result from that as you have with the kinds of sponsorships you've done already?
GMELICH: Well, I think what this is about is it's, we believe that we are gonna get pretty amazing results across the board. Our connectivity, as you know, Los Angeles is one of our core markets and so partnering with Angel City in the Los Angeles market was just a great fit because we have so many stores in the Southern California area.
When we think about the SEC and what they're doing for women's sports in general, we really felt like this was gonna be a great expansion for us into markets that, you know, we're expanding in. And when you think about the idea of what women's sports is between softball, basketball, gymnastics, all of those sports are getting so much more awareness now than they ever have before. We believe that there's gonna be a major relevance played there for us in being connected to the SEC.
BRODIE: Well, so you mentioned that Sprouts is looking to and expanding into that part of the country. I'm wondering though if you also, when you were thinking about making this move, did it matter that the SEC does take seriously women's sports and have quality women's sports into your decision, not just from a business perspective to say, “OK, we're expanding into this part of the country, it's a good conference for us, but we also like what the conference is doing and how it will represent our brand.”
GMELICH: Oh, absolutely, no question. I mean, we had been partners with, you know, the Big 12, we had looked into that, we had been partners with the Pac-12 and through our evolution of staying involved with sports in general, we really evolved our stance in partnering with women's sports.
And there's no question that the SEC has made this a much bigger priority for their conference as well. I mean, let's be honest, the SEC is a tremendous conference for both men's and women's sports. We will be doing some participating in some of the men's media activities as well, but really our mission and where we want to have most of our activations and stay most connected is on the women's side of sports so that we can focus on that.
BRODIE: What kind of response did you get when you were just doing the NIL deals? And I'm curious because that's seems like a very specific kind of thing, like you have particular athletes that you are working with and and essentially sponsoring, as opposed to an entire conference, which has a lot of schools in it with a lot of other, you know, going down the level, a lot of then individual athletes.
GMELICH: Yes, well, I think we get two sides of it. By partnering with the SEC, we get sort of the broader picture of partnering with women's athletics at a broader scale. When we partner with the NILs, what we love is we love working with these athletes and if you follow, for instance, our Instagram or any of their Instagrams, It is amazing to see their connectivity with our brand, and be able to see how they live a healthier lifestyle. I think it just sort of brings it home a little bit more. We think that this is really the inspiration part of how we inspire people to live and eat better.
BRODIE: Even though this deal with the SEC is now in place, does Sprouts plan to continue working with athletes here in Arizona, your home base?
GMELICH: Oh, absolutely. Ee are still partnered with Arizona State. I don't think we would ever move away from Arizona State and our connectivity there because this is where our home base is and we've got great connectivity. In fact, I think we're gonna be looking at figuring out how do we continue to expand that partnership, you know, in some more relevant ways into our community, because we just know that they've been a great partner for us as well.
BRODIE: So I've got to ask because you know anyone who watches sports or listens to sports on the radio will hear, you know, the official name your industry of, you know, the league, the team, whatever, you know, it could be the official travel agent, the official hot dog, the official grocer in your case, like does that stuff legitimately matter like to be the official grocer of the SEC as opposed to just sort of a sponsor of the conference?
GMELICH: You know where I think it makes a really big difference? I think it makes a really big difference when you have a brand like Sprouts and we have taken the initiative to become the official grocer of the SEC. We are not your traditional conventional grocer. Truly, we are a specialty retailer that focuses on innovative organic natural items, and I think what it does is I think it makes people sort of turn an ear and say, wait, Sprouts, if they hadn't heard about Sprouts before.
It's going to hopefully prompt them to think about us and want to investigate and find out more about us. Especially in the SEC where our awareness is still in a growing state and we're communicating sort of who we are as a brand as we move through our expansion plans. So I think in some cases to be the official whatever it is for a certain conference, if everybody knows who you are, I think that's good, but in our case because we're somewhat unexpected, we think that's part of what makes this so much more exciting.
