We have had the pleasure of working with the Dr Pepper Walmart Team since September, 2004. Our charge continues to be helping add the exciting dimension of music at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, to facilitate incremental display space and increased sales for Dr Pepper brands. Below are some of the highlights of our involvement the past seven years.

We’ve coordinated marketing efforts and logistics for over 300 artist CD signings for the Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s Walmart Team. These have included, in many cases, in-store acoustic signings and live Walmart parking lot concerts, featuring artists as diverse as Bryan Adams, Jason Aldean and Hootie & The Blowfish. Each event preceded by a thirty minute reception in the Walmart associates’ break room.

In September 2007 Dr Pepper hosted nine Walmart parking lot concerts and CD signings with major Latin artists, including Los Lonely Boys, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. The Consortium coordinated each of these with Hispanic record labels and the Dr Pepper Walmart Team.

Interestingly, we did 17 Dr Pepper Walmart CD signings with country artist Sherrie Austin in the course of two weeks. These included 5 appearances in the Kansas City marketing area over a four-day period. We’ve done multiple signings with a number of additional artists while on tour. Independent artist tours are a cost-effective way to construct small market Walmart/Sam’s Club tours, such as extensive Jason Meadows and Aaron Tippin CD signings/acoustic performances.

We worked with the team in bringing an original copy of The Declaration of Independence to Sam’s Club headquarters during Shareholders Week 2009.

Jointly conceived “mini-tour sponsorships” have taken place the past three years, and have featured Chuck Wicks, Gloriana and The Band Perry, all opening for a superstar artist. For a fee, artists agree to “x” number of CD signings in tour cities, four tickets and a “meet and greet” at each performance. The artist’s tour bus is wrapped with Dr Pepper signage. Future opportunities might be:  Chris Young (Miranda Lambert tour); Lauren Alaina (Jason Aldean); and, Thompson Square (Lady Antebellum).

Dr Pepper sponsored 150 parking lot Karaoke contests, in 2005, which included 30+ Walmart parking lots. These four-hour events featured Dr Pepper on-site sampling, with each contestant walking away with a Dr Pepper-branded CD containing his or her own recording

So as to continue offering the Team a strong asset base and resources, we continue to forge associations with New York and L.A.-based event marketing companies which work with a wide array of major Fortune 500 brands.

Dr Pepper/Walmart Team Artist Participants (Partial List)

Trace Adkins, Jason Aldean, Rodney Atkins, Sherrie Austin, Bryan Adams, Chris Young, Dierks Bentley, Chris Cagle, Mark Chestnutt, Billy Currington, Charlie Daniels, Billy Dean, Gloriana, Emerson Drive, Randy Houser, Hootie & The Blowfish, Tracy Lawrence, Little Big Town, Los Lonely Boys, John Michael Montgomery, Neal McCoy, Lorrie Morgan, Jamie O’Neal, The Band Perry, Trick Pony, Ricky Skaggs, Chuck Wicks, Chely Wright, and Darryl Worley.  

“The success of these events has exceeded even our highest expectations,” said Andrew Springate, vice president of marketing, Dr Pepper. “Everyone walks away with more—the artists and their record labels, the stores, the local radio stations and media, and most of all, the fans, who turned out in droves to support their favorite artists."