Q&A: Sonic’s CMO Talks Tapping into the X Games Fanbase and Standing out as a Sponsor -

Popping up a larger-than-life Sonic cup in the middle of a skate park at X Games Ventura 2024 was pretty memorable for a first-time sponsorship, so when the brand returned this summer as presenting partner of X Games Salt Lake City 2025, June 27-29, it arrived with a few upgrades. Of course, the fully branded Sonic Park Course came back for the extreme sports competition, but the Sonic Skate-In activation at X Fest created surprise-and-delight moments for attendees and athletes alike, who were invited to “Live Free Eat Sonic.” (Agency: Fuse)

The brand offered specialty menu items, exclusive merch and swag (“Live Free Gear Up”), and a quarter-pipe photo op (“Live Free Skate Hard”). At an airbrush station, participants could choose from four designs, ranging from a skateboard to a cup, to customize t-shirts and hats. Brand ambassadors around the footprint sported blue short-sleeve, button-downs designed with cup and mouth icons.

This event marked the third X Games Sonic sponsored, having kicked off the partnership last summer in Ventura, CA, and continuing it with X Games Aspen 2025 in January before the June edition at the Utah State Fairpark. X Games is being reborn, as it announced that the Salt Lake City event delivered “double-digit growth across ESPN platforms, a 12-percent increase year-over-year,” with a particular surge in youth viewership that grew 328 percent year-over-year.

Ahead of X Games Salt Lake City 2025, we spoke with Sonic cmo Ryan Dickerson to learn about how the drive-in restaurant brand is tapping into this engaged audience, tailoring and evolving its sponsorship strategy with each event, and amplifying the X Games energy to connect fans and athletes.

Event Marketer: How did Sonic get involved in the X Games, and what has that partnership been like?

Ryan Dickerson, CMO, Sonic

Ryan Dickerson: Sonic is very much cold beverage forward, so it naturally lends itself to being a brand that’s part of people’s minds when it gets really hot. We, of course, have that seasonality curve, so we’re thinking about how we can have fun, cool, unique partnerships and activations in the summer months. But when it comes to TV programming, inventory and availability, it’s a pretty tough time of year to find something [sports related]. We have a partnership with the SEC. They’re anchored in the fall and winter, so those are kind of shoulder months for us.

I grew up watching the X Games. It’s a brand I’m extremely familiar with. As a kid, I used to skate, got into BMX and followed a lot of the athletes. When we were approached with the opportunity to be a part of this amazing time for the X Games brand, when the events are smack dab in the middle of the summer, it was one of those perfect opportunities to connect our brand, which is all about living free, having fun, with X Games athletes who are the epitome of living free and having fun doing it.

It is harder to do something bespoke. You have to show up with a little bit of creative thinking and a lot of “let’s see.” A cookie-cutter approach is not something that I’m excited about, to put our brand as part of a logo soup. X Games allowed us to come in the summer of last year and create an amazing experience, everything from working with the actual athletes to branding the skate parks in a unique and creative way. We had a Cherry Limeade cup right in the middle of the skate park last year and also had the tailwinds of a lot of those athletes going to the Olympics.

EM: What learnings did you pick up from the last two X Games events that influenced how you’d show up in Salt Lake City?

RD: We did some fun, limited, X-specific products last year, but very few this year. We’re leaning into the extreme lemonades and the extreme tots, like Sriracha-flavored tots and jalapeño-flavored lemonade. Last year, we did a Sonic VIP tent for folks with a certain kind of badge and a lot of the athletes, and this year, it’s going to be for everybody, which is really exciting for us because our customers just happen to be everybody at this event.

It’s learning as you go, and I think we’ll continue to ideate on these types of activations. When you lean into the art of the possible, you’re always going to find things that didn’t come together quite as beautifully as you would have liked for it to and probably a couple of things you would do differently. We’ve got an entire airbrush station this year, so we’re doubling down on bringing more of that Sonic “living free, having fun” mentality to the areas where we’re going to be interacting with fans. We’re getting better and better at how we position the brand at the event, as well as thinking about athlete partnerships and creating content with them.

EM: What are some unique characteristics and considerations for activating at the X Games?

RD: The X Games is a little different than traditional sporting venues. These athletes are very excited to interact with fans and the public and have these opportunities to engage with brands. And so we want to be able to leverage that as much as we possibly can. If we can host an amazing environment where we get to bring some cool merch and beverages for the event, you’ll see us continue to lean in on that.

Last year, it was wild because we were sitting in our VIP area, eating some popcorn chicken bites, and I looked out and saw a couple of the athletes that I just talked to, one of whom was a really young skater, on the half-pipe with Tony Hawk, casually. There’s no audience; it’s literally two people on the half-pipe, skating and having fun. It’s not this huge, formal environment, where you would traditionally think of these athletes being; it is very organic.

And so we’ll be doing social content throughout the entirety of the event, everything from teasers leading up to it, all the way down to content that we’ll shoot with the athletes while we’re on-site, including some behind-the-scenes stuff because the followings that these athletes have is huge, so we want to be able to tap in and show off a little bit of the content that you don’t always see.

What I love about it is getting to see these athletes cheering each other on, like when someone pulls something off that’s mega or super epic, the whole gambit of athletes loses it, and it builds in the audience, too. That type of excitement and passion for the sport is rabid, so we want to be able to capture that and amplify it any way we can. There’s so much great momentum, both within the sport that X Games houses and with the athletes.