Anyone remember when NOS Energy Drink was associated more with gaming than with NASCAR? I do.
It’s so strange that they’ve gone out of their way to scrub as much of that association as they can from existence. Not even their Wikipedia article mentions it, despite it once literally being their main shtick. Only a handful of old articles or personal photos show up on a Google search. There are still a few old “NOS Replay” videos buried on YouTube.
When I first became a fan of the drink it was through my indirect software development ties to the game development industry. Their primary market focus was heavy in the gaming/eSports arena, and I was always a go to try out a new energy drink. I was almost constantly on the promotional NOS Energy Drink MLG points leader board and they frequently sent me NOS MLG gaming swag. They even sent me tickets to the NOS MLG pro-circuit in 2011.
They still did their racing/drifting thing, but the bulk of their 2010-2012 marketing was focused on video games. Nos Energy Drink was the major sponsor of the Major League Gaming (MLG), the namesake of several pro-gaming circuits, and had a huge presence as a presenter at gaming conventions. They used to do these massive NOS energy Drink Arcades and Game Station rooms at just about every con, whether a major gaming convention or smaller MLG circuit competition.
One year, even at Gen Con convention I attended (which is not a video game-centric convention), they had a gigantic NOS MLG Game Center with tons of retro console stations set up, blue-suited booth babes handing out cans of NOS, a dozen Battletech VR Pods doing tournaments outside the main room, theater sized DDR screens, mini-arcade and live DJ shows, lasers/lighting, the works. Honestly, I think NOS was confused by the “Best Four Days in Gaming” tagline of the tabletop gaming convention! The disconnect with some of the older Gen Con audience was kind of awesome to watch.
It’s crazy how that significant marketing presence just sort of got erased – intentionally erased. Their advertising, commercials, contests/giveaways were also all video game oriented, and nearly no reference to any of it exists online today.
Partnerships and sponsorships come and go all the time, but I can’t think of another time I’ve come across such an obvious effort to ‘nuke it from orbit‘ as I have with the NOS/MLG partnership.