Who spends the most?

Today I read a very interesting article in AdAge that discussed which marketers spend the most on sponsorships. Apparently, in 2011, PepsiCo spent between $340 million and $345 million. They lead the charts for the most money spent on sponsorships. In fact, they lead the game by so much, that the next highest contender is Coca-Cola at $265 million to $270 million spent on sponsorships in 2011. That means there’s almost $100 million gap between the two companies. I wonder why PepsiCo decides to spend so much on sponsorship. It would be interesting to look at the rate of return data on the money that they are spending. I wonder if Coca-Cola will catch on and increase their budget next year, or if PepsiCo will withdraw some of their funds.