Top Sports Sponsor Anheuser-Busch InBev Partners With Juventus
Anheuser-Busch InBev signed a 3-year deal with Italian football powerhouse Juventus. The ‘Bud’ brand plans to help Juventus work on digital activations by using specific personalities in their various campaigns.
“Bud, The King of Beers, joins a football legend and now becomes the official Juventus beer,” stated Benoit Bronckart, CEO of AB InBev Italia. “I am enthusiastic about the partnership between these two world icons of excellence. Like sports, beer has been bringing people together for thousands of years, and we’re looking forward to celebrating Juventus’ next victories with the team and all its fans.”
A-B InBev forward-thinking mission of using innovative technology to excite and unite fans is aligned with that of Juventus. By creating a strong message, Bud can increase both team and brand awareness.
“We are happy to welcome Bud among our partners as official beer. The globality of its brand has often been expressed in recent years through advertising campaigns that are still in everyone’s memory or with the spectacle of some of the biggest events, including the Super Bowl and the Football World Cup,” stated Giorgio Ricci, Juventus Chief Revenue Officer. “This attention to Entertainment will be central to the partnership that will bind us for the coming seasons.”
The top beer company’s desire to leverage sports and beer in exciting and innovative ways to connect and engage consumers allows them to work with many of the top sports leagues. Budweiser’s numerous sports sponsorships include the Premier League, La Liga, and the World Cup.
A-B InBev began 2018 intending to change the sports sponsorship industry, and their plan for doing so meant sports entities were required to sign incentive-based contracts. The primary goal of such a change was to increase the interactions between the brand and A-B InBev. And the strategy was a success amassing interactions eight times over.
“The reality was that the deals we had weren’t working hard enough,” stated A-B InBev Senior VP/Marketing Joao Chueiri. “We had long-term deals, and we’d see them maybe every five years for a negotiation and a check. We wanted them to address our needs on at least a yearly basis — that’s changed the conversation.”
“We end up putting more dollars behind the properties, and they have more commitment to results. That’s a really good combination.”
Due to the success of their incentive-based model, Anheuser-Busch InBev won the Sponsor of the Year at the Sports Business Awards this past May. The goal to use technology to create fully integrated, scalable, and future-ready campaigns with now close to 80 sports properties is ambitious but has proved successful for both A-B InBev and their sports partners.
