Tiger Beer sponsors regional street soccer tournament
Thai Asia Pacific Brewery, the producer and distributor of Tiger Beer, in partnership with ESPN, yesterday announced the launch of a regional street-soccer competition to promote the brand among younger consumers in Thailand and neighbouring countries.
The company has set a five-year goal of putting Tiger Beer among the top three brands in the domestic market.
Andrew Lamont, commercial director of Thai Asia Pacific Brewery, said the firm planned to continue its focus on sports-related campaigns for Tiger Beer, targeting the younger generation. These activities, he said, aimed not just to promote the brand, but also to cement loyalty among the targeted audience.
The regional Tiger Street Football 2012 competition has enlisted Dutch soccer legend Edgar Davids as an ambassador to promote street football culture. The final round of the competition will take place at CentralWorld tomorrow and will be broadcast live by ESPN through its Star Sports channel to about 300 million households throughout the region.
“Many young guys have learned football from the street. Street football is quite popular but is not well organised. We want to be a vehicle to build this kind of sports competition within the region,” Lamont said.
Tiger Beer has been an active sponsor of soccer events for many years, both regionally and globally, he said. It sponsored the Asean Tiger Cup and was behind the creation of the Tiger FC community. It has been a major supporter of many world-class leagues including the English Premier League as well as Tiger Street Football, which debuted last year. The competition received an overwhelming response from new-generation players, with more than 200 teams applying to compete last year.
“This year, we are determined to continue our sports marketing for the second year to encourage a new-generation footballers to perform and compete in the international arena in a unique sport. For this event, our main strategic partner is ESPN Star Sports Event Management, which will broadcast the competition,” Lamont said.
“We chose Southeast Asia, as the region is Tiger’s home. The region itself has provided a critical mass for hosting such regional sports campaigns.”
Pattapanee Ekahitanond, marketing manager of Tiger Beer, said: “Tiger Street Football 2012 has proved extremely popular among new-generation footballers, with more than 200 local teams applying to join the competition.
“We have screened those contenders down to the 32 best, who will compete on March 9 and 10 at the front bazaar of CentralWorld for a trophy and prizes worth more than Bt3.75 million, as well as the ‘King of the Streets’ title and the right to represent Thailand in the next international round and compete with winning teams from Singapore, Vietnam, China and Malaysia on September 28 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,” Pattapanee said.
