Guinness has signalled a major commitment to Rugby with the signing of new or existing partnership agreements with the English, Welsh and Scottish Rugby Football Unions, the Six Nations and the Aviva Premiership in England.
It will become the ‘Official Responsible Drinking Partner’ of England Rugby from the start of the 2013/14 season, replacing Green King IPA which has been the ‘Official Beer’ in recent years.
Fan engagement at matches is central to the new deal with Sophie Goldschmidt, chief commercial officer at the RFU welcoming it as “a long term partnership with a brand that has a strong rugby association and shares our aims to prioritise fan engagement.”
“This new broadened partnership with Guinness is in line with our strategy to have integrated more enhanced partnerships and we are looking forward to working with them to provide the best match day experience for fans.”
The brand is kicking off the relationship in advance with a Facebook led promotion to find one fan that will act as the official Guinness ‘Fanbassador’, feeding into the marketing teams as they create new fan zones at Twickenham and around the country.
The prize also includes joining the Guinness team at Twickenham for every home game of next season.
Guinness has also renewed its sponsorship deal with the Welsh Rugby Union until 2016 remaining an official partner of WRU until at least 2016.
Last week it announced it was supporting the Rugby Gathering tournament at UCD in August and it remains an official partner of the IRFU, Leinster, Munster and London Irish.
Reports in recent days suggest that another long term supporter Bank of Ireland are likely to take over from Toyota as the principal sponsor of Munster in a five year deal worth over €3 million. Sport for Business will cover this in greater deal when it is announced in the coming days.
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Guinness Expands to More Rugby
