Heineken is to extend its sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League by an additional three years bringing it all the way through to 2018.
The company has been involved with the tournament since its inception in 1994, originally under the Amstel brand but since 2005 under the main Heineken name.
The new contract is believed to include substantially greater use of real time content through twitter feeds, and extended use of pitch side LED screens. The twitter extension is in line with recent deals signed between the NFL and Sky with regard to near realtime distribution of original content that can be commented upon and shared.
Heineken activates its Champions’ League sponsorship in more than 90 international markets and does so alongside five other key partners who share access to media and content.
They include Mastercard who have a major base in Ireland and will shortly be announcing details of a new marketing campaign building on their memorable experience motif; Ford who support the Ford FAI Cup the final of which takes place this weekend; Adidas, Sony and Gazprom.
The leverage and scale the involvement in the Champions’ League gives is difficult to match and will be a likely benchmark should discussions take place on a renewal of support for European Rugby either through the existing Heineken Cup or a new format that may yet emerge from ongoing negotiation between clubs, unions and broadcasters.
The role of outbound tourism in support of soccer matches will be discussed at the Sport for Business Sports Tourism Seminar in Dublin on November 7th. To find out more and book one of the few remaining places, click here.
RTE, TV3 and Sky all have broadcast rights to the matches played within the Champions’ League on Tuesdays and Wednesday’s through the group and knock out stages. The final is played on a Saturday night in May, generally on the same day as the Heineken Cup final which has enabled crossover for the brand between two sets of sports fans in recent years.
Both final matches will take place in 2014 on Saturday, May 24th, in Lisbon and Cardiff respectively.
The official beer partner of the FAI is Carlsberg whose parent company Diageo has announced a new marketing campaign based around the Guinness Autumn internationals in Rugby.
Get a head start by signing up to our daily news digest. Relevant information on sport and business from around the world. Delivered Free before 8am.
