Ier picks new Challenge
with basketball
t
Buckler.
CHALLENGE
The Buckler Challenge will take
place at various levels, ranging
from matches between con
sumers to contests between all-star
"dream teams" from American col
lege basketball playing against
national all-star teams from Europe.
The Buckler Challenge is the name of the
new international sponsorship which
Heineken will use to communicate the
characteristics and image of Buckler over
the next three years.
Fast, young, dynamic, confident and
international are the characteristics
of basketball. Descriptions which also
apply to Buckler. That is why global
brand manager Gary den Hertog deci
ded, in close consultation with the
relevant operating companies, to use
this sport - a new branch of sport for
international sponsoring - to promote
the Buckler brand.
Image
Over the past three years Buckler was
closely involved in international cycle
racing through its sponsorship of a
Dutch racing team. The aim of that
sponsorship was to build up aware
ness of the Buckler brand with
in Europe. Evaluation of the sponsor
ship showed that Buckler had
achieved its objec
tive (75% brand
awareness in the
most important
Buckler markets).
In a subsequent
sponsorship, there
fore, brand aware
ness would not
take centre stage,
but the Buckler
image. A period
then followed of
in-depth analysis
of branches of sport which might be
eligible for a Buckler sponsorship and
of what the details of such a sponsor
ship should look like.
A
Popularity
The choice of basketball was based in
part on this sport's big (and still grow
ing) popularity, especially in Southern
Europe and in the United States, and
also on the fact that Buckler holds a
strong position in the Mediterranean
countries. Buckler enjoys great suc
cess above all in Spain and France. A
highly popular sport attracts plenty of
media coverage, particularly on
television. But televised match reports
are not limited solely to (Southern)
Europe. Since American college
teams were also introduced into the
deal, sports channels in the U.S.A.
promised to broadcast reports on how
those teams perform in Europe.
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
