Major sponsoring
event for Amstel
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UEFA Champions League
CHAMPIONS
42
UEFA
LEAGUE
Watched by more than two billion people. That
was the size of the interest shown in the '93/'94
season for the UEFA Champions League, Europe's
most prestigious soccer tournament. The national
league champions of all European countries com
pete to see which is Europe's best club team. As
from this season Amstel is Official Partner of this
mega-event for three years.
The sponsorship contract that
Amstel concluded with the
European Football Union UEFA
contains two important elements:
Amstel advertising boards around the
field during each match in the UEFA
Champions League and the broadcast
sponsorship, which means that
Aunstel's name as sponsor is men
tioned during the preliminary
announcement and during the sign-
off of each TV broadcast.
Not all matches will display
Amstel advertising hoardings. During
the home matches of the French
national champion Buckler boards
will be installed around the pitch.
This is due to the French Loi Evin,
which has imposed strict limitations
on advertising and sponsoring activi
ties for alcoholic beverages.
The television coverage of the
matches played by the Irish champion
club will be preceded by an announ
cement that the programme is spon
sored by Murphy's Irish Stout. In
Spain the Amstel boards will make
way for Aguila signage. Amstel boards
will be on display in all the other
countries which compete for the
UEFA Champions League, i.e. also in
countries where Amstel is not (yet) on
the market.
Impact
International Brand Manager
Amstel Gary den Hertog and
International Sponsorship Manager
Chris Woerts are very enthusiastic
about this sponsorship. And no won
der: in total, it involves eleven match
days, 61 games and 610 hours of tele
vision coverage. "The impact is
expected to be very high. Last sea
son's viewing figures give an indica
tion of that, as the UEFA Champions
League match played in Spain
between Barcelona and the Turkish
team of Galatasaray attracted 14% of
all viewers, which is very high com
pared to other big sports events.
Looking at Europe in general, it
seems that the average viewing densi
ty for these matches in Europe will
amount to as much as 18%", explains
Chris Woerts.
Most viewed
However, it is not only the
Europeans who get excited about a
soccer match. The UEFA Champions
League is broadcast in full or in part
in 58 countries outside of Europe. In
Asia the League has proved highly
popular. These matches are the most
viewed sports programme on TV in
Asia. Particularly in Hong Kong,
Singapore and Indonesia the UEFA
Champions league is a winner and
well liked by viewers.
The Champions League was set
up two years ago to bring more life
into the contest for the Europe Cup 1.
Previously, the national champion
clubs competed for a place in the
finals via the knock-out system. As
from the '94/'95 season sixteen teams
will be left over after the preliminary
round and will then be placed in four
groups in which they will compete for
first place. The winners of each group
will then play each other in the semi
finals.
WORLD OF
H E I N E K E N
