JAZZ FESTIVAL LINKS HEINEKEN USA
WITH BREWERY ON ST. LUCIA
Once a year the Caribbean
island of St. Lucia is the
place to be for jazz fans, as
it's the setting for a
Heineken-sponsored jazz
festival. In the run-up to the
1999 festival a unique form
of cooperation was establish
ed between two Heineken
operating companies: the
brewery on St. Lucia, Wind
ward Leeward Brewery
Limited, and Heineken USA.
Since the brewery started
sponsoring the festival on
the island, the event has
steadily grown in prestige.
The 1999 festival was given
an extra dimension thanks to
the cooperation between the
brewery and Heineken USA.
This cooperation generated a
lot of positive publicity on
the island. The first contacts
between the two parties
occurred in 1998 when the
brewery's general manager,
Nico Pinotsis, started fact
finding talks with represen
tatives of Heineken USA in
the south-east of the United
States about the possibilities
of setting up joint promo
tions.
Heineken USA organised
a retail promotion in cities in
the south-east of the U.S.
Consumers could win a trip
to St. Lucia and their visit to
the jazz festival was of cour
se the high spot of their
journey. Sixty people (prize
winners, representatives of
Heineken distributors and
the management team of
Heineken USA) eventually
travelled to St. Lucia for sun,
sea, nature and jazz. And
that jazz proved to be of a
high standard, as the artists
appearing included Roberta
Flack, Harry Belafonte, Olu
Dara, Kool and the Gang,
Jeffrey Osborn and Jose
Feliciano.
