Tecate Promotes Next de la Hoya Bout
Tecate Beer will run a retail promotion to reach the at-home Hispanic audience for the December Las Vegas bout between Olympic gold medalist Oscar de la Hoya and World Boxing Council lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao.
The multi-channel campaign around the fight, to take place Dec. 6 at the MGM Grand Hotel, will feature commemorative 24-ounce and 12-ounce cans with boxing images, and thematic packaging on 18- and 24-packs.
Tecate will also offer a $20 mail-in rebate for the HBO pay-per-view event with the purchase of 12-packs or larger of Tecate and Tecate Light, where legal.
P-O-P materials, such as posters with fight details will be distributed to national grocery, convenience and liquor-store accounts. Two to three weeks before the fight, the brand will also run tailored TV and radio spots in key U.S. Hispanic markets such as Los Angeles, Fresno, Monterey, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco in California; Albuquerque; Las Vegas; Phoenix; and Dallas, Houston and Austin TX.
To build buzz around the bout, Tecate will bring fighters from de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions to live autograph-and-photo events at selected locations in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, along with the brand’s popular Chicas Tecate cheerleader teams.
An ESPN poll finds that boxing is one of the most popular sports among Hispanics, drawing 62% of the U.S. Hispanic viewing audience.
“This fight creates a great opportunity for us to reinforce Tecate’s sponsorship prominence within the sport and strengthens our connection with Hispanic adult consumers by tapping into their passion for boxing,” Tecate brand director Carlos Boughton said in a release.
The campaign is the third and final element in Tecate’s partnership with de la Hoya this year. The beer brand sponsored an earlier Los Angeles fight between de la Hoya and Steve Forbes; and a second planned match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. was shelved when his opponent retired suddenly.
De la Hoya originally said that his match against Pacquiao would be his farewell to the ring. But in August de la Hoya told the press he intends to continue fighting after the bout.
“For the past two years, Tecate has sponsored some of the most important Golden Boy Promotions events, and we have seen how their activation elements help further engage consumers,” Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said in a release. “This is a sold-out event and few now need to focus on getting boxing fans at home equally excited.”
Besides Tecate, other sponsors for the de la Hoya-Pacquiao fight include DeWalt Tools, Full Throttle Energy Drink and Southwest Airlines. The fight is presented by Tequila Cazadores.
Cerveza Tecate is imported into the U.S. by Heineken USA in an exclusive agreement with FEMSA Cerveza.
