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Posted by Daniel Workman Aug 20, 2008 |
What better way to advertise your beer brands than to sponsor China's breakout sports spectacle, broadcast daily around the world via Internet and high-definition television?
Millions of younger Chinese drinkers in the domestic market are developing a brand loyalty to Tsingtao beers. Imagine how many are lifting a Tsingtao beer to celebrate winning Chinese Olympic competitors, from on the trampoline to the diving board.
Headquartered in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdoa, Tsingtao is leveraging publicity from its sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics to grow its beer sales. Tsingtao has spent US$386 million on Olympic-centered promotions of its ales.
The payoff has been a US$146 million gain in company revenues for the first 6 months of 2008, now at $1.2 billion up 16% from $995 million from the same period in 2007.
Long-term sales gains are the main objective of the Olympic advertising. Anheuser-Busch owns 27% of Tsingtao, and in turn is the target of a mammoth takeover from InBev.
Tsingtao beer may soon win a gold medal in sales on international trade markets.