Budweiser Celebrates American Beer’s Place in European Football’s History

In July 2019, AB InBev’s Budweiser announced a multi-year partnership with the UK’s Premier League and Spain’s LaLiga, a deal spanning five continents and more than 20 countries around the world. MullenLowe SSP3 was tasked by Budweiser to communicate the essence of the deal in Colombia.

Throughout its history, beer brands such as Heineken or Carlsberg have dominated European sponsorship, so MullenLowe SSP3 wanted to introduce the brand to Colombia in a way that was meaningful for both the brand and the people. To do this, MullenLowe SSP3 dug deep and found Budweiser had been there all along.

After analysing data from over 4,000 of the most well-known goals in the Premier League and LaLiga’s history, MullenLowe SSP3 found there was a similarity between the formation of the goals and Budweiser’s famous ‘bowtie’ logo. From this, ‘Goals of Kings’ was born, allowing Budweiser to become part of the history of the most iconic European sport without ever being there before.

Twelve of the formations have been immortalised in a book that sits at the heart of the sponsorship in Colombia. Each sequence has been beautifully crafted using different art direction and copy techniques. Colombian superstar and former Aston Villa player, Juan Pablo Angel, who also has a formation featured in the book, launched the campaign in December 2019 with several important sports journalists. It aired on TV, digital, outdoor,

print and a direct mail (the book) than ran across the most important Sports Shows in Latin America.

Carlos Andrés Rodríguez, chief creative officer of MullenLoweSSP3, said: “We found that Budweiser has always had a presence at the tournaments, even if it has never been a direct sponsor before. We wanted to ensure the connection between Budweiser, the Premiere League and LaLiga felt genuine for the football fans and the consumers of Colombia. We hope this idea resonates with them and brings Budweiser’s sponsorship to life.”

- The campaign ran through different media such as TV, Digital, Outdoor, Print, and a Direct Mail (the book), and had more than 7.8 MM USD in earned media.

- The campaign had more than 24 MM impressions.

- Five of the superstars of the leagues had comments about it, including Juan Pablo Angel, former player of the Aston Villa (and scorer of one of the goals of the campaign).

- More than 4000 goals were analysed by the algorithm, both from Premier League and Spanish LaLiga.

- 12 of the goals were immortalised in a book that travelled across 36 different Sports Media/Programs in Latin America.