Accolade Wines, the UK’s leading wine company, has announced a £1m investment in a new campaign for Hardys, its No 1 wine brand and the official wine of England Cricket. The campaign will include TV sponsorship, a partnership with Sky, print advertising and prize promotions offering the chance to win cricket tickets and cricket merchandise.

The Rules According to Hardys puts the UK’s most trusted wine brand at the heart of family life with a warm and engaging theme about the different rules and quirks around families and the game of cricket.

The Hardys campaign will feature heavily during the cricket season including TV sponsorship of Channel 5 Cricket Highlights, which reaches 10.4m adults, a partnership with SkySports.com and cricket print media advertising. There will be a strong brand presence in England cricket grounds across the UK with perimeter boards, promotional activity and branded bars.

Hardys will be promoted in both the on- and off-trade including gondola ends, summer seasonal aisles and competitions to win cricket tickets and related branded products to drive awareness and purchase at point of purchase.

David White, Marketing Director for Accolade Wines, says: “We have consistently invested in Hardys sponsorship of the England cricket team over the last few years and now established our credentials as a long term supporter of English cricket. We are confident that this new campaign, The Rules According to Hardys, will connect with our consumers by raising a smile at the quirky ways British families interpret the rules and enjoy time together, especially when playing cricket.”

The campaign will extend to Hardys social channels through a partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board to create a series of posts revealing the quirky personal family rules of those that grew up around the game.

The Hardys brand, with retail sales worth in excess of £275m a year, will also front a search to celebrate the unsung heroes of local grassroots crickets, and will be revealing its support for some unusual cricket traditions during the season.

Accolade Wines, which owns the Hardys brand, is a major global wine business based in Australia. It began as Thomas Hardy and Sons, founded in 1853, and now has operations in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, mainland Europe, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. At the beginning of April 2018, US private equity firm The Carlyle Group bought Accolade for Aus $1bn. The sellers were Australian private equity firm Champ, which owned 80% of the business, and US alcohol group Constellation, which owned the remaining 20%.

Accolade’s Echo Falls brand recently signed up as the drinks partner of what is likely to be the summer’s hottest TV show, Love Island 2018, on ITV2, and will be offering the chance to win tickets to the live Love Island final.

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Carling has launched a new on-pack promotion giving consumers the chance to win an array of Premier League prizes, including the trophy itself.

Working in partnership with the Premier League and Sky Sports, the ‘Win The League’ campaign will give Carling drinkers the opportunity to get their hands on the famous silverware, allowing winners to take the Premier League trophy back to their home, their workplace, their local pub or even their own grassroots football club.

Running until the end of September, consumers who purchase promotional packs of Carling will be in with a chance of winning Premier League prizes every day. To enter the competition, consumers will need to download the Carling Tap app on iPhone or Android devices and use it to scan any Carling can or bottle in a promotional pack for their chance to win. Within seconds of scanning, fans will find out whether they are one of that day’s many winners.

The promotion is available across packs of Carling lager, Carling Premier, Carling Apple Cider, Carling Black Fruits Cider and Carling Citrus Twist which are labelled with ‘Win Premier League Prizes Every Day’.

On top of the trophy, other prizes include Sky Q packages for an entire year with all Sky Sports channels included and an Ultra High Definition TV, Premier League tickets, signed Premier League shirts, Now TV Sky Sports day passes, official Nike Premier League footballs and more.

There are 12 Sky Q packages to be won, including a year’s subscription including Sky Sports and Sky Cinema plus a 43” UHD TV; 10,000 NOW TV Sky Sports day passes; 92 sets of four Premier League Football match tickets; 500 Nike Strike Premier League Footballs; 40 signed Premier League shirts; 1000 coupons redeemable for a four pack of Carling Premier lager; and the star prizes, eight Premier League Trophy days.

Each Premier League Trophy day prize consists of one day with the Premier League trophy (9.00am until 9.00pm) at a location chosen by the winner (but approved by the Premier League) before the start of the 2018/2019 season. Security staff will be required to stay with the trophy at all times.

The campaign will also be supported by Out of Home advertising and social media content.

Jim Shearer, Carling Brand Director, says: “Our latest promotion gives fans a chance to get even closer to the league they love through a whole raft of exclusive Premier League prizes. The Premier League and Carling go hand in hand, and we know that big sporting occasions drive sales of alcohol for the off-trade, so this promotion has the potential to be one of our most successful to date.”

At the start of last season Carling became the Official Beer and Cider of the Premier League, having previously been title partners of the Carling Premiership from 1993 up until the 2001 season.

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Budweiser is bringing back its Dream Goal campaign, where the UK’s amateur footballers submit pictures of their team’s dream goals for the chance to feature in the beer brand’s TV advertising on Sky Sports.

Budweiser has also revealed details of a range of other off-trade promotional activities which celebrate its ongoing global association with football, which includes its role as the official beer brand of the Emirates FA Cup.

Retailer partnerships include activity with Sainsbury’s where shoppers who use their Nectar cards to purchase Budweiser products will be placed into a ‘swipe to win’ prize draw

Shoppers will also be in the running to win one of 10 personalised and Budweiser branded 11-a-side football kits created via Nike kit builder; an online platform from Nike that allows users to design their own kits for themselves or their team.

Other retailers, including Tesco and convenience stores, will be running promotions with Budweiser offering the chance to win Emirates FA Cup tickets, signed FA Cup merchandise and football kits.

As Official Beer of the Emirates FA Cup until 2018, Budweiser will launch a number of other on and offline activations. These include a partnership with Amazon centred on an online Emirates FA Cup game, hosted on Facebook. The game enables users to guess which teams will win Emirates FA Cup matches for the chance to win Budweiser Amazon Pantry Vouchers.

Laura Salway, senior brand manager at Budweiser, says: “Budweiser has a long-standing association with football, and we’re undertaking more activity than ever this year to support important football occasions taking place throughout 2016 – this includes the Emirates FA Cup and of course, our own Dream Goal competition.”

Salway adds: “Our off-trade activity will further cement Budweiser’s association with football, whilst allowing participating off-trade establishments to maximise on the occasion with exclusive, exciting offerings for customers.”

Budweiser is also looking to partner with Pringles to target football fans to ensure that they have all the snacks they need to watch the football in style.

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Sky Sports, headline sponsor for The British Master’s, has been running experiential marketing at the event, which ran from October 7th – 11th at Woburn Golf Course and which saw an estimated 60,000 visitors over the four days.

This year is the first time The British Masters returned to The European Tour International Schedule in seven years. Working with The European Tour and its leading players, Sky Sports want to engage, excite and inspire new and existing golf fans through its on-air coverage, promotion and event staging and activation.

To support Sky in this mission, experiential agency RPM created an experience that allowed spectators to try their hand at putting on the panoramic 18^th green at Woburn, by recreating a replica green inside a giant 14m diameter dome, creating real stand out within the sponsors’ village.

By taking part in the challenge of putting a hole in one, fans are entered a draw to win a trip to the Ryder Cup 2016, in the US.

The dome and replica green were also the setting for daily golf master classes hosted by Sky Academy,  with golfing stars including three time European Tour winner Nick Dougherty  trying to explain the rudiments of the game.  The master classes were broadcast live on Sky Sports.

The dome also featured the Sky Sports News HQ experience, giving fans the opportunity to try their hand at presenting a news report which they could then download and share across their social media channels.

Sky Sports also hosted question and answer sessions each day with Ian Poulter, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.

All of this activity follows on from the ‘Sky Sports Thursday’ initiative that saw 15,000 tickets given away for the first day of the British Masters to generate buzz and footfall for the event.

Amanda Marsden, Promotions Manager at Sky Sports, says: “The British Masters is a great opportunity for Sky Sports to showcase our superiority in Golf, and provides a great platform for us to engage our golfing audience. RPM have helped us produce a fantastic experience for fans to enjoy throughout the tournament.”

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