Tecate outpunches Corona with $5.6 million beer sponsorship bid

Talk about brand exposure.

On Wednesday, welterweight boxing rivals Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao stared at each other, face-to-face, at an MGM Grand news conference, each flanked by not one but two scantily clad young women with the Tecate beer brand prominently displayed on their outfits.

Thanks to social media and TV coverage of the news conference, millions of eyeballs around the world not only witnessed the two fighters — who face each other in a unification bout Saturday — but also the Tecate brand on those women.

In a sponsorship showdown between two well-known Mexican beer brands, the Tecate brand is center stage this week in Las Vegas because it outbid Corona to be the superfight’s official beer and presenting sponsor after its $5.6 million sponsorship offer outpaced Corona’s $5.2 million bid.

“Tecate versus Corona was the greatest boxing undercard of all-time, and Tecate scored a knockout. Tecate wins not because it outspent Corona for the exclusive beer sponsorship. More important is its activation. It’s all about engaging fight fans,” said Scott Becher, a former sports sponsorship company owner who is now chief integration officer at Zimmerman Advertising, overseeing sports and entertainment marketing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“Tecate is a longtime sponsor of Pacquiao, so they couldn’t miss the biggest fight of his career,” Becher said Wednesday.

The $5.6 million sponsorship might sound like a stunning amount of money to pay to win the rights to the beer category and be the presenting sponsor for the so-called “Fight of the Century” at MGM Grand Garden arena.

To offer some perspective, Staples is paying Anschutz Entertainment Group a similar annual amount — $5.8 million a year — for the naming rights to the Staples Center, where two NBA teams and an NHL team are tenants at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles.

On the other hand, it’s only $1.1 million more than a Super Bowl 30-second TV commercial at $4.5 million.

Sponsorship consultants say paying $5.6 million for a single sports event sponsorship sounds like it’s a lot of money, but they argue the deal was a good investment.

Harry Hutt, a Tampa, Fla.-based sports sponsorship consultant who has worked as a marketing executive for the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and Portland Trail Blazers, NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, endorsed the Tecate deal as good exposure strategy.

“I think this is a great deal for Tecate to be the official beer of the fight of the century. It’s an incredible sponsorship capture. As a longtime sponsor of Paquaio, they could hardly afford to not be there, so it doesn’t seem like it was a tough negotiation — basically give the promoter a blank check and walk away, it’s that good a deal for them,” Hutt said.

“And the icing on the cake is that the fight will be shown for free in Mexico. You can’t beat that for a terrific branding opportunity payback,” Hutt said.

It was a clear two-brand battle for the beer category and presenting sponsorship because of Tecate’s track record of sponsoring Pacquiao and Top Rank fights, while Corona is in Mayweather’s corner.

“It was a big auction,” said Todd duBoef, Top Rank president. “We had to see who would come through with the biggest deal, and Tecate had Corona throw in the towel.”

For its winning bid, Tecate has its name on the center of the ring, the right to use the fight in its advertising promotions at retail stores and its brand in MGM Resorts fight signage.

“They’re attached to the brand of boxing. As a result of that, they knew this was bigger than the sport and bigger than anything else out there. As a result, they had to be close to it,” duBoef said of Tecate.

Top Rank and Mayweather Promotions sent out beer sponsorship bid information much like a government distributing request for proposals to solicit offers, duBoef said.

The bid requests outlined the sponsorship assets and explained activation opportunities, he said.

It’s a good deal for Tecate — if the brand takes advantage of the activation opportunities, said Peter Titlebaum, a sport management professor at Dayton University.

“But you better have a way to leverage it. It’s a great event and great exposure, but we have seen lots of companies spend millions of dollars and not maximize that exposure,” Titlebaum said.

“This is the biggest fight we have seen in many years. I don’t think they overpaid for it, but the question is how will they leverage it? It’s a good deal if they have an activation plan in place,” he said.

That plan has been deployed, said Gustavo Guerra, Tecate brand manager.

Not only is the Tecate name and logo on every fight-related sign and piece of collateral, Tecate is using the fight to interact with customers by inviting boxing fans to post social media comments via the brand’s “#myboldopinion” campaign, Guerra said Wednesday.

Tecate promotional materials are also in liquor stores and supermarkets, which has sparked sales to increase by 20 percent in April, he said.

“Consumers are already thinking of having a beer while watching the fight,” Guerra said.

Guerra added that there may be as may as 4 million pay-per-view buys, which translates into 33 million to 35 million viewers in the U.S. Plus, the broadcast is free in Mexico, which means tens of millions of more viewers will be seeing the Tecate brand on Saturday.

“Everyone will be exposed to the brand. Even Japan wants Tecate materials,” he said.

Becher came away impressed with how Tecate is exploiting its sponsorship deal.

“Look, engaging fans on Twitter, having their logo prominently in the ring, using Sylvester Stallone as a spokesman, that’s all great. But $5.6 million is too much to spend just for engagement and buzz. You need to drive sales and make new Tecate fans,” Becher said.

“When you have the opportunity to sponsor the Super Bowl of boxing, and your slogan is ‘We Are Boxing,’ your attitude becomes win at all cost,” he said. “It’s not a vanity play, it’s about building business.”

Contact reporter Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @BicycleManSnel