Rugby World Cup saw a record FIVE MILLION pints of beer drunk with over 1.17m people at grounds and fan zones in France… how Asahi Europe and International became a successful sponsor (and their links to F1’s Aston Martin and the City Football Group!)

We are three weeks away from the end of the Rugby World Cup, but the impact of its success still resounds like a thunderous tackle.

On the field, South Africa reigned supreme again for a second successive tournament after a thrilling 12-11 win over rivals New Zealand.

Off the field, there was a change in commercial partners as Asahi Europe & International (AEI) became the official beer partner for the global showpiece this year.

Tasked with forging and growing the AEI brand within the tournament was Grant McKenzie, Chief Marketing Officer. McKenzie has worked in the beer industry since 2005 and is currently responsible for marketing AEI’s five global brands, including Asahi Super Dry and Peroni.

‘I think so [the partnership] It has gone really well – this is the first time Asahi has been the partner,” McKenzie told Mail Sport exclusively, in Paris during the Rugby World Cup semi-final weekend, of the success of the tournament from AEI’s perspective.

‘It’s the first time we’ve done something big, we knew there were some things that could be improved, and they have been, and we’ve spoken to World Rugby about improving operations, and they have done.

‘But it has really been a great success for us, especially when you look at what happened at home. In the UK and Ireland, sales of Asahi Super Dry have really grown in recent months.

‘One hundred thousand consumers entered the competition to win tickets, which is a record for us. That’s an example of the great involvement we’ve had, the rugby podcast was also great. So overall it was a great success for us as a group and as a brand.”

The numbers support McKenzie’s reasoning. Apart from the record numbers of consumers bidding to win tickets, the UK market for AEI in particular was booming.

Marketing around the Rugby World Cup increased AEI’s number of percentage points by two, which was the equivalent of 460,000 beer drinkers. To further highlight this, September resulted in the highest ever volume of sales of Asahi Super Dry in the UK.

However, it wasn’t just the impact in Britain where AEI’s marketing ploys worked. In France, beer sales records were broken in seven of the nine stadiums used, including the iconic Stade de France in Paris (the venue for both the semi-finals and the final) and the Stade Velodrome in Marseille. In total, a record 2.5 million liters of beer – roughly five million pints – were guzzled during the seven-week tournament.

With Asahi Super Dry being the only beer available to fans, and its non-alcoholic counterpart Asahi Super Dry 0.0%, on grounds and around fan zones – where the latter’s total attendance since the start of the Rugby World Cup has exceeded 1.17 million – the benefits for AEI were clear to see.

“I think there are two reasons why it’s important,” McKenzie explained.

“First of all, it now gives you global reach, which is increasingly challenging with traditional media because TV and everything is fragmenting, like social media.

“And secondly, it really is a passion point for consumers. It’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s true. The content that we create around this is very attractive to people because they love it, they love sports. And I think the world is becoming more and more polarized.

‘People are ‘so and so’ and sport is one of the things that brings people together. That is why we are involved; it will be an important part of our strategy.’

Another part of their strategy was formulating their Rugby World Cup x Asahi Super Dry podcast. It was the first ever official podcast of the tournament and the branding once again proved beneficial for AEI.

In the 21 episodes leading up to the semi-finals, there were a whopping 13.2 million views – with more than seven million impressions and 830,000 downloads. Total users on World Rugby’s digital platforms are up 44 percent since the 2019 World Cup, reinforcing McKenzie’s words about consumer activation.

It is not just the rugby union where AEI is making its mark; with Formula 1 and football, there are also sports that they have diversified into over the past three years. They also had the rights to the recent Ryder Cup in Rome through Peroni.

“We have increased our focus on building the global brands, particularly Peroni and Asahi,” said McKenzie. “We want to scale these global brands, make them better known and better known.”

In relation to Peroni and F1, that has come in the form of AEI’s deal with Aston Martin – the main aim of which is to increase awareness of Peroni’s 0.0% beer.

In their third season with the F1 team, McKenzie has seen the growth.

‘F1 is simply a major global sport. It’s growing, it’s becoming more diverse in terms of viewership and it’s working in the markets where Peroni is growing.

‘We have the UK and Irish markets, Central Europe, Australia, Japan, China and Singapore – all of which are critical to Peroni.

‘And now that F1 is truly global in terms of racing around the world, you can take your brand to countries that might not necessarily know much about Peroni, which comes with a luxury and prestigious brand in Aston Martin.’

Last year, AEI entered into a multi-year agreement with City Football Group (CFG), which sees Asahi Super Dry as their global partner and official beer of the four football teams under their umbrella: Melbourne City, Yokohama F. Marinos, Sichuan Juiniu and Manchester City.

The deal couldn’t have been more perfectly timed as the latter won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League last season.

‘The English Premier League is the largest league property in the world. We wanted to work with a partner that was progressive, successful and wanted to build a presence in Asia – which is important to us.

“We met the guys and I can honestly say they are the most professional people I have ever worked with in a sporting partnership. They had a big vision: they are not just Manchester City, they are the City Football Group with countless partners. We work with them in Melbourne, Japan – with Yokohama, who are also champions, and with China; so the global reach is there and they don’t all win, but they win with a style that benefits the brand.”

Lessons from the activation with Aston Martin and City Football Group were incorporated into the Rugby World Cup and could once again be taken into account as AEI look to expand their relationship with World Rugby beyond this year’s Rugby World Cup contract, that has now ended.

“So the deal is for this event,” McKenzie said. “We’re going to sit down with World Rugby and talk about the future.

‘Next is the Women’s World Cup 2025 in England, then it’s Australia men’s in 2027, followed by Australia women’s in 2029 – so we’d like to talk to them about that.

“Obviously it has to work, for us we have a number of things we would like to change or improve, but that is a conversation we will have with World Rugby.”

Given the way the tournament has seemingly proven to be a success, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see AEI and World Rugby collaborate on these future events.

Cheers indeed, or ‘sante’ as they would say in France.