Celebrating the return of the World Surf League (which recently lost Samsung as its title partner), sponsor Corona Extra celebrates the new season’s opening ‘Quiksilver & Roxy Pro’ event (on Australia’s Gold Coast) with a campaign revolving around the construction of ‘Casa Corona’ – a branded space for fans to relax, celebrate, enjoy cold Coronas and watch the world’s best surfers.
Working with its regular Australian creative agency MC Creative, Corona built Casa Corona: a Mexican-inspired beach bar on the sand at Snapper Rocks with music, chill-out spaces and serving refreshments, Mexican food and icy beers.
Another aspect of the beer’s on-site activation saw it hire surf boards for those fans who’d ‘rather participate than spectate’.
Corona worked with four ‘shapers’ (Neal Purchase Jnr, Dead Kooks, Morning of the Earth Surfboards, and Ben McTavish) to create 12 hand-shaped custom surfboards which were made available for anyone at the event to borrow.
The on-site activation was promoted across the beer brand’s YouTube channel from 13 March as part of a campaign aiming to drive awareness and encourage fans to come to the event and visit the space.
Casa Corona – which is open from 9am to 6pm daily during the competition period – is also being amplified and promoted across the brand’s social channels.
‘Casa Corona has raised the bar in terms of brand activation for Corona. It will no doubt become an iconic part of this event moving forward, and for the next ten days surfing fans will have the opportunity to experience a live interpretation of ourFrom Where You’d Rather Be brand promise,’ comments Corona Australia marketing manager Andrew Vance.
Corona, the official beer of the WSL, signed up for the global series partnership in 2016 and the Casa Corona aims to set the benchmark for Corona’s on-site presence at WSL events around the globe.
The at-event space was further supported by the sponsor through plenty of digital and social coverage of the event across Corona Extra’s own channels and platforms: including its online blog site at http://coronaextra.com.au/
Activative Comment:
With 65,466 YouTube views to date there has been some solid engagement – which is positive news as the Corona campaign launches just as news emerges that the World Surf League has lost its title sponsor Samsung.
Samsung has been the rights holders most significant supporter in the last two: through a major period of change in which the Association of Surfing Professionals change its name to the World Surf League.
It also produced some seriously stylish work activating its rights: ranging from a virtual reality immersive experience (see case study), to its beautiful ‘Every day Is Day One’ spot (see case study).
With Samsung in place, the property also signed up several other new sponsors: most notably those like Tag Heuer and Jeep that showed the WSL was break out of its core supplier-led space and move into more mainstream marketing (see case study).
This also saw the WSL roll out much more professional and watchable property webcasts and event live streams
But now, Samsung’s departure leaves the 2017 Tour without a title sponsor as the new series starts in Australia.
‘Samsung has been a great partner for the surfing community over the past three years, elevating the sport to new heights and honoring the community’s heritage,’ commented WSL VP of communications Dave Prodan.
‘We thank them for their partnership and look forward to an exciting 2017 season.’
Links:
Corona Australia
https://www.youtube.com/user/CoronaFWYRB
https://twitter.com/CoronaExtra_AU?lang=en
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103333373380402581044
MC Creative
http://monsterchildrencreative.com/
World Surf League
http://www.worldsurfleague.com/
http://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2017/wct/1801/roxy-pro-gold-coast
http://wslofficial.tumblr.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wsl/
