Bud Light, made by Anheuser-Busch, sits on a retailer shelf in Miami on July 27, 2023.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light will once more grow to be the official beer sponsor for the Ultimate Fighting Championship with a six-year advertising partnership, the businesses introduced Tuesday.
The sponsorship deal is “effectively into the 9 figures,” and the biggest within the blended martial arts promotion’s historical past, a supply accustomed to the deal advised CNBC on Tuesday.
As a part of the settlement, Bud Light will obtain unique and distinguished branding at UFC fights and occasions, as effectively as in-arena promotion. In addition, the brewer will collaborate on authentic content material for UFC’s digital and social channels.
The deal goes into impact Jan. 1.
The settlement comes on the heels of a conservative boycott towards Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light that started this spring when the model partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The backlash put a dent in sales for the beer within the weeks that adopted. At the peak of the backlash, Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light as the best-selling beer in the U.S.
With the deal, Anheuser-Busch reestablishes ties with a corporation perceived to have a extra conservative political bent than many different U.S. sports activities leagues. UFC CEO Dana White donated at least $1 million to a political motion committee that supported Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential marketing campaign, and the ex-president appeared at a UFC occasion in Las Vegas earlier this yr.
Anheuser-Busch’s relationship with UFC dates again to 2008. In 2017, the blended martial arts firm took on the fast-growing Modelo as its official beer sponsor.
Bud Light will now exchange Modelo, which is distributed by Constellation Brands.
“Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light have at all times been on the reducing fringe of iconic sporting moments that followers keep in mind endlessly, and reuniting with UFC is a continuation of this business main legacy,” Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth stated in an announcement.
The UFC, which is owned by the newly shaped TKO Group Holdings Inc., reaches an viewers of greater than 700 million followers, the businesses stated. The partnership grants Bud Light visibility in an estimated 900 million TV households in additional than 170 nations.
“Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light had been UFC’s authentic beer sponsors greater than fifteen years in the past. I’m proud to announce we’re again in enterprise collectively,” White stated.
“There are many the reason why I selected to go together with Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light, most significantly as a result of I really feel we’re very aligned when it comes to our core values and what the UFC model stands for,” he added.
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