The Thai Asia Pacific Brewery Co Ltd (TAPB), in cooperation with UBC, is organising a Tiger Football Club Party across Southeast Asia during the Premiership, after its previous marketing strategy - the Tiger Cup - failed to meet expectations.

The company had been arranging Tiger Cup football competitions for various teams across Southeast Asia for the past two years but stopped this year.

Nipol Swadipongpan, marketing manager of Tiger Beer - TAPB, said yesterday that the Tiger Cup could not help the company achieve its brand awareness target.

The company conducted a marketing survey in the region and found that Premier League, which is usually played between October and May, is the most favoured league.

In Thailand, the company is investing Bt35 million to arrange the Tiger FC Party for football buffs who love the Premier League and are aged between 20 and 35.

They can cheer their favourite teams together at the parties and try Tiger Beer.

It plans to arrange seven big parties and 400 smaller ones nationwide. The first party will have "Tiger Dome" - which has been moved from Suan Lum Night Bazaar - at CentralWorld on September 17.

The company expects 25,000 football fans to attend.

It has also formed the Tiger Football Club for people over 20 years of age to be members for sharing football information. Nipol said the party and club would be like a "Tiger" community, which enables Tiger Beer to build a long-term relationship with people.

The company has also teamed up with Siam Sport to hold the Tiger FC Reporter campaign where football aficionados can try being sport journalists or football commentators.

The five finalists will get a chance to attend a workshop at ESPN Sports channel TV station in Singapore and the winner will fly to England and serve as a rookie reporter for a Premier League game and win an apprenticeship at Siam Sport.

He said Tiger FC will help create wider brand awareness among football buffs, which in turn can increase its market share from the current 4 per cent in the Standard Beer sector.

Singha is a market leader with 95 per cent market share. This year, the sector is estimated to grow 3 per cent.

In terms of performance, Nipol expects Tiger Beer's sales to grow 10 per cent by the end of this fiscal year, which ends in September.

To build awareness of the event, the company is advertising through ESPN channel, which telecasts in many Asian countries.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation