How alcohol-free beer sponsorships are boosting brand relevance   

This week, treble-winners Manchester City expanded their partnership with Asahi Super Dry, with the non-alcoholic beer brand becoming the club’s official training kit partner. It follows a wider trend of brands and events embracing non-alcoholic sponsorship. In this article we look at how this growing approach is helping speak to audiences in a culturally relevant way without shedding brands’ core principles.   

With the prominence of alcohol within sports and its historic association with the fan experience, there lies the potential for brands to grow within the same customer base. In pubs, sales of low and non-alcoholic beer have jumped by 23% during the past year compared with the previous 12 months, and have more than doubled since 2019, just prior to the pandemic. There is a clear need to publicly invest in those consumers. These sponsorships will prompt positive association for consumers of its regular product and keep the brands relevant for those making the switch to less or no alcohol.