McDowell to use soccer platform for promoting rum brand

Vijay Mallya-promoted United Spirits is focusing on football as platform for promoting McDowell's Celebration rum.

The company, which spends 50 per cent of its branding budget through sports, is looking at growing sales of Celebration by 12 per cent in next one year.

"After cricket, football is the most popular sports in India. United Spirits has a long association with sports in the country and following that tradition, we are now focusing on football as platform for promoting the Celebration brand," United Spirits (USL) Business Head Mathew Xavier told PTI.

McDowell's Celebration Rum is the third-largest selling rum in the world and the company has sold over 10 million cases of the rum in the last fiscal.

Xavier said that by associating more with football, USL expects Celebration Rum sales to grow by over 1 lakh cases per month. Thus, annual sales of the rum are likely to go up by 12 per cent or 1.2 million cases in the next one year.

USL is kicking-off its nation-wide football event -- 'freestyle football extravaganza' -- under the McDowell's Freestyle Friendzy banner from November 27 in 21 cities.

The event is an aggressive format of football that involves the expression of dribbling and other jugglery skills.