Carlsberg is taking advantage of the natural affinity between beer, men and football by kicking off the biggest mobile phone coupon campaign in the UK.
To coincide with the England football team's World Cup qualifying game against Germany on Saturday, the brewer has joined forces with Punch Pub Company and mobile marketing firm Flytxt for a free beer coupon campaign.
The campaign aims to promote Carlsberg in 40 Punch Pub Company pubs across the country and means the brand can interact with football lovers while they are in the pub watching the match.
Winning participants will be sent a text message coupon to exchange for a pint of Carlsberg. The coupons aim to bridge the gap between the customer and the point of purchase and attracting new customers.
"The World Cup qualifying games will provide the perfect focus to this campaign. Promoting the brand by text is proving to be a natural way to interact with our customers and engage them in an entertaining way," said Adam Young, the customer marketing controller at Carlsberg-Tetley.
On the day of each match, pub goers will be invited to send a text message - "Carl" - to a number displayed on a promotional banner outside participating Punch Pub Company pubs.
The first 50 people to sign up will be sent a unique SMS voucher, or m -coupon, which will be redeemable against a pint of Carlsberg lager at a participating pub Company pub on the day of the game.
The next 50 people will receive a text message inviting them to try again at the next match.
This voucher will also carry a number, identifying where the customer saw the banner, enabling the success of the campaign can be tracked.
The campaign starts on Saturday to coincide with the first qualifier and will continue around subsequent World Cup games through September and October.
Carsten Boers, the vice-president of sales and marketing at Flytxt, said trials run in May revealed text messaging was not a just a teen phenomenon, with participants ranging from 18 to 55-year-old men.
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