The Cleveland Browns Partner with Sugardale and Bud Light to Give Their Fans A First-of-its-kind ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game

By: Emma Sandell

Dear Faithful Readers,

I hope everyone is having a great start to 2024! January has gone by in the blink of an eye, and before you know it the 2024 NSF will be upon us! We have been busy here placing all the final touches on our programming for Pittsburgh. I hope everyone else is staying busy & getting ready to accomplish all the goals set for this year!

This week’s ‘Selling It…’ article shares the successful partnership between Sugardale and Bud Light for the Cleveland Browns ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game. This partner collaboration provided fans with a game-day experience for Browns fans that has never been seen before. Read below to learn more about what set this partnership activation a part from others!

Enjoy,

Isabelle Madrid

Marketing & Communications Manager

isabelle@sports-forum.com

“The Cleveland Browns Partner with Sugardale and Bud Light to Give Their Fans A First-of-its-kind ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game”

Description:

On November 19th, the Cleveland Browns presented their fans with a unique gameday experience with help from the collaboration between Sugardale and Bud Light. These partners teamed up to create a ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game to highlight their products and create an even greater fan experience than ever seen before. Corporate Partnerships Manager of the Cleveland Browns, Colleen Oberle explained how the ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game worked to increase the fan experience by presenting creative activations and special food and beverage options. The Browns’ partner activation area, Dawg Pound Drive, was turned into an exciting tailgate atmosphere with the Bud Light Beer Garden and Bacon Boulevard. Fans were encouraged to participate in the tailgate setting with the chance to be featured in the “Sights and Sounds of the Dawg Pound” scoreboard feature. New Sugardale menu items and Bud Light specials were found throughout the stadium and these ‘Bacon & Beer’ deals even extended to purchases made at Northeast Ohio retailers. The relationship between these two partners allowed fans to experience a Cleveland Browns game unlike any they had ever seen before. This collaboration between Sugardale and Bud Light provided fans with a unique game-day experience while also showcasing their products and creating an exciting atmosphere for Browns’ fans.

Objectives:

Colleen Oberle, Corporate Partnership Manager for the Cleveland Browns, explained how the main objective for the Browns was to bring together two influential partners in a way that has never been done before for the organization. She mentioned, “The main objective was to bring together two CPG brands that have never worked together, and create a fan-focused partnership to create a unique game-day experience.”  The Browns wanted to give their fans a game that had never-before-seen food items, beer specials, and activations. In addition to increasing the fan experience, this ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game served as a way to build a relationship between these two CPG brands that had never worked together before. Creating this relationship not only benefited the fans but also gave Sugardale and Bud Light the chance to collaborate and grow their brands in a unique collaboration.

Partnerships:

Both Sugardale and Bud Light have been partners with the Browns for years. Considering how open both partners are to new ideas and the growth of their brands, they decided to work together during this ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game. Traditionally, Browns games have one presenting partner that is featured throughout the stadium and works with the Browns staff to create the best experience possible for fans. The Browns saw the collaboration between Sugardale and Bud Light as an opportunity to create an even larger fan experience than ever before. “Not only did this game serve to bring two CPG brands together, but allowed them to take part in a community activation that goes above and beyond the normal game day,” said Colleen Oberle. The ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game emerged as a result of this combined relationship and showcased aspects from both partners in an exciting way. 

Results:

The ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game was something unlike any other game-day experience due to the collaboration between the presenting partners. This combined partnership proved extremely effective in creating a game day experience that fans would remember and generating more impressions for Sugardale and Bud Light than average Presenting Partners on a given game day. The Browns found that 79% of fans correctly recalled either Sugardale or Bud Light as one of the presenting partners of the game, which is far greater than the standard recall. Sugardale and Bud Light received 2,643,133 social and digital impressions, which is 1.5 times higher than average Presenting Partners. Over the course of the game, the Browns sold over 2,500 more bacon-themed food items throughout the stadium than in an average game. These statistics show how successful this combined partnership was in connecting with fans as well as generating incremental revenue from Sugardale and Bud Light.

Looking Forward:

The Browns saw incredible success from the ‘Bacon & Beer’ Game by providing a positive fan experience, creating a relationship between two partners, and generating revenue for the Browns organization overall. Oberle remarked, “Considering the success that we saw with these two partners, we are extremely interested in doing something similar in the future.” Having two partners come together for a game created such a positive game-day experience that the Browns hope to continue to build these partner collaborations going forward.

The NSF Salutes Our Partner

ON is a leading AI chat platform designed for enterprise-level use, known for seamlessly powering generative AI experiences used by some of the world’s largest and most well-known brands. Established in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, the ON platform enables its partners — including the New York Yankees, Las Vegas Raiders, Milwaukee Bucks, top teams from the NBA, NFL, NHL, global retail brands, and more — to create new and sustainable revenue streams backed by AI while connecting with their customers and fans. For more information, visit ONplatform.com.