Axiata makes a strategic serve

AXIATA   SPORTING EVENTS   SPONSORSHIP

Regional - Sponsoring a 4-week badminton championship tournament happening in March allows Axiata Group to strengthen its brand awareness and drive customer engagement in the region.

"We are making this investment because badminton has a huge appeal amongst our customers across the region and the title sponsorship or ownership of such a major regional event will help grow the Axiata brand," Andy Chong, SVP of group marketing and strategic initiatives at Axiata Group says.

The Axiata Cup allows Axiata's operating companies - Celcom in Malaysia and XL in Indonesia, to leverage on the opportunity to drive customer engagement in their respective markets.

Apart from branding and goodwill, Axiata will be able to capitalise on the intellectual property (IP) on all content arising from the event. Chong believes this allows Axiata to offer exclusivity to its customer base as well as execute marketing campaigns to monetise it.

The company has been searching for the right opportunity to get into sport and felt badminton is most ideal as it is the least exploited.

Additionally, badminton is a traditional sport with firm roots in the ASEAN region, Chong says.

"We think it is important to look at any sponsorship from a holistic perspective - beyond simply an exercise for branding, corporate hospitality or goodwill, companies with a business-to-consumer execution (directly or indirectly) should look at going beyond mere sponsorship, by capitalising and monetising IPs they would own."

The Axiata Cup will be starting 23 March in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Jakarta, Indonesia simultaneously, with semi-finals played on a home and away basic on 30 March and 1 April and finals on 13 and 15 April. Some participating nations include Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

It is jointly organised by the Badminton Asia Confederation and Total Sports Asia.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

This is part of Marketing Events' weekly news bulletin. To subscribe to ME's bi-monthly print magazine and online newsletters, please go to www.marketing-interactive.com/subscribe

To read ME's latest print issue in PDF click here.