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Anheuser-Busch renewal with PGA Tour calls for custom cans, Ultra Club

Anheuser-Busch, the PGA Tour’s longest-standing sponsor, has signed a new four-year deal with the tour that for the first time will include customized Michelob Ultra cans bearing the tour’s logo to be sold at retail.

Specific financial terms of the renewal were not disclosed, but the seven-figure annual agreement calls for the Michelob Ultra brand to be the exclusive beer of the tour, with increased activation at the tournament level to include the addition of five new Ultra Club hospitality venues at still-to-be-determined events each year. Last year, the Ultra Club hospitality venue was limited to The Players Championship event in Ponte Vedra, Fla.

Anheuser-Busch also will activate around 45 various PGA Tour, Champions Tour and Web.com Tour events, including an expansion of its “Build-a-Bar” general concessions program that features a 40-foot Ultra branded bar at select events.

But it’s the rollout of the tour-branded Michelob Ultra cans at retail in July that marks the biggest shift in the longtime partnership. It follows a similar strategy currently used by Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light brand in the NFL and MLB.

“It’s quite a dramatic change from the past,” Eelco van der Noll, vice president of experiential marketing at Anheuser-Busch, said of the new PGA Tour deal. “In the past, it was more of a hospitality play, but what has become more important this year is the consumer element. It is all about customization and personalization.”

The new deal runs through 2020. Anheuser-Busch has been an official marketing partner of the tour since 1994, with the focus on the Ultra brand beginning in 2002.

WME-IMG is Anheuser-Busch’s agency of record, but the deal was negotiated directly between the company and the tour.

The new tournament sites and admission cost for the various Ultra Club hospitality venues have not been finalized, though The Players Club again this year will be included. Ultra also will activate around this year’s Presidents Cup to be held in September at Liberty National in New Jersey.

Other traditional sponsorship elements including a tour-wide media buy are included in the deal. Anheuser-Busch’s O’Doul’s brand will continue as the official non-alcohol brew of the tour, but it’s the Ultra brand’s retail activation that represents a new focus among the tour renewal.

“We like to see the brands activate at retail; it is important to us,” said Brian Oliver, senior vice president of sponsorship and partnership for the tour. “Anheuser-Busch has been a great partner for a long time, and the way the brand is positioned in the market aligns quite well with our fans.”

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