Beer giant Anheuser-Busch increasingly is looking for more ideas and flexibility from the properties and leagues it sponsors, said company VP/Media, Sports & Entertainment Marketing Blaise D’Sylva. “We need our properties to be less administrators and more idea generators,” D’Sylva said during a one-on-one interview at the '12 Intersport Activation Summit. “What works today may not work three years from now.” D’Sylva also stressed that, for the sake of both properties and their sponsors, teams and leagues can never stop trying to improve the in-stadium fan experience. “You have to figure out the motivation of people getting off the couch and coming to the stadium,” he said. “How can we provide more experiences for the fan before, during and after the event?”
Asked to consider which of A-B’s league partnerships is its most effective, D’Sylva said that any list has to start with the NFL. “The NFL is very successful for us,” he said. “We have a league deal and deals with 28 teams, with people activating across the country. It is a 360 activation. We can activate on so many levels. From August through February [during the season], and then to April with the NFL Draft, there is a tremendous amount of activation” (THE DAILY).
