Budweiser Canada’s latest sponsorship deal is giving baseball fans a blast from the past, offering rookie teams the chance to play with retired Toronto Blue Jays players Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar.
The contest kicked off July 6 in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Jay’s back-to-back World Series championships – and one of baseball’s most iconic home runs by Carter in the 1993 game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Carter and Alomar retired from professional baseball in 1998 and 2004 respectively.
Amateur leagues can enter the contest by giving Budweiser their best “pitch” for why they should have Carter and Alomar on their team using the hashtag #BudHomeRunContest, as well as following the account on Twitter and tagging the Jays on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
The winning entry will be chosen based on its creativity, originality, the quality of the submission and how well they can prove their desire to play with the pros. The game will be played in the winner’s city.
The contest closes July 20 at 11:59 p.m., with the winning submission being announced July 25.
According to Mike D’Agostini, director of marketing for Budweiser Canada, the sponsorship is all about celebrating some of the best moments in sport while driving brand love.
“We’ve been celebrating home runs with the Blue Jays all year long, but we wanted to extend that and bring that to fans across the country,” he told MiC, adding that the goal is to “generate more Budweiser fans.”
Labatt Breweries have been a partner of the Blue Jays since 1977. At the beginning of the baseball season in March, the company released promotional beer glasses that lit up when the Jays received a home run. The company similarly partnered with hockey, releasing goal synced red light products including glasses in 2016.
The sponsorship (led by media agency Vizeum, with PR by Veritas Communications and creative by Anomaly) is being promoted through Budweiser’s partnership with Rogers, with content being shared via sports program Tim and Sid.