Rivals Teams Up With Carlsberg For World Cup

Chrysalis-owned Rivals Digital Media and Carlsberg are launching an SMS information service to keep football fans informed of developments in this summer’s World Cup.

The service, which is aimed at 18-34 year-old sports enthusiasts, launches in May and is intended to promote Carlsberg’s status as the official beer to the England team. Consumers can sign up for the service, which costs £10 and runs throughout England’s involvement in the tournament, by visiting Football365.com or Carlsberg.co.uk.

Carlsberg is also promoting the initiative with 5 million beer mats, which will appear in 10,000 pubs across the UK during the World Cup.

Head of business development for Rivals Digital Media, Steve Clark, said: “Through our experience of developing SMS services for online and offline retail partners we have created a tailored SMS World Cup offering for Carlsberg.”

Justine Lester, account director at Carlsberg’s digital communications agency, added: “The widespread acceptance of SMS provides Carlsberg with a new channel to reach their target audience in a relevant way.”

The latest figures from the Mobile Data Association show that 1.3 billion text messages were sent during March, an increase of 100 million on February (see Text Messaging Blooms During Easter Season).

Rivals Digital Media: 020 8962 1300 www.rivals.net

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