Drinks-maker Carabao harnesses sports to go global

Thai beverage giant Carabao Group has been building its global branding via a sports marketing strategy to penetrate international markets, and is targeting Vietnam's 100-million population, Carabao chairman Sathien Setthasit said while announcing in Ho Chi Minh City Friday that his group will be the main sponsor for Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club for the next two years.

Why is sports marketing the way to go global for Carabao?

Football is called the king of sports and has the largest number of fans in the world. Therefore, we’ve decided to become Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC’s main sponsor to continue to expand outside Thailand.

Please explain the reason why this club was selected?

Firstly, we’re aware of the great potential of the Vietnamese market. Vietnam is ASEAN’s outstanding performer in economic expansion. More importantly, the Vietnamese are huge football fans, and Carabao wants to take advantage of football to further expand in Thailand, Vietnam, and other regional countries.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC has a great number of fans in Vietnam and the club gets broad attention from the general public. Not just that, the club and Carabao share a similar vision for developing Vietnamese football.

We want to boost the development of academy football, and by doing so we expect more Hoang Anh Gia Lai players to be called up for Vietnam’s national squad. Our brand upholds the spirit of fighting while players in the squad are dubbed warriors.

In addition, both sides want to strengthen our brands in international markets.

Last but not least, the Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC coach is Thai national Kiatisuk Senamuang. He is here today at this significant event. He is a Thai footballing legend who is nicknamed Zico. I believe he has a significant role to play in the club’s future success.

Frankly speaking, many Thai football fans wanted him to continue as the head coach of the Thai national squad.

Carabao has a vision of helping Vietnamese football to develop. What will you do to make that happen?

Under our partnership with Hoang Anh Gia Lai, we will help the club and other Vietnamese players to develop their skills and careers. We are also looking to launch a Carabao Cup in Vietnam and ASEAN.

When do you think the first Carabao Cup will be held in Vietnam?

We’ll consider more and discuss more after the 2022-2023 Carabao Cup final at Wembley Stadium in England on Sunday, February 26. In England, the EFL Cup is currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons. The EFL is the English Football League, and Carabao started this sponsorship contract in the 2017-2018 season.

You told Thai media late this January that Carabao would invest 4 billion baht, or over $120 million, to produce beer in Thailand, with products available in the fourth quarter of this year. Do you have any beer production plans for Vietnam?

To date, we have no such plans. Our sponsorship of Hoang Anh Gia Lai will last two years and both sides will continue to discuss more business ideas and plans.

This sponsorship goes with our Carabao energy drink. We do plan to build an energy drinks factory in Vietnam. Today is the start of our new chapter, but more is yet to come.