As Indian athletes gear up for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, beverage brand Thums Up is also getting ready to make its debut at the Olympic Village. Official beverage partner Coca-Cola’s portfolio will, for the first time, feature the over four-decade old Indian brand at the Olympic games.
With the company focusing on repositioning brand Thums Up and pivoting to the stories of real heroes, it has inked strategic sponsorship deals with wrestler Bajrang Punia, boxer Vikas Yadav besides archery stars Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das. The beverage major is also going to be sponsoring India’s shooting contingent including Manu Bhaker in collaboration with the National Rifle Association of India.
Talking about the repositioning strategy, Arnab Roy, Vice-President-Marketing, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia told BusinessLine, “As the country has been facing challenging times for the past 18 months, the Indian society and culture has witnessed an interesting transition with real heroes such as health workers, doctors and other people in various communities, taking the centre stage. Talking to various consumer groups, we felt it was the right time for brand Thums Up, which has stood for heroism, to take a bit of a leap and lean towards real life and authentic stories.”
Ads featuring athletes
These athletes will feature in the new Thums Up ad campaign. The beverage major will also be launching limited edition Thums Up collectible cans to coincide with the Olympics that is slated to kick-start from July 23.
“We have been one of the oldest sponsors of the Olympics games since 1928. So, for activating this association in India, we felt there is an amazing opportunity for Thums Up to tell these powerful stories of courage and resilience of these Indian athletes, who will be representing the country at the Tokyo Olympics. So, this will be the first time Thums Up will be part of the Olympic games,” he said.
The brand will be backing the campaign across various mediums including TV and digital with considerable marketing spends and the company will also look at doing on-ground activations in-line with the Covid protocols. “Our key aim will be to tell the stories of these athletes in a multitude of ways and inspire the country to rally behind these athletes,” Roy added.
Experts believe for a nation that’s been historically known to be cricket crazy, non-cricketing sporting stars have come a long way in landing key sponsorship deals in recent years. The beverage major is also learnt to be in talks for signing sponsorship agreements for the Tokyo Olympics with other Indian individual athletes and teams.
“I personally feel this is the best contingent that India is sending to the Olympic Games and this could be the turnaround year. For instance, just look at the way shooting has transformed over the last decade as a sport with our athletes having done a phenomenal job. I think we are very close to the inflection point of transitioning from a cricket- loving nation to a sports-loving nation,” Roy said.