BUILDING brand awareness is key to any successful event marketing campaign. So when Tiger Beer USA wanted to showcase its product to the central Florida region via the Tiger Beer Chili Crab Festival in November, the company's event team added spice with food and entertainment that captured the sights of sounds of Singapore, the beer's home country.
“We wanted people to experience Tiger Beer like it is experienced in Singapore,” explains Sean Davis, marketing manager for Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Tiger Beer USA. To do that, the team re-created a traditional Singapore-style street fair at the Wall Street Plaza in Orlando, Fla. The outdoor space offered the right setting for the street market theme, featuring a variety of Asian-inspired food stations, entertainment and plenty of Tiger Beer for guests to enjoy. Food stands served a selection of cuisine such as beef wontons, vegetable spring rolls, pot stickers, satay skewers and chili crab, a noted Singapore delicacy that inspired the festival's name. Chefs from local restaurants turned up the heat for the “Iron Wok” competition, where they competed to win the crowd's vote by cooking tiger shrimp with their own original sauce recipes.
The event's entertainment also highlighted the beer's exotic origins. The 2,000 guests who attended the festival could watch traditional Asian lion dancers parading with musicians playing cymbals and drums, a kickboxing demonstration in a boxing ring, and a performance by the “White Tiger,” a contortionist dressed in white spandex. Guests could also get temporary tattoos of the Tiger Beer logo, or a traditional Chinese massage from the masseuses on hand. Such activities were “relevant to our brand, yet entertained our guests,” Davis says. “People really got into the whole atmosphere of the event.”
As for the challenges such branding events present, “It is always difficult to put together a package that delivers on the brand identity in a consumer-engaging way,” Davis says. “It has to stay targeted and relevant, which can be difficult when there are so many elements.” He adds, “It's not just about brand identity, but about making sure [people] like it. It has to be a positive experience.”
Tiger Beer USA 520 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591; www.tigerbeer.us
