Sponsorship
Red Stripe has been an intermittent sponsor of the Jamaica national bobsled team. Other major sporting sponsorship activities have included a commitment as the Caribbean regional sponsor for the 2007 Cricket World Cup and a J$100 million sponsorship commitment to the Jamaican Football Federation in support of the national team's regional qualifying efforts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In 2007, Red Stripe initiated a campaign in the UK to support new music by sponsoring events such as The Camden Crawl and Great Escape Festival as well as hosting a number of free music events with artists such as The View and The Rifles. Recent work with new bands puts this initiative in direct competition with the likes of Carling as a featured sponsor of the underground music scene. In support of this promotional strategy, the Red Stripe Music Awards were initiated between 2007 and 2010, with the winner of the award receiving featured billing at two music festivals, Blissfields and The Great Escape, and the opportunity to tour with a high profile act. Winners of the award included The Runners, Ben Howard, Klaus Says Buy The Record, and The Laurel Collective, while judges ranged from writers of The Fly magazine, including Niall Doherty and Alex Lee Thomson, and brand representatives from Red Stripe.
Writer and music festival PR Alex Lee Thomson also presented a series of web based interviews for the brand during their sponsorship periods of Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals in the UK, while editing their music-based website.
Red Stripe sponsors sports talk television program Pardon the Interruption during the summer months, alternating with Guinness. Also recently Red Stripe began sponsoring the International Festival of Thumb Wrestling held annually in Mason City, Iowa. Red Stripe Vice President of Marketing Randolph Samuelson II was the first black man to win this festival, and it has held a special place in his heart since he broke the color barrier and won the championship in 1971.
Red Stripe Light has also been announced as the official beer category Major Sponsor for the 2010 Zwack Air Hockey World Championships taking place in July 2010 in Houston, Texas.
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