Kingfisher sweetens East Bengal victory

Indian club soccer is finally making it big. As local club East Bengal stormed into the finals of an international tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia, fans back home enjoyed drinks on the house for the duration of the match on Thursday, courtesy the club's sponsor Kingfisher.

UB Group, which owns the Kingfisher beer brand, arranged giant screen viewing of the Asean club meet semi-final where East Bengal defeated Indonesia's Putra, in Kolkata today. Fans could enter the bar paying Rs 150, watch the match and guzzle as much beer as they could.

Four bars in central Kolkata were thrown open to fans. And though it was arranged late, large number of East Bengal fans turned up to cheer their favourite team, which have been on a dream run in the Jakarta tournament. The mugs of beer no doubt helped.

East Bengal won the match in a tie breaker providing extra time for the fans sipping beer. The sponsor, UB Group, was not complaining.

"We are delighted by the response. We are planning to involve more bars on Saturday when East Bengal will be fighting for the championship," a top UB official said.

This was a new concept of brand promotion in the country, although the concept is common abroad. Kingfisher attendants, who were busy serving customers in a central-Kolkata bar, said that the brand was making inroads in the East Bengal fan base most of whom said they liked it.

The target audience for the brand promotion, the Kingfisher officials said, was soccer fans. "Keeping them in mind, the promotion was organised in the mid-segment bars of the city today. Going by the same logic, we may exclude top bars on Saturday when East Bengal will be playing the cup final," they added.

The East Bengal fans were, obviously, happy with the promotion as it offered beer at rebate. Arani Sen, a government employee who took a casual leave to enjoy the match over beer, said his club did not disappoint.

A Pande, claimed to be a medical practitioner, went a step forward. While sipping beer at a local bar, he promised to donate Rs 1 lakh to the club fund if it won the trophy. But one should not take him seriously.

Reason: nearly a dozen empty bottles on his table indicated he was under the Kingfisher spell!