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Bud Light inked a multiyear deal with mixed martial arts league UFC to become its official beer in the US, stripping the sponsorship from rival Modelo.
AB InBev, Bud Light’s parent company, will become the official global beer partner of UFC starting in January. According to AB InBev, the partnership will give it access to the approximately “900 million TV households that receive UFC’s broadcasts.”
Bud Light has been investing heavily in marketing to try to win back customers. Many conservatives boycotted the brand following its March Madness partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, impacting its sales. In July, Mulvaney criticized Bud Light’s response to the backlash, saying Bud Light didn’t reach out to her following the boycott and that she’d faced harassment.
Since then, Modelo has become the top-selling beer in the US, knocking Bud Light into second place. Modelo had been the UFC’s official beer since 2017, though Bud Light sponsored the league for nearly a decade prior to that.
According to AB InBev, the company will be integrated into UFC live events and promoted within arenas and on social media. Bud Light’s “Easy to Celebrate” and “Easy to Enjoy” campaigns will also run during the UFC’s US pay-per-view broadcasts.
AB InBev declined to comment on Marketing Brew’s request for information on the financial terms of the deal, and the UFC did not respond by publication. However, according to CNBC, the deal is “well into the nine figures” and the biggest the UFC has ever inked.
“There are many reasons why I chose to go with Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light, most importantly because I feel we are very aligned when it comes to our core values,” UFC CEO Dana White said in a statement.
It remains to be seen if the UFC partnership will help Bud Light win back beer drinkers. This summer, Bud Light rolled out an advertising blitz that marked its largest media spend to date. More recently, it debuted a football season-centric ad called “Easy to Sunday” that the brand said was one of its largest NFL campaigns ever.
However, according to CNN, Bud Light sales are still plummeting: Its volume fell 30% year over year during the four weeks leading up to October 7, per NIQ data shared with Beer Business Daily.