Deschutes Strikes Multi-Year Pact to Become ‘Official Craft Beer’ of the Pac-12 Conference

Just in time for Saturday’s college football kickoff, Deschutes Brewery has signed a multi-year deal to become the “Official Craft Beer of the Pac-12 Conference.”

The Bend, Oregon-headquartered craft brewery today announced it has struck a partnership with the Power 5 football league, which will make it the official craft beer of both the Pac-12 football championship game and the men’s basketball tournament.

“I’ve started calling ourselves the Pac-12 brand, because if you look at the footprint of where our volume comes from, it’s a perfect match,” Deschutes VP of sales and marketing Neal Stewart told Brewbound. “It’s 70% of our volume.”

“Aligning ourselves with Deschutes Brewery, a family-owned, regional craft brewery is a perfect match,” Pac-12 EVP of sales Steve Tseng said in a press release. “With Deschutes based in our Pac-12 footprint in Bend, we look forward to increasing the awareness of this quintessential craft brewery beyond the Pacific Northwest.”

As part of the sponsorship, Deschutes’ branding will be integrated within Pac-12 Network programming, advertised on the conference’s social media feeds and visible during the Pac-12 football championship game on December 3 and during the men’s basketball tournament in March 2022, both in Las Vegas.

Deschutes will also launch a “text to win” program, giving consumers the chance to win tickets to Pac-12 games in their local markets and VIP experiences at the football championship game and basketball tournament. Stewart described those VIP prizes as “un-purchasable experiences.” Those experiences, while still being ironed out, could include getting on the field during the trophy ceremony after the Pac-12 football championship game or into a coach’s press conference.

The Pac-12 sponsorship deal is one of several sports-related Pacific Northwest partnerships Deschutes has forged in recent years. In 2020, the company partnered with the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers to release Rip City Lager. Deschutes is also sponsoring Climate Pledge Arena, which will be home to NHL expansion team the Seattle Kraken starting in 2021 season.

“We’ve definitely put some stakes in the ground in the Pacific Northwest,” Stewart said.

Those stakes include a partnership with Seattle-headquartered running shoe maker Brooks. First announced during last year’s national sales meeting, Deschutes will play off Brooks’ “Run Happy” campaign, morphing it into “Run Hoppy.”

As part of the deal, Brooks has launched a Deschutes-branded version of its Ghost 14 running shoe, featuring drawings of pints and mugs of beer and hops, as well as other apparel. Those shoes retail for $130.

For its part, Deschutes has brewed a Run Hoppy Golden IPA that will be sold exclusively within its pubs throughout the year and the company will host events around the release.

“We’re kind of treating it like they are with the shoes, get it while you can,” Stewart said. He added that the brewery worked with some of its employee-owners on the style of beer they’d want to drink post-run.

“The fact that there is a Northwest-based company, it allows us to show consumers that we can partner with like-minded brands,” he added. “A lot of their values are similar to ours, and it allows us to get a little bit deeper with a subculture of people that actively drink craft beer. Here in Bend, the running and just the fitness community is huge.”

Tapping into that subculture gives Deschutes another opportunity to reach craft beer consumers who also live active, outdoor lifestyles, whether that’s running, paddle boarding, hiking or biking.

“That subculture of people, they kind of run hard, and then play hard,” he said. “They commonly get together and in groups and running groups and then drink a few beers afterwards. And it gets Deschutes into that conversation.”

Tomorrow: Read about Deschutes’ “largest media campaign” behind a Deschutes brand, the Fresh Family of IPAs, which rolled out earlier this week.