Heineken USA today announced a pair of sports sponsorships — including the company’s first National Football League partnership — signaling the company’s ongoing interest in building its business with professional sports leagues, teams and arenas.
The Heineken brand will become the exclusive import beer of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium. Additionally, the deal makes Heineken 0.0 the official non-alcoholic beer of both the team and stadium, while SunRise Hard Seltzer, which Heineken launched this spring with AriZona Iced Tea maker Hornell Brewing Company, will become its official hard seltzer.
As part of the deal, Hard Rock Stadium will include Heineken branding in the stadium’s southwest quadrant, eight Heineken-branded bars and the two-story “Heineken Hideout” lounge.
“We have always been fiercely passionate about creating unforgettable fan experiences,” Heineken USA chief marketing officer Jonnie Cahill said in a press release. “We look forward to bringing that same ambition to our first NFL team partnership.”
Heineken also announced a multi-year U.S. sponsorship for its Tecate Mexican import brand with Liga BBVA MX, the Mexican soccer league with a strong U.S. following. The partnership grants Tecate the use of team logos and names and images of players and teams, interviews with “soccer legends” and “a presence” in game highlights on Liga BBVA MX’s social media platforms, according to a press release.
Those sponsorships come on the heels of Heineken reach a sponsorship deal last month to become the exclusive beer and hard seltzer partner of UBS Arena, the future home of the NHL’s New York Islanders. In addition, Heineken also sponsors Major League Soccer (MLS), and partners with select teams in the National Women’s Soccer League, NHL, and Formula One.
As the Heinken continues to sign new sports sponsorship deals, the company remains embroiled in what started as a trademark infringement lawsuit and has evolved into a trade practice dispute between the Duch beer giant and Miami-based Biscayne Bay Brewing.
Biscayne Bay filed the lawsuit last October against La Tropical Holdings B.V. and Cerveceria La Tropical USA LLC, subsidiaries of Heineken N.V. and Heineken USA, alleging that the defendants were “damaging Biscayne Bay through aggressive bully tactics designed to stifle sales of Biscayne Bay’s fastest-growing Tropical Bay IPA,” according to court filings.
At the center of the dispute is Biscayne Bay’s Tropical Bay IPA, which the brewery has produced since 2018 and filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on February 8, 2020.
Five days prior to the filing, Cerveceria La Tropical head brewer and brewery operations manager Matthew Weintraub contacted Biscayne Bay founder Jose Mallea and “vaguely asserted that the Tropical Bay IPA trademark infringed [on] a trademark that Heineken or its subsidiaries owned for all beer that included the word ‘tropical,’” according to the court filings. In late May 2020, La Tropical Holdings’ attorney demanded that Biscayne Bay abandon use of the Tropical Bay IPA trademark.
However, as the companies attempted to work out trademark issues, Biscayne Bay was dropped as the official craft beer of Inter Miami, the city’s MLS team, which the craft brewery alleged resulted from Heinken’s having “tortiously interfered.”
In a response filed on April 23 to Biscayne Bay’s second amended complaint, Heineken pointed to Florida’s competition privilege as granting the company “the privilege of interference.”
“BBBC and defendants are competitors in the beer industry and therefore, defendants have the privilege of interference in order to acquire business for themselves,” Heineken wrote. “Defendants have a legitimate economic interest in having their goods sold and consumed at the Inter Miami stadium.”
But, in admitting it interfered, Heineken’s actions may have run afoul of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act’s exclusive outlet prohibition, which bars purveyors of alcohol from attempting to exclude other products from retailers.
“It is unlawful for an industry member to require, by agreement or otherwise, that any retailer purchase distilled spirits, wine, or malt beverages from the industry member to the exclusion, in whole or in part, of products sold or offered for sale by other persons in interstate or foreign commerce,” according to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations.
At the time of the termination of Biscayne Bay’s sponsorship agreement, an Inter Miami employee told a brewery employee via email (included in Biscayne Bay’s complaint) that “Heineken and the league don’t want you roasting them in public is the bottom line.”
A Heineken spokesperson told Brewbound the company is confident in its case and denied any wrongdoing.
“Plaintiff’s lawsuit was filed last year,” the spokesperson wrote. “We categorically deny any and all allegations of wrongdoing made by plaintiff and are confident in the merits of our case.”
Both parties signed a confidentiality agreement on April 30 to protect confidential information moving forward.
Year-to-date through April 18, dollar sales of the Heineken USA portfolio have increased 6.3%, to $460 million, at off-premise multi-outlet food, retail and convenience stores tracked by IRI. With 3.73% share of dollar sales year-to-date, Heineken is the sixth-largest beer category vendor.
The company’s best-selling brand families, Heineken (+8.9%) and Mexican import Dos Equis (+12.8%), are outpacing the overall portfolio in year-to-date off-premise growth.