Live from Pilot Pen: Michelob and VERB Mobilize
NEW HAVEN, CT—Michelob and VERB are making a presence at the Pilot Pen tennis tournament under way this week at Yale University.
Presenting tournament sponsor Michelob ULTRA is making the rounds with its beer truck. The Anheuser-Busch brand is rewarding people over the age of 21 who try the product by letting them enjoy the beverage in one of four shiatsu massage chairs.
In addition to a taste of beer and a massage, samplers can watch the tournament on a large plasma television screen. Michelob ULTRA’s team is also handing out literature with fitness facts and a chart that compares the calories and carbs of its drink to other beers and alcoholic beverages. Pro Motion, St. Louis, handles.
The VERB Anytour hit the tennis tournament, called Pilot Pen Tennis presented by Michelob ULTRA, a U.S. Open Series Event, Sunday with a message that kids can turn any object into something that can be used for an impromptu physical activity. The tour’s colorful step van includes a makeshift basketball hoop made out of a garbage can. Kids are encouraged to crinkle up the tour’s brochures and use them as a basketball, hockey puck or tennis ball.
The tour, sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Center for Disease Control and handled by Chicago-based Marketing Werks, has six step vans that tour the country over a 20 week period. The vans make one-to-two planned stops per day at sporting events that attract children, and make an occasional guerrilla appearance at a large gathering, said Marketing Werks spokesperson Lee Sullivan.
“We had a boy here today who was looking for some duct tape so he could make a hockey puck because he got to make one earlier this week when we stopped at a soccer camp,” said tour spokesperson Stacey Wood. She pointed out that the tour’s message is getting into the kids’ heads.
