Kikkoman got £405,700 worth of free press for giving the winner of the Grand Sumo Wrestling Tournament in London in October an inflatable soy sauce bottle the size of a large child.
Bing-yu Lee, Kikkoman’s general manager, said the brand got ‘greater than expected’ media coverage out of the event, after the wrestlers taking part in the tournament went viral by posting pictures of themselves sightseeing around London.
This was only the second time that the sumo tournament had come to London — the first time was 34 years ago, when Kikkoman hadn’t yet hit the supermarket shelves in the UK. This time around, however, the brand jumped at the opportunity to sponsor the event at the Royal Albert Hall.
‘Both sumo wrestling and Kikkoman Soy Sauce are steeped in centuries-old Japanese culture and tradition, so it is fitting for Kikkoman to be involved in this very popular Japanese sport,’ Lee told MediaCat. ‘Just as sumo wrestling is believed to have been established as a sport in the 1600s, so Kikkoman can trace its own brand story back over 300 years to around 1650.’
Over the course of the five-day tournament, the Royal Albert Hall brought in 700 kilograms of rice, 1,000 packets of instant miso soup, 1,050 onigiri, 400 Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottles and 750 packs of instant noodles. These, Lee said, were used to feed the 40 wrestlers and the audience. The Kikkoman bottles, he added, were ‘provided as part of the sponsorship deal and also used in the hotel where the wrestlers stayed’.
The most memorable part of the sponsorship, however, was the giant inflatable Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottle, which Lee himself handed to the Grand Champion of the event and called a ‘fun element of the prize giving’.
‘Given that the international brand awareness of the famous Kikkoman red top dispenser bottle is so high, it made sense to use it to showcase Kikkoman’s involvement in the sport,’ he said, adding that most media used the image of him gifting the bottle when covering the event.
‘There were at least 14 key pieces of coverage in UK national print and online media, which included mentions of Kikkoman,’ he shared. ‘The advertising value equivalent (AVE) was approximately £405,700, with an approximate reach of 193,222,000.’
Going viral on social media, as well as coverage from global publications, further boosted these numbers as photographs and videos of the wrestlers drinking pints of Guinness, riding ebikes, and posing outside London landmarks flooded the platforms.
Global news outlets also heavily reported on the unusual soy sauce trophy, with one of 7NEWS Melbourne’s reporters even gifting her coworker a small bottle of Kikkoman on air, organically boosting the brand’s visibility.
‘On balance, the sponsorship was a great success,’ Lee said.
Featured image: Bing-Yu Lee gifting the Kikkoman trophy / Kikkoman
