– Company to plug $3M towards developing a football ground
DISTRIBUTORS Ansa McAl Trading announced their alliance with the 22nd Kashif and Shanghai (K&S) Football tournament in a major way with their “Crown your Community” promotion under their flag ship product, Stag Beer. “I think it’s safe to say that this promotion promises to be like no other,” declared Troy Cadogan, the company’s Marketing Director while speaking at the presentation hosted at the Georgetown Club on Thursday evening.
“It will set aside individualism and embrace the true meaning of community. Crown your Community is being implemented under a new concept of reward for corporate responsibility. Most Companies, when they sponsor events, benefit from a day of branding, selling products and a photo-op; however the innovation behind this promotion goes far beyond the norm,” Cadogan said.
The participating 16 teams in the Kashif and Shanghai tournament are all said to be community based and as such, it would give one of them a chance to enhance their training/playing venue within their area.
Several shops within these communities have already been identified by Ansa McAl and Kashif and Shanghai Organization, wherein,  boxes well décor with the theme of the promotion and Stag Beer,  persons can deposit their Stag Beer crowns.
At the end of the tournament on January 1, 2012, the boxes in each community will have their crowns counted and the area with the most will win.
The Three Million Dollars could only be used for developmental purposes of the ground identified and not for specific club purposes according to Cadogan.
Meanwhile, Cadogan also unveiled a commemorative Stag Beer, bearing the logo of Kashif and Shanghai Organization where he said that, “from now throughout the Kashif and Shanghai tournament, all the Stag Beer will have a special design, the caps will be different, having the marking ‘Stag Crown Your Community’ and this is what will make this year’s tournament special”.
Asked what prompted such a move by the company, Cadogan said, “sometime last year, it was mentioned to Kashif and Shanghai that we (Ansa McAl), as core sponsors, would want to value our sponsorship and this is when the idea was born.”
Kashif Mohammad along with Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major are the brainchild behind what is considered to be Guyana’s Premier sporting event and the longest running.
Mohammad, speaking at Thursday evening’s event said, “no words can express how I feel personally about this whole initiative because it would be a plus for us.
It means that we’ll have another venue, or a better one, depends on which area wins, for our tournament to be played and so it’s truly development indeed for these communities. We are glad to be a part of it and more so, having a beer branded with our logo it’s just amazing and we thank Ansa McAl for not doing this for us, but for football in the whole.”
The Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) acting president Franklin Wilson showered the company with praises for the promotion which he says will garner community support for the sport.
Wilson spoke of Guyana’s participation in the CONCACF World Cup Qualifiers where they sit atop of Group B ahead of Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and Barbados, while making a call for persons to come out and support the team.
Guyana will play Trinidad and Tobago on November 11 at the National Stadium and with a return fixture on November 15 in the Twin Island Republic.