09 December 2009

APB Takes Responsible Drinking in the Asia Pacific Online with Drink-Savvy.com

Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd (APB) today launched Drink-Savvy.com, a website dedicated to promoting and educating the public on responsible drinking. It is the first of its kind by an Asian brewer to actively involve stakeholders in the Asia Pacific region to learn about, value and enjoy drinking responsibly.

"To be 'savvy' is to 'understand' and 'comprehend'. Thus, to drink savvy means to understand alcohol and how it affects us. More importantly, it is about making well-informed and responsible decisions about drinking," explains Mr Roland Pirmez, Chief Executive Officer of APB.

"Hence, we want to do more than merely educate stakeholders, provide practical information about alcohol and describe how we can use it responsibly. We believe it is important that we engage consumers to adopt positive drinking attitudes and to practise responsible drinking through Drink-Savvy.com and its related activities," added Mr Pirmez.

Drink-Savvy.com features bite-size factoids about alcohol and its effects on the body through the section, 'Alcohol Savvy' as well as practical advice on drinking responsibly via 'Savvy Tips'.

The launch of Drink-Savvy.com also kick-starts a regional contest - 'I Drink Savvy' - that requires members of the public to submit a video, an audio file, photo or illustration on how they can drink responsibly. The most creative "drink-savvy" idea stands to win a 10-day trip for two to Australia to see the best of Sydney combined with the scenic Whitsunday Islands and cosmopolitan Cairns in addition to travel vouchers.

In addition, Drink-Savvy.com is tapping on the power of popular social media platforms - Facebook, Orkut and Kai Xin Wang (开心网) and micro-blogging site Twitter as well as regional influencers in the blogging sphere - to reach out to the public and build a community of fans and followers to support the cause and pass on the responsible drinking message.

"We understand that to promote positive drinking habits, we need the support and collaboration of many communities around us. And it is on this premise that we organise the public contest and leverage social media to encourage people to think about responsible drinking and to share ideas on how we can drink savvy and remember the good times together. By bringing about awareness, engagement and active participation in a fun way, we hope to generate a multiplier effect and widen our circumference of influence to have more consumers learn, appreciate, practise and support responsible drinking," said Mr Pirmez.

Apart from garnering active consumer involvement, APB has worked with different influencers such as industry partners, government bodies and key opinion leaders to promote responsible drinking in the Asia Pacific. The support for the cause by these long-standing partners is evident in Drink-Savvy.com where they hope to inspire more to drink responsibly with their contributions to the 'Savvy Locator' section which showcases savvy drinkers and how, through various creative ways, they have helped encourage responsible drinking in the region.

The key opinion leaders from the region who are supporting responsible drinking include Thailand's Judge Panat Somburanasin, business leaders such as Ms Otara Gunewardene, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ODEL, Sri Lanka's leading premium fashion superstore and Mr Bruce Robertson, Chief Executive of the Hospitality Association of New Zealand, as well as media personalities, retail and industry partners and volunteer student ambassadors who promote moderate and responsible consumption amongst their varsity peers. Locally, Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore is a long-standing partner of the Singapore Traffic Police in their efforts to curb drink-driving.

Drink-Savvy.com also features the various local initiatives that educate and promote responsible consumption by APB's operating companies in the Asia Pacific in the section, 'APB Drinks Savvy'.

Mr Pirmez added: "Responsible drinking is part of our corporate culture and our employees are our ambassadors. It is our intention to launch Drink-Savvy.com during the year-end festivities to remind and encourage our consumers to drink responsibly during the season of merry-making and celebrations. Moving forward, we look forward to engaging our consumers through more interesting activities that encourage responsible drinking."

Several APB operating companies in the Asia Pacific are also extending this corporate effort to promote responsible drinking by rolling out related activities in their respective markets. This includes a concert cum party in Singapore to promote moderate drinking among young adults, leveraging the themes of music, fashion, sports and friendship, a designated-driver party in Sri Lanka to emphasise the anti-drink-drive message as well as trade partners and employee education programmes in Laos and Mongolia.

To mark the launch of Drink-Savvy.com and the company's commitment to responsible drinking, APB's 14 regional offices in Cambodia (Phnom Penh), China (Guangzhou, Hainan and Shanghai), India (Mumbai), Laos (Vientiane), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar), New Zealand (Auckland), Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby), Singapore, Sri Lanka (Colombo), Thailand (Bangkok) and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi) joined Mr Primez in Singapore for a toast to drink-savvy via a 'live' webcast and video conference.

Drink-Savvy.com is in English and is also available in Mongolian and Vietnamese. To find out more about responsible drinking and how you can share drink-savvy ideas to win attractive prizes, log on to www.Drink-Savvy.com.

Newsroom 2009 listing

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