Golden Boy and DIGA Entertainment Partner with Epana to Promote May 5th de la Hoya/Mayweather Fight to Hispanics via Phonecards

“Golden Boy Promotions and DIGA Entertainment have partnered with Epana Networks, Inc. to promote the historic May 5th HBO Pay-Per-View fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Floyd Mayweather in more than 30,000 Hispanic neighborhood stores utilizing Epana’s Kare Distribution sales and marketing channel to deliver over two million prepaid phone cards. The promotion makes use of a new and exclusive distribution network created by Epana that is revolutionizing how information and products are delivered to Hispanic consumers at the places they shop, work and live across the USA.

Photos: DIGAENTERTAINMENT.com/boxeo

HOW DOES IT WORK:

The use of pre-paid phone cards is ubiquitous in the Hispanic community. Purchased primarily at small neighborhood markets known as tiendas or bodegas, phone cards are used multiple times by each consumer and reside in the consumer’s wallet for up to a week. In many cases the same type of phone card is being purchased repeatedly by the same consumer residing in its wallet for many months. Each time a card is used, it delivers a phone prompt that can be customized by market or offering to provide a unique promotional message. Since early March, Epana’s network of 30,000 tiendas were targeted to receive merchandise, promotional materials, and two million special edition BOXEO phone cards containing information about the HBO Pay-Per-View Fight. This is a potential of ten million messages delivered straight to the eyes and ears of hard-to-reach Hispanic consumers.

Rudy Perez, DIGA Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer and a Grammy-winning music producer who had produced de la Hoya’s debut album, brought the partners together. CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, Richard Schaefer, said “Leveraging Oscar de la Hoya’s personality and reputation with the Hispanic market in the run-up to one of the most important fights of his career has always been important to Oscar and to the Golden Boy organization. This was an opportunity to gain direct access to millions of Hispanic fans that we could not ignore.”

In making the announcement, Perez remarked, “This is the first large use of the Epana system and market reach to provide a new approach for the delivery of quality information and culturally appealing products to millions of hard-to-reach Hispanics in the US.”

“Epana sells millions of cards weekly to a network of 30,000 stores, and is rated by users as one of the most reliable card companies in the country,” Steve Smith, DIGA’s COO said. “DIGA has the exclusive right to market and promote entertainment products like this one through this massive network. We have just begun to experiment with putting entertainment products through the system, and the results have been extraordinary. We believe this will be the new model for marketing and promotion in the Latin entertainment business.”

Epana, through its Kare Distribution subsidiary, is bringing its full suite of sales, marketing and technical organizational capabilities to support the BOXEO launch. As part of the promotion, Epana developed multiple promotions in major markets across the US supporting the promotions with retail merchandising, grass roots marketing, consumer promotions, customized call-flow messages, on-pack advertising, media promotions and a grand prize of airfare, hotel and tickets to the May 5th fight in Las Vegas.

DIGA Entertainment Inc. is a leading Latin entertainment marketing and promotions company providing world class management, marketing, merchandising, distribution, production and sponsorship services. For more information, go to www.digaentertainment.com / 305-695-0263.

Epana Networks is a leading marketing, technology and diversified services company focused on the US Hispanic consumer. Epana develops, markets and distributes multiple communications and financial products and services through its Kare Distribution organization to reach over 30,000 retail locations servicing millions of Hispanic new immigrants nationwide. For more information, go to www.epana.com or call 212-931-8738.

Los Angeles-based Golden Boy Promotions was established in 2001 by Oscar De La Hoya, the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotional company. In 2006, their fifth year of promoting, Golden Boy Promotions broke a record by selling over $2 million in pay-per-views. Golden Boy Promotions is also one of boxing’s most active and respected promoters, presenting shows in packed venues around the United States on networks such as HBO, HBO Latino, Telefutura and ESPN. Golden Boy Promotions currently has close to 50 fighters under contract, from future hall of famers Bernard Hopkins, Marco Antonio Barrera and Sugar Shane Mosley to current world champions Daniel Ponce De Leon, Jhonny Gonzalez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Fernando Montiel, Israel Vazquez and Joan Guzman. Also included on the company’s roster are top contenders Librado Andrade, Juan Lazcano, Rocky Juarez, Oscar Larios, Demetrius Hopkins, Ishe Smith, Rey Bautista, and rising Lightweight Star Francisco “Panchito” Bojado as well as 2004 Olympians Abner Mares and Vicente Escobedo, and highly regarded Antonio Escalante, Rock Allen and Billy Dib.”

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