How Crown Beverages, Next Media supported the Martyrs Day celebrations

Crown Beverages in partnership with Next Media distributed over 2000 cartoons of Aquafina water to thousands of pilgrims during Uganda Martyr Days celebrations.

As the pilgrims make their meditative and prayerful pilgrimage, the foot pilgrims were being hospitably supported by Crown Beverages.

The celebrations for this year drew pilgrims from within the country including the foreign pilgrims from the neighbouring countries of Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC and Rwanda among others.

In Uganda, Martyrs Day is celebrated on June 3 every year as a national holiday.

On this day, Christian commemorate the death of 45 youngmen, 23 Anglican protestants and 22 Roman Catholics who were executed in the 19th century on the orders of the then-ruler of Buganda kingdom, Mwanga II, for their refusal to renounce their Christian faith.

Crown Beverage has been part of the main sponsors of Uganda Martyrs trek and broadcast and supplied their water Aquafina throughout.

Crown Beverage and Next Media developed and maintained a strong partnership over the years which has resulted in multiple successful campaigns done together.

Next Media is one of the leading media houses in Uganda.

The two companies chose to use this relationship to support the Martyrs day celebrations.

Pepsi has been supporting the Uganda Martyrs celebrations for the past decade.

According to the officials from Crown Beverages, the initiative is aimed at giving back to the community who are also their consumers.

The trade marketing manager for Crown Beverages Julius Mwesigye said Aquafina is the newest water brand to be manufactured by Crown Beverages. He said they want the general public to experience and enjoy it firsthand.

“We are proud to have it here in Uganda. We introduced it last year in November and now we have produced underground beverages. We always support national causes. so as Crown Beverages we shall always support pilgrims more especially the host dioceses,” he noted.

In 2022, Crown Beverages supported Fort portal dioceses which was the host dioceses where they worked together with pilgrims to Namugongo.

This year, the company has supported Diocese of Jinja which animated this year’s liturgy on June 3 Martyrs Day.

Every year, Ugandan dioceses take turns to animate the liturgy at Namugongo Shrine.

The Diocese of Jinja in Eastern Uganda was chosen to animate the celebrations.

Joel Onencan, the territory Sales Manager of Jinja said given the fact the Aquafina is a global brand, it is very good for pilgrims

“They feel energized as they keep on taking it because it has all the minerals that are required for the body. It is everywhere in Uganda. You can get it from the nearest shop, from supermarkets,” he said.

Aquafina, brand of PepsiCo, Inc., one of the largest multinational food, snack, and beverage corporations, Aquafina was first launched in the USA in 1994.

Over the last two decades, it has expanded into Asia, UAE, and most recently Africa. Uganda was the third country to be allowed by PepsiCo International to bottle the Aquafina brand, after Nigeria and Egypt.

Aquafina is available in a 500ml pack at a recommended retail price of One Thousand Uganda Shillings (Shs 1000) only, countrywide.

It was the first international water brand in Uganda. Besides Aquafina’s international reputation as a PepsiCo product, the water’s other differentiator lies in its high-quality process of purifying and bottling as well as its great consistent taste.

Aquafina is natural water, drawn from public water sources. It is then purified through a rigorous purification process. This purification process includes reverse osmosis and other filtering and purification methods that remove minerals such as chlorides, salts and other substances that can affect a water’s taste.

While other brands of bottled water may also have similar purification steps such as reverse osmosis and ozonation, Aquafina also undergoes another process called demineralisation.

This is an extensive purification process that is designed to remove trace compounds such as carbonates, bicarbonates, chlorides, sulfates, phosphates, nitrates, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron and manganese.

While some of these compounds, like calcium and potassium, are necessary for the body, and most often occur naturally in most water, their minute levels in most bottled or naturally occurring waters have no substantial impact on health.