In late August Michelob Ultra launched a blended marketing, partnership and community cause initiative called ‘Save It, See It’ linking a variety of brand initiatives all focused on increasing the visibility of women’s sport.
Linked to its promise that by 2025, 50% of its non-product-focused ad campaigns will feature female athletes or women’s sports and brought to life through its gender balanced Team Ultra talent and influencer roster, the project was introduced via a hero commercial posted across the brand’s digital and social channels on 26 August and airing on television in the USA.
The initiative, which will see the Anheuser-Busch beer brand spend $100m through the next five years supporting women’s sports, seeks to help female athletes achieve the same level of media coverage as men: it is part of a wider drive to represent female and male athletes equally in all advertising creative, marketing activation and sponsorship deals.
The project will see the brand allocate half of its lifestyle media inventory on content about female athletes and women’s sports by 2025, while the launch film features female sports ambassadors Nneka Ogwumike (LA Sparks star and WNBPA union President Nneka Ogwumike), CeCe Telfer (LGBTQ advocate) and Andraya Carter (basketball analyst) to help the brand bring its values to life and connect with wider audiences.
The campaign, developed with agency Gut, encourages consumers to back female athletes on social media and the lead spot is supported by digital and social content linked by the campaign’s #SaveitSeeit and #WomensSports hashtags.
The brand is also encouraging consumers to hit ‘save’ on women’s sports highlights on social media as part of the campaign. While the spot doesn’t say so explicitly, it appears to reference Instagram specifically and features what looks like the ‘save’ flag icon that appears at the bottom right corner of posts on the platform.
Michelob Ultra is also bringing equal gender representation to its own athlete ambassador stable and lifestyle media inventory.
The new work launched to leverage Women’s Equality Day (26 August): which celebrates the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in the US, ensuring women’s right to vote.
“Michelob Ultra is proud to be a long-time partner of female athletes and organizations, and as a leader in both the beer and sports marketing industries, there’s so much more we can do to help support equal pay when it comes to women’s sports,” said Michelob Ultra Vice President Of Marketing Ricardo Marques. “We need to set the example, and the time for equality has always been now. Our commitment demonstrates Michelob Ultra’s core belief that female athletes deserve an equal experience, whether they’re on the court, in the newsroom or on our TV screens.”
Comment:
This purpose-driven project in support of gender equality in sports is a wide ranging commitment from Anheuser-Busch to position the brand as one which is working toward tangible change, whilst avoiding ‘woke-washing’ in its purposeful company and marketing products.
Amongst the brand’s previous sports partnerships are its role as the official beer sponsor of the WNBA as well as its athlete ambassador partnerships with Serena Williams and Alex Morgan.
This is the first work for the brand from Gut. Michelob Ultra also works with FCB (which created the ‘Courtside’ experiential push) and Wieden+Kennedy New York (which was behind the Super Bowl ad starring athletes in their downtime).
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