In April 2021, Bud Light collated assets from across its substantial US sport (and music) sponsorship portfolio – spearheaded by its partnerships with six sports leagues and 70 teams – to fuel a huge $10m ‘Summer Stimmy’ marketing package based around giving away 100,000 sports tickets, concert seats and beer and mimicking the US Government’s own nationwide, pandemic-related economic stimulation package in an initiative remarkable for its scale, breadth and depth.
Territory: USA
Agency: 3PM Agency & Weber Shandwick (McCann Worldgroup)
Objective
After spending most of the previous 12 months pivoting to digital initiatives and cause campaigns to keep its brand personality alive and customer engagement high during the pandemic, Spring 2021 saw Bud Light task its agencies to develop a major marketing push reintroducing experiential to its marketing mix and help ease people back into post-pandemic public and passionate life after spending so much time sheltering at home.
According to the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand, the initiative’s goal was simple: “To bring back some much-needed fun and be sure everyone across America has the best summer ever.”
The parallel strategy behind the project was that Bud Light, like almost all other beer brands, relies heavily on sales at bars, restaurants, sports events and festivals and so has a vested interest in fuelling a return to such activities.
Activation
Creative agency 3PM (which is owned by Weber Shandwick) responded to the brief with an idea that leveraged the US government’s $1.9 trillion national stimulus package (designed to fuel the American economy and based around giving everyone a $1,400 stimulus check) in the form of a parallel Bud Light branded stimulus package.
The approach was based around using thousands of ticket and other experiential assets from its rights packages with six sports leagues (NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, WNBA and NWSL), more than 70 sports teams, plus concert tickets and restaurant offers to form its own brand ‘formal, yet fun’ stimulus package called the ‘Bud Light Summer Stimmy’.
The multi-channel, multi-phase campaign was fronted by two major celebrities and was launched in April 2021 via a 100-page proposal which saw the beer brand humorously mimic the government’s stimulus document and offer anyone over the age of 21 a chance to win prizes (worth up to $10m)
The stimulus package offer included:
> Free Sports Tickets: 100,000 tickets to NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, WBNA and NWSL games
> Free Live Music Tickets: bringing fans back to music with free tickets to concerts and live shows in arenas nationwide
> First Round Back at the Bar: the brand welcomed people back to the bars by buying their first round back (via a QR code)
> Branded Merchandise: participants were also offered a chance to win Bud Light merchandise
Light-heartedly comic in tone (examples of its comedy stimulus proposals included turning Mt Rushmore into a waterpark, expanding the months of June/July/August to thrice their current duration, calling on the nation’s beach umbrella manufacturers to ramp up production and offering free T-shirts to every St Louis resident named Louis or Louise), the marketing push was actually serious in intent and outcome.
The campaign ran through the summer across TV and social media. It was initially spearheaded by a 60-second hero spot rolled out in late April and featuring ‘Veep’ actor and comedian Sam Richardson reading out the brand’s stimulus proposal as if he was on the government political channel C-Span.
This was backed up in May with a follow-up online video which acted as a stimulus bill approval announcement which was amplified across the brand’s digital and social platforms.
The campaign also included additional content such as a social strand fronted by NFL star and Bud Light ambassador Rob Gronkowski who was temporarily given the title of ‘The Bud Light Secretary Of Summer’.
The content sought to drive viewers to the initiative’s dedicated webpage at www.BudLightSummerStimmy.com which not included further details and also asked Americans to sign up and formally ‘endorse’ the Bud Light’s ‘stimmy’ and enter for a chance to win prizes by endorsing or proposing addendums to the initial 100-page stimmy package proposal.
“Bud Light wanted to get people excited about returning to normalcy as vaccinations ramp up,” explained Bud Light Marketing VP Andy Goeler. “Bud Light is all about fun, getting people together and sociability. The last year was a challenge for us, because sports, music and bars are the three big passion points for Bud Light consumers. As we start to come out of this pandemic, it’s a great time for us to help bring back fun.”
“The stimulus was a very culturally relevant topic at the time, and that’s important for us as a brand,” Goeler added. “Bud Light recognised that people across America were eager to get back out there in a big way and so we wanted to serve up an offering that would help everyone have an epic summer. As one of the leading beer brands in the industry, we feel it’s our obligation to welcome consumers back to the places they enjoy Bud Light—their favourite bars, sporting events and live music venues—when it’s safe.”
Outcome
The campaign, according to the brand and its agency, was an immediate success and more than 18,000 people endorsed the stimmy bill within 48 hours of launch.
The initial launch spot generated 6.7m views on the brand’s YouTube page alone, while the follow up spot racked up a further 5m views on the same platform, while the overall campaign generated more than 400,000 social media mentions and the #BudLightStimmyTix hashtag was used 58,000 times.
The campaign trended nationally on Twitter on seven different occasions and it generated 99% positive social sentiment.
Plus a further 70,000 consumers joined the brand’s existing ‘Bud Light Loyalty Programme’ over the course of the campaign.
The initiative was covered in more than 300 media stories leading to a further 875m media impressions across national and local media (spanning general, sports and music titles, plus food and beverage publications) during the campaign’s three months.
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