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Coors Light goes with a dog's breakfast ad strategy

1/29/2016

Coors Light changed ad agencies to get this?!?

A pedantic ad filled with 41 different scenes over which a preachy voice-over tells viewers, well, a bunch of stuff.

In the words of the marketing honcho (quoted in AdAge) who approved the ads, here's what they're aiming to communicate...

Whew.

To those points, add some gratuitous shots of the Rocky Mountains and Coors brewery workers "climbing the mountain" that apparently is the task of brewing light beer, and you have at least a 10-part advertising platform. All of it delivered without much fun, including the final, almost weary command to "Climb on."

Sadly for Coors, a longtime advertising truth still remains in force: "telling ain't selling." The more you load into an ad, the less viewers take out. "Selling" means capturing a strategically powerful message in a clever, engaging, and memorable fashion. Great advertising always results from a process of tossing out the extraneous to get to the simple, yet compelling core.

Here's what that same Coors marketing honcho said he wanted...

Had he or his new ad agency studied beer history--always a good starting point when searching for a winning beer idea--he might have seen how this path had been traveled before. Very successfully.

How a "work-reward" strategy was distilled, and the brand's central message focused on the achievement, and especially, the reward.

How, in the simple joy of celebrating a job well done, a beer brand found success.

How less really is more.

Teaser beer ads for SuperBowl 50: Cause for delight... and despair

1/22/2016

Over the years, it's become increasingly common for brands to release--or tease--their SuperBowl ads ahead of the actual game. So it's not surprising Anheuser-Busch just pulled the curtain back on two of its four SuperBowl 50 advertising efforts. They apparently figure getting out ahead of the hype increases their odds of getting noticed.

We're happy to oblige with our first reaction, even as we await the full versions of the ads.

ShockTop

Here's the gist of this two-minute teaser from its first 30 seconds...

Later in the video, the tap-handle logo-guy carries on some banter with comedian T.J. Miller who ultimately promises "the greatest SuperBowl ad of all time." Whether the final ad will rise to that lofty boast, we're encouraged by the obvious product-distinctiveness-grounded message surrounding the "unfiltered" aspect of the beer.

This "unfiltered" beer-focused strategy for ShockTop would mean that--with Budweiser and Michelob Ultra--three of four Anheuser-Busch SuperBowl brands will be airing product-distinctiveness-based advertising on the big game.

What're A-B's odds of going 4-0?

Bud Light

If Bud Light's teaser is any indication, the answer is: not good at all.

Anything special about the beer?

In our last article on the run-up to the SuperBowl 50 ads, we cautioned that celebrities and humor--two gimmicks Bud Light's marketing people said would have a role in the ads--could interfere with a selling message about the beer itself. We went on: Pay attention to what they actually say about the beer, beyond simply repeating its name.

In Bud Light's teaser, comedians Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen neither offer nor hint at anything special or distinctive about the beer. Bud Light's nothing but a prop in the two comedians' hands, the antithesis of product-distinctiveness. While both Bud Light and ShockTop use humor and celebrity, the former lacks a product feature akin to "unfiltered." If that proves to be the case across the board in the coming ads, it'll be a big miss. "Funny" and "clever" just aren't enough to sell beer. If they were, Old Milwaukee would've been a mega-success and Budweiser's talking frogs would still be talking.

Unless the coming Bud Light ads reveal what's provocative, distinctive, and special about the beer--in the way "unfiltered," "low-carb," and "Brewed the Hard Way" are employed by its corporate stablemates--we predict the "Bud Light Party" and its generic "Raise one" slogan--will suffer a crushing defeat in the beer aisle.

What a lost opportunity that would be.

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The Author

Dan Fox is a real beer guy.

For more than half his 30-year career at ad agency, Foote, Cone & Belding, he ran the Coors Brewing account. Leading a group of dozens of advertising professionals, Dan also personally wrote the Pete Coors "Somewhere near Golden, Colorado" commercials, designed the Coors NASCAR graphics, authored sales-convention speeches, and most important of all, formulated marketing strategy for virtually every Coors brand, including Coors Light, Keystone, Killian's Irish Red and more. His proudest achievement? "Our team had every Coors brand growing at once."

Over his advertising career, Dan was personally involved in the analysis, planning and creation of thousands of ads for a variety of products and services. By way of this blog, he freely shares his expertise about what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to selling beer.

If you're in the beer-marketing business--or just interested in the subject--you may want to read what "HeyBeerDan" has to say.

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