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Lime-a-Rita pursues a once-banned ad strategy; Regulators asleep?

2/23/2016

"Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z."

Watchdogs dozing?

The gatekeeper for alcohol-beverage ads and related promotional materials, including labels, is the federal government's Alcohol & Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). It used to be that gaining TTB (or its predecessor agency's) approval for alcohol-beverage ads meant meeting pretty strict, carefully laid out guidelines. But something seems to have changed.

Last year, Slate.com castigated sexist craft-beer names--"Raging Bitch" and "Panty Dropper," for example--that would never have passed muster with federal regulators in the past. Similarly, two years back we called out a host of questionable craft-beer labels.

Alcohol-effect advertising

Labels are one thing, television ads for alcohol are quite another. High on the list (no pun intended) of restrictions on alcohol-beverage advertising was a total ban on glamorizing "alcohol-effect." However appealing and effective it might be as a marketing gambit to entice new drinkers--especially young new drinkers--brands were banned from overtly celebrating the effects of alcohol-content on television.

Until now.

Let's say a brand is out to reel in those new drinkers, what effects of alcohol might it try dramatizing? What about the buzz-y sensation that you've suddenly become a much better dancer? What about replacing reality with seeing things in bright and vibrant colors? What about hallucinations like statues appearing to come to life? What about experiencing a tranquil gathering descend into "bustin' loose?"

Every one of these can be an alcohol-effect.

So, what about an alcohol ad that celebrates every one of these altered states, occasioned by the pop of a top, and a pour over ice?

Losing a quarter of your business in a single year--as the Bud Light Lime's Ritas just have--could make any marketer desperate. When your product segment's known for here-to-day-gone-tomorrow offerings, desperation's never far from the surface. So maybe flavored malt beverage (FMB) brands will always be willing to dance closer to the ethical line to make a sale. Perhaps Lime-a-Rita is only the latest at the prom.

Lime-a-Rita's inspiration?

Indeed, it could be argued that the Bud Light marketing brain trust "went to school" on a smaller, but no less determined an alcohol marketer. See if you can spot any "bustin' loose" alcohol-effect selling going on in this long-form ad.

Is Bud Light Lime Lime-a-Rita selling alcohol-effect in a classier fashion than BuzzBallz?

Heck, it'd be almost impossible not to.

But should they be selling alcohol-effect at all?

Birds of a feather... selling alcohol-effect together?

Craft pioneer Sam Adams bets on product-distinctiveness ads to get its groove back

2/15/2016

In business, complacency is risky. Standing in one spot--no matter how good that spot seems at the time--is almost sure to backfire. Competitors are always circling, always ready to cut into a winning brand's success by horning in on its territory.

Case in point: Samuel Adams.

Way back in 2006, Sam Adams recognized that to win, it needed to be distinctive. So the brand dumped its truly ordinary advertising campaign, one that looked like many a BigBeer effort. In its place "For the Love of Beer" came to life in ads that registered the brand's distinctiveness versus BigBeer. Sam Adams pioneered craft.

Dramatizing its brewing ethic, hometown roots, the personal involvement of the owner, and the smaller, artisan size of the brewery, it was a message BigBeer couldn't match. The results were nothing short of spectacular. For several years, Sam Adams growth was beyond anything its largest competitors could hope for. Wall Street loved "SAM." Founder, Jim Koch, became a billionaire.

Who could've foreseen that Samuel Adams--the largest of the craft brewers--would one day become a victim of the same craft-beer frenzy it helped pioneer?

Distinctiveness doesn't necessarily last

Early in 2014 we sounded an alarm. Looking at advertising for Leinenkugel's and Fat Tire that copied the Sam Adams strategy, we said:

If these craft brewers--and many who will no doubt follow them into television advertising--land on essentially the same strategy, that strategy loses power. What could well have been distinctive and differentiating for the single pioneering brand--in this case, Sam Adams--is substantially eroded when it's divided among several brewers.

And that's exactly what happened. Sam Adams became less and less special as the horde of craft-beer brands promoted themselves on television, and more often, through online videos essentially the same way. As we put it, seemingly every craft brewer served up:

..."real people"/from a nice place/believing in their beer/having fun brewing beers/using good wholesome ingredients/(while caring for the planet)

Sam Adams' growth rate tapered off, ultimately disappearing altogether. What had once been distinctive pretty quickly devolved to generic.

How to get a groove back

If we have preached--ad nauseam, some might say--a single route to advertising success, it is: Provocatively capture your product's distinctiveness. Having seen its strategic distinctiveness vanish in a tide of look-alike, me-too craft brands, Sam Adams wisely re-strategized to focus on product-distinctiveness.

Not long ago, Boston Lager launched a new ad (and a new advertising look) focused on "balance." No other beer--craft or otherwise--of any significance had addressed this feature, so it really is distinctive. And not only did the Sam Adams ads introduce this new term, they defined it so as to gently impugn many of their smaller rivals in a competitive, Goldilocks fashion. Unlike other craft brands, Sam Adams is... Not too hoppy... Not too malty... Just (the) right... balance.

We happen to think the use in these ads of a chalkboard visual device--a feature common to just about every craft brewery's on-site tasting rooms--is pretty darned clever, too.

The second ad in the series for "the Nitro Project" is even more potent (pun intended). Here's distinctiveness you can see and taste in the beer! Unmatched smoothness. And while some other craft breweries have toyed with the nitrogen idea, none has promoted it heavily, certainly not on national television.

(Two more ads in the series here and here.)

How quickly Sam Adams gets its groove back will depend on how strongly and consistently they pursue this strategy. But based on their past success with advertising decision-making, we'd bet they'll be back on track soon enough.

Meanwhile, their imitative craft competitors would do well to consider which distinctive features of their own they ought to promote.

Because product-distinctiveness sells.

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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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Lime-a-Rita pursues a once-banned ad strategy; Regulators asleep?

Craft pioneer Sam Adams bets on product-distinctiveness ads to get its groove back

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