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The advertising quest for authenticity

6/30/2015

"To win customers over today, a business... needs to behave in a way that is genuine and is perceived by customers to be authentic." So says Forbes. It follows that advertisers in general, and beer brands in particular, are chasing this key brand value.

Authenticity re-created?

Few brand assets are more authentic than the founder. He or she personifies the brand, giving it a face, a voice, and real legitimacy. But what's a brand to do when the person who created it is dead or otherwise unavailable? Today's increasingly popular answer: Reincarnate them! Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy's and Dodge are all engaged in a version of advertising animatronics. Death, where is thy sting?

Authenticity re-created...not the real colonel; not the real Wendy; not the real Dodge brothers

While all these campaigns may succeed at registering assorted copy points about the respective brands, their re-created spokes-personae leave something to be desired on the authenticity dimension.

What about beer?

Alone among BigBeer's premium offerings, Coors Banquet has racked up several years of positive sales trends. In a new advertising campaign designed to emphasize its authenticity, Coors joins the trend and reincarnates "Mister Coors."

Not the real "A. Coors."

We have our doubts how effective the new ads will be at delivering the holy grail of authenticity. For the same reason we question a faux Colonel Sanders: No matter how well cast, or how well scripted, using actors to bring historic figures back to life just feels flimsy. It's inauthentic.

Some proven routes to beer authenticity

Over the years, Budweiser has registered authenticity by consistent use of its historic icon, the famous Clydesdales. Many imported beers rely on country of origin as their touchstone. But for unchallengeable authenticity, it's hard to beat an actual descendant of the founder. Especially when he's photogenic and filmed in the natural splendor of the Rocky Mountains, home to his family's brewery. Just compare this "Mister Coors" to the re-created one. (Apologies for low-quality video.)

Dozens of these "Golden Colorado since 1873" ads ran for more than a decade, during which time the fortunes of the brewery rose dramatically. While Pete Coors wasn't a bad actor, his advertising effectiveness owed most to his lineage. Nothing flimsy there.

So, maybe there's a lesson here for beer brands longing for authenticity.

Forget reincarnation. If at all possible, go with the real thing.

Or some big horses.

Coors Light heads home

6/19/2015

Sometimes, the route to excellence is a process of devolution rather than evolution. A process of jettisoning unnecessary elements to get down to the necessary one.

Over the past few years Coors Light advertising has been running a series of ads loaded with cues aiming to establish itself as "the most refreshing beer in the world."

There's a lot here: ice... mountains... frost... cold. But that's not all of it. There's a dominating creative conceit in the form of unreal explorer dudes hanging from tether lines, and scuba divers hiding in beer coolers. These dramatic elements were probably included to "add interest to the advertising." They introduced a strong sense of make-believe. And in so doing, they unintentionally elbowed out something absolutely critical: communication of the brand's authenticity.

Authenticity has always been a key to effective beer marketing. These days it's also doubly valued as "the way to the millennials heart," as Forbes put it. And as for marketing, an Adweek piece quoted a Disney-owned content-creation studio guru's assertion, "This generation doesn't dislike brands. What they don't like is advertising."

Just as nothing screams "advertising" any louder than faux characters scuba-diving in beer coolers, nothing telegraphs authenticity more powerfully than fact-based distinctiveness. It's taken Coors Light some time to come to the realization that make-believe dramas and authenticity do not play well together. Better late than never.

In its new "Born in the Rockies" campaign, the Silver Bullet is hammering home its point of distinctiveness, the key aspect of the beer that makes it different from its competition. The star of the ads is the brand's Rocky Mountain home, and all that goes with it, not least of all cold, clear water. No goofy characters to "have fun" with the premise. The premise is authenticity. No other brand could run this advertising.

Could the ads could be improved? Sure. They're a little dour, the announcer could be more engaging, and it takes too long to get to the brand. But these criticisms are relatively minor. This is very solid advertising, made even better by featuring the updated package graphics that showcase the Rocky Mountain equity.

In a final act of devolution, the advertising also gains from the elimination of the "world's most refreshing beer" claim. This bit of puffery (the term for a claim so obviously over-the-top and unprovable, it's legally permissible to use it) only further compromised authenticity. Bombast is for pretenders.

Welcome home, Coors Light.

Now stay put.

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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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