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The "Bud Light Party" lesson: When you don't sell the beer, you won't... sell beer

10/28/2016

 
You know things are pretty bad when ads built on election-year craziness get yanked two weeks ahead of the election.
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- Advertising Age
Tens of millions of dollars were wasted on this epic lapse of sound marketing judgment. Yet before the "Bud Light Party" goes deservedly--if belatedly--into the trash can, it's worth looking to see what we can learn from this disaster. And there is definitely a lesson here about how not to sell beer.

Take another look at these ads with an eye toward answering this simple question: Do they dramatize anything--anything at all--about... the beer?
Zilch.

​Not... a... thing.

Nothing about how the beer tastes. Nothing about its ingredients. Nothing about how the beer is made. Nothing about why people like it. Nothing about why you should choose this particular brand for your party. Nothing at all to suggest Bud Light is in any way distinctive, special, unique... desirable. So, why would anyone expect ads that don't sell anything distinctive about the beer... to sell beer?

Good question.

Since this is the second Bud Light ad campaign in a row to focus on empty entertainment instead of distinctive substance, you have to wonder how supposedly smart, even brilliant people could repeat the same costly mistake. How can they see the brand they're responsible for--the largest beer brand in the country--keep losing ground, and still choose advertising that conveys nothing distinctive about the beer? 

Highly regarded ABInbev ceo, Carlos Brito, once called this Bud Light effort "revolutionary new creative." In fact, it was neither new nor revolutionary. And it wasn't particularly creative. 
Seduced by how easy it seems

Sadly, we have seen all this many times before. Slick ad guys lure gullible beer-business executives into buying entertainment-based "big ideas" that don't sell any beer.

Got a big brand that needs a boost? Don't worry about the challenging work of crafting a brand-distinctiveness-based strategy. The ad hipsters have an easier answer: Sign a comedian (or two), or some very hot rock group for your beer brand, and just let these entertainers do what they do. "Your brand will be so relevant! Just imagine the social-media frenzy!" The more popular the entertainers, the funnier the comedian's schtick, the more effective your ad will be, say these charlatans. Of course they'll include your brand's cans and bottles in the ads, but mostly as props for the celebrity talent.


The truly crazy part? It never sells beer. 

Having made the very same costly advertising mistake now twice in a row, you'd think the odds Bud Light's marketing brain trust would do so yet again are pretty low, right?
OMG, not again?!?
After killing the "Bud Light Party," the brewery's short-term advertising answer is more of the "Lady Gaga Dive-Bar Tour"...
Did you learn anything at all... about the beer?

​Me neither.

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                     ~Our record, for the record~

Since the "Bud Light Party" campaign was launched less than a year ago, we have consistently pointed out its critical weakness.

- In February, when the teaser ads appeared, we worried the new campaign would be as disappointing as the one it replaced.

- Later that month, when Heineken aired its new ads, which have since resulted in getting that brand back to growth, we contrasted the strategic substance of the Heineken ads with the Bud Light's empty entertainment.

- In April we again contrasted Bud Light's failure to establish any claim to its beer's distinctiveness, with a brand that does just the opposite.

- Still frustrated in July, we asked, "Why does Bud Light refuse to sell beer?"

- In August, we compared Bud Light's ads from the eighties with what we called their current "loser" campaign.

- And just a few weeks ago, we noted ironically that Bud Light had finally stumbled upon a distinctiveness-based ad.

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We wanted to like Miller Lite's "spelled different" ads. We really did.

10/17/2016

 
"Spelled different because it's made different."
That's the spoken tagline for a new batch of Miller Lite 15-second ads, ten of 'em so far by our count. Given our well-known yearning for beer ads based on the distinctiveness of a brand, you'd think we'd be giddy that after so many empty, entertainment-based efforts, Miller Lite has finally seen things our way and decided to focus on how its beer is "made (or brewed) different."

​You'd think.

But then you watch the ads, and guess what? All that's shown is a procession of Lite beer cans in very ordinary situations--in icy water or on a bar--pretty much like we've seen in plenty of other ads for other beers in other cans. Worse, there's absolutely nothing shown or said about how the beer is "made different." Nothing at all. Instead, ahead of a neon sign, we get odd little lectures--some citing calories, some citing taste, some bragging about inventing light beer--with nary a spoken mention of the brand name.
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The final frame shows a neon can sign.
The ads differ mostly on what the mildly edgy (or mildly annoying, depending on your perspective) announcer says. For example...

"
We didn't just break the mold, we made it. And we spelled it L-i-t-e. Because when you invent light beer, you get to spell it however you want. Spelled different because it's made different."

...and...

"You may wonder how we pack all that taste into just 96 calories. Well, that's a mystery you don't need to solve, you just get to enjoy. Spelled different because it's made different."

...and...

"Forty years ago, they thought it was impossible to brew a great-tasting light beer. So we got to brewing and told them to 'Sip on this.' The original light beer. Spelled different because it's brewed different."

In all the ads, the "spelled different" part is self-evident (if not particularly potent since, if that's what's remembered from the ads as we expect, it's pretty much going to prompt a "So what?" response.) Not so with the other half of the tagline. The audience never hears or sees how the beer is "made (or brewed) different?" That's "the mystery" these ads should've resolved.

And it gets still worse.

​In the two most recent ads, the announcer focuses on advertising currently being run by... Bud Light! In one, the entire Bud Light tagline is quoted word for word. Yes, we have lambasted the idiotic Bud Light ad campaign ourselves, but here's the difference: We're not trying to sell you our brand of beer at the same time! 

Why ask people to think about Bud Light when you're trying to sell them Miller Lite?
Corporate ego is the real force behind this "call out the other guys" tactic. It makes senior brewery leaders--none of whom probably ever saw a real bar fight close-up--feel like tough guys. But however bad the other guy's ads may be, tweaking a competitor in this fashion is, as an ad guy once told me, "...like peeing in your pants. It feels sorta good, but only for a moment." Here's a less salty piece of battlefield advice for Miller Lite's tough-guy-aspiring beer-warriors...

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

                                                                         -Napoleon Bonaparte

And one final suggestion: A solid product-distinctiveness strategy is not about simply reciting miscellaneous facts about your brand; it's about an advertising idea that dramatizes how your brand is different, and supports that with product facts.

​You know, like...
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                                                          ... to cite just one example.

Update:
Bud Light ended their ad campaign
two weeks after this article ran.

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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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