Year's end is the time when lists get compiled. The year's best sports teams, best movies, best new products and more get chronicled in the press. Apparently, there's something irresistible about such lists.
Tempted as we've been to enter this list-making fray, we've resisted... until now. But since we have our own holiday celebrating to do, we've decided to have just one list, and just one entry on that list. This, of course, cuts down on our work, but it also respects the time demands on you, the reader.
So we've chosen to focus on the dumbest statement made by a beer-industry executive in 2017. As fate would have it, without having to do a bunch of research, the hands-down dumbest quote just arrived in our mailbox courtesy of Beer Marketers Insights. We owe them our thanks for this remarkable time-saver.
The "winner" is...
From the guy responsible for marketing the largest beer brand in the country, a brand that continues to post sales declines of 5-6%--a staggering (!) 1.9 million barrels of beer volume lost in the current year alone--comes this...
Tempted as we've been to enter this list-making fray, we've resisted... until now. But since we have our own holiday celebrating to do, we've decided to have just one list, and just one entry on that list. This, of course, cuts down on our work, but it also respects the time demands on you, the reader.
So we've chosen to focus on the dumbest statement made by a beer-industry executive in 2017. As fate would have it, without having to do a bunch of research, the hands-down dumbest quote just arrived in our mailbox courtesy of Beer Marketers Insights. We owe them our thanks for this remarkable time-saver.
The "winner" is...
From the guy responsible for marketing the largest beer brand in the country, a brand that continues to post sales declines of 5-6%--a staggering (!) 1.9 million barrels of beer volume lost in the current year alone--comes this...
"...(the) Bud Light veep...
said Dilly Dilly is
'creating such a fun buzz' and the 'creative team is having a blast.'"
said Dilly Dilly is
'creating such a fun buzz' and the 'creative team is having a blast.'"
Clearly management is desperate to find good news... any good news. The brand is on its third or fourth consecutive advertising campaign, each one aimed at reversing the sales decline. And each one--including the latest, "Dilly-Dilly"-- a failure on that account. Sales continue to fall. And so the marketing geniuses seize on two "measures" they believe are moving in the right direction: buzz, and enthusiasm by their ad-agency's creative people.
Desperation, meet stupidity
Measure #1: As we have chronicled before, "buzz"--the talk on the street, or on television, or even in games being played in bars-- has no marketing value unless it is correlated to sales gains, the only consequential measure of marketing success. By itself, buzz ain't biz.
Measure #2: Citing creative people having a good time making these insipid Dilly-Dilly ads, and suggesting their "having a blast" is somehow good for Bud Light, is an obscene insult to marketing in general. Heck, it's insulting to anyone with an I.Q. above single digits. Ad-agency creative people are paid handsome salaries to create advertising that sells beer. "Having a blast" is what they do after work, over alcohol beverages (although rarely beer) and banned substances. But maybe in this particular case they should be giddy. After all, they have a client so clueless as to spend millions and, rather than hold them accountable for sales results, he celebrates their... celebrating.
The end
This will all end badly. If Bud Light's ads haven't improved sales by now, adding more of the same sort of pointless humor won't move the needle. Of course, that won't stop the marketing folks, just as they continued to spend on the three earlier failed campaigns. Such is desperation in extremis. So, expect more of these ads.
Desperation, meet stupidity
Measure #1: As we have chronicled before, "buzz"--the talk on the street, or on television, or even in games being played in bars-- has no marketing value unless it is correlated to sales gains, the only consequential measure of marketing success. By itself, buzz ain't biz.
Measure #2: Citing creative people having a good time making these insipid Dilly-Dilly ads, and suggesting their "having a blast" is somehow good for Bud Light, is an obscene insult to marketing in general. Heck, it's insulting to anyone with an I.Q. above single digits. Ad-agency creative people are paid handsome salaries to create advertising that sells beer. "Having a blast" is what they do after work, over alcohol beverages (although rarely beer) and banned substances. But maybe in this particular case they should be giddy. After all, they have a client so clueless as to spend millions and, rather than hold them accountable for sales results, he celebrates their... celebrating.
The end
This will all end badly. If Bud Light's ads haven't improved sales by now, adding more of the same sort of pointless humor won't move the needle. Of course, that won't stop the marketing folks, just as they continued to spend on the three earlier failed campaigns. Such is desperation in extremis. So, expect more of these ads.
We didn't create this meme, but we empathize with it.
Just remember, the ad-agency people are really enjoying themselves!
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