'Tis the season for year-end awards.
Before we send our inaugural (and not-yet-coveted) "Mug of Win" to the best beer ad campaign of the year, let's go back seven years and watch a beer commercial nobody would ever honor.
Young adult guys... getting ready to go out drinking... end up instead sitting on a couch watching porn. A commercial that nearly screams, or more accurately, yawns "ordinary." Worse, the only statements made about the advertiser's beer are one actor's, "Wow, that tastes great," and a final forgettable billboard: "Mighty tasty." The brand name of the beer being advertised is not even spoken once.
Sounds like a beer ad you might've seen before, right? But from which brand? Maybe Bud Light? Or Miller Lite?
Take a look...
Before we send our inaugural (and not-yet-coveted) "Mug of Win" to the best beer ad campaign of the year, let's go back seven years and watch a beer commercial nobody would ever honor.
Young adult guys... getting ready to go out drinking... end up instead sitting on a couch watching porn. A commercial that nearly screams, or more accurately, yawns "ordinary." Worse, the only statements made about the advertiser's beer are one actor's, "Wow, that tastes great," and a final forgettable billboard: "Mighty tasty." The brand name of the beer being advertised is not even spoken once.
Sounds like a beer ad you might've seen before, right? But from which brand? Maybe Bud Light? Or Miller Lite?
Take a look...
That ad was among a number of equally ordinary and deservedly forgettable commercials Boston Beer's Samuel Adams was running in 2005. In perhaps as pivotal a marketing decision as any ever made by brewer, Jim Koch, the campaign was dumped before year's end and replaced with "For the love of beer."
A single advertising decision was made in favor of a strategy of full-flavor beer and what it takes to make it so: pride, craftsmanship, ingredients, caring, talented brewery people, and an involved owner. "Ordinary" was replaced by "special." In a gut call by the owner (we are told no big research effort was conducted to tell him what to do), he absolutely nailed job #1 of beer advertising: Cause the brand to be seen as special.
That good decision is only part of the rationale for awarding this campaign the "Mug of Win." The other is the arguably more difficult decision to stay with this strategic brilliance year in and year out. Once again, the owner made the right call. Seven years later, "For the Love of Beer" continues to deliver on its original strategy.
That good decision is only part of the rationale for awarding this campaign the "Mug of Win." The other is the arguably more difficult decision to stay with this strategic brilliance year in and year out. Once again, the owner made the right call. Seven years later, "For the Love of Beer" continues to deliver on its original strategy.
Beer marketers take special note: This advertising's not about entertaining people. There's no young-guy-relevant humor, no clever gimmicks, and certainly no porn references.
In place of these way-too-common elements in ordinary beer advertising, all the "sex appeal" and magic is saved for the beer and how it's made. This Sam Adams campaign is all about conveying the facts supporting how special and different the beer is. And then there's that bit about having an owner who knows his beer, and his own mind. Talk about different from Big Beer!
Not to mention driving year-after-year of dramatic sales growth.
That's a real "mug of win."
Cheers!
In place of these way-too-common elements in ordinary beer advertising, all the "sex appeal" and magic is saved for the beer and how it's made. This Sam Adams campaign is all about conveying the facts supporting how special and different the beer is. And then there's that bit about having an owner who knows his beer, and his own mind. Talk about different from Big Beer!
Not to mention driving year-after-year of dramatic sales growth.
That's a real "mug of win."
Cheers!
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