Back in the day, one of the routine agency new-business maneuvers involved gaining as much insight as possible into the client decision-makers. The better you knew the key players, the better your odds of presenting your agency in a way to win their vote. Not least of all, you looked closely at whatever ads they had approved with an eye toward predicting what they'd buy in the future. That knowledge could be a major advantage.
Predicting the sort of advertising a given client might sponsor may be why we broke into a cold sweat when the latest Bud Light ad appeared recently. We were perplexed: Is this the kind of advertising the newly appointed, and highly respected, Bud Light top marketer wanted for the country's largest--and most challenged--beer brand? Yikes.
Predicting the sort of advertising a given client might sponsor may be why we broke into a cold sweat when the latest Bud Light ad appeared recently. We were perplexed: Is this the kind of advertising the newly appointed, and highly respected, Bud Light top marketer wanted for the country's largest--and most challenged--beer brand? Yikes.
It's hard to imagine this lame attempt at humor, with no effort to register even a hint of distinctiveness for the beer, could be the sort of ad the successful executive would green-light. How did he earn his reputation as a "real beer guy" who knows how to sell the stuff? This latest Bud Light ad is unlikely to sell even a bottle of beer, much less turn around the largest brand in the business.
Then, a sigh of relief. We realized this particular Bud Light ad would've already been filmed and scheduled, well before the brand's change of marketing command. If we wanted to gauge the way the new guy would approach advertising, we should look elsewhere.
And so we did. Especially from his very successful tour at the helm of the Anheuser-Busch-owned Goose Island Brewery. Unlike the majority of craft-beer brands, Goose Island actually runs television ads. Like this one...
Then, a sigh of relief. We realized this particular Bud Light ad would've already been filmed and scheduled, well before the brand's change of marketing command. If we wanted to gauge the way the new guy would approach advertising, we should look elsewhere.
And so we did. Especially from his very successful tour at the helm of the Anheuser-Busch-owned Goose Island Brewery. Unlike the majority of craft-beer brands, Goose Island actually runs television ads. Like this one...
"... aging beer in bourbon barrels".... "fermenting with fruit and wild yeast"... the Chicago brewery site. Now that's a fair bit of product distinctiveness, right there. In fact, we're pretty sure no other beer could make those claims. Which, in a nutshell, is what you do to sell beer: You dramatize the distinctiveness of your beer.
So if you're rooting for Bud Light, it's got to be an encouraging sign that the guy now running the brand knew exactly how to sell Goose Island in a sea of competition.
​Cautiously optimistic, we'll now go back to waiting for his debut effort on Bud Light.
So if you're rooting for Bud Light, it's got to be an encouraging sign that the guy now running the brand knew exactly how to sell Goose Island in a sea of competition.
​Cautiously optimistic, we'll now go back to waiting for his debut effort on Bud Light.
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