Drinkability equals bore-ability.
If you’ve ever been entertained by a Bud Light spot—whether it featured the “Yes I am” guy, the “Whazzup!” characters, the “I love you, Man” confessions, the Real Men of Genius, or even “The Swear Jar” online campaign—you had to be disappointed with the recent “Drinkability” campaign for Bud Light. This campaign might have looked great as a creative brief, but as a campaign, well, it was uninspiring to say the least.
And I’m not just being a creative snob. By all accounts, the campaign has failed to move the needle. In fact, the Bud Light brand is about to suffer its first annual loss in sales since the brand launched nearly three decades ago.
Yes, the economy is bad. And yes, Bud Light has a new host of competition. But the way to react to that is not to do a series of blahsé, beat-the-chest kind of creative that talks more to the MarCom team than to customers.
Were the spots entertaining? No. Were they loaded with brief-filling, focus group-tested, chest-puffing talking points? Yes.
Essentially, Bud Light management betrayed its customers. “Betrayed” may sound a bit strong, but think about it for a minute. The Bud Light brand has built an almost cultish following because of its irreverent (indeed some would say “sophomoric”) campaigns. Given the brand’s history, it’s safe to say there was an implicit “agreement” between the brand and its devotees that the hijinks would continue. And when Anheuser-Busch decided to go down the “quality” road by making up a word Stephen Colbert-style and foisting it on Bud Light followers? Lite beer drinkers responded with a collective “Meh.”
The lesson for marketers? Understand the relationship between you and your customers. What’s it based on? Why do they like you? What makes you stand out in a sea of sameness? Then rather than walk away from it, give them more of it. Invite them to co-create with you.
You don’t have to be a “Real Man of Genius” to figure it out.
Posted by Mickey
Similar Posts:
- Brian Halligan’s Point-of-View
- THE TRAP OF THE “HALF-SOLVED PROBLEM.”
- “Help Wanted” ad named “Best Marketing Campaign Ever.”
- Update: Buick goes for sucky.
- Cable’s Creative Rise
What no mention of the “Dude!” “dude…” “dude?” commercials? they were initially running at the same time as the drinkability program, and then tapered off. But i guess thats kind of my point, it seems to be that B.L. is always running more than one campaign at a time, whether because of make goods or just the fact that they flighted it that way. It seems i’ve always got a couple of options to choose from when it comes to a B.L. commercial. So how does that play into the whole scenario?
Yeah, “Dude” was pretty entertaining. Because Bud Light serves such a broad market, it can run different campaigns aimed at different audiences or occasion, kind of like Geico does. The “drinkability” campaign is such a head scratcher, though, because BL directed it to the same audiences as it did its irreverant stuff. When you’re expecting the next “Real men of genius” and get “drinkability,” you’re left going “Wha’ happen’?” (Next big Bud line???)