Victoria Vaynberg (@victorious1013) came to Anheuser-Busch in the summer of ’15 after seven years working in digital marketing and ad sales for ESPN and CBS Sports. She recalls being at ESPN when the Worldwide Leader first came to realize that "this social stuff might be a thing"” and some of the core principles and insights she discovered there continue to serve her well. Vaynberg: “You have to know who your brand is and what your voice is.” She said in order to reach sports fans, authenticity is key. She added, “You start to learn which platforms are the best for certain conversations.” Some social media platforms might lend themselves to more of a back-and-forth with fans, while others are more suited to getting a brand message out “in a powerful way.” These insights apply to Bud Light's "Famous Among Friends" marketing campaign, which makes heavy use of social media. It has already been apparent at MLB All-Star festivities in Miami, where Budweiser is leveraging its status as the league's beer sponsor.
How big brands connect with individuals: Different platforms serve different purposes. They’ve all got the reach play, where we're able to get a message out to these massive audiences. But I kind of drill down by platform. The expansion of live stories on Snapchat and Instagram gives us the opportunity to tell stories in a way that’s a little more personable. With Mich Ultra, we have a series of active lifestyle/fitness influencers, and we create a lot of live-story content with them. We’ve also built interactive games within Snapchat; We resurrected “Bud Bowl” around the Super Bowl, and we did a Mich Ultra golf game during The Masters. We try to push the boundaries of the ways we can connect with consumers. We’re also really big on social listening. We have community managers for all of our brands across platforms, so we are communicating with consumers on that one-to-one level.
MLB All-Star activation: Our big moment this year at the All-Star Game is focused around (military scholarship charity) Folds of Honor, with a check giveaway on the field. This is a continuation of what we’ve been producing with Budweiser this summer.
We have a piece of content with Adam Driver, where he is able to help fulfill a scholarship. We believe this is generating conversation, and that’s important. Social is there for us to help create meaning in people’s lives and to talk about our brands and what we’re doing.
So many roads: We have partnerships with the major leagues and a lot of teams. We’re trying to be the leader in how digital can help enhance the fan experience. A lot of this is focused around mobile ordering. We have a lot of that coming up with our team partners. We are working on crafting the experience to make sense for each particular venue, sport and team. One thing we’re exploring is if someone hits a home run, can we create a beer discount for the remainder of that inning? The more innovative we can be now, it will help us once mobile and cashless payment adoption grows even more.
How “Famous Among Friends” plays out on social: One piece of it is making sure the content we’re creating is similar to what friends would post themselves. And we’re trying to be creative about the executions we do. For example, a Snapchat lens we did for St. Patrick’s Day was only fully activated once a friend joined in.
Having a voice while avoiding controversy: It’s a strategic exercise in understanding what each brand stands for individually. So for each brand ideal, we are able to say what kind of conversation we would engage in. We don’t want to be out there addressing negative feedback all the time. But where we could absolutely continue to evolve, and will, is how the personality of each brand comes out more. But especially for alcohol brands, you have to be really careful about the way you’re saying things.
Social media as research tool: Having platforms where people are saying what they authentically want to say is more informative for us as brands than anything else at this point. Social media is designed for people to voice their opinions, what they love and hate. It gives you a better sense of what people stand for and care about. If used in the right way, it should highlight for us where our focus can lie, where our brands are relatable to people. So it does something nothing else can do.
If you know anyone who should be featured for their use of social media, send their name to us at
jperez@sportsbusinessdaily.com.
