Bud Light To Roll Out NFL-Branded Cans Featuring Team-Specific Messaging

Bud Light is "launching a brand new campaign" around the start of the '15 NFL season, as team-specific cans will hit retailers across the U.S. by the end of the month "bearing scroll messages that are supposed to resonate with fans," according to Darren Heitner of FORBES. The Dolphins-branded cans will read, "The perfect beer for making tonight like the ’72 season -- perfect." The Seahawks can will carry the message, "The perfect beer for cheering so loudly it registers on the Richter scale." In all, Bud Light will deliver 28 NFL team-related cans "corresponding to its twenty-eight team partnerships." Those markets left without an NFL-team specific can "will find a more general" NFL-themed can at grocery stores. Bud Light has "released team cans in previous years," but the individual team messages "are a new feature this year." Bud Light VP Alexander Lambrecht said, "This year we want to make sure we become as locally relevant as we possibly can. Unlike other years, we went a little bit more local with the design. Every piece of creative will be geared toward a specific region and demographic group." He added that more than 10 different TV ads have "been created surrounding the new campaign" for the start of the season. Bud Light last year "had only two advertisements for the first three months of the season" (FORBES.com, 8/19).

RAIN O'ER ME: Washington-based Talking Rain Beverage Co., the makers of Sparkling Ice, yesterday announced a multiyear partnership with the Seahawks that includes co-branded products, on-premise and off-premise advertising and retail availability and distribution. Sparkling Ice will launch a custom variety 12-pack, which will feature Seahawks branding on the packaging, and Talking Rain's Sparkling Mountain Spring Water will also showcase the team's branding on the Natural and Lemon Lime flavors. Former NFLer Marcus Trufant yesterday leapt out of a Sparkling Ice-branded airplane, landing at Seahawks training camp to announce the deal (Talking Rain).