After seeing dramatic sales increases last season in markets where it sold Bud Light in team-logoed cans, Anheuser-Busch is doubling down on its exclusive NFL rights.
League marks will be the centerpiece of the brewer’s national marketing campaign and packaging this season. It will feature the tagline “Beer with your team on it,” with the goal of tapping into fan avidity by making teams and Bud Light NFL team cans as inseparable as possible.
Lucas Herscovici, A-B’s vice president of consumer connections, said that in the mature beer category, A-B saw volume increases of 3.8 percent last season in markets where Bud Light was sold in cans featuring local team logos. Having experienced those results, A-B’s wholesalers are fully on board for the encore. Orders for Bud Light in NFL cans are up nearly 200 percent from last year.
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Team-specific cans return. Orders are already up 200 percent over last year.
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A-B is feeding that frenzy with a marketing campaign from Wieden & Kennedy, New York, in which the team beer cans are the stars and are married to the traditions, personalities, and legends of NFL teams and their fans. The brewer’s hope is that as it leverages more and bolder team cans, they can earn local relevance and credibility — and become another way for NFL fans to fly their club’s flag, like wearing a favorite team’s jersey or cap.
A massive out-of-home market campaign will tell fans that the Bud Light Miami Dolphins can is “The Only Undefeated Can,” while Pittsburgh Steelers fans can quaff from “The Can With Six Rings.” A New England Patriots can is a “Drinkable Dynasty,” while a New York Jets execution reads “J-E-T-S, Can Can Can.” Chargers fans will be enticed by “Welcome To Can
Diego.”
The team-specific cans will be available in local markets. There also will be a generic NFL can for some non-NFL markets and in the NFL markets in which MillerCoors has exclusive deals: Dallas, Chicago, Minnesota and Green Bay.
“We know now that team cans work, and with our new [NFL] agreement we can now sell those cans in more
places,” Herscovici said. “So we’ve put a lot behind this.”
A 90-second spot from Wieden & Kennedy on the Carolina-Denver Super Bowl rematch that will open the 2016 regular season will kick off the campaign on “Thursday Night Football,” for which Bud Light is presenting sponsor. With the intent of having all 32 NFL teams play significant roles in the ad, the spot will serve as a season-opening hype video. It opens with a hand holding a Denver Broncos can and the question, “Will this can repeat?”
Bo Jackson, Don Shula, Justin Tuck and Adam Schefter all have roles. The rest of the season will see a variety of 15-second can-centric ads, including a dedicated “Thursday Night Football” ad and another in which the toss of a Steelers can at a tailgate is remarkably similar to the “immaculate reception.”
An associated sweepstakes will offer Super Bowl tickets for life as a grand prize.
The campaign for Bud Light comes during a year in which A-B’s biggest brand was relaunched with new packaging.
