🍺 How Budweiser got over a beer ban


Hey friend – Rob here.

Let's talk about Budweiser today.

They won Silver at the Cannes Lions Creative Effectiveness with this one.

It's about how you can respond to a ban not by moaning about it, but by being inventive around it.

Give yourself 5 minutes, that's how long this is gonna take.

Let's go!

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How Budweiser got over a beer ban

😨 Problem

Budweiser was a long-time sponsor of the World Cup.

And in 2022, they'd planned their biggest ever campaign.

70 countries.

1.2 million points of sale.

Big person league.

But, 48 hours before kick-off, something happened.

Beer was banned from all World Cup stadiums (stadia?) in Qatar.

So Bud was left with a warehouse full of beer they couldn't sell.

Dreamy if you're a beer drinker.

Nightmare if you're a beer business.

So what now?

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πŸ€” Solution

They worried about it and created endless presentations about scenario planning.

Except, nope, none of those things are true (probably).

They got to work, and created the #BringHomeTheBud campaign.

It started with a Twitter announcement.

They'd give an equivalent amount of Bud to whichever country won the World Cup.

The beer shipping containers became billboards, which were dropped in city squares.

7 countries, across 4 continents.

As the tournament progressed, the campaign copy adapted to highlight local winning teams.

They then used field boards and OOH to continue building reach and frequency.

Finally, Argentina won the World Cup and Messi became even more iconic in global football history.

And Bud followed through on its promise, distributing over 1 million beers to local Argentinians.

Solid stuff to sell liquid stuff, but how did it work?

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🀩 Results

Campaign:

  • 225 billion impressions.
  • $400 million in earned media value.
  • 97,000 media placements, including from ESPN, Sky Sports, The Guardian, and New York Times.
  • 70% share of voice among World Cup sponsors.

Brand:

  • 2x brand power score vs target.

Business:

  • 80,000+ people attended the celebration parties in Argentina.
  • 1.2 million Budweiser coupons distributed.
  • +19% net revenue vs previous year.

As John F. Kennedy said:

"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the dangerβ€”but recognise the opportunity."

Cheers to that!

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That's all for now.

Don't forget to join our private group.

Appreciate your attention,

Rob

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Rob Estreitinho

Founder of Salmon Labs

Here’s how else we can help you:

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Salmon Theory, by Rob Estreitinho

Helping savvy strategists swim upstream.

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