Male Opps: Bud Light launches biggest summer campaign yet (Score 82)

Sales Lead: In an effort to reverse declining sales, Bud Light (BL) just launched its largest summer campaign to date.

• A new ad launched on YouTube, and a larger summer campaign includes partnerships with country singers (for a national summer music tour) and NFL players.
• These partnerships have resulted in experiential activations, an upcoming national summer music tour and an upcoming backyard giveaway with signed memorabilia.
  • Work featuring both (separately, I'd assume, although...) influencer groups will roll out in a few weeks.
  • The campaign also involves giveaways through which BL is giving drinkers $10k each week.
  • It was made by Anomaly, BL's creative AOR since August 2022.
• BL's recent controversy with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney resulted in negative and hateful social media interactions along with a sharp decrease in sales.
• The company will likely:
  • Pursue other influencer partnerships
  • Continue working with experiential and sports marketing
  • Return to higher spend to rebound from the slump in sales ​​​​​​​
    • The brand's parent company, AB InBev, said that it will triple its US marketing spend over the summer 
  • Seek new agency partners
• Target demographic: 
  • Men ranging from drinking-age (21+) Gen-Z through Gen-X

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, BL has allocated roughly $1.8m on national TV commercials, a massive decrease from the roughly $20m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The brand allocated around $24.2m toward this channel in 2022 after having spent almost 4x this, around $88.1m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Bl's 2023 commercials have targeted Gen-X watching shows such as Family Guy, Vanderpump Rules, NCIS: New Orleans, House Hunters, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The brand has spent approximately $7.8m on digital ads YTD, 30% less than the approximately $11.1m spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, BL has earned ~944m digital impressions via YouTube (52%), Instagram (22%), Facebook (16%), Twitter (7%), desktop display (2%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, the brand's estimated full-year spend of $21.7m was up 11% from that of $19.6m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The BL brand utilizes linear, OTT, experiential, local broadcast, print, digital, radio, OOH, Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and online video (via Youtube.com) ads.
  • It holds planning conversations in Q1 and buying conversations in Q4.
  • BL sponsors podcasts such as The Ben Shapiro Show, the Tim Pool Daily Show, X22 Report, Post Show Recaps, and Michigan Insider.
  • Its sponsorship partners include teams such as the St. Louis Blues, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, New Jersey Devils, Sporting Kansas City, The New Orleans Pelicans, Kansas City Chiefs, and Philadelphia Flyers.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: If you haven't yet done so, get in touch soon to offer BL-specific PR, media, experiential, and/or multicultural services.
  • We haven't yet heard of additional roster shifts following last year's AOR appointments.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Anomaly: Creative AOR (Bud Light beer brand - August 2022)  
  • The Martin Agency: Creative AOR (BL's Seltzer and Next brands - August 2022)  
  • 160over90: Digital agency partner  
  • Dentsu: Agency partner  
  • View AB InBev's full roster here.

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics; sponsorship insights by Relo Metrics.