Stuart Waldo

Bud Light Creative Brief

Bud Light is a subset of Anheuser-Busch. Anheuser-Busch was founded in 1852

in St. Louis, Missouri and has now expanded to 12 breweries. The annual revenue for

Anheuser-Bush was over $8.5 billion in 2011. This means that Anheuser-Bush controls

about half of the beer sales in the United States. Bud Light was introduced in 1982 and

has worked to climbed to the top to be the number one selling beer outselling other

beers about 3 to 1 at this point. The ABV (alcohol by volume), is the amount of alcohol

that any beverage contains and is usually represented in percentage. The ABV of

Budweiser is 5.0% in comparison to Bud Light which contains 4.2% alcohol. Bud Light

wants to reach as many people as possible and in doing so have created many different

campaigns. Some of these include “Up for Whatever”, “Here We Go”, and “Tailgate

Approved” which appeals to the larger age groups and buying markets with the attitude

that with Bud Light it’s a party. When a lot of people where saying that all light beers

taste the same, which is not true at all, Bud Light used the tagline “The Difference is

Drinkability”, saying that their beer was the best choice and if you don’t care about what

beer you drink at least you know that Bud Light is the best choice and easiest beer to

drink. Millennials, men and women ages 21-27, are a large market for all domestic beer

manufactures. It is important to engage these individuals in big and unexpected ways in

social media and other shareable platforms. With all the different social media outlets

that consumers are exposed to everyday it is hard to create something that people want

to see but more importantly what people want to share. Bud Light was on its way to start

a game changing campaign with Whatever, USA. This campaign would change the way

that companies could interact and reach out to consumers.

Bud Light knew going into this campaign that the biggest problem with reaching

millennials is getting content to them and being interesting enough to share on social

media. From the start of the “up for whatever” campaign Bud Light was after millennials.

With their first TV spot they documented someone who didn’t know what happening and

testing the “up for whatever”, was willing to do anything, attitude that most millennials

have. In addition this ad was to air for the first time during the Super Bowl. The ad was a

great success and set off one of the most elaborate campaigns ever. The ad was all

over twitter within minutes and bud light used a company, Mosaic, and surprised a few

people who #upforwhatever in Chicago with some very cool surprises. Bud Light used a

mix of different social media platforms and generated millions of impressions with

millennials within hours. This meant that Bud Light was reaching their target market and

that millennials are “up for whatever”. This then lead Bud Light to expand the idea of “up

for whatever” and upscale to a Whatever, USA. This would cause an even bigger rush

of online media chatter and had tens of thousands of people apply to go and attend.

The location was kept a secret for as long as possible and the buzz continued to grow.

The final location was Crested Butte in Colorado. The area chosen was completely

remodeled and done up with as many different Bud Light logos, merchandise, and even

repaved the road Bud Light blue. Everything was free to all the people chosen to attend,

including hair and makeup. Participants had non-bud light choices but they had to pay

for them. Choosing the people that could attend was done based on the people that

would/have a lot of followers to share content. They chose 1000 people, over 21 years

of age, and over a few days these people posted 37,000 pieces of content which led to

15 million views. The campaign helped to cut the prior 5 year sales decline in half and

increased brand performance indicators by 30 percent.

Many of the ad problems that Bud Light faces are the same issues as some of

the smaller competitors. One thing that none of the other companies has to deal with is

the fact that they are not number one. This means that most of the people that Bud

Light is reaching already knows they exist and already have a formed opinion of the

company. This means that Bud Light has to try and gain market shares as opposed to

try and reach a new audience. This is especially true when dealing with minors and in

no way, shape, or form can any message be targeted or intended for people under 21.

Not every message is going to be a winner though. One of the worst examples is when

Bud Light printed “the perfect beer for removing “no” from your vocabulary for the night”.

This was interpreted as taking the option away from people to control what happens one

night, no mean no and date rape is always a hot topic especially when alcohol is

involved. Another issue that Anheuser-Bush experiences is the recoil from

environmentalist in regards to the pollution that the factories produce each year while

producing and manufacturing the different products. People also look at Bud Light as a

“cheap” beer which people directly relate to the quality of the beer. Despite the

perceived quality it does not seem to affect sales and brand recognition.

Bud Lights advertising objective for Bud Light is to increase market shares and

reach the most people through social media and standard advertising platforms. There

are a number of ways in which you can reach people through social media. One way is

to pay for the ads but that still limits the number of views that you receive and it does

not really ensure that the message reaches the target audience. What Bud Light did

was set up different ways for consumers to interact and spread the message via social

media. The main idea is that you want to get people to share and re-post content that

they find interesting and with logos everywhere any photos taken at events will contain

content to increase brand recognition. The main objective however is to get people to

buy more Bud Light and with declining sales over the past five years really needed a

boost.

The target consumers for Bud Light are basically any person, over 21 years of

age, who wants a smooth and refreshing beer with fewer calories. The main age group

that Bud Light is trying to market to however generally range from 21-45 in age and can

be males or females. Bud Light is a large sponsor for many different events and venues

to try and reach the largest audience possible. They are a major sponsor of the NFL

and UFC to name a few. With the start of this NFL season Bud Light introduced team

logoed cans in order to drive sales before the start of the season. They will also end

football season will another ad campaign that will be trying to get people ready for

summer with the hopes that whenever someone goes out for a good time or to meet up

with friends then Bud Light should be involved. When they started the “Up for Whatever”

campaign it was first seen during the Super Bowl, not an accident. Bud Light was trying

to relay the message that when a good time is happening drink Bud Light and that if you

are up for whatever you can have a better time with Bud Light. Bud Light makes this

message clear with many different ads in which people had to choose to drink Bud Light

and be up for whatever. They would be thrown into some big party or event and have a

great evening of spontaneous fun. The overall underlying theme of all the campaigns is

basically the same, have fun with friends and most importantly do it with Bud Light.

While Bud Light is the clear number one in the light beer market but they still

have to try to hold on to the majority share. Miller Lite, Coors Lights, and Keystone Light

are the main competitors in the light beer market. Bud Light holds about a third of the

market which means the competition divides up the most of the other half. In addition to

direct competitors Bud Light has to deal with the portion of the market that does not

drink and others that don’t drink beer. Even if someone has never had a beer and never

plans on having a beer Bud Light will definitely be a brand that they have heard.

The key consumer benefits for Bud Light and that it has fewer calories than

regular Budweiser while still being very drinkable. Bud Light strives to deliver a good

time and according to them the best way to do that is with Bud Light. Bud Light has also

listened to the consumer and released a multitude of drink options that still have the

Bud Light name but without being just beer and trying to reach a larger audience. The

most important thing that they want you to take away from any ad is that you can have a

good time with Bud Light.

In conclusion, Bud Light in a relatively short amount of time has become the

dominate brand in its category. This is apartment when you consider that Budweiser is

the second most sold beer and Bud Light sells three times as much. Anheuser-Busch

has shown efforts to reduce the amount of pollution that is produced by its factories and

has even won awards for their efforts. Bud Light has gone to some bigger cities and

done live events and giving the consumer the “up for whatever” atmosphere while

displaying logos everywhere. In addition to coming out with NFL team logo cans right

before the start of the season, just in time for tailgating which appropriately had the

tagline “Tailgate Approved”. Sales don’t lie and being so far ahead of everyone else that

you have to ask yourself if the giant will ever be brought down.