Beer companies do brilliant marketing

It never ceases to amaze me some of the marketing/advertising strategies that come out of beer companies and their agencies. From the original patriotic inspiring Joe Canadian rant, the now popular Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World, to a simple Kokanee radio commercial I remember from about 12 years ago that made a poke at Molson for always handing out free t-shirts:

Announcer: Everybody loves winning, and now in every 18 bottle case of Kokanee glacier beer you will find a special prize.
Person rattling and opening a box
Male Voice: It's a box.....and there's beer inside!!!! (cheering noises)

Well, I just saw an ad on TV the other day for a brilliant new Molson Canadian campaign that is perfectly timed and i'm guaranteeing it will be adding to their sales numbers for the next while as it runs.

The Give'R campaign offers people a chance to buy specially marked boxes of their beer and on the box is a pin code that you can enter online. Now traditionally companies use the pin code system as a way for people to enter their contest, then the company gets that person's data, etc. This time Molson threw in a wrinkle because everytime you enter one of those codes Molson donates $5 to Canadian olympic and paralympic athletes. Genius. It makes the consumer feel even better about drinking their product and allows them to feel like they have helped contribute to their country's athletes. What a great way to sell a whole bunch of product, portray a patriotic, charitable brand image, AND get valuable information on every consumer to add to your growing database. Pure genius, and the person behind the campaign should be given a serious bonus.

I predict big things as a result of this campaign, way better than just giving away a t-shirt or offering the chance to win something.

Cold reception, but worth millions

Now my blog thusfar has been loaded with entries regarding General Motors and people are probably tired of reading them (those 2 that actually read this blog) (sorry thats an exageration, the 1 that reads this blog). Well i'm going to try to turn to a new topic that will dominate the blog.
Beer.

And what better way to go than probably one of the most covered news stories in all of Canada.......a beer billboard.

Yes, thats right. The wildfires and gangshootings in British Columbia have taken a backseat to a national crisis involving a Coors Light billboard. For full disclosure I am a coors light drinker and avid silver bullet fan. I am also a life west-coaster and find this whole matter hilarious.

Have a look and see if you can see whats making this newsworthy....



















If you guessed "Someone from Toronto saw it and took it personally" you are correct!

Yes, as soon as the complaints started pouring in, one of the complainees was smart enough to go to the papers and give Coors Light millions of dollars worth of free advertising because this story is literally in every paper, every blog, every news show i've seen yesterday and today. Not only that but there is a serious dislike for Toronto in general in British Columbia and many other provinces throughout Canada, so all this news is getting them serious street cred among the population.

The best part I think is that Coors Light is a Molson brand who is headquartered in Ontario and the creative was also done by a Toronto firm. Lets just say that this is brilliant execution in my mind and I don't think Coors Light is disappointed at all by the result.

I look forward to the response from a Toronto based beer company that actually has the balls to fire back at this ad. It won't be Sleeman's or another national brand that could turn BC residents off its beer, but i'm guessing a micro brew or a smaller company will have an answer.

I also think that Coors Light should turn this into a social media opportunity and have some contests for "What is the coolest Colder than slogan you have".

Here's my entry "Colder than your girlfriends stare when you crack your 6th coors light post game"

Pour a little beer on that wildfire

Last year I wrote a post on an event/product/brand catching on like a wildfire (you can read that post here) and recently I have noticed such an event in the Canadian marketplace. Now maybe i've only taken notice because I enjoy beer, but hey it's not a crime were not in the prohibition era so stop giving me the stink eye. Anyways, it's for the Bud Light Lime product that was introduced to the canadian marketplace a month or so ago. It has literally been a wildfire for Labatt since then (Labatt markets and sells the product in Canada). I'm not sure how well they have handled/fanned the wildfire though.

First off, the product got plenty of press before its entry because a Facebook group had been created to encourage the beer be brought to Canada, so they already had a passionate following. According to Labbatt's, they usually only release one new product per season and had already introduced Alexander Keith's White Ale to the masses. Then they did the right thing and took notice of what these hardcore customers wanted and brought Bud-Light Lime in at the same time which went against company SOP. Smart decision. Listen to your customers.

The launch has been a success i'd say (to say the least), but it may turn bad for them soon if they can't bump up production on the hugely poplar drink. Here is an image for the BC Liquor Stores website which shows real time inventory of the product.

If you can't see the inventory numbers it shows exactly 3 cases of the product in all of British Columbia. So there are goods and bads of this obviously. Good, the product is basically sold out which means it has been received very well by the masses. Bad, the product is sold out which means your customers who would be loyal to the product can't get it anywhere.

Now maybe this will be effective in helping build up another buzz around the product and generating more excitement for when they actually get some shipments in, but I think their customers would rather whet their whistle than twiddle their thumbs. To me it shows a lack of wildfire protection planning.