Situation:

Before 2021, Anheuser-Busch at its best was a faceless corporation and a fragmented collection of well known beer brands. We had bigger ambitions for the mother brand. In the cultural context of the pandemic, we wanted to humanize the brand and remind the world of the role beer plays in our lives: an enabler of meaningful moments.

Objectives:

- Reintroduce Anheuser-Busch to the world and become more than just a collection of brands.

- Use the cultural context of the pandemic to remind people of the role beer plays in our lives and communicate what A-B stands for as a brand.

In good times and bad, nothing helps people find connection quite like grabbing a beer. So in 2021, when we were all missing that connection more than ever, we launched a campaign that reminded the world of the power of beer, with four simple words: Let’s grab a beer. As Anheuser-Busch’s first ever brand campaign, it was a year of work that spoke to what we’ve always known to be true: that nothing forges human connection quite like a beer.

Audience:

Anheuser-Busch’s large portfolio of diverse brands meant we were talking to AMERICA (21+).

Insight:

When we say “let’s grab a beer,” it’s about so much more than just the beer. Beer is an enabler of meaningful moments. And it was time for A-B to remind the world why beer matters.

LGAB was the beginning of a platform that captured what we stood for in a way that was anything but corporate. Suddenly, we were more than a collection of brands. We became human.

Message:

“LGAB” captured the collective mood and feeling of the nation by conveying the feeling we missed the most during the pandemic: grabbing a beer with loved ones.

By summer 2021, as America opened up, “LGAB” took on new meaning. A-B invited Americans to safely grab a beer and captured the emotions of what we were all looking forward to: finally reconnecting in a vaccinated world.

The campaign kicked off at the Super Bowl, where we reminded America what we really mean when we say, “Let’s grab a beer.” Executive produced by David Fincher, the spot resonated with hundreds of millions, and garnered critical acclaim, landing the #1 spot on Adweek’s best-of list.

As the world started to open up, Anheuser-Busch used OOH and social media to make sure America grabbed a beer safely.

And when the country’s vaccination efforts needed a boost, Anheuser-Busch partnered with the White House, pledging to buy a beer for every American the moment the country hit its goal of 70% vaccination.

The campaign – announced by President Biden himself – became the biggest giveaway in Anheuser-Busch history.

To track our progress, we created billboards that used real-time data to count-up toward America’s goal, filling the national beer glass higher with every jab.

With over a billion impressions and hundreds of thousands of social mentions, people were talking about A-B in ways they never had before. The campaign led to:

- Increase of 4 points in brand favorability

- Increase of 6 points in purchase intent

- +100K social mentions

- +1 billion PR impressions

- Over 7K PR placements, including coverage from:

- CNN

- Fortune

- The New York Times

- Associated Press

- Forbes

- AdAge

- CampaignUS