Budweiser is one of the UK’s biggest selling beers. But while UK consumers bought Bud, they weren’t in love with it. Even loyal customers saw it as mainstream, American and mass-produced. In an era of craft ales and artisanal IPAs, they were finding it difficult to feel any real affinity with Bud as a brand.

To build that emotional connection, Budweiser wanted to recapture the zeitgeist-defining role it had once played (e.g., “Wassup?!”) – to position itself as culturally switched-on and urbane. It saw particular potential in a young, fashion-conscious, cosmopolitan crowd who might happily endorse Bud as an honest, Everyman beer, lending it cultural kudos.

Big American brands have always immortalised themselves in pop culture – and they don’t get much bigger than Budweiser. In a perfect pop culture pairing, Budweiser partnered with Sir Peter Blake - a legend of the Pop Art world, contributing to some of the most iconic British album covers of all time - to come together and create a limited-edition can to capture the hearts of consumers across Britain and establish Budweiser as a culture-setting brand in the UK.

Sir Peter Blake’s most iconic works rely on grids of simple shapes, patterns, and icons - as well as bright, clashing colour palettes. We applied these illustrations to create limited edition cans, with the famous heart icon and Budweiser logo sitting proudly alongside each other. The symbol of love sits in Budweiser Red, combining the brand, and the artist together.

The cans stood out from other collaborations with a campaign that treated a limited-edition work by a celebrated British artist the way it ought to be treated – as a collector’s piece, a work of art, with a street pop-up gallery featuring the world’s first refrigerated picture frame. It kept the can at a constant, refreshing 5ºC, so it could be hung on the wall like any great artwork – but still kept chilled, like any great beer. Then we made it accessible to the masses.

The activation captured the public’s imagination, driving footfall of 2,000 people per hour and landing media placements (combined reach: 88M) including art/design magazines like Apollo and Dieline and key nationals The Times, The Sun and Daily Express.

Social reach was 1.25M (huge for a very lean spend on one, highly geo-specific activation) and broadened Budweiser’s reach to art enthusiasts even further (e.g., @graypopartist: “Excited for this. I so want a Peter Blake can!”).

But the most impressive results have been in sales, a 22% uplift vs. the regular cans one month previously. And, just four weeks post-activation, we’re already seeing ripple effects: A Paris gallery is now showing our installation; the cans are trading on eBay as collectors’ items; and The Design Museum (the library of record for British artisanship) is currently discussing acquiring the entire exhibit as the signature representation of Blake’s life’s work. Quite the accolade for everyone.