Picture a beer drinker. Now picture an athlete. We bet you just pictured two entirely different people, and body types. That perception is exactly what Michelob Ultra is up against as it aims to show fitness-minded adults that this beer isn’t like the others – this beer doesn’t want you to just sit on the couch and watch sports, they want you to get out and play.

In order to change those perceptions, we had to create an emotional connection with our target and prove to them that Michelob Ultra can be a part of a healthy, active lifestyle. We set out to develop a campaign that would increase our Brand Meaning scores and Engagement Rates, proving to our target that Michelob Ultra is the beer for them.

Introducing Cal For Cal: a first-of-its-kind initiative that took the calories our target was burning in their workouts and transformed them into calories of food for those in need. All anyone had to do was post their workout results to social using our hashtag – and we would donate that same number of calories to Food Banks of Canada.

As healthy living has become a top-of-mind concern for Canadians, so too has the technology that enables it. Millions of wearable fitness trackers are sold in Canada each year, and one in five Canadians aged 35-49 owns at least one wearable device.

Plus, our target of healthier, active-minded adults doesn’t just wear these devices to track their health – they also proudly post their workout results on social. This, we realized, was a consumer behaviour that Michelob Ultra could uniquely capitalize on over other beers that are for the “armchair athletes” instead of those participating in the action.

Then, we uncovered the second half of our insight: Food Banks were desperately in need of help. While our target was trying to cut down on calories or burn them off, many others were unsure of where their next calorie intake would come from.

Knowing our target was already posting their workouts onto social, we launched on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, using paid ads and influencer content to get people sweating and donating. Our first launch was over the holiday season, when our target was trying to cut back on holiday gluttony while others were struggling to get a meal in.

Then, when COVID hit and the need for food banks skyrocketed, we extended the program to live workouts at home, since gyms had closed, and our target was desperate to get a workout in. All they had to do was show up and start sweating during our influencer-hosted live streams on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, and we’d automatically donate their calories burned.

After the 30-minute workout, the livestreams turned into 30-minute socials, for a post-workout happy hour, letting people sit back and hang out with other fitness-minded friends and a much-deserved Michelob Ultra.

The campaign was such a success that ABI Canada expanded the program into the United States and Mexico. We were able to show healthy, active consumers across North America what the Michelob Ultra brand stands for and get them engaged with our brand in an extremely meaningful way – all while helping people in serious need.

The program successfully solidified the brand’s presence in a healthier, fitness-oriented lifestyle and proved to our target that they didn’t have to cut out beer in order to live well.

Our campaign generated the following results:

- Increased Brand Meaning Scores +8 points from 81 to 89

- Exceeded the ABI YouTube View Rate benchmark by 88%

- Helped turn Michelob Ultra into the fastest-growing beer in the country

- Most importantly, saw over 770,000,00 calories burned, resulting in over 385,000 meals for those in need