Cannes Lions
DRAFTLINE, New York / ABINBEV / 2020
Awards:
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
We have an always-on brief for our social listening teams to identify and act on real-time opportunities in sports and entertainment. When we approach major events like the MLB Playoffs and World Series, our objective is to create conversation, generate media coverage and ultimately drive relevance with our target audience (21-40) with interest in sports.
Idea
When a fan at the World Series sacrificed his body - not the Bud Lights he held in each hand - to get a home run ball, Bud Light used Twitter to launch the search to find him. Social media went wild and with the help of many people and the press, we identified Nationals fan Jeff Adams.
Less 48 hours later, he was in the stands for Game 6 wearing our custom t-shirt and during the game we aired the now famous "catch."The "guy who didn't drop the Bud Lights" became the biggest conversation surrounding the game and Bud Light successfully turned an everyday Bud Light fan into a sports hero overnight.
The biggest hero of the 2019 World Series wasn't on the field. He was in the bleachers.
Strategy
As the official beer of the MLB, our social listening and public relations teams are have an always-on brief to be actively searching real-time response opportunities, with the objective to drive positive public relations. We go into every major MLB event looking for opportunities to connect with our target audience (21-40) with interest in sports. Our approach is to connect with them by being a part of the social conversation around sports culture.
Our approach as soon as this happened was to treat this person as a hero because of the incredible act of bravery to save the Bud Lights he loved so much while still safely securing the baseball. So we positioned him as a hero and made him the face of the Nats' World Series run.
Execution
When this Washington Nationals fan made this miraculous save at a home game on Oct. 27, 2019, We responded within minutes asking our fans to find this hero. Within hours, we had identified Jeff Adams, design custom t-shirts for him and got him tickets to the next World Series Game, which was in Houston.
Less 48 hours later, Jeff Adams was in the outfield stands in Houston wearing our t-shirt and had the attention of social media, the players and all of the media. During that game, we topped it off by airing a national TV commercial cleverly using the footage for a quick turnaround spot with a big impact.
He became the face of an incredible series even earned a spot on the Nats' championship parade.
Outcome
According to Apex Marketing, Bud Light earned $7.2 million of free media during the Super Bowl. It successfully created conversation and generated media coverage which ultimately drive relevance with our target audience (21-40) with interest in sports.
22 Million Digital Impressions
440 Million PR Impressions
191k Social Mentions
99k Twitter Likes with only 220K Following
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