2016 marked a year in American politics that no one could have predicted. Donald Trump was running for president, passionately stating his intention to build a “great, great wall” along the southern border of the United States.

This opened up a unique opportunity for Tecate, a Mexican beer brand aiming to expand beyond its Hispanic bi-cultural market, to insert itself into the conversation – with tongue firmly in beer-filled cheek, of course. And since Tecate hails from the eponymous town that literally straddles the U.S.–Mexico border, it made sense to propose a wall of a different kind: the Tecate Beer Wall, a wall perfectly sized to unite people over beer instead of dividing them.

Pre-Debate:

In order to tease and establish credibility of the commercial’s prominent media placement (i.e. presidential debate), we leveraged media relationships with high-level channels, including articles in The New York Times, AdAge, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and others. We also leveraged the social channels of Hillary Clinton’s campaign team members, including foreign policy spokesman Jesse Lehrich, and digital communications / rapid response team member Rob Flaherty.

Debate:

In addition to airing the spot, we responded to consumers in real-time across Facebook and Twitter while gathering data on how the campaign was performing across various social platforms for use in future media interviews. 

Post-Debate:

PR focused on securing wrap-up opportunities to demonstrate the success of the campaign, including appearing in The TODAY Show segment about how brands treated the debate like the Super Bowl, and CNN’s Quest Means Business discussing the bravery of the brand regarding this campaign.

With a highly relevant and focused media strategy, we made the most of a very limited budget, achieving:

• Media Impressions: 1.4 Billion

• Views across Tecate owned social channels: +7 Million

• Organic Facebook meme views: +24 Million

• Organic Facebook meme shares: +257,000

• Earned Media value: US$24 Million

• Campaign Sentiment: +87% Positive Leaning

This campaign also provided ample media coverage, e.g.:

The Washington Post - HOW ADVERTISERS TURNED THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE INTO A NEW SUPER BOWL

TIME - HOW TECATE WON THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Bloomberg - TECATE LAMPOONS TRUMP’S ‘WALL’ IN NEW BEER ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Adweek - TECATE WILL AMBUSH TONIGHT'S DEBATE WITH THIS TRUMP-MOCKING AD ABOUT BUILDING A 'BEER WALL’

QUARTZ - DONALD TRUMP’S ANTI-MEXICAN RHETORIC CREATED A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY FOR A MEXICAN BEER COMPANY

FOX NEWS - TECATE BEER WANTS TO BUILD A BORDER WALL?

The Huffington Post - MEXICAN BEER BRAND MOCKS TRUMP’S WALL IN BRILLIANT AD