After 30 years of being blocked out of the Super Bowl, Molson Coors (the second largest beer brand in the US) needed a campaign that made this Super Bowl not just an historic moment for the brand, but for every football fan too. We found the cultural sweet spot of beer drinkers and their fast-growing love for sportsbetting to create something breakthrough. A campaign to spark a new connection between our 24-30 year-old target and the brands.

After 30 years, Molson Coors made its grand return to the Super Bowl with The High Stakes Beer Ad: The first commercial people could bet on. The campaign brought together the company’s two most iconic beers, Coors LIght and Miller Lite, and tapped into one of the biggest cultural trends in sports: online betting. For two weeks, people could bet on every part of the commercial on DraftKings, a leading online sportsbook in America. The gamified experience got users invested in every detail of our film, from which brand would be mentioned first to how many people had facial hair, before the spot even aired. With over 250,000 entries, the High Stakes Beer Ad became the biggest non-sporting event in DraftKings history, and the most highly anticipated ad of the Big Game. Then, on gameday, the world tuned in, hoping to win big.

The strategy was simple. We had an idea that was designed to spark excitement well beyond our typical target of 24-30 year-old beer drinkers, but to football fans and the sports betting community.

To pull this off and drive the DraftKings participation we needed, we had to create what all bettors are looking for when they put their money down, a true sense of rivalry between the Molson brands.

The High Stakes Beer Ad featured a first-of-its-kind integration with DraftKings, a leading online sportsbook, and a :30 media buy during the Super Bowl. The execution was split into two main parts: the lead up to the game (when people placed their bets on the ad) and the Super Bowl ad itself (when invested viewers tuned in to see if their bets were right). For the two week lead up, a 360 campaign drove to the experience on DraftKings.com, asking people to place their bets. High profile promotion ran across TV, OLV, social, and OOH, while also tapping into influencers, podcasts and other betting outlets. The final spot debuted during the Super Bowl (audience 200 mil+) and ran across OLV and TV for a week. The teaser phase of the campaign ran from 1/29/23-2/12/23. The Super Bowl spot ran from 2/13/23-2/20/23.

Over 250,000 Americans placed 3,000,000 bets on the High Stakes Beer Ad, becoming the most successful non-sporting event in DraftKings history. Overall, the campaign generated 8.3 billion impressions, good for a 416% increase in brand mentions with 91% positive sentiment. Volume growth exceeded Jan-Feb projections by 75%. Most importantly, during the time the campaign ran, Miller Lite and Coors Light saw their sales increase by 2%, while our biggest competitor, Bud Light, dropped 1.7%.