COVID-19 was a brutal blow to Budweiser and the consumers. During the lock-down period, they could not go to restaurants, bars and night clubs to have fun, while Budweiser is always the social currency. Consumers needed to stay at home and therefore Budweiser wanted to inject some joy back to their lives, and at the same time to drive sales. We executed the campaign through social and digital, obviously because they were the most (or only) efficient communication channels during COVID-19 period. And it was a pilot launch in Chengdu city before a wider roll-out in China.

Budweiser is highly perceived as the Party King Beer by young drinkers in China. While there was no more party during COVID-19 period, we wanted to answer their party needs in an alternative way - via a special Budweiser Home Party Pack (limited quantity sold on e-commerce platform), in which consumers could find Budweiser beers, creative props and a unique drinking game - which aims to UNLOCK THE PARTY ANIMALS INSIDE THEIR HEARTS during the difficult period and have great fun and joy with their friends.

Unlike consumers in other countries, Chinese do not have the habit of drinking beer (or enjoying beer) at home. Beer consumption happens in restaurants, bars and pubs, and night clubs… places where young people can have fun and joy with their friends together. During the lock-down period, these young people had been longing for parties and hence we saw the opportunity of inspiring young people to consume beer at home by bringing them a legitimate excuse for home party. We helped them unlock their party animals inside their hearts with Budweiser Home Party Pack - drink the beer and play a specifically designed drinking game with your friends at home - have some joy and fun in the difficult times.

The Home Party Pack was designed with different famous “party animals” which young people would talk about in Chinese social media. We created specific cool illustrations for each animal as key design elements. Red was chosen as the key design colour to comply with Budweiser’s brand. What’s more, these party animals were extended from illustrations to party animal paws sleeves(stuffed toy) which consumers could use them as props to hold the beer and play the drinking game. Besides a beautifully designed instruction card, the game was also designed with party animals stickers to be sticked onto the bottom of a can beer or a bottle beer. Social videos and posts were launched in popular platforms such as TikTok, WeChat and Weibo to create exposure; which would lead consumers to our e-commerce platform to complete sales.

A successful pilot launch in Chengdu, the limited 4,000 Home Party Packs were sold out within 3 days, and our social media content successfully generated over 10,000,000 exposure on social media.

Most importantly, the campaign created a fun time for consumers during a time when there was literally no night life and entertainment. With Budweiser Home Party Pack, we successfully turned everybody’s homes into hot and fun party destinations on the planet!