Budweiser stands firmly in the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to reach for greatness and it’s our mission to make that journey to greatness as smooth as possible, creating opportunities for up-and-comers along the way.

When we were tasked with finding an unconventional way to give local dreamers and artists in Brazil a global stage, we turned to an often overlooked medium - our beer coasters. Though they’re only a few inches in diameter, we recognized that by reinventing them we could create another touchpoint for consumers to connect to the brand.

Introducing Vinyl Coasters - the world’s only beer coasters that double as playable vinyls. And they’re 100% dedicated to underground “batalha” (or battle) rappers that are on the come up. There are talented artists everywhere that have conviction, they just need a stage.

Though beer coasters are often a throwaway these days, we saw massive potential for these mini medallions - so, we turned them into playable vinyls featuring nine up-and-coming battle rappers from Brazil. We took advantage of the trend toward playing old-school records and created something that LDA-34 consumers would want to hold onto.

In the process, we gave massive exposure to the lesser-known dreamers out there by spreading thousands of coasters across bars in Brazil, inviting consumers to discover new talent & music.

By taking something authentically associated with beer and transforming it into something that also drives our mission forward, we were able to connect with consumers in a whole new way.

We found that young people (LDA-34) are often deterred from pursuing their dreams, whether it be due to self-doubt, obstacles, or simply a lack of opportunity. Budweiser is on a mission to challenge that reality by giving global stages to local dreamers as part of our larger music platform.

So, we dedicated our beer coasters to the up-and-comers, driving reach and increasing Spotify followings for each of our artists. Ultimately, our goal was to communicate to consumers that if you have the conviction to chase your dreams, you can reach greatness.

Vinyl Coasters were introduced to the world at Lollapalooza São Paulo, where we also invited our battle rap artists to perform live on the Budweiser stage. It was a major moment, but we wanted to make sure everyone could share in the joy of discovering new artists, so we released thousands of vinyls in eight bars across Brazil as well.

That’s when things got fun. Famous DJ’s in Brazil began playing our vinyls at record parties, influencers around the globe were reacting online, and we put out a steady stream of content on social spotlighting the initiative and our artists.

We even organized our own Budweiser “batalha” (rap battle) to help bring lesser-known artists to the forefront.

The concept of vinyl coasters was born out of the desire to give underground artists a global platform to achieve their goals. We, of course, were aiming to strengthen brand perception as well.

Though we’re only a few weeks into the campaign, it’s become clear that we’ve made a significant impact. Not only are monthly listener counts up on each of our artists’ Spotify pages, but we’ve also received 98% positive engagement on social.

We garnered international media coverage, received countless impressions from influencer partnerships, and most importantly, we’ve elevated nine up-and-coming artists in effort to help them achieve their dreams, which is exactly what we set out to do.