Molson was facing a 22-year decline and was failing to connect with a new generation. In 2022, Molson recognized that they needed to find a new way to reach the younger generation who felt Molson was ‘the beer their dad drank’ vs ‘the beer I want to drink’.

Then in July 2023, Drake was spotted wearing a vintage Molson Canadian jersey that had initially been part of a free in-case promo. And suddenly, everyone wanted one. The only problem was that the initial promo happened in 1998, and the shirts had been gone for years.

Molson recognized this as a perfect opportunity to bring relevance to a sleepy brand.

To maximize this real-time event, Molson Canadian embraced the social conversation by purchasing all the available merchandise and creating a campaign to drive more attention to their once iconic brand to remind the younger population of their legendary status.

In July 2023, Drake wore a vintage Molson jersey which became an instant sensation. Overnight, the Molson Canadian jersey became one of the most requested items in Molson history. But the problem was that this jersey was from a 1998 free in-case beer promo. With only a few remaining jerseys across Canada, Molson acted fast by bidding, negotiating and buying all available jerseys (before the price skyrocketed.)

Leveraging the remaining jerseys, Molson was able to repurpose the jersey as a limited edition merch drop that had Canadians tracking down the jerseys in specially marked cases that paid homage to the original jersey themselves and how they were found. As Drake fans and Canadians were already searching for these jerseys - this allowed Molson to take a hold of the conversation and change jersey seekers into Molson fans by building on the social conversation and regaining relevance to a younger demographic.

As soon as Drake was spotted wearing the jersey, Molson knew that this was an opportunity to reconnect with a younger generation that the brand simply wasn’t relevant for anymore. To resonate with this target, we needed the activation to be as authentic as possible.

So instead of just recreating or reproducing the now iconic jerseys, Molson tracked the originals down and bought them back. Then, we turned them into a limited-edition merch drop by putting them right back where they started: in cases of Molson. And suddenly, the only way for Drake fans to get their hands on the rare jerseys was to buy Molson.

In the 24 hours after Drake was spotted wearing the Molson jersey, we conducted a global search to buy back our own merch. Then we turned it into a limited-edition fashion drop, teasing a release date, designing custom packaging, and sending the jerseys out to be sold alongside millions of other Molson cases.

The cases were outfitted with a tracking device, which could be followed through a series of social posts on Molson’s channels, allowing Drake fans to track the jerseys in real-time. The jerseys ended up at beer stores across Canada and every single one was claimed within minutes.

Despite no celebrity partnership or endorsement from Drake, no dollars spent on media and while the entire beer category was declining, the Molson Drake Jersey was one of the highest performing Molson Canadian campaigns - growing YoY volume by 2.5% and resulting in the largest single day increase in followers in Molson history.

While main competitors like Budwiser, Bud Light and Coors Light lost market share, we gained ground by taking a real-time event and putting a true Canadian icon back on its feet.