There are many transit vehicles being used as medium.

There are advertising in pretty much all of them.

Except the most powerful of them all.

Rockets.

So in a year when the mission to Mars was one of the dominant cultural discussions, we loaded our key ingredient onto a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). In a Budweiser Global Barley Research-branded CubeLab.

And amplified our microgravity experiment on social channels and through earned media. Because just as TIME magazine concluded:

“How good will life on Mars be if you can’t enjoy a cold beer?”

In November 2018, the next rocket bound for ISS will launch, taking with it our next set of experiments, and taking us one step closer to the world’s first microgravity beer.

Our official journey to Mars began with a panel discussion SXSW. Here Budweiser announced its grand commitment alongside CASIS and former astronaut Clay Anderson.

We invited media and beer-lover-consumers to learn about the journey to Mars, and how Budweiser will be a part of it.

But the program didn’t stop there. Budweiser’s innovation team also worked closely with CASIS to determine a series of experiments needed to one day reach our goal of creating a microgravity beer, as there is little oxygen on the Red Planet.

Eight months later, key Budweiser ingredients were loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bound for the International Space Station as the first official experiment.

The programming inspired coverage across various media verticals, from food to tech to business news, even stimulating top space industry experts to write feature stories about our mission in outlets like TIME and Smithsonian Magazines

Bud on Mars generated massive media attention and social conversation:

• 2,336 earned media placements

• 1.6B billion media impressions

• 521 million social impressions

Key placements:

• “Mission to space in the name of better beer” – CNN

• “When humans reach Mars, Budweiser wants to make sure there will be beer” – The Washington Post

• “You can send a man to the moon, but man is going to need beer to go to Mars” – Huffington Post

• “How good will life on Mars be if you can’t enjoy a cold beer?” – TIME

Business results:

• Biggest lift in brand health in 20 years.

• Consideration +2.1% and brand penetration +1.7% – and that’s a lot when you sell 4.4 billion beers per year.

And the program is only getting started. This November, the next Budweiser experiment will be launched into orbit.

Budweiser holds a special place in American culture.

A place that has to be re-claimed for every new generation.

And you can’t reclaim a place in culture without being part of it.

But where do you place the message?

You use the most talked about vehicle in 2017 as medium: The SpaceX Falcon Rocket.

So we loaded the key ingredient for beer – barley – onto the rocket.

And partnered with the International Space Station to conduct a cultivation experiment in orbit.

And the story travelled around the world. Literally.

Proving that sometimes the best placement is inside the medium.

Budweiser shares the belief of many space travel experts that life in space needs to be filled with the same enjoyments available here on earth (including beer)!

So we joined with CASIS—which manages a division of the International Space Station and is a pivotal player in the journey to outer space—and made our announcement at SXSW, a festival that celebrates innovation.

Our strategy, to take the first real steps toward microgravity beer, was designed to appeal to both current Bud fans and new millennial drinkers.

And we secured an iconic placement of our asset – the Budweiser Global Barley Research-branded CubeLab – on the Falcon 9 SpaceX Rocket.

Then amplified it through earned attention from media and influencers.

Target media: lifestyle, food, trade, business, technology.

Since its inception in 1876, Budweiser has been rooted in hard work and powered by ambition.

Adolphus Busch, the brand’s co-founder, went to America to defeat the odds and start what is often referred to as the King of Beers. Budweiser’s history is a story of commitment, passion and never giving up.

But this brand story of ambition has to be proven and earned for every new generation.

The Brief: Explore the brand ideal of ambition.