During a live NBA game, Michelob ULTRA proved to fans around the world that everyone should be able to experience the joy of live sports.

Our groundbreaking technology allowed Cameron Black, a blind sports journalist, to understand and enjoy basketball like never before. But we didn’t stop there. It allowed Cameron to fulfill his dream and to actually commentate a game to an audience of millions — becoming the first blind person to do it on TV. All kicking off our commitment to making the joy of sports accessible.

Because we believe it’s only worth it if we all enjoy it.

In the world of sports, accessibility for fans doesn’t get as much attention as accessibility for athletes.

So, as the brand that believes watching AND playing sports is only worth it if you enjoy it, Michelob ULTRA wants to ensure that the joy of sports is accessible to every fan too.

So beyond our accessible technology, our campaign itself was built to ensure that our creative assets would be accessible to blind and visually impaired fans.

Each campaign element has been reviewed by the American Foundation for the Blind, and made accessible for the blind through audio descriptions. This includes all campaign deliverables: social ads, campaign videos, and mail assets.

The Situation: With billions of marketing dollars spent each year, competition never ends in the beer category. To grow market share, you need to consistently strengthen your cultural relevance.

The Objective: So, to continue growing our market share, we set out to address another pressing, hyper-relevant issue in sports culture: accessibility.

The Brief: Since most people focus on the accessibility of playing, we championed the under-discussed accessibility of enjoying sports as a fan.

284 million blind or visually impaired sports fans worldwide struggle to enjoy live games. They can listen to commentary, but anyone who loves basketball knows the joy of the game goes beyond what you can hear.

The Insight: The joy of being a basketball fan comes from truly feeling the game.

Our Strategy: Translate the action of a basketball game into a language that blind and visually impaired fans can feel, not just hear.

Community-Building Approach: Introduce our technology to the NBA fan community and make accessibility more salient with them.

We helped Cameron Black, a blind sportswriter, achieve his dreams of becoming the first blind person to commentate a live NBA game on TV. This deeply human story was powered by data-driven technology.

We worked with Cameron over the course of a year to develop a groundbreaking, multisensorial technology that translated the billions of data points in a basketball game into an immersive language he could easily understand through spatial sound and haptic touch. With the help of basketball data inputs and generative A.I., he felt every gameplay moment and movement, informing his commentary.

Our partnership with Cameron during the NBA Playoffs was the start of a larger commitment to accessibility. Soon, Michelob ULTRA will make this technology available to fans in every NBA arena.

Cameron’s groundbreaking moment on prime-time TV (and online) was made possible by a groundbreaking technology.

First, using A.I.-powered braille, we put a world’s worth of basketball data at Cameron’s fingertips. Then, we used spatial sound to sonically place Cameron in the center of the court, so he could fully grasp every second of the game: the movement, the plays, and the speed.

All of this took place in a studio across the street from Madison Square Garden, where Cameron had his own space to offer his commentary using our unprecedented, data-driven technology.

Dreamcaster quickly became Michelob ULTRA’s next cultural juggernaut.

Cameron’s historic data-driven broadcast notched the second-highest TV ratings of any program in its market that day, immediately captivating 10.4 million viewers.

And his data-driven commentary echoed throughout the most iconic arena in the world: Madison Square Garden. 21,000 fans and passersby outside witnessed sports history being made.

But the impact for Michelob ULTRA goes beyond a local gameday broadcast activation.

Within days of Dreamcaster going live, organic search volume for Michelob ULTRA jumped 55% and social conversation about Michelob ULTRA increased by 44%.

And within 2 weeks of Dreamcaster going live, our unit sales grew +19%, our sales per shopping trip grew +15%, our dollar sales grew 3%, our frequency of purchase grew 4%, and our household penetration grew 1%.