Please No Chill

Well, the big industrial marketing brewers are at it again.  Spending time on advertising over ingredients.

Coors Light has had its iconic (?) Silver Bullet Train for as long as I can remember but now they are harnessing some Hollywood CGI so that lucky (?) fans can see their face in the ad during the Super Bowl.  They will also get $500 and swag.  

The downside is that the actual commercial during the game will be played at normal speed which means no one can see the faces.  You have to go to their website or god forbid the Coors YouTube channel to see a slow motion version where you might be able to catch your face if you don’t blink.

A Podcast & A Beer – Tagline

Advertising is mostly utilitarian or, frankly, crap but some ads pop into the national consciousness. The story behind the ads that do click is the remit of Tagline. How do they come together? And the very first episode is about a beer, Dos Equis and The Most Interesting Man in the World.

How an SNL sketch and a song about George Washington proved the inspiration for a pair of writers bored with a client who seemed impossible is a great back story. Just the fact that this series of spots has two taglines is great.

You can grab a Dos Equis but I would say that you should go to a bottle shop and look for the most interesting label in the cooler case. Then look at why you find that interesting. Is it the color? The font? The information?

The Firkin for July 2011

I saw this in the Wall Street Journal at the beginning of July and all I could do was shake my head. Another giant international beer conglomerate focusing everywhere but on the product.

Granted that seems to be the only arrow in the “water lager” quiver. Blanket all forms of media with ads in the hope that you can drown out the siren call of craft beer.

But that call is still getting through. It has been mentioned on many a blog but the state of Oregon now drinks 15% + craft beer. That is not a niche, boutique industry number. That is a player.

And as important as educating the consumer about craft beer is, I believe it is more important to just get the word out that craft beer exists. Break through the cloud cover of constant Miller ads and Coors billboards and Budweiser sports sponsorships.

How do you do that? Get outside the craft beer community. Partner with local restaurants that don’t have taps or beer lists. Give to charities in the community that are not affiliated with the food and beer industry. Get your beer on tap or in bottles where new people can find it. Or brainstorm your own, out of the box ideas.

Just get the name of the brewery out there. That is all the advertising you need. Let Heineken spend their money on Facebook and Google.