While many across the country were stuck at home this spring, it gave thousands the opportunity to welcome a new furry friend into their household. Earlier in the year, Busch played a part in helping sheltered dogs find a home by facilitating hundreds of foster commitments and adoptions of dogs by offering beer money with its “Foster a Dog” program.” Following this, the brand took its commitment a step further with the release of Busch Dog Brew, so every 21+ Busch drinker would be able to crack one open while their favorite buddy enjoys his/her own brew after a hard day’s work.
Busch is all about tapping into the passion points of its consumers. Accordingly, Busch Dog Brew was a launch that directly related to something truly important for many across the country and Busch Beer’s loyal fanbase - the integral role dogs have as part of the family. With the launch of Busch Dog Brew, the brand’s passionate fans could finally share a brew with their favorite furry companion. This launch solidified its efforts to give back using impactful methods that go one step further than simply selling beer by means of a flashy advertising campaign. And to continue their support for shelters in need Busch donated $1 to Best Friends Animal Society for every pack of Dog Brew purchased.
To continue the brand’s ongoing efforts in helping animal shelters and dogs in need, Busch launched this one-of-a-kind offering on National Dog Day, August 27, the moment in the calendar with the most concentrated interest from media, influencers and consumers for their dogs. Not only to sell beer to dogs in addition to humans, but to continue their efforts in rescuing and caring for animals across the country. The first step was determining the immediate giveback, so the brand vowed to donate $1 from every case of Dog Brew sold to Best Friends Animal Society, up to $50,000.
Busch Dog Brew was launched for purchase in 4-packs online, with a clever design that clearly depicted the silhouette of a beer can, which also showed exactly who it was intended for. This was an all-new product launch, and one of the brand’s most significant moves outside of the alcohol space in recent history. Considering this was made for dogs, the key to success was educating fans on the product’s purpose, while ensuring all messaging, assets and campaign materials clearly conveyed it.
By placing extra emphasis on pre-pitching ahead of the official announcement, the move allowed the brand to secure coverage and gain interest from some outlets that are typically harder to break into. The Dog Brew announcement Tweet was sent out at the beginning of National Dog Day, with a strong push of PR outreach conducted in the moments soon-after. Busch Dog Brew was made available for purchase online at http://busch.com/dogbrew in 4-packs for $9.99. As an added bonus, the dog bed giveaway was offered for those purchased Dog Brew during launch day.
The brand used ‘lifestyle imagery’ to further portray the product for its intended use. Real-life photos of dogs, submitted by their owners, were implemented as the hero image.
Busch Dog Brew immediately became a trending topic during not only National Dog Day, but for weeks to follow. This included both traditional online media, as well as social media and even some broadcast news segments. After just a single day of pitching the product, the first batch officially sold out in under six hours post launch! The story spread like wildfire, with nearly all articles including the full sentiment of the campaign in addition to relevant imagery, links and purchase information.
With such a quick sale, PR outreach was halted in order to determine the best way to effectively communicate the fact that it sold out in an incredibly short time span. As a result, the Dog Brew waiting list was born. After hundreds of articles sharing news of the product launch landed in national outlets, as well regional titles in every market across the country, a second wave came immediately sharing instructions on precisely what Dog Brew is, and how to secure your pack by signing up for the waiting list on the microsite. All-in-all, the campaign blew away all performance expectations, and solidified itself as one of the most successful Busch PR campaigns to date. The story secured a total of 454 pieces of editorial coverage reaching 1.3B+ monthly impressions, 210 media-affiliated social posts reaching 37.8M+ followers, and was included in 29 broadcast segments reaching another 601k viewers.
Top Stories:
https://people.com/pets/beer-for-dogs-busch-debuts-a-nonalcoholic-dog-brews/
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article245269745.html
https://www.countryliving.com/life/kids-pets/a33836277/anheuser-busch-brews-beer-for-dogs/
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/01/908222884/hot-diggity-dog-busch-creates-beer-for-mans-best-friend
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a33862438/anheuser-busch-brews-beer-for-dogs/
