As part of AB’s larger “Lets Grab A Beer” initiative for the world reopening post COVID-19 lockdown, Michelob ULTRA set out to encourage their active consumers how they should grab their next beer together. We created the Beer Run, a 360 campaign that challenged people to get out and be active again with one another, and directly trade their miles/workouts in for ULTRA on us (at both on and off premise).
The COVID-19 pandemic affected all of us and our familiar reality. In a world where we were once able to take a workout class with our friends or join our weekly run club for an evening jog was put on hold. This also meant that grabbing beers with friends post workout was also off the table. Our usual day to day of togetherness quickly changed to isolation as we underwent lockdown. That meant that our workouts would evolve too, to at home workouts alone and runs in solitude.
Our audience is both male/female ages 21 + that try to be in good mental and physical shape. They live a balanced lifestyle and enjoying working out with their friends. Our consumers recognize that the world tells them in order to be fit, they have to sacrifice their fun. That’s where Michelob ULTRA comes in.
During quarantine we could run, but not the way we wanted to; not with other people. And, we couldn’t enjoy the best part of running – grabbing a beer with friends afterwards.
Michelob ULTRA celebrated the return of enjoyment to active lifestyle this summer by bringing people together again. The Beer Run had two key phases –the first taking effect once vaccination rates started trending positively, encouraging consumers to be active with one another again. The second phase, “Bolt to the Bar” began post July 4th, offering focused messages to consumers to trade their miles in for Michelob ULTRA at local on-premise bars. We focused on urban centers whose reality of post workout drinks was affected the most by the pandemic. In order to spread the word in the right way, we showed up in strategic, contextually relevant media outputs. These included the following: at gym TVs across the U.S., when runners checked their workout stats on Strava, localized geo media DOOH placements showing the closest bar, on broadcast during the Tokyo Olympic Games, and via our athlete and influencer social media handles.
The results for the Beer Run Campaign saw over 258M+ Impressions, 300K MyCooler Site Visits, 50M Video Views, and 88M PR Impressions with pieces from Forbes, Yahoo News, Fansided, People Magazine, and CBS Sports Network. Most importantly, we saw that encouraging consumers to Bolt to the Bar accomplished exactly what we set for – to get back to the on premise. Michelob ULTRA had a 16.7% lift in on-premise sales, the number one AB brand in the portfolio for performance from 2019.
