Anheuser-Busch InBev - Cleveland Browns Victory Fridge Campaign

Company: Anheuser-Busch InBev, St. Louis, MO
Entry Submitted By: LG Communications
Company Description: Anheuser-Busch InBev is the world's largest brewer. Our dream is to be the best beer company bringing people together for a better world. We have more than 500 brands, including Bud Light.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Beverages - Alcohol

Nomination Title: Cleveland Browns Victory Fridge Campaign

With wine and craft beer making inroads in Millennials’ consumption habits, Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) recognizes the importance of connecting our brands with sports fans. We achieve this by strategically identifying cultural moments that allow our brands to play a role in delivering value to fans.

Long-suffering Cleveland Browns fans were very familiar with defeat as their team entered the 2018 NFL season with a two-year, 17-game losing streak.

Taking a chance the Browns’ losing streak would end in 2018, we planned the Cleveland Browns Victory Fridge campaign. We strategically placed 10 Victory Fridges, secured by Wi-Fi-controlled locks, throughout northeast Ohio. These would simultaneously unlock the moment the Browns achieved their first win of the season, providing fans with free special edition Bud Lights.

The campaign’s goal was to capitalize on the story in a fun and authentic way to connect Bud Light with Cleveland and drive earned media. Rather than take over the story, we strove to drive the consumer conversation and capture the press coverage the moment the Browns won. In this largely viral campaign, we became a part of the story – a Browns win equals free Bud Light.

We kicked the campaign off with PR outreach and launch announcements, and posted social content featuring photos of the Victory Fridges. We remained in the conversation during the season through social media, but let the consumers do most of the talking.

Following the Browns first win, against the New York Jets on 9/20/18, we tweeted congratulations, captured the celebration at Victory Fridge locations and throughout northeast Ohio, and shared it socially and with national and local press outlets.

The campaign involved three phases. (1) Anticipation – the announcement of the campaign had fans checking the schedule to see which games the Browns could possibly win, while also wondering which bars had the Victory Fridges. Local and national media jumped on the story, delivering free promotion and awareness for Bud Light. (2) The games – fans eagerly watched each one wondering if this would be the game that would unlock the Victory Fridges. Once again, we had massive awareness and engagement with the fans and media. (3) Victory Celebration – the moment the Browns finally broke their 635-day winless streak and the Victory Fridges opened to a massive fan celebration and national recognition.

The campaign involved huge fan interest, awareness and engagement, along with local and national exposure. It became ingrained in Browns fans’ culture. In Cleveland, you couldn’t talk about the Browns and the streak ending without bringing up the Victory Fridges.

We chose a cultural story that was easily relatable – a long-standing losing streak, leading to the hope and wonderment of when it would end – and what would happen when it finally did.

By not hijacking the story, but instead, letting it develop organically, we became an authentic, integral part of the story.

The campaign’s results shattered all expectations, becoming our most talked-about moment of the year – surpassing more costly moments like the Super Bowl.

We received a tremendous amount of national coverage, including the “Today” show, “Good Morning America,” Sports Business Daily/Journal, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, USA Today and Forbes, among others. https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqSQgKIkNDQklTTERvSmMzUnZjbmt0TXpZd1NoOGFIV1EzTjBoUloycFNiVlpXVm1WblRVMWtVV0l3UWxFeGQzQTNPRXhOS0FBUAE?q=cleveland+browns+victory+fridge&;lr=English&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ_8_bvu_cAhUHw4MKHSNNDS4QqgIINDAA&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

We received a free two-minute segment on the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” An equivalent media buy would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Media statements included:

-“The greatest promotion in the history of promotions” – Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck
-One of the great beer-marketing schemes ever – New York Post
- “It shows how a creative, well executed plan can transcend typical sports marketing efforts.” – Rick Ellington, Editor, Sports Business Daily

We want our sponsorships to resonate with fans and drive brand awareness and engagement by creating partnerships and activations that are groundbreaking, creative, innovative and game changing. We achieved that with the Cleveland Browns Victory Fridge campaign.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and results of the nominated campaign or project (up to 150 words):

-Target audience – men and women, aged 21-45
-Budget – $100,000
-ROI – 40X
-Increased market share – by 0.25 points
-PR Coverage – 1,112 placements, 953 million impressions, 95% key message inclusion
-Social Media Coverage – 201,263 mentions, 570,279,083 impressions, 117,893 engagement, 99% positive sentiment
-Earned rate – 48.74%
-Reach – 62% of the legal drinking age population
-Most viral tweet – by the Cleveland police department – “We WON!!! – Wait…Oh God. The free beer thing…Ok Cleveland. Stay calm. GO BROWNS!!!”
-QB Baker Mayfield at his postgame news conference – “Did they open the Bud Light thing?”