Dive Brief:
- A divide in marketing strategy is apparent among major light beer producers and their latest campaigns, specifically Anheuser-Busch InBev's Bud Light and MillerCoors' Miller Lite.
- Miller Lite's new campaign focuses on the brand's liquid and heritage. Spots include taglines like "the original light beer: spelled different because it's brewed different," referencing the spelling of "Lite," and "Beertown USA, these are your celebrities" while showing images of Milwaukee and a beer salesman stacking Miller Lite cases.
- Bud Light has decided to return to the more humorous nature of its previous campaigns, which kicked off with the brand's Super Bowl commercial featuring comedians Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer.
Dive Insight:
This clear division in style and substance throws into question what the best way is to lure consumers away from craft beer and imports and back to light beer. Miller Lite isn't opposed to using humor, but its marketers feel the humor has to serve the brand, MillerCoors CMO David Kroll told Ad Age.
MillerCoors has instead chosen to follow trends sweeping through other food and beverage industry categories, namely authenticity and product-centric themes. Craft beer producers have focused on authenticity and feature the product's backstory and how it's made, which MillerCoors tapped into with a Coors Light campaign last year. Coca-Cola is a leader in the product-centric marketing movement as it replaces loftier messages with those that are more focused on the features of the brand and product themselves.
What light beer makers do agree on is that they need to broaden their target markets beyond the 20-something male, as that "is a shrinking set of drinkers," said Kroll. Instead of focusing on millennials, both beer makers are taking a step back to emphasize the appeal of their products for consumers of all ages and demographics.
These new campaigns are well-timed along with an uptick in growth for major light beer brands. Coors Light sales increased by 5.7%, Miller Lite by 5.2%, Bud Light by 2.6%, and Budweiser by 0.9% in the four weeks leading up to March 5, according to Nielsen data. The right marketing strategy could maintain that growth or push it higher, though the industry will have to wait and see which campaign will resonate more with a broader group of consumers.