Let’s Have Stone Brewing Do An Ad During Football
As NFL Football season has started, so have the dozens and dozens of mass produced, mass marketed beer advertisements for the season. Words like drink-ability, smooth, refreshing, triple hop brewed, full flavored, crisp, pilsner, and more are being burned into America’s brain every 5 minutes of a televised football game.
To the average bear who doesn’t care about what they really drink, this subliminally sounds mighty enticing. The average bear might even take some of this marketing propaganda, and turn it into a conversation piece. “Hey Frank, did you know my XXX Beer is Triple Hop Brewed?” What the fuck does that even mean!
After watching Beer Wars The Movie, and knowing how big business works, these products and these advertisements will never go away. The macro brewers have silos of money, and there are many people in the country and government that are making sure this will remain until the end of time. While I am not suggesting such a large part of our economy should vanish, I do think in 2009, that people could and should smarten up a a bit. Joe Football watcher should be made aware that there are better options for beer drinking, and that “Triple Hop Brewed” XXX Beer is still just filtered water, malted corn/rice and scientifically created hop like flavoring.
After watching the Greg Koch led “I am a Craft Brewer” campaign, I fantasized of a moment that would be great for craft beer, and craft brewing. I would hope Mr. Greg Koch or one of his righteous peers in the craft brewing industry would consider taking a shot at this. I know that Stone Brewing does not advertise, and I know that when they raise money, they do it for charity. Still everyone, hear me out.
- Between Stone, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, and Dogfish Head, they raise enough money for an advertising campaign for an NFL Football broadcast. I think the Superbowl would be awesome, but might be way too ambitious.
- Film a 30 second spot with Greg (in his sweet checkered blazer) talking directly to the football watching couch potatoes about one or all of the following: fizzy yellow beer sucking, folks being sheep for believing the macro swill ads, questioning what the fuck Triple Hop Brewed means, or what good alternatives are out there for Joe Football Watcher. The end of the ad would be a black background with either the Stone logo and URL (which would would be great for those who can buy Stone), or some text on how to learn more about craft beer.
Apple Computer has had nothing but success with their clever ‘Switch’ ad campaign, telling the masses that switching to the Mac OS based is not only a cool trendy decision to make, but also a highly practical one. I would like to see a campaign along those lines for the craft beer industry as well.
September 15, 2009 @ 6:40 am
Sam Adams already advertises a TON about the quality of their beer. If people are dissatisfied with their macro brews, they are already getting info about a widely available alternative. Most people don’t drink beer because they enjoy the flavor; they drink beer because it is cheap and contains alcohol and doesn’t taste bad. While I would definitely like to see a craft brewer’s association coordinate a national ad campaign, I bet that’s probably not the best use of the association’s dollars. Rather, local events (beer festivals, regional beer associations) would seem to be the preferred medium for brands that are, by and large, distributed locally or regionally.
September 14, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
I think everyone needs to read Doug’s second to last paragraph…. then read it again… the make it happen.
September 14, 2009 @ 3:48 pm
Amen!
I was thinking something similar, Arrogant Bastard logo on the center of the UFC ring. That will be sick!
September 14, 2009 @ 3:47 pm
There are a few problems I see with the idea. I am a marketer and represent clients who buy ads during football; but it is not always the most effective course of action, and I’ve always applauded Stone and others for relying on the quality of their product and good old fashioned (or these days high tech) word of mouth to spread their message.
Problem 1.
Too few eyeballs. One ad bought during one game runs a huge risk of being overlooked and terribly ineffective. Apple’s campaign worked because it was a campaign – they bought tons of advertising across multiple mediums. Did you know the first quarter the i-phone came out Apple lost money because they spent more money advertising the thing than they brought in selling it? The less immediate look at it shows it paid off, but you know what I’m getting at. Factor in a remote control, DVR, checking the laptop for Fantasy scoring, running to the fridge to grab a beer, and potty breaks – there aren’t too many people watching commercials of a regular season game who would see the ad. (Super Bowl is a different story because the commercial breaks have taken on their own identity and have their own value. It is the most watched sporting event on 7 continents after all.)A lot of money and effort goes toward a message very few may see or pay attention to, which brings me to my second point.
Problem 2.
No one cares. Ask Seth Godin. We all love craft beers, but that doesn’t mean Joe Football Watcher will. And, they have most likely sworn their allegiance to whatever tasteless fizzy swill they’re holding in their hand at the time they see the ad. They don’t want to know what the truth is, and their tasteless ignorance is bliss. If cheap yellow beer makes them happy then someone telling them what they like is wrong is going to make them angry.
Problem 3.
The big boys catch wind. InBev, MillerCoors, etc have someone somewhere who monitors beer blogs like this to help them keep a pulse on the craft world. If they haven’t done so already, they will probably use their huge stack of advertising dollars as leverage to make sure no more breweries can buy ads during games. They were too slow to prevent Boston from getting in and marginally effecting their market share and they won’t let it happen again. If they tried, our favorite brewers would probably get a letter back saying “In order to protect our viewers from being oversaturated by one industry and ensure a fair variety of advertisers; we have set a limit on the number of beer companies advertising during games. We cannot accept your ad at this time” In other words – “These guys spends millions upon mullions with us and have for years and we can’t take the financial risk of losing any of their dollars. They held a gun stuffed with cash to our heads and we couldn’t say ‘no’. Sorry.”
Stone does great one-to-one marketing. If there is someone who is interested in craft beers chances are somehow, someway Stone’s presence online and in the craft community will be found by this person. This is far more natural and worthwhile marketing IMO, and its effectiveness can be cited by your blog on their growth.
The real problem as I see it is education. Not enough people even know of alternatives to what they see on TV or are too afraid to venture outside of what they are familiar with. As a craft beer lover I take it upon myself to expose others to this world. I think most of us had our first good beer poured by a friend of ours; and what better way to get others to drink good beer than to pour it for them?
My solution – we all pick one day out of the year – the Super Bowl or another date, I peronsally like Ben Franklin’s birthday – and we all agree to find a co-worker, friend, relative, stranger in the beer aisle or at a bar and buy them a good craft beer and start up a conversation about it. I mean, who turns down free beer? Let us all do the talking for these guys and afterward we can let them know how it went. If people out there aren’t going to take it upon themselves to try new beers, then we should help them – this is far more effective than any ad ever could be. If all craft beer drinkers share a beer with a non-craft drinker on one given day, we will have effectively doubled the number of people drinking craft beer that day. I want my favorite brewers to spend their money on better ingredients or increasing production, I’ll advertise for them for free.
Sorry for such a long post, I have been thinking about this for quite sometime, ever since IAACB premiered online and chatter of Super Bowl ads begun. This seemed like the right time to share my idea.
Cheers!
Doug
September 14, 2009 @ 3:15 pm
AMEN! I would love to see that happen.