MillerCoors: Miller Lite Goes Head To Head With Bud Light In St. Louis

After besting Bud Light in a series of promotional blind taste tests across the country this year, Miller Lite decided to raise the stakes.

It would take on its biggest competitor on its home turf: St. Louis, the home and birthplace of Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch.

Over the last six months, Miller Lite has conducted a “Know Your Beer” promotional campaign across the country, inviting some 350,000 legal-drinking-age adults to take a blind taste test in which they evaluate beer on color, aroma and taste. In the end, participants are asked to choose between Miller Lite and Bud Light, the top-selling beer in the country.

The results: 72 percent of participants chose Miller Lite over Bud Light nationwide. Even more striking: 76 percent of roughly 360 taste testers in Bud’s hometown of St. Louis chose Miller Lite.

“We are always confident in our beer, but I was floored by their responses,” says Courtney Bryant, marketing manager for Miller Lite. In the St. Louis promotional taste test, conducted in a sampling of bars over three days in early September, participants “were loyal Bud Light drinkers and were so sure they liked Bud Light that their minds were blown when they went through the taste test and chose Miller Lite.”

Matthew Kohan, a spokesman for Anheuser-Busch, declines to comment.

The campaign, Bryant says, aims to convince Bud Light drinkers to reconsider Miller Lite, which the brand team says has more taste, color and aroma yet fewer calories than its biggest competitor. So far, she says, it appears to be working. “We’re getting people to re-consider Miller Lite because of this program, and part of it is because we’re not shoving heavy-handed marketing down their throats; we’re giving them five minutes to pause, and think about how their beer looks, how it smells and how it tastes.”

Video footage from the tests, which were conducted by promotional staff wearing non-branded clothing, are the centerpiece of a digital and social media campaign launching today across multiple channels, including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

It is part of a multi-pronged approach to get Miller Lite back to growth amid a down overall market for American light lagers. Sales dollars for Miller Lite are down 0.9 percent on a 1.6 percent slip in case volume year-to-date through Oct. 21, according to Nielsen all-outlet data. Fellow MillerCoors product Coors Light is down 2.8 percent in sales dollars on a 3.6 percent decline in case volume.

Both, however, have gained market share in the premium light segment, largely because Bud Light’s decline has been more severe. It is down 4.8 percent in sales dollars on a 5.7 percent case volume decline year-to-date, per Nielsen.

Miller Lite plans to continue its “Know Your Beer” challenges across the country through the end of November.

In a note to distributors, MillerCoors Chief Marketing Officer David Kroll says the results “highlight what we’ve known all along: when it comes to more taste, Miller Lite wins.”

And here’s the press release:

The beer drinkers of St. Louis have spoken. Miller Lite went to Bud Light’s birthplace, St. Louis, to find out which beer people chose in a promotional blind taste test. 76% of St. Louisans chose Miller Lite instead of Bud Light, with dedicated fans surprised that the local favorite wasn’t chosen when the beers were revealed.

The beer drinkers of St. Louis have spoken. 3 out 4 people chose Miller Lite over Bud Light in a promotional blind taste test in Bud’s hometown, St. Louis.

This summer, Miller Lite, the original light beer, launched the Know Your Beer program nationwide encouraging beer drinkers to learn more about how to evaluate beer to determine their preferences through an unbranded promotional taste challenge. The results spoke for themselves; 72% of participants of the Know Your Beer program chose Miller Lite instead of Bud Light. After Miller Lite prevailed with the majority of beer drinkers across the country, the brand decided to head to its competitors’ hometown to crack the biggest myth in St. Louis – whether the people of St. Louischoose Bud Light over Miller Lite.

From September 7-9, 2017, more than 360 St. Louisans were surveyed and 76% of them chose Miller Lite instead of Bud Light. One participant said he was surprised he chose Miller Lite because he had been "a Bud Light guy". See the video below for how the people of St. Louis reacted:

"All summer we’ve seen fantastic results from the Know Your Beer program. We wanted to put it to the ultimate test and go head-to-head with Bud Light in their home market of St. Louis. We are always confident in our beer, but knew this would be our toughest challenge because in St. Louis, loyalty to Bud Light runs deep," said Greg Butler, vice president of the Miller family of brands. "And the results clearly speak for themselves."

Miller Lite has focused its marketing efforts on the quality and taste of its beer, which has aided in its rise to the third ranking biggest American Light Lager in the country.

The Know Your Beer program kicked off in May 2017 and is taking place at various bars across America through November 2017. As of October 31, 2017, 72% of people nationwide have chosen Miller Lite instead of Bud Light. For more information on the Know Your Beer program visit www.MillerLite.com/KnowYourBeer.

For more information on Miller Lite, visit www.Facebook.com/MillerLite, follow @MillerLite on Twitter or visit www.MillerLite.com.

About Miller Brewing Company

Miller Brewing Company was founded in 1855 by Frederick J. Miller when he purchased the Plank Road Brewery in Milwaukee, a city he chose as the best place for a brewery given its access to great water. Miller Lite, the original great-tasting light pilsner beer, (MillerLite.com, Facebook.com/MillerLite, @MillerLite on Twitter, YouTube.com/MillerLite) was introduced nationally in 1975 and is among the top-five selling beers in the United States. The brewery’s oldest enduring beer is Miller High Life (MillerHighLife.com, Facebook.com/MillerHighLife, @MillerHighLife on Twitter). Known as the Champagne of Beers, it was introduced in 1903 and still is brewed with the same yeast strain that Miller carried in his pocket from Germany. Miller Genuine Draft (MGD.com, Facebook.com/MillerGenuineDraft, @Miller_Global on Twitter), introduced in 1986, is the original cold-filtered, packaged draft beer. Miller Brewing Company is part of MillerCoors, the U.S. business unit of the Molson Coors Brewing Company. Learn more at MillerCoors.com, at Facebook.com/MillerCoors or on Twitter through @MillerCoors.