Budweiser vs Budvar–Judgement Day

From Craftedsocialmedia:

Earlier this week, Budweiser Budvar launched a new social media campaign, the first from the Czech-based beer company, that will allow “200 official tasters and discover the difference between Original Budweiser Budvar and the other Budweiser.”  If you’re not familiar, Budweiser Budvar is not the same beer as the more familiar American Budweiser.  The campaign, appropriately dubbed Judgement Day, centers on Budweiser Budvar’s Facebook page. 

It was inspired by the company’s participation in this year’s Taste of London, where it hosted a similar in-person tasting with 3,500 participants to compare the two beers.  The success of that tasting and the results prompted Budweiser Budvar to extend the concept to social media in an effort to reach a larger audience and generate greater awareness about the differences between the beers.  After the London event, Ian Moss, marketing controller at Budweiser Budvar, recently said, “The trade as well as serious beer drinkers are well versed in the differences, but the Taste of London experience told us there are still significant numbers of interested and enthusiastic people out there who deserve to have their curiosity satisfied.”

The 200 participants will be randomly selected from Budweiser Budvar’s Facebook fans on July 29th.  It’s a good move, as Budweiser Budvar is using this opportunity to generate new Facebook fans by requiring participants to like the company’s Facebook page.  The company will issue an invite to those who are selected; acceptance of those invitations must be received by August 15th.  According to Budweiser Budvar’s Facebook page, “Successful applicants will be supplied with a 4 x 300ml pack each of Budweiser and Budweiser Budvar, delivered to their home together with full instructions on how to complete the online questionnaire.” I should add that participation is limited to those 18 and older who live in the UK.  And aside from free beer samples, applicants are offered a pretty great incentive: the chance to win a trip for two to the Czech Republic.

Budweiser Budvar isn’t the first to tap fans for taste testing like this.  While slightly different, The Chosen One from New Zeland-based Boundary Road Brewery and the Virtual Tasting from Nova Scotia-based Alexander Keith’s are two recent and great examples of breweries using social media as means to conduct a taste test and generate feedback from tasters.  The Budweiser Budvar taste test includes an important difference, however.  Judgement Day includes two different brands from two different beer companies.  While this will certainly work to create some buzz around the effort, I expect that we’ll hear something from Budweiser in response — as we can likely expect that the results will shed Budweiser Budvar in a positive light.

The Bottom Line

Budweiser Budvar’s Judgement Day social media campaign is great for a few notable reasons.  First, the social media application is simply an extension of a successful tasting that the company hosted in-person.  Budweiser Budvar knows what the results are likely to reveal, and its using social media to help engage and reach a wider audience.  Second, the campaign helps raise awareness about the difference between the Budweiser Budvar and Budweiser brands.  Judging from a recent fan post on Budvar’s Facebook page, that difference isn’t entirely understood.  Finally, Judgement Day will last several weeks.  The early weeks are intended to generate interest and likes on Facebook.  The following weeks will include a taste test and engagement of participants.  And most importantly, Budweiser Budvar will collect information from those tastings and the campaign overall that will fuel the development of additional content — again, we’ll likely see this result in good news for Budweiser Budvar, which would give the company good reason for additional follow-up marketing and public relations outreach once the judgements have been made.