MillerCoors Comments On New Bud Light Ad Campaign

Seeking to stem a prolonged decline of its flagship light beer brand, Anheuser-Busch-InBev this weekend will roll out a new series of television advertisements with its humor-driven “Famous Among Friends” theme.

The first ad, dubbed “Banquet,” will debut this weekend around football games, late night and on cable, according to Beer Business Daily (subscription required.)  The spot has a “Game of Thrones” feel, featuring Medieval-era royalty receiving gifts from their subjects. Those who present Bud Light are rewarded as “friends of the crown,” while a dunce bearing a wax-dipped bottle of “spiced honey mead wine” is banished.

The humor campaign, which comes just more than two weeks after Bud Light embarked on a strategy to tout the“quality and simplicity” of the beer, will get the majority of airtime over the next few weeks, the brand’s vice president, Andy Goeler, told Beer Marketer’s Insights (subscription required.)

But the focus on playing up quality is expected to remain in a supporting role in the two-pronged messaging approach. “The majority of the weight we’ll put behind this type of creative,” Goeler said of the Famous Among Friends theme, according to Beer Business Daily. “Quality will definitely be an ongoing piece of our total (marketing) mix. But this ‘friendship’ approach will be the majority of what we put out there.”

Bud Light case volume, meanwhile, slipped 7.2 percent in the four weeks ending Aug. 12, according to Nielsen multi-outlet data. The brand is down 5.7 percent year-to-date. Bud Light has lost 0.8 percentage points of market share in the premium light beer segment this year, while Miller Lite and Coors Light have picked up 0.5 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points, respectively, per Nielsen.