Coors brings a cold front to the US

A cold front is coming the way of US beer fans, according to an “unprecedented” new campaign from the Coors Brewing Company. 

The marketing drive supports the launch of Coors Light and Coors Banquet in new “cold activated” cans, which let the drinker know when the beer is at the optimum drinking temperature by turning the mountain logo on the can blue.

The cans are designed to fit in with Coors’ promise to be the “World’s Most Refreshing Beer.”

Royce Wills, marketing director at Coors Light, said: “Consumers want to know when their beer is cold, and beer retailers certainly want to avoid serving warm beer. [With this product] consumers never have to worry about getting a warm beer again.”

The brewer is employing a unique Hollywood blockbuster-style marketing campaign in a bid to maximise anticipation of the new cans, with the first phase of the campaign building a buzz around a “cold front” that is believed to be “coming in”, employing a “This Summer” tag, echoing a major movie trailer.

Wills explained: “We’ve stolen a page right out of the movie industry for this marketing strategy.

“The idea is to get consumers and everybody excited about this product. This is kind of unprecedented for this kind of campaign, we’ve never done such a big campaign for a product launch.”

Prelaunch activity even includes a spin-off website , which lets visitors track the progress of the “cold front” via reported sightings and news updates.

“Our target consumers, 21-30 year-olds, spend a lot of time online,” said Wills. “They’ll check in online all day, so we have links to all of those destinations that we know they visit, such as Facebook.”

The second phase of the marketing campaign sees more “cold front” material rolled out in TV, print and out-of-home media along with retail and other in-store promotions.

Alan Lodge, 05.05.2009