Bud’s ‘brewed the hard way’ goes social

Too many marketers these days employ social-media strategies long on cleverness, but short on substance. They count entertainment-based clicks and attempt to measure the elusive and vastly over-valued “buzz.”

But advertising in any medium – including social – that only entertains and doesn’t contribute to changing behaviour, is a waste of money.

Over the past few weeks, it’s become increasingly clear that Anheuser-Busch is “all in” on its uniqueness-based strategy to revive the Budweiser franchise. While the SuperBowl “brewed the hard way” ad continues to air on television, Budweiser’s social media is now also focused and delivering on the same strategy. And adding the immediacy, depth, and topicality of that medium to register and reinforce Bud’s distinctive properties.

From the brand’s website, multiple Facebook posts focus on the brand’s new strategy of substance.

Here, expanding on the beer’s ingredient and process exclusivity…

Here, adroitly challenging the main line of criticism over the years from the craft-beer crowd, namely that “big” is a disadvantage…

And here, keeping the fussiness/craft-beer-geekiness controversy alive on Budweiser’s terms, but with a touch of good-natured humor…

The road back for the King of Beers

Shortly after this blog was created back in 2013, we published an article entitled “The seven deadly sins of beer advertising.” One of those sins was: “Saying nothing about what makes the brand special.” We went on: “The #1 job of beer advertising is to make the brand more special and distinctive than the other guy’s. There is great peril in failing to do so.”

SuperBowl ads to social media, Budweiser is now completely focused on communicating its distinctiveness. And the effort will deliver results among current and fringe Bud drinkers who will choose the brand more often, and even among some former drinkers who just may give it another try.

Because that’s how solid advertising works.

And it’s how turnarounds begin.