Bud Leverages Xmas Games With Player-Led ‘Deck The Shelves With NBA Elves: Water’ Campaign

Budweiser has been a sponsor of the NBA since 1998: matching its other US big league tie ups such as its MLB official partnership (which dates back to 1980) and sister brand Bud Light’s long-time NFL alliance (see case study).

Despite the length of its NBA sponsorship, this is its first ‘drink water’ campaign.

As alcohol acts as a diuretic – causing dehydration and amplifying the need to urinate – drinking water keeps the body hydrated and this also helps to soften the effects of drinking (such as hangovers and dizziness).

National/Federal alcohol regulations restrict, but don’t entirely prohibit marketing linking alcohol consumption with athletic prowess and/or sporting success.

So in the past brand marketers and sports sponsors have largely avoided putting active players in beer marketing. Relying instead on sports commentators and retired players.

In fact, the rules around alcohol advertising within US mainstream live sports varies from league to league.

For the example, the NFL sill prohibits showing active players in alcohol marketing, but has recently relaxed its rules to allow it to sign up its first official spirits partnership with Crown Royal Whiskey in 2017 which also resulted in a drink water campaign (see case study).

But, while the NFL specifically prohibits putting active players in beer ads, the NBA and MLB do not have quite so specific rules banning active players in alcohol ads: nevertheless, the practice has been infrequent.

This is beginning to change now: partly because the NBA and MLB players associations have now assumed control of brand deals that use multiple player images (instead of the leagues).

Campaigns since this change have included a May 2018 Mother’s Day initiative fronted by Kevin Durrant and paying homage to his mother: which featured clips of NBA stars in action but did not include a single scene of shot of anyone drinking or holding a beer.

While Budweiser’s NBA deal also saw locally targeted out-of-home ads featuring the New York Knick Tim Hardaway Jr shooting a jumper next to the Budweiser logo and the phrase ‘Hardwood Legends. Beechwood Lager’.

Other notable recent Budweiser basketball campaigns include several notable individual team activations: including leveraging its status as a sponsor of the Atlanta Hawks for the team’s 50th anniversary celebration and activating its title sponsor for the Orlando Magic’s ‘Budweiser Legends’ programme which revisited the team’s history with former players and executives.

Plus the beer partner also activated through the season leveraging the league’s jewel events and key pillars such as the All-Star Game (see case study).

In late 2018 a Budweiser spokesperson said the brewer planned a set of 16 players/16 city campaigns.

In total, Budweiser boasts deals with 23 individual NBA teams.