Cleveland Browns Beer Sponsor Bud Light Install Free Beer ‘Victory Fridges’ For Fans

When, or should that be if, the NFL’s Cleveland Browns win during the coming 2018/19 NFL season the team’s beer partner has ensured there will be free beer for fans across the city.

The season doesn’t start until 6 September, but Bud Light chose mid August to unveil its special ‘Victory Fridges’: bespoke fridges filled with Bud Light which will use smart technology to automatically unlock the second that the Browns record their first regular season win (*either home or away).

A total of 10 Bud Light Browns ‘Victory Fridges’ will be put inside the team’s FirstEnergy Stadium, with the remainder positioned around the city and in suburban areas.

The units are around eight feet tall and each holds upwards of 200 aluminium 16-ounce bottles.

The company hasn’t released the specific locations as Ohio law prevents pre-promotions of this type and fan patrons, of course, need to be 21 or older.

The initiative was promoted through the press and officially announced by both the beer brand

.@Browns fans, these fridges will open this year. We know it. You know it. #LetsGoBrownies https://t.co/73VnB6LR8Z

— Bud Light (@budlight) August 14, 2018

and the team’s social channels.

You’ve stood by us through it all. We love you for it, and so does @budlight.

These special fridges will unlock celebratory beers when we get our first regular season “W”.#VictoryFridge pic.twitter.com/LgsGNabMpt

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 14, 2018

” We believe in Cleveland. It’s just fun. They will win, obviously, and we want them to win. We’re always cheering for them,” said Andy Goeler, vice president of marketing for Bud Light (which is both an NFL and a team sponsor).

“Obviously they haven’t won in a while. We’re putting victory fridges out into the marketplace. When the Cleveland Browns win, at the end of the game, these refrigerators will send a wireless signal that will unlock them and give fans the opportunity to have a celebratory Bud Light.”

According to the brand, the idea developed after Bud Light executives saw Browns fans holding up signs last season baring the brand’s ‘Dilly Dilly’ slogan.

“About a year idea ago we had our Dilly Dilly campaign running full steam,” Goeler said.

“We had great pictures of fans holding up Dilly Dilly signs. That inspired us. They’re diehard fans.” That advertising campaign rallied around the non-sensical cry being uttered in assorted medieval settings in Bud Light commercials.

Comment:

The last time the Browns won a regular-season game was 24 December 2016 and Cleveland opens the new season at home on 9 September.

So there is a chance that these fridges will remain locked and the beer will remain un-drunk: after all, last year the Brown’s struggled to a 0:16 season and became only the second NFL team to go winless.

But if that happens, the team and its fans will retain its famous stoicism and its sense of humour.

Indeed, our favourite recent piece of pre-season content from the team was its recreation of hit comedy show ‘The Office’ to generate some excitement has the players returned from their off-season break and began practising ahead of the 2018/19 season.

We’d have thought this social video would have generated more than the 65k views its has notched up so far on the team’s official YouTube page.

This is the kind of fun, funky, tactically astute sports marketing initiative we’ve come to expect in the USA from Bud Light.

Coincidentally, the PR campaign for the fridges came out on the same day that the brand was announced as the new official beer of the England team.

Of course, beer and sport have long been a tight pairing and a major category partnership and there is some precedent for this kind of tactical promotion.

For example, last year when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl LII the beers were ‘on’ Bud Light.

“We actually bought people in Philadelphia free Bud Lights,” Goeler said.

“We had a challenge going with them, saying we’d buy everyone in Philly a Bud Light – and we bought the people Bud Lights. It was crazy, but we made a lot of friends.”

The beer brand was present at the team’s celebratory parade with reps and was available in a number of bars along the route and Bud Light even offered a deal enable Philadelphians a chance to buy a six-pack and mail the receipt for reimbursement.

Plus, at the start of last year’s NFL season the brand released the tech-enabled touchdown glass (see case study).

While other notable fridge based sports marketing initiatives in recent years have been spearheaded by Canadian brand Molsen back in 2014 (see case study).

Links:

Bud Light

https://www.budlight.com/

https://twitter.com/budlight

https://www.youtube.com/user/officialbudlight

https://www.instagram.com/budlight/

https://www.facebook.com/BudLight

Cleveland Browns

https://www.clevelandbrowns.com/

https://twitter.com/Browns

https://www.facebook.com/clevelandbrowns/

https://www.instagram.com/ClevelandBrowns/