A new Budweiser campaign, leveraging its rights as the official beer of Major League Baseball (MLB), is fronted by a team of ball players and celebrates each athlete ambassador’s personal MLB milestone and the fact that the first call each player made to celebrate that accomplishment was to mum.
Because, according to Budweiser’s marketers, ‘mum will always be your biggest fan’.
The multi-platform campaign, developed in harness with agency Vayner Media,
The hero piece of content looks back at New York Yankees’ pitcher Luis Severino’s first shutout.
Budweiser bought out a 90-second spot on the MLB Network on Mother’s Day during the broadcast of a game between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays.
The beer brand used the airtime to run the 30-second ad featuring Severino calling his mother,
followed by a 60-second countdown reminding viewers to give mom a call – during the break in the game.
Supporting spots include matching videos featuring Chicago Cubs’ catcher Willson Contreras’ first career home run and dedicating it to the most important person in his life,
as well as St Louis Cardinals’ infielder Matt Carpenter’s first grand slam and how he celebrated by calling the most important person in his life,
as well as Oakland Athletics’ left fielder Khris Davis’ first career grand slam and how he remembered how he and his mum used to spend hours in the backyard every day honing his swing (so when he hit his first grand slam, she was the first person he called).
Each piece of content includes the copy “For every first, she’s your first call” and carries the #HappyMothersDay #CallYourMom campaign hashtags (and aims to drive viewers online to find out more information about Budweiser at visit budweiser.com).
As well as the TV spots and online videos, over Mother’s Day weekend Budweiser converted in-stadium LED screens to run the “#CallYourMom” campaign ads and backed these up with gate sticker giveaways and other promotions for fans that prove they followed through and called their mothers at most partner stadiums.
While beer vendors at some MLB stadiums also featured Budweiser and #CallYourMom branding.
The Houston Astros even had #CallYourMom laser-etched into beer foam at certain areas of the park.
“Budweiser has always celebrated the extraordinary people behind iconic American milestones. For Mother’s Day, we wanted to shed an unexpected spotlight on the legends behind some of the most iconic MLB legends and plays: moms,” said Budweiser vice president of marketing Monica Rustgi.
“This campaign honours the role mothers play in some of baseball’s greatest moments.”
Comment:
Whether it’s a special day (such as Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day), or a hot entertainment property (think Avengers or Game Of Thrones), sports marketers seem compelled to jump on the bandwagon and leverage the occasion or the trend.
Whether they have something to say or not.
But this Budweiser activation clearly has something meaningful to say and the work offers genuine strategic thinking, tactical media placement and compelling creative.
Just like so much of the brand’s other recent sports activation which includes its MLB Opening Day work celebrating baseball legend and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson such as the Spike Lee-helmed ‘Impact’ (see case study) ahead of MLB’s Opening Day festivities and the ‘Rise’ follow up during the first week of the season (see case study).
(Interestingly, back in March, the brand also reimagined a series of its ads from the 1950s for International Women’s Day as part of its #SeeHer partnership.
Cool campaign from @budweiserusa for #SeeHer. Highlighting how times have changed and how the brand's messaging has evolved as well. https://t.co/SW55eX1ssJ
— Kaite Belmont (@KaiteBel) March 8, 2019
While the beer brand’s other recent US sports sponsorship activation included its admirable April #ThisBudsFor3 shirt tribute to Dwayne Wade’s legacy of good will to mark his retirement (see case study).
Links:
Budweiser
https://twitter.com/budweiserusa
https://www.youtube.com/user/budweiser
https://www.facebook.com/BudweiserUSA
https://www.instagram.com/budweiserusa/
https://www.pinterest.com/Budweiser/
Vayner Media
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.