As the 2021/22 football season moved into top gear across the USA, Miller Lite launched a line of six luxury rings for fans – which also come with free beer for life when brought together – to enable fans to celebrate reuniting together physically to watch football following the pandemic.
The initiative was designed to show that Miller Lite acknowledges all the family and friend fan groups who were separated last season due to Covid-19 and want to mark getting back together for game days.
Modelled on the US tradition for winning teams to be rewarded with ‘title rings’, each ring in the ‘Miller Timeless Collection’ is inlaid with 10-karat gold, topped with a variety of gems and, in a hi-tech magical touch, includes a built-in sensor that detects when another ring from the range is nearby.
When all six rings are put together in one place, the owners have the chance to secure a ‘Beer for Life’ digital prepaid card (valued at $10,000).
The ring designs were based on Miller Lite cans and they include garnets, sapphires, lab-grown diamonds and are text engraved with the words ‘MILLER TIME!!!’.
The collection will be distributed to participants/fans/consumers via an Instagram contest running from September through to 25 October. To scoop a ring, friend groups need to follow Miller Lite on Instagram and post a photo with a caption explaining why they are deserving of the recognition while tagging the brand and including the hashtags #MillerTimelessCollection and #Contest.
The project is promoted through a campaign spanning paid and owned social media, influencer marketing (including partnerships with two NFL star siblings Kyle Long and Chris Long) and a classic earned media strand.
The hero spot, launched on 24 September, seeks to appeal to the power of reassembling fan ‘game day crews’ by showing groups of friends hosting a dream-like football watch party on a sun-drenched beach and includes a voiceover stating: “You can search the ends of the Earth and never find a bond so pure”.
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While the Molson Coors brand is an official partner of some teams – including the Dallas Cowboys – the label is technical shut out of NFL activation as rival ABInBev is the NFL’s official beer sponsor. But this campaign offers yet another example of how social media and digital channels offer avenues and opportunities for guerrilla engagement.
Half tongue-in-cheek and half serious, this marketing project sees Miller Lite herald the return of in-person football viewing via an initiative inspired by football title wins with a touch of Lord Of The Rings in order to try and link the brand to some of the fan positive energy around the return of in-person football watching.
Miller Lite is one of several sports marketers seeking to balance fans’ eagerness to meet up again in person with ongoing Covid safety considerations. For example, NFL primary partner Pepsi’s ‘Made for Football Watching’ platform is taking a different tack by rolling out marketing content encouraging supporters to stay inside and binge games even as other activities call with the lifting of pandemic restrictions.
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