2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

The social consumption occasions that had long driven Budweiser’s success (watching live sports, socializing in person) were in decline.

As a result, Budweiser’s share was sitting at a decade-long low, at 10.14pts of core lager in 2023 vs 12.90pts in 2013. To turn the tides on the brand’s share decline, the brand needed to take action and reprise the brand’s role as a catalyst that brings buds together.

The brand’s first-ever National Friendship Survey showed that 7-in-10 Canadian men are spending less time with their buds. And while 75% also reported wanting to spend more time with their friends, the fear of appearing needy was keeping them from telling their buds they missed them, or wanted to grab a beer.

As the only beer with friendship in its name, the campaign brought awareness to the “friendship recession” by doing something no other competitor could: they removed the “Bud” from our iconic 147 year old
word mark.

Then, on International Friendship Day, the brand brought the buds back.

To bust the inertia keeping men on the sidelines of their friendships, the brand needed more than an awareness campaign.

The agency’s connection strategy was to attack the behaviour’s root cause, and do it in the channels that often fuel his friendship passiveness - including at home sports viewing, social media scrolling, and moments of “me time” where guys could reach out to a bud but choose not to.

First, to demonstrate that things are not the same without the buds, the brand removed the “Bud” from Budweiser’s iconic 147 year old wordmark. On July 20th, the Bud mysteriously disappeared across Budweiser’s owned and paid channels, including: Sportsnet’s ‘Budweiser Studio‘, the Blue Jays’ outfield, Budweiser Stage, highway billboards, bar signage, and even on Budweiser’s own social handles and beer labels.

Then, on International Friendship Day, the brand took over Canada’s largest sports broadcaster, and launched a powerful film that asked men to consider what life would be like without their closest friends. The film was followed by a 90-second blackout-not-ad that gave men a moment to reach out to a bud, and visit ThatsWhatBudsDo.ca – a CRM experience designed with the singular goal of encouraging friends
to reconnect.

Finally, once they signed up on ThatsWhatBudsDo.ca, guys received personalized texts during specific moments of the day (after-work, during the Jays game) with prompts to reach out to their friends. To help encourage the behaviour, the brand offered regionalized $25 dining vouchers, and event tickets. As for anyone who didn’t sign up on Friendship Day, Budweiser continued to target men in moments of “me time” – daily micro moments (commuting, viewing sports highlights, or scrolling social) where they could spare a minute or two to reach out to a bud, or sign up for ThatsWhatBudsDo.ca.

373,000 men reconnected with a friend, and the campaign generated 74.3M earned media impressions, leading to a +0.3% volume share increase for the brand versus the previous period.

Credits

Brand/Client Budweiser
Agency Anomaly
Agency Contact Krista Colangelo
Agency Network Stagwell
Holding Company Stagwell
PR Agency Veritas PR
Vice President James Lamont
Account Manager Diana Hilderman
Consultant Tori Krafczek
Media Agency Dentsu

Client
Company Labatt
Client Contact Name David Sheedy
Title/Position Brand Director - Mainstream
Sr Brand Manager Jake Brunt
Marketing Manager Pat Heembrock/Jake Brunt
Assistant Marketing Manager Stella Cho

Agency
Agency Anomaly
Executive Creative Director / Partner Dave Douglass
Group Creative Director Neil Blewett
Associate Creative Director, Art Sasha Barkans
Associate Creative Director, Copy Cristina Piñeros
Design Director Shawn Lambino
Designer Melissa Zeta
Motion Designer Scott Booth
CEO & Partner Candace Borland
Head of Client Services Matt Holton
Business Director Anjelica Kapetanos
Account Supervisor Sarah Loo
Account Coordinator Shirley Truong
Account Director Danielle Haberman
Head of Brand Strategy Mahmoud El Kattan
Head of Comms Strategy Kira Montgomery
Social Strategy Director Matthew Stasoff
Content Creator Devante Mowatt
Head of Production Marie-Pierre Toure
Agency Producer Sydney Price
OOH Producer Jacklyn Bonsignore
Digital Producer Danielle Zhang

Production Credits
Director of Photography Jeremy Cox
Production Company OPC
Director Paul Shkordoff
Executive Producer Harland Weiss
Production Company Producer Jason Aita
Editing Company Outsider Editorial
Executive Producer Kayan Choi
Producer Madison Paquin
Editor John Gallagher
Assistant Editor Daniel Karan
Transfer Company Darling Colour & VFX
Executive Producer Morgan Campbell
Colourist Kassi Bellamy
Colour Assistant Jesse Hilton
Online Company Darling Colour & VFX
Flame Artist Lauren Rempel
VFX Assistant Faith Clark
Sound Design Company Grayson Music
Director of Music & Voice Over Tyson Kuteyi
Executive Producer Kelly McCluskey
Sound Engineer Brian Bernard