2020 Winner
2020 Winners
Michelob Ultra
Cal for Cal
Michelob Ultra is a great tasting, light beer that people love, once they’ve tried it. But in Canada, the brand suffers from low awareness, which means that its share could be much higher if we could just connect more people to the brand.
We know that when people see that a brand shares their values, they relate more closely to that brand and increase favourability and consideration. So, we set out to create a purpose-driven campaign that would drive brand awareness and engagement; a platform that would show people what Michelob Ultra is all about while at the same time, do something good for the world.
But creating a unique, breakthrough platform that would drive business and had a higher purpose? That’s no easier than creating a 90-calorie beer that still tastes great.
THE INSIGHTS & STRATEGY:
As a 90-calorie beer, Michelob sets itself apart as the beer for the “social actives” – people who care about what they put into their bodies but who also want to be able to crack open a beer post-workout, guilt free.
So, we tapped into a digital behaviour that active, healthy people were already doing – posting their workout results on social media – and used it as a way to build an emotional connection with our brand.
THE EXECUTION:
Over the course of the last year, there have been two crucial moments for us to forge that connection:
The first was the holiday season; we knew workouts and calorie counting would be on the minds of our health-centric target, fighting the temptation to over-indulge. But we also knew that for others, the holidays mean it’s even harder to put food on their plates – making it the right time for a purpose-driven initiative.
The next was the COVID-19 pandemic. We quickly noticed that people were being forced to work out at home and live more sedentary lifestyles, creating another chance to remind them of our better-for-you beer. At the same time, COVID meant unprecedented job loss and economic insecurity, which again saw consumers wanting to reach out to help.
Both moments would be filled with activity and noise from other brands. But what if we could turn our target’s workouts into an opportunity to help people in need?
Introducing Cal For Cal: a first-of-its-kind initiative that transformed people’s calories burned during a workout into calories of food to be donated to food banks.
All people had to do was take a screenshot from their phone or fitness tracker and post it to social, showing us how many calories they’d burned in their workout that day. We’d then donate that same amount of calories’ worth of food to food banks across the country.
We launched a digital awareness campaign to spread the word and explain how the program worked. On social, short, eye-catching videos that depicted different workout equipment turning into food items – such as barbells into cans of tuna – visually demonstrating the good that could come from taking part in our program. Plus, the videos showed exactly how much their workouts were “worth” – if you did 36 bench presses, you’d be donating one can of tuna.
USER EXPERIENCE:
To get the most donations, we wanted to make sure participation was as easy as possible – and that we were able to include everyone. For anyone who had a calorie-tracking workout app, they’d just have to screen shot their results and post it to social using our hashtag. But what about those who don’t have an app? No problem. We tapped into another common digital behaviour – posting a gym selfie – so that users could tell us what their workout consisted of, and we’d use an AI-based calculation to estimate the calories burned and automatically add them to our total.
TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS:
The root of our insight is that people are already posting their workout results to social, but we were able to harness that existing behaviour to power a positive action in the world. Rather than develop a new tool or microsite that would just add another step to the process, we let users continue to behave the way they normally would. In doing so, we were able to transform an action (the post-workout brag) that can sometimes be seen as boastful and selfish into something positive and selfless.
SUPPORTING CHANNELS:
To encourage people to donate their calories at the exact moment they were working out, we partnered with top fitness instructors and gyms to get in-the-moment action. We used PR to host Cal For Cal Classes where instructors kicked off their workouts by telling participants about our program and encouraging them to digitally donate their calories burned at the end of the class.
THE RESULTS & IMPACT:
When the program launched during the holidays, it quickly caught on with the fitness community. From athletes to cycling groups to entire gyms – everyone was excited to engage with our campaign and use their workouts for good.
When COVID-19 hit, the first thing Michelob Ultra did was relaunch Cal For Cal, because we knew the need for food banks would again be on the rise. Its success led the Michelob Ultra team to expand to the United States, allowing Cal For Cal to become an incredible tool for the brand to engage with its target, connect Michelob Ultra to the fitness space, and do some good for those in need.
To date, the campaign has delivered over 671 million impressions and has helped Michelob Ultra become the fastest-growing beer in the country.
But most importantly, over 770 million calories have been burned for those in need.