Budweiser: Don’t Let Halloween Haunt You Forever

Budweiser revived the “Drink Wiser” campaign for Halloween 2019.

The 2019 campaign is a reiteration of a campaign that reminded the drinkers to “Hydrate Between Buds.”

Did the campaign use real-life mugshots?

The campaign ran digital out-of-home and social media ads in cities with higher drink-related arrests, such as New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Budweiser uses a clever tagline: "Don’t let Halloween haunt you forever. Drink Wiser.”

 The reason why Budweiser wanted to use real-life stories was to reach out to the masses. The quirky and witty approach to its messaging is to reach out to its target audience— 18 to 29-year-olds. It is essential for the brand to stay on trend to keep up with the target group, and therefore, Budweiser decided to run an integrated media campaign.

 Budweiser aimed to inform the target audience of its corporate social responsibility through its cause-driven marketing effort.

Budweiser organized a casting call asking for people who were arrested on Halloween. After a careful cross-check with the public records, the verified people were then shortlisted and cast for the mugshots. The spokesperson of Budweiser confirmed that the people cast were not wearing costumes on the night they were arrested and that the mugshots were recreated to signify the impact of irresponsible drinking on Halloween.

Why was it successful?

The brand brought the trifecta of “Wonder-Wisdom-Delight” to life by intriguing the audience with creative and unique mugshots that would make people think about the ad. 

It makes them wonder if the ad is a public service announcement or by a brand. 

As the ad included people with real-life drink-related arrests, it imparts knowledge of the possible effects of excessive drinking. In the end, the reader would be delighted to know that a brand that relies on the sales of its products has chosen to selflessly ask the consumers to put their safety before buying a Budweiser. 

 The majority of millennials value sustainability and corporate social responsibility. The brand communicates that it equally values profit and CSR. Budweiser successfully uses its soft power to persuade that the brand understands the audience's values. 

The brand weaved good sense, good morals, and goodwill— all— into one story to modify the consumer’s judgment of the brand. The campaign showcased the brand personality, corporate social responsibility, and purpose-driven approach.

By presenting a story that the consumers connect with makes the message— don’t let Halloween haunt you forever— more powerful. Budweiser was able to connect the random events that happened in different cities with a common thread of “excessive drinking” and move the audience with a humane story supported by facts. 

What stood out?

The campaign is cohesive with the brand's overall voice, as Budweiser is known for similar campaigns such as “Budweiser Means Moderation” and “Know When to Say When.”

A multimedia-integrated campaign enables the brand to reach different audiences simultaneously. It redefined the conversation around alcohol consumption by cautioning everyone to be responsible when drinking instead of just asking them to choose their brand when drinking.

The witty use of phrases such as “Drink Wiser”— a play on “Weiser”— and “Hydrate Between Buds” is a creative approach to use the two halves of the brand name into two different messages that are short and memorable— a classic Don Draper move. 

What did not?

Although the campaign was a hit in the target cities, a few things could have been done differently. Halloween is celebrated nationally, but the campaign was restricted to only a few selected cities— restricting the brand’s soft power reach. The campaign started only ten days before the day of Halloween. It was difficult for the campaign to gain momentum in such a short amount of time. 

The same pictures and messaging were used across every platform, which made the content repetitive and one-dimensional. The offer of a free $5 Lyft gift card is not mentioned anywhere but in the press release— which a regular consumer would barely read. The lack of information on the offer is a missed opportunity to gather attention from the target audience. 

The message is specifically targeted at people who drink, which makes the brand lose the non-drinkers who could be family and/or friends of the drinkers. 

 Budweiser tried to atomize the campaign to widen the reach to its audience and modify storytelling according to the platform. It wasn’t successful in doing so because the story told was the same and not adapted for the platform appropriately— the case of Twitter where they used the same stills and put together a few messaging points in a video format.

Also, the platforms for reaching out to the audience were limited. Twitter was the only social media platform that mentioned the “Drink Wiser” campaign. There was no mention of the campaign on the brand’s Instagram page. 

If only…

Instead of geo-targeting, the brand should have expanded the campaign to the rest of the cities in the US and social media platforms to atomize the campaign and make it more inclusive strategically. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat should have also been integrated.

It is also necessary to enhance the quality of the message and the medium by deconstructing the main message and adapting it according to the platform and not just repeating the same messages and images across all platforms. 

The partnership with Lyft was not highlighted enough, nor was there any key message for the non-drinkers. Partnership with Lyft should be one of the critical messages of the strategy and mentioned in all of the communications to attract non-drinkers as well.